"Muppet Clown" thing hit me as a kid

[GoPlayonAhighway]

I had an active imagination as a kid. I had imaginary friends that I would talk too, even when I was around actual people. I can account for all of these imaginary friends as normal. I mean, they were either characters from tv shows or cartoons that I would watch, so i consider them "normal". All except one. This is what I remember:

I was very young and had been sick with a fever and cold. I can't remember exactly how old I was, but I was young enough that I was wearing a pajama ones y with the built in socks at the feet. I was being carried up the stairs by my aunt and was telling her to hurry up or "the cookie monster thing will get us!" The "cookie monster" is a real character from a kid's show, but it was not the real cookie monster that I was afraid of. i called it "cookie monster" because this thing I would see on, had very similar eyes to "cookie monster". It was the only way I could describe it with my limited vocabulary at the time.

It looked like a long hand puppet with a white shirt that would billow and ripple because it had no torso. I could stretch and grow to different lengths. It's arms where like metal rods that could extend out quickly and strike me in a way similar to a snake bite. It would always slap me open palmed or with two fingers (index and pointer). The hands had on white gloves just like Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse. The head was perfectly rounded just like a beach ball. It had curly hair that would change color from orange to blue. It's face was painted white and it had a mouth which would twist and contort in very terrifying ways as it would hit me. The eyes bulged out of the head and moved on their own just like the "googly eyes" on kids toys or puppets. I will try and include a photo of the actual "cookie monster" from TV, and I will also attempt to draw a sketch of how I remember this creature looking.

I remember my aunt giggled because she thought I was being cute, but this thing was actually very terrifying to me. Then it struck. It would always pop out of the walls from the cracks of the trim or the drywall, and it would always poke me very, very hard. So hard that it would cause a massive and sudden twitch or spasm from me that would make my whole body jerk suddenly. It would always leave me sore where it hit me, and often with cramped muscles. I would cry and complain about this thing hitting me, but as you could guess, this only got me scolded for making up fibs. So I stopped talking about it.

I have one very distinct memory of lying in my bed, and having this thing pop up from in between the bed and the wall. It would kind of "slither upwards". It cocked back and swung at me with not a closed fist, but with two fingers (index and middle), and it struck me harder than ever before right in the armpit. My aunt happened to be about 20 feet away at the time, she was blow drying her hair before school. She screamed in horror and ran out of the room. I remember her telling my grandparents and my mom that I should be seen by a doctor because and I quote "he literally flew out of that bed like something pushed him!" I remember her words exactly. I was never taken to a doctor, and the incident was never discussed again.

I got a bit older and eventually the thing stopped popping out of walls and hitting me. But i did have a recurring dream for many years in which i would try and escape from the creature. It would always take place in the same 2nd story bedroom, and it would always end the same way. I would figure a way out of the room window and end up on the lawn below. I would stare up at the window and the creature would stare back in a calm, confident way. Not angry I had escaped, but confident that this chase would happen again, and it would definitely get me next time.

After about the first year of high school, the dreams stopped. I have not seen the "muppet clown" since, nor do i care to.

I realize the "muppet clown" was probably just a manifestation of some fear or trauma that I had experienced, but could not process as a child, but I have to wonder, what if this was something more sinister?

so this is the "cookie monster" from tv.....

Edited July 19, 2015 by GoPlayonAhighway

[Paranormalcy]

Interesting. I have never liked puppets, mascots, dolls, clowns and things like that. I have some degress of either (or both) automatonaphobia (any humanlike but non-living thing - an automaton) or coulrophobia (clowns).

My dad died when I was seven and for years I swear I had dreamed a week or two earlier, that there had been an evil looking clown in my dream that told me he was going to, kill me dad, or he was going to die, or something. And that is compounded with a possible earlier memory I had of being in a playpen in a park or at least under some trees in a clearing, and seeing a clown standing over me, possibly "leering".

I don't know if either of these happened, though around this time for me (the 80s), there was a big, documented Killer Clown scare (people would see them on playgrounds, etc). King's "It" came out sometime but I think not til later, and the movie not til MUCH later, though John Wayne Gacey was maybe in the news. It's possible I unconsciously overheard talk about my dad's condition and somehow I infused that knowledge of his impending death, possibly with a dream about a clown, I don't know. All I know is I got free shirt from the IHATEMIMES site for being a mod on their forums and got to know some interesting people (including clowns that don't use whiteface), and had my own Tripod hosted The World Anti Mimimic League (because clowns were too overdone). So it definitely left an impression and was "real" to me, as far as it having an effect.

MY OWN MUPPET SIGHTING

Regarding YOUR particular post, I want to share one thing that was interesting. I was working at my uncle's bakery here in Oklahoma, maybe 2002 or, not sure. I was sitting in a car parked outside the restaurant about to leave, and looked over, and in a truck parked in front of the restaurant/bakery, I saw what looked like a reddish wild-haired muppet thing "sitting" (like Animal maybe?) in the passenger window of the truck to my left. I was looking at it for a minute, not really thinking, and then was like "Whuh? WHAT am I looking at?!" The weird thing was, I don't remember, I'm sure there was someone in the driver's side, but not the passenger side, so... and it was looking at me. Or at least out the window, full-front, not "sitting: sideways in the seat. It's head did turn though, as I was looking at it. It turns a bit this way and that, and it tilted its head.

