Can't Sleep, Clown Will Eat Me

About

"Can't Sleep, Clown Will Eat Me" is a memorable quote uttered by the character Bart Simpson on the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. Many in popular culture have utilized the phrase for different purposes, and online, people use the phrase and corresponding screenshot to express their fear and discomfort toward an image or video.

Origin

On December 3rd, 1992, the Fox network aired the Simpsons episode "Lisa's First Word."^[1] In the episode, the character Homer Simpson builds his son Bart (voiced by Dan Castellaneta and Nancy Cartwright, respectively) a new bed in the approximate likeness of Bart's favorite clown Krusty the Clown. The design terrifies Bart, who later in the episode can be seen cradling himself and muttering "can't sleep, clown will eat me" (shown below).

Spread

Over the next two decades, the phrase permeated in popular culture. On June 6th, 2000, for example, rock musician Alice Cooper included a song entitled "Can't Sleep, Clowns Will Eat Me" on his album Brutal Planet (video below, left).^[2] During this time, the phrase also appeared on graphic t-shirts (shown below, right).

The trend continued in image macro memes. For example, on July 26th, 2009, DeviantArt ^[3] user Cyberpunk1989 posted a Demotivational Poster featuring the phrase and an image of Pennywise the Clown from the It television miniseries. The post recieved more than 10,000 views in less than a decade (shown below).

On June 10th, 2016, the National Post^[4] included Bart's Clown Bed in the listicle "'Can’t sleep, clown will eat me': The eight creepiest clowns alive in our nightmares forever." They wrote:

It’s hard not to forget the words “Can’t sleep, clown will eat me” while envisioning Bart Simpson rocking himself back and forth on the clown-shaped bed Homer built that looks more like a death trap, particularly in the glow of a night light.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References