What is Pennywise The Clown?

Pennywise The Clown is a two-panel image macro that pairs a shot of Tim Curry's Pennywise looking up from a storm drain with a picture of something the poster would supposedly follow anywhere.

Where did Pennywise The Clown come from?

The clown screenshot is pulled from the 1990 ABC mini-series adaptation of Stephen King's novel It, and the meme format traces back to a September 2010 Funny Junk post by user Notnamed.

What does Pennywise The Clown mean?

It is a temptation gag that asks whether whatever is stacked in the second panel would be enough to talk you into climbing down into a sewer with a demonic clown.

How do you use Pennywise The Clown?

You take the sewer-Pennywise screengrab and pair it with an image of something enticing enough to make you willingly walk to your death, sometimes adding a third panel of construction workers filling the sewer with cement.

Is Pennywise The Clown still popular?

The template hit peak activity in 2017 around the theatrical remake starring Bill Skarsgård, which grossed more than $130 million within its first week. It is a classic reaction format from that era rather than a currently active meme.

Pennywise The Clown

2010image macroclassic

Published August 8, 2026

Pennywise The Clown is a two-panel image macro built from a shot of Tim Curry peering up from a storm drain in the 1990 TV adaptation of Stephen King's It. The format hit its peak in 2017 alongside the trailer for the theatrical remake, with users pairing the sewer shot with things enticing enough to make them willingly climb down to their doom.

horror memes two panel memes villain memes exploitable templates 2017 memes

Overview

Pennywise The Clown pairs a screengrab of Tim Curry as Pennywise looking up from an open sewer grate with a picture of something the poster claims they would follow anywhere, even into the drain1. The bit tests how strong a temptation is by asking whether it could actually talk the viewer into climbing down to Pennywise1.

The source screenshot is pulled from the 1990 ABC mini-series adaptation of Stephen King's It, in which Curry plays a demonic entity that hunts the children of Derry, Maine by luring them into storm drains1. When the theatrical remake starring Bill Skarsgård arrived in 2017 and grossed more than $130 million within its first week2, the sewer image caught a second wind and Pennywise picked up an unlikely fandom that paired him with fellow horror figure The Babadook.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Funny Junk (early template) / Twitter and Instagram (viral spread)

Creator

Notnamed

Date

2010

The character debuted in Stephen King's 1985 novel It and reached mass audiences through the 1990 ABC mini-series adaptation starring Tim Curry, which drew roughly 30 million viewers across its two broadcast nights3. The earliest documented meme use of the sewer shot appeared on September 4th, 2010, when Funny Junk user Notnamed uploaded a Demotivational Poster reading 'COMMON SENSE: Don't trust anyone that lives in the sewers'3.

How It Spread

Momentum built after the trailer for the 2017 remake dropped, which broke YouTube's 24-hour view record at the time1. On April 5th, 2017, Twitter user @ezeqserra paired the sewer shot with a screenshot of a woman crawling into a drain to rescue a kitten and captioned it '¿Querés papas con cheddar de por vida?' ('Want cheese fries for life?', translated from Spanish)1. The kitten-rescue photo actually came from a report on the Spanish-language pet blog Schnauzi4.

Inverse ran a roundup of the twenty-five best Pennywise sewer memes as the format hit peak visibility1. Instagram user @skyferreira reposted @ezeqserra's edit on April 12th, 2017 with the caption 'come here kid, i have masochism', pulling in more than 15,700 likes1. Around the same time, /r/dankmemes users started remixing the shot into a three-panel variation where Pennywise offers something absurd and construction workers then fill the sewer with cement1.

The theatrical remake starring Bill Skarsgård opened on September 8th, 2017 and pulled in more than $130 million within its first week2. Following the release, fans on Twitter began shipping Pennywise with The Babadook, with an illustration by @kumivenarts of the two heading out on a date pulling more than 79,000 likes and drawing BuzzFeed coverage3.

How to Use This Meme

To make a Pennywise The Clown post, take the screengrab of Tim Curry's clown peeking out of the storm drain and stack it above an image of something you would supposedly follow anywhere, from a food craving to a niche fandom to a specific person1. A common variation drops in a third panel of construction workers pouring cement over the sewer, punctuating whatever ridiculous temptation Pennywise was offering1. The joke is only as funny as the temptation is specific.