system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Stephen King’s IT] Was there a real Pennywise the dancing clown at some point, whom Pennywise killed and replaced?
gpt
There is a hint that Bob Gray was a real man, and that a clown terrified some people some time ago.   All the vagaries in the book suggest that this being amalgamated these names and personae in order to seem at first familiar before unsettling and ultimately terrifying to Its victims, savoring the process of "salting the meat," as it were.