system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why are so many people afraid of clowns?

It is such a common fear that many movies have profited off of this fear. Whenever I see an evil clown in a movie, I just laugh because it is such a cheap, overused trope.
gpt
It's a distortion of a familiar figure to a young child. You take a basic human shape, give it long feet, baggy clothes that give it less physical form, and the face is heavily exaggerated with makeup and bizarre wigs.

Some children respond to it with delight at what's essentially a caricature, usually when old enough to realise that, but many younger ones respond in something sort of like the old uncanny valley effect: It looks like it should be human but enough about it is wrong to make it distressing. Once that latter idea is in a child's head, it can quickly end up developing into a phobia. And since clowns are supposed to be "kids" entertainers...