34 Years Ago, Nickelodeon’s Darkest TV Show Introduced a Character That Terrified A Generation

In 1992, Nickelodeon premiered a horror anthology series, Are You Afraid Of The Dark?, aimed at younger viewers. Framed as the stories told by members of the Midnight Society, a group of friends meeting after dark to exchange spooky tales, each episode of Are You Afraid Of The Dark? followed everyday children thrust into age-appropriate takes on classic horror tropes, including, naturally, pursuit by creepy clown. The second episode of the series, “The Tale Of Laughing In The Dark”, takes that week’s intrepid protagonists to a carnival, where a dare, and a theft, become the start of one boy’s encounter with the vengeful ghost of a long-dead circus clown.

“The Tale Of Laughing In The Dark” opens on friends Josh, Weegee and Kathy at the amusement park Funland, where they come across a “Spook House” attraction billing Zeebo the clown as the top monster. After stealing the red nose off of the spook house’s Zeebo model, Josh finds himself followed by increasingly disturbing signs of the clown’s presence until he returns the stolen nose to Funland, appeasing Zeebo’s restless spirit. While Josh walked away with no further trouble from the clown, the audience was not so lucky, as Zeebo would continue to appear in future episodes of Are You Afraid Of The Dark? the form of visual easter eggs and in-dialogue references, acting as a constant, lurking presence within the show’s worldbuilding and cementing himself as a memorable horror icon for a generation.

Zeebo’s Fear Factor Went Beyond Just A Scary Face

Zeebo’s appearance is frightening enough, being that of a menacing clown with an elongated face, madly glaring eyes, sickly green teeth, wild red hair and his iconic backstory-relevant cigar— but it is that supposed backstory that turns Zeebo into something truly skin-crawling. Zeebo, as “The Tale Of Laughing In The Dark” gradually reveals to us, was a corrupt clown in the 1920s who, fleeing the scene of a theft with a lit cigar, hid in the Spook House. His cigar started a fire which destroyed the Spook House and took his life… only for Zeebo’s spirit to continue to haunt the reconstructed attraction. With this context, parts of Zeebo’s physical appearance take on new significance.

Most obviously, Zeebo still has his fatal cigar, but are his teeth also green from smoking? The clown’s eyes are a pale greyish color, lit at the center— simply mad and ghostly, or dead and burning? Is that shock of hair styled or scorched? Is the smoke that pursues Josh around his house only from Zeebo’s cigar, or is it also the still-smoldering cinders of the fire that killed him? The interplay between the clown’s design and backstory lend a sense of credibility to the lore, forcing the viewer’s eyes to linger on these aspects of the clown’s appearance and bring up some truly grisly thoughts. This additional context, and its visual support in Zeebo’s design, elevate him from simply a creepy clown, haunted mannequin, or ghost to something far more specific, physical, and horrifying.

It is these truly disturbing attributes that allow Zeebo to function so well as less-is-more type of monster, with the mere mention of his name is enough to send chills down spines in future episodes. In fact, Zeebo himself never appears in Josh’s house “The Tale Of Laughing In The Dark”, only manifesting through cigars, smoke, and other clownish phenomena, yet there is no doubt of Zeebo’s immediate and menacing presence as he pursues Josh around the home. The feeling of dread invoked by even the implication of this restless carnival spirit would later have viewers startling in their seats when Zeebo’s name was mentioned in later episodes, a feeling no doubt amplified by the fact that Zeebo is not defeated or dispelled at the end of “The Tale Of Laughing In The Dark”, only appeased, with the clown himself remaining whole and in place to torment carnival-goers another day.

Iconic Imagery, Chilling Backstory And Sparing Appearances Created A Horror Icon

Zeebo the clown is so well-remembered not just for a creepy face and a single episode, but for a backstory that, even if not fully remembered by the viewer, went on to inform their understanding of his physical appearance and to assign each trait a grisly, haunting undertone. Rather than answer these gory uncertainties with a better look at the clown, or even show the clown at all, “The Tale Of Laughing In The Dark” let suspense build around the mere idea of Zeebo’s looming presence, creating a sense of fear and tension that would snap back into audience’s minds whenever future episodes dropped Zeebo’s name. We never see the mannequin move on its own, we never see Zeebo in Josh’s house, we never learn what he really is and never see him destroyed, but we do see and hear of him elsewhere in the word of Are You Afraid Of The Dark?— and so, without resolution, we never fully stop looking over our shoulder for Zeebo.

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