I honestly can't tell you what happened after that. I know I got out of my car and went inside and told someone about the weird thing I saw later. I don't know if I got out right then and walked past the truck or turned back to look or if they pulled out and left first or what. I'm 42 now (born in 1973) and an atheist and skeptic (still enjoy the weird stuff), but I still can't adequately explain my memory of that experience. Weird.

Edited July 19, 2015 by Paranormalcy

[Leonardo]

When very young were you exposed to any films or tv shows that might have been particularly terrifying to you (think of movies/shows such as "It" which depict clowns as terrifying beings)?

If so, and I suspect this to be the case even if you have no recollection of such things, then it's likely the 'imaginary entity' you remember is actually a composite of that and other memories. It's even likely that your memory is not at all as it was in your childhood, but you have conflated distinct and apparently unrelated memories which simply make it appear to be as you recall.

Memory - especially childhood memory - is an area fraught with difficulty and unreliability, so to attempt to make a case for memory being an accurate reflection of our childhood is also not very reliable.

[Lilly]

Children process things much differently from adults. One of the main differences lies in the area of designating what's 'internal' (created by ones own mind) and what's 'external' (existing in objective reality). When something that's 'internal' gets filed away into our memory as if it were 'external' you get a memory of something that seems to have been reality, but was actually a product of a dream, misconception or fantasy.

Something along this line happened to me when I had the measles. The high fever caused me to hallucinate that the butterflies on my bedspread came alive and flew around my room. My mind filed this experience away as being a reality. Since I was only about 5 years old such an event did not seem unreasonable to me. So, for a long time I considered the experience to have actually happened. Getting a bit older told me that what I'd experienced was a fever induced hallucination. To this day (and I'm older than dirt ) when I recall that memory it seems eerily real to me.

[SpiritWriter]

Muppet clown needs to get his butt kicked! Omg how horrible. Sorry you had to go through that.

Edited July 19, 2015 by SpiritWriter

[Redefining Success]

I had an active imagination as a kid.

You answered your own question.

[GoPlayonAhighway]

Interesting. I have never liked puppets, mascots, dolls, clowns and things like that. I have some degress of either (or both) automatonaphobia (any humanlike but non-living thing - an automaton) or coulrophobia (clowns).

My dad died when I was seven and for years I swear I had dreamed a week or two earlier, that there had been an evil looking clown in my dream that told me he was going to, kill me dad, or he was going to die, or something. And that is compounded with a possible earlier memory I had of being in a playpen in a park or at least under some trees in a clearing, and seeing a clown standing over me, possibly "leering".

I don't know if either of these happened, though around this time for me (the 80s), there was a big, documented Killer Clown scare (people would see them on playgrounds, etc). King's "It" came out sometime but I think not til later, and the movie not til MUCH later, though John Wayne Gacey was maybe in the news. It's possible I unconsciously overheard talk about my dad's condition and somehow I infused that knowledge of his impending death, possibly with a dream about a clown, I don't know. All I know is I got free shirt from the IHATEMIMES site for being a mod on their forums and got to know some interesting people (including clowns that don't use whiteface), and had my own Tripod hosted The World Anti Mimimic League (because clowns were too overdone). So it definitely left an impression and was "real" to me, as far as it having an effect.

MY OWN MUPPET SIGHTING

Regarding YOUR particular post, I want to share one thing that was interesting. I was working at my uncle's bakery here in Oklahoma, maybe 2002 or, not sure. I was sitting in a car parked outside the restaurant about to leave, and looked over, and in a truck parked in front of the restaurant/bakery, I saw what looked like a reddish wild-haired muppet thing "sitting" (like Animal maybe?) in the passenger window of the truck to my left. I was looking at it for a minute, not really thinking, and then was like "Whuh? WHAT am I looking at?!" The weird thing was, I don't remember, I'm sure there was someone in the driver's side, but not the passenger side, so... and it was looking at me. Or at least out the window, full-front, not "sitting: sideways in the seat. It's head did turn though, as I was looking at it. It turns a bit this way and that, and it tilted its head.

I honestly can't tell you what happened after that. I know I got out of my car and went inside and told someone about the weird thing I saw later. I don't know if I got out right then and walked past the truck or turned back to look or if they pulled out and left first or what. I'm 42 now (born in 1973) and an atheist and skeptic (still enjoy the weird stuff), but I still can't adequately explain my memory of that experience. Weird.

I think there is something inherently creepy and wrong with clowns. I mean the act of disguising one's face and voice, hanging around parks and children, is in itself, worrisome. But combine this with the fact that clowns are usually homeless drifters, and clown have their own genre of sexual fetish, it becomes horrifying. I went to the circus once as a kid, and there was a group of clowns who were forcing another younger male clown, to get on a bus with them. This was no circus act because I remember the younger clown was crying and kicking and punching at the other clowns who overpowered him and dragged him on the bus. I was far too young at the time to step in and help, so I still feel bad for this kid and still wonder what happened. Point being, clowns have their own very weird culture, and I refuse to be anywhere near it. It is scary.....

[GoPlayonAhighway]

Muppet clown needs to get his butt kicked! Omg how horrible. Sorry you had to go through that.

Muppet clown needs to get his butt kicked! Omg how horrible. Sorry you had to go through that.

Funny how these things are not around trying to scare us once we grow up. I would like to restrain and question "muppet clown" using the "harsh interrogation techniques" of the CIA. Find out who he really works for....