Why is the clown name Pennywise in Stephen King's IT? The Pennywise moniker has direct origins with the old English phrase Penny Wise and Pound Foolish, which denotes someone who is careful with the spending of small sums of money but careless and wasteful with larger amounts.
Now, King doesn't offer an explanation as to why Pennywise is named like that, and the name doesn't seem to have any cultural significance except for the old English saying “Penny Wise, Pound Foolish”, which refers to being stingy about less expensive things but not so much on big things.
However, it's favorite and most common form is that of a circus performer named "Pennywise the Dancing Clown," as most small children love a clown and generally, it seems that the people in Derry happily accepted the presence of a stray circus performer.
King decided for IT to predominantly take the shape of Pennywise the Dancing Clown because he believes "clowns scare children more than anything else in the world." IT influences the adults of Derry to passively ignore it and not interfere with his attacks on Derry's children.
Ultimately, Stephen King's inspiration for Pennywise was derived from an array of sources ranging from real-life murders to far less sinister clowns. At the end of the day, his main reason for making the central creature of IT a clown was his own fear of them.
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.
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.
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.
Throughout Stephen King's It, Pennywise is referred to as a male, but author Stephen King pulled