What is Pennywise's backstory?

Pennywise is an ancient, evil being that originated from the Macroverse and has a specific corner of the cosmic realm called the Deadlights. Pennywise takes the form of whatever its victims fear the most, but its true form has been described as an endless, crawling, hairy creature made of orange light.
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What is the real story behind Pennywise?

Almost certainly the most well-known evil clown (save for Batman¹s 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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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 was Pennywise scared of?

At some point in the novel, King explained part of IT's backstory but left enough of it untold to raise many questions about it, and everything about Pennywise's origins is a bit confusing, as it's connected to the macroverse and the turtle Maturin, who's the only being IT is afraid of.
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Why did Pennywise turn into a baby?

Berating and mocking the creature, it began to panic as it realised it couldn't psychically exist as it used fear to build itself up. Pennywise began to shrink, his arms and claws malforming and becoming weaker and sicker before collapsing into an infant form.
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It Chapter 2: Pennywise’s Origin Explained

Was Pennywise originally a girl?

In the novel, It claims that its true name is Robert "Bob" Gray, but decided to be named “It”. Throughout the book, It is generally referred to as male, usually appearing as Pennywise. The Losers come to believe It may be female after seeing it in the form of a monstrous giant spider that lays eggs.
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Why does Pennywise only eat children?

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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Why Pennywise kills?

In the novel, it's explained that Pennywise targets children because their fears are less complex than those of adults, allowing It to easily take the shape of whatever its victim fears.
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What is Pennywise's true form?

Pennywise is an ancient, evil being that originated from the Macroverse and has a specific corner of the cosmic realm called the Deadlights. Pennywise takes the form of whatever its victims fear the most, but its true form has been described as an endless, crawling, hairy creature made of orange light.
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Who is Pennywise's daughter?

It says on the novel, Pennywise's daughter is Mrs Kersh. Mrs Kersh happened when Beverley Marsh visit her old home in Derry. Mrs kersh said : My father used to work in a circus. His name was Mr Robert Gray aka Mr Bob Gray aka Penywise the dancing clown.
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What kind of demon is Pennywise?

In IT, is Pennywise the clown a demon from hell? No, Pennywise is just a form that 'It' takes. 'It' is actually an ancient being that's been around since the creation of the Universe/Universes. These beings are mentioned in Stephen Kings 'The Dark Tower' series.
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Why does Pennywise have a red balloon?

Red balloons are Pennywise's calling cards, and he often uses them as bait to kidnap children.
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Why does It appear 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 IT based off a true story?

Answer and Explanation: No, Stephen King's It is not based on a true story. King had the idea for It when looking at an old wooden walking bridge in 1978 near his home in Boulder, Colorado.
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Which horror movie is based on a true story?

'The Amityville Horror'

in Amityville, N.Y., are true, the murders that led to the story being written in the first place certainly are. On Nov. 13, 1974, 23-year-old Ronald Joseph DeFeo Jr.
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Is Pennywise afraid of Eddie?

He is also a mentioned character in 11/22/63. He was the youngest of the seven members of The Losers' Club, and the only member Pennywise is afraid of.
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Who is Pennywise scared of?

In Stephen King's IT, readers are introduced to a one-of-a-kind creature that can take any form, the most popular of which is Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and as terrifying as it is, this creature has one major foe: Maturin, the turtle.
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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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What is inside Pennywise's mouth?

The dead lights are what you are seeing in his mouth. While the book gets more meta-physical in the aspects of what the lights are, and what they represent. In the movie they are never named, nor given any significance. They are essentially what IT is.
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How does Pennywise pick his victims?

A Tumblr user offers an explanation on why Pennywise's preferred target are children, and it's not so much because their fears are less complex than those of adults, but because IT is all about child abuse.
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Why does Pennywise say you'll float too?

A common interpretation of this phrase is that it refers to where the souls of IT's victims go after they die, as they wouldn't go to heaven nor hell, staying instead in the “deadlights”, which would be a sort of limbo, thus “floating” in that middle point for eternity.
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Is Pennywise a girl or a boy?

Throughout the novel, IT is generally referred to as male; however, late in the novel, the characters come to realize that IT is most likely female, due to its true form in the physical realm being that of a giant pregnant female spider.
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Why does Pennywise not eat adults?

Pennywise never seems to bother offing the older folks in Derry, but he has taken out older teenagers and young adults as well as children. It's established early on that Pennywise prefers the taste of children over other types of prey, but such a diet would undoubtedly raise too many questions.
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Did Pennywise eat Georgie whole?

In the novel Georgie was left on the street to bleed to death while the full extent of his fate is fairly ambiguous in the miniseries, but here he's dragged screaming wholly into the sewer where we can assume Pennywise ate his physical body.
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Did Pennywise get pregnant?

Unfortunately, King's imagination ran a little wilder than alluded to in the movies or earlier in the books, and the consequence of that is a pregnant Pennywise.
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