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Description
We all like to pretend that we don't judge things for their appearance anymore, that we have learned the lesson of Freaks, The Elephant Man, Edward Scissorhands, Beauty and the Beast, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Warm Bodies, The Shape of Water... when in reality it's all a lie. Why?
Let's be real: we're not afraid of big furry beasts, werewolves, creatures from the black lagoon, deformed people or zombies and vampires played by hot actors.

...But clowns?

"KILL THEM WITH FIRE!!!" instantly.

Like, even towards clowns that do nothing wrong and we're not necessarily phobic of them, we're immediately intimidated and feel uncomfortable at the mere sight, even if they're not harming anyone, just pure irrational fear like they're worse than Satan or a cosmic Lovecraftian horror.
Truth is, judging from the exterior is still a thing when it comes to clowns.

What a strange paradox. We're not afraid of monsters and creatures designed to be scary (fucking Creepypasta killers get more love despite the awful things they do and what they are), but figures that are meant to be colorful and cheerful are seen as uncanny and distrustful, even if they're just trying to entertain and are not evil, they were NEVER meant to be evil, at some point people just decided to view and depict clowns as monsters and little else. But again, it wasn't always like this for clowns.

My latest invention (which I haven't found a good title for yet) is essentially a "don't judge from the cover" story, but with clowns.
In this story clowns are their own separate species instead of humans in makeup and costumes, and the way they're treated through the fictional history of the story's setting is pretty much a huge metaphor of how clowns have been treated over the years. I really want to explore how these views have changed and all these strange paradoxes, pointing out these little truths about ourselves and this whole ordeal that I haven't seen any movie or work of fiction do.
We've done evil clowns to death, from criminals to monsters to aliens to demons... but all the monsters have gotten a "subversion good guy" story, but clowns have not, and again, for very curious and paradoxical reasons nobody wants to bring up and discuss.
I see this as a goldmine for an original idea that uses some formulas of the "subversion don't judge from the cover" stories but with something that will really give it a new spin and make it feel fresh. And I'd ACTUALLY have to make my audience feel and care for a bunch of clowns.

My two major inspirations have been Watchmen and the recent Isle of Dogs, the setting would be this exaggerated alternate history where clowns are either hiding or are hunted down and moved to a huge island of trash, but I'm figuring out ways to use those premises executing them differently.
I can already tell you that a big chunk of the story would be backstory of the main characters and worldbuilding/lore about what kind of creatures clowns are, their history and the things that lead to this anti-clown dystopia.

Description
We all like to pretend that we don't judge things for their appearance anymore, that we have learned the lesson of Freaks, The Elephant Man, Edward Scissorhands, Beauty and the Beast, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Warm Bodies, The Shape of Water... when in reality it's all a lie. Why?
Let's be real: we're not afraid of big furry beasts, werewolves, creatures from the black lagoon, deformed people or zombies and vampires played by hot actors.

...But clowns?

"KILL THEM WITH FIRE!!!" instantly.

Like, even towards clowns that do nothing wrong and we're not necessarily phobic of them, we're immediately intimidated and feel uncomfortable at the mere sight, even if they're not harming anyone, just pure irrational fear like they're worse than Satan or a cosmic Lovecraftian horror.
Truth is, judging from the exterior is still a thing when it comes to clowns.

What a strange paradox. We're not afraid of monsters and creatures designed to be scary (fucking Creepypasta killers get more love despite the awful things they do and what they are), but figures that are meant to be colorful and cheerful are seen as uncanny and distrustful, even if they're just trying to entertain and are not evil, they were NEVER meant to be evil, at some point people just decided to view and depict clowns as monsters and little else. But again, it wasn't always like this for clowns.

My latest invention (which I haven't found a good title for yet) is essentially a "don't judge from the cover" story, but with clowns.
In this story clowns are their own separate species instead of humans in makeup and costumes, and the way they're treated through the fictional history of the story's setting is pretty much a huge metaphor of how clowns have been treated over the years. I really want to explore how these views have changed and all these strange paradoxes, pointing out these little truths about ourselves and this whole ordeal that I haven't seen any movie or work of fiction do.
We've done evil clowns to death, from criminals to monsters to aliens to demons... but all the monsters have gotten a "subversion good guy" story, but clowns have not, and again, for very curious and paradoxical reasons nobody wants to bring up and discuss.
I see this as a goldmine for an original idea that uses some formulas of the "subversion don't judge from the cover" stories but with something that will really give it a new spin and make it feel fresh. And I'd ACTUALLY have to make my audience feel and care for a bunch of clowns.

My two major inspirations have been Watchmen and the recent Isle of Dogs, the setting would be this exaggerated alternate history where clowns are either hiding or are hunted down and moved to a huge island of trash, but I'm figuring out ways to use those premises executing them differently.
I can already tell you that a big chunk of the story would be backstory of the main characters and worldbuilding/lore about what kind of creatures clowns are, their history and the things that lead to this anti-clown dystopia.