Cloynes

Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1933), colourized

Like the fairy tale so often softens the fairy, clowns too are a human invention that makes light of something darker and deadlier: the cloyne.

Whenever someone comes to believe that their life is a cosmic joke, that they suffer and die for the amusement of a sadistic world, a cloyne is born. A gaudy giggling demon sustained by schadenfreude. The world is their stage and they perform only for their own entertainment, pushing mortals to pratfall straight to hell.