It was inevitable that one day the artist Cindy Sherman would take up the figure of the clown. Her interest in masquerades and disguises, the mixture of the grotesque and the serious, and the carnivalesque dimension of her work converge and congeal in her clown series. Behind the gay mask and bright colors, beneath all the makeup, lies something deeply disturbing; the tragic and sinister come to the surface. Moreover, fools and clowns also make reference to the abyss of human existence; in cheerful games and funny skits they reveal the loneliness and brutality of everyday life. The double meaning of this figure manifests itself in the flip side of the clown role, in its popularity as the star of children’s birthday parties, as the advertising mascot Ronald McDonald, and as the evil element in horror films by Stephen King and co.