How did Stephen King come up with Pennywise?

2017 film and 2019 sequel: King stated in a 2013 interview that he came up with the idea for Pennywise after asking himself what children feared "more than anything else in the world", and feeling that the answer was clowns.
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What was Pennywise inspired by?

Almost certainly the most well-known evil clown (save for BatmanĀ¹s archnemesis, the Joker; more on him later), Pennywise is modeled after real-life serial killer John Wayne Gacy, aka Pogo the Clown, a.k.a. "The Clown Killer." Gacy was convicted of sexually assaulting and killing 33 boys in 1980; he posed as a clown ...
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What gave Stephen King the idea for it?

One evening, King ventured alone to pick up his car from the repair shop and came across an old wooden bridge, "humped and oddly quaint". Walking along the bridge caused King to recall the story of "Three Billy Goats Gruff", and the idea of transplanting the tale's scenario into a real-life context interested him.
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What is the origin of Pennywise?

IT comes from the void that contains the entirety of existence, including our reality. This space-beyond-space in the Pennywise the clown origin story is called the Macroverse (also referred to as the Todash Darkness in Stephen King's Dark Tower novels).
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How did Stephen King come up with it?

According to King, he first conceived the story in 1978, began writing it in 1981, and finished it in 1985. The main character was inspired by the classic children's story Three Billy Goats Gruff, and King originally wanted the It character to be a troll inhabiting the local sewer system.
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IT: The Complete History of Pennywise | Horror History

What is the longest book in the world?

A la recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust contains an estimated 9,609,000 characters (each letter counts as one character. Spaces are also counted, as one character each). The title translates to "Remembrance of Things Past".
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What is Stephen King's IT creature?

IT is a shape-shifting creature known as a Glamour who is billions of years old. Although it lived on planet Earth for many years, Pennywise originated in a void/dimension outside the regions of space known as the Macroverse.
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How did Pennywise become evil?

Pennywise was always evil - or, more accurately, he never really existed. He was just a creation of IT to lure in children so they could be terrified and then eaten. Or so that IT could create chaos, incite riots and spread fear.
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What is Pennywise scared of?

Stephen King's IT introduced readers to a one-of-a-kind creature that can take any form, the most common one being Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and as menacing as it is, this creature has one big enemy it's truly scared of: Maturin, the turtle.
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Why does Pennywise come every 27 years?

IT arrived on Earth through an event similar to an asteroid impact, landing in what would later become Derry, Maine. Once there, IT adopted its usual pattern of hibernation that lasted between 27 and 30 years, awakening to kill and eat and then going back to sleep.
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Is Derry Maine a real place?

Derry is a fictional town in the U.S. state of Maine that has served as the setting for a number of Stephen King's novels, novellas, and short stories, notably It. Derry first appeared in King's 1981 short story "The Bird and the Album" and has reappeared as recently as his 2011 novel 11/22/63.
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How old is Pennywise?

The novel explains that IT landed on Earth during an asteroid impact and established itself under the land Derry would be later built on, and initially preyed on indigenous tribes. From that point of view, IT/Pennywise would be billions of years old, but his clown shape wouldn't be that old.
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How is Pennywise defeated?

In their final battle, the Losers' Club was able to kill Pennywise by reducing him to a child-like form as they overcame their fears. In the moments before Pennywise died, his fear is reminiscent of Georgie's own, therefore closing the cyclical nature of Pennywise's murders.
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Who is Pennywise daughter?

Movie! Flashback of the past of Pennywise and his. Daughter Kersh šŸ¤— Of when IT became & took over. Pennywise the Dancing Clown better known as Bob. Gray.
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Is Pennywise a figment of their imagination?

Sometimes, but mostly no. Pennywise's illusions can be very real, even if the person next to you is experiencing something completely different. Even moreso, these physical illusions can gain or lose power depending on whether you believe it and how strong your imagination is or how hard It is trying.
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How many kills did Pennywise get?

Pennywise's Kills Add Up Over Time

The number is then multiplied by the number of times Pennywise has awakened -- once every 27 years throughout the 270-year history of Derry, equaling ten times -- to come up with a final tally of between 12,000 and 18,000 dead.
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Is Pennywise a human or a monster?

In the novel, It is a shapeshifting monster who usually takes the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, originating in a void containing and surrounding the Universeā€”a place referred to in the novel as the "Macroverse".
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Does Pennywise eat children or fear?

It describes that it prefers to kill and devour children, not by nature, rather because children's fears are easier to interpret in a physical form and thus children are easier to fill with terror, which It says is akin to marinating the meat.
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What does Pennywise say at the end of IT?

Finally, Pennywise is beaten into submission. He scurries away, utters the word "fear," and partially disintegrates before falling into the void. It's a powerful defeat of a powerful monster, and it's satisfaction enough were IT to remain a single film.
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Why does Pennywise eat humans?

In both the book and the films, It is an ancient alien creature, older than civilization, and in King's novel, older than our universe. It feasts on the flesh of humans simply because our fears are easy to manifest and they make us taste better.
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What is Pennywise famous line?

Quotes. It : I'm every nightmare you've ever had. I'm your worst dream come true. I'm everything you ever were afraid of.
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Why did Pennywise choose Derry?

Pennywise pretty much made Derry the perfect place for a creature like itself to live, and with the whole town under its control and with a lot of children (and adults) to feed from, IT didn't really have reasons to leave Derry.
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Why can t adults see Pennywise?

They reach the conclusion that Pennywise has all of the adults under some sort of spell that prohibits them from seeing him. The adults of Derry are shown to be villainous in their own right as well. The adults of Derry are shown to be true villains of the story in the same way as Pennywise.
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Was Pennywise once a human?

Bob Gray, (Pennywise's alter ego) is IT'S human form. The thing is now is that IT was NEVER human. Bob Gray was a clown called Pennywise that travelled in the circus with his daughter, Kersh.
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What type of God is Pennywise?

If you want to get technical, It is an alien, but It's origin goes well beyond that. It is actually an ancient cosmic deity. A god of destruction, not just of our world, but of multiple worlds and even multiple universes.
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