Stephen King certainly nailed it when he created the villain of Pennywise the dancing clown as his main villain in the colossal novel IT. Clowns are scary to a lot of people already, but the way that Pennywise terrorizes Derry and the Losers Club is enough to give readers of the book and viewers of the miniseries and films nightmares for decades to come.
If anyone in real life came face to face with Pennywise or a Pennywise lookalike they’d probably run for their lives, but it’s easy to laugh at what may terrify you when you’re sitting comfortably behind a computer screen. And since Pennywise and the entire saga of IT is such a cultural touchstone, it’s no big surprise that the story, it’s characters, and it’s villain have been memed hundreds of times. There a lot of gut busting IT memes out there on the internet, but here are ten that will have anyone dying of laughter.
10 People Eaters
Now, if Hannibal Lecter and Pennywise the dancing clown came face to face, would they be natural born friends or foes? Or better yet, who would eat who first? Hanny and Penny seem like they’d have a lot of things to bond over that they wouldn’t be able to relate to with anyone else, since consumers of human flesh are pretty hard to come by in the real world. However, they’re both elitist jerks who think that they’re superior to every other living thing on the planet, so it’s not that hard to imagine there would be some natural enmity between them too.
9 The Thrills Of Life
And if we’re being real, the mailman is probably about as happy to see people creeping on his deliveries as any normal person would be to see Pennywise the clown creeping on them. But it’s okay to be excited about the small things in life, and there are very few things that are quite as mundane yet thrilling as getting a long awaited package finally delivered.
And although Pennywise undoubtedly is unfamiliar with the thrill of receiving a package that isn’t in a human flesh wrapper, he can at least relate to the feeling of having to wait for what you want for an exceptionally long time and then finally getting it.
8 #JusticeForTimCurry
The latest adaptation of Stephen King’s epic novel IT has been massively successful for a lot of reasons. It’s certainly because the movies themselves are very entertaining and successful adaptations of the original source material, and it is undoubtedly in large part because Bill Skarsgard’s performance as Pennywise is a genuinely terrifying thing to behold. However, the old school IT miniseries was legendary for a reason too. Parts of the series definitely don’t hold up to the test of time, but Tim Curry’s performance as Pennywise the dancing clown is the stuff of legend, it genuinely left an entire generation of children traumatized for life.
7 People Be Fighting To Get Into That Sewer
Pennywise enjoys terrifying his prey before practically swallowing them whole, but realistically if he wanted to make easier and quicker work of his hunting then this would be a perfect way to do it. I mean, if he told people that he had free Beyonce tickets then the people of Derry would be lined up around the block fist fighting one another for the chance to get into a sewer with that creep. Eating seems to be the only goal in life that Pennywise has, so fueling an all you can eat buffet with this kind of fib seems like an ideal situation for him.
6 Two Turntables And A Microphone
There are a lot of wonderful things about Stephen King’s IT, but one of the most obvious things that make it awesome is that it is so easily meme-able. I mean, with a title like IT there are literally an infinite number of hilarious and weird puns that can be made with it, which is pretty perfectly encapsulated in this particular meme.
Most people are already familiar with the Beck song that this meme borrows lyrics from, so they can easily finish off the classic tune that this meme starts everyone off with. And once again, playing DJ would probably be a great way for It to draw in even more victims.
5 Look Normal And… Eat Children?
It’s certainly a testament to the filmmaking skills of the IT Chapter One and Chapter Two crew that they manage to take the objectively aesthetically pleasing face on Bill Skarsgard and transform it into one of the most viscerally disturbing villains that the cinema world has ever seen. And while we can respect a classic meme format like this, I think it’s safe to say that even the edgiest of edge lords wouldn’t want to roll over in the middle of the night and see the toothy grin of this people eating maniac staring back at them in the darkness.
4 The Tiniest Terror
Well that’s certainly one way to kill boredom. The skills of the photographer and makeup artist in this impromptu photo shoot deserve a world of props, because this is the kind of cosplay that would make even the most season Comic-Con attendees green with envy. But can you imagine what it would be like to just be walking around town and spot this strange and terrifying sight? This kid is probably cute as a button beneath all of that makeup, but letting him out in the wild looking like this seems like a recipe for disaster. It’s one instance where a grown adult being brought to tears out of fear of a child would be completely understandable.
3 An Almost Foolproof Plan
Too soon, meme creating bros! And yes, 27 years after the fact is still too soon. IT Chapter One clearly wanted to torment it’s audience as much as possible with Georgie’s death, because aside from it being genuinely terrifying they hired about the cutest child actor in the world to play the part of Pennywise’s innocent meal.
Georgie just came out to have a good time and he’s honestly feeling so attacked right now. And even an adult wouldn’t have the foresight to predict that a happy jaunt out in the rain could end with being consumed by a deranged sewer clown, so Georgie deserves a pass for his mistake.
2 Maybe He’s Born With It
There aren’t many reasons that a normal and sane person would want to compliment Pennywise, but honestly his makeup skills are deserving of some respect. I mean he’s running around the sewers eating people and occasionally getting stabbed in the face, but his makeup is always looking fresh and flawless. Most women can’t even have a snack without having to reapply their lipstick, so whatever Pennywise is using has got to be some seriously impressive product. And it’s a new era in makeup, guys are rocking makeup looks as well as girls, so Maybelline being inclusive and using a man to represent their products would be very woke of them.
1 Everyone Knows That Guy
You know, there is actually a genius idea hidden in this meme here. Everyone knows that person who is constantly vaping, even in the most inappropriate of places. But if anyone happens to be that vaper who can’t go more than twenty minutes without ripping their Juul then there is a very simple way of doing it without getting hassled. Just dress up as Pennywise! Yes, that requires a lot of day to day effort in terms of makeup and styling, but if you’re sitting at a restaurant or bar taking a puff looking like that then absolutely no one is going to have the courage to ask you to stop.
