Who's Art The Clown In Creepy Clown TikTok Trend? The Meme With The Evilest Smile Explained

Memes with a creepy-looking, black-and-white clown looking astonished but quickly changing his expression into the evilest of grins have been everywhere on TikTok the meme perfectly conveys that feel when you have to act astonished but can't help but giggle on the inside. Who's Art the Clown from 'Terrifier' and who created the format? Learn this and more in our brief explainer.

Who Is Art the Clown?

Art the Clown is a serial killer clown character created by screenwriter and director Damien Leone who is prominently featured in the Terrifier franchise as well as in two previous short films. The character, portrayed by David Howard Thornton in the Terrifier films, is an demonic evil clown who uses supernatural abilities to hunt, torment and murder his victims. The characters wears a black-and-white clown costume and a clown makeup, and is known for grinning menacingly at his victims as he prepares to torment and kill them.

Where Does ‘Art The Clown Grinning’ Meme Come From?

The scene on which the meme format is based upon appears in the 2022 film Terrifier 2. In the scene, Art the Clown stalks his victim in a costume shop. The clerk tells Art that he's going to call the police on him, with the demonic clown acting shock but quickly changes his expression into an evil grin.

The scene was turned into a meme when CapCut user Green Screen Memes made a green screen out of the Art's funny expressions. The format was then picked up by a user on TikTok who made the following meme out of it:

'Art The Clown Grinning' TikTok Trend

The meme went viral on TikTok, and as of early June 2024 there had been well over 20,000 memes based on Art the Clown's evil grin. In memes, people have been using Art's colorful face expressions to convey how they act at first upon hearing something, and then how they really feel about it.

Others have been using the format to express schadenfreude, the feeling of pleasure when something bad happens to those who annoy you.

For the full history of Art the Clown grinning, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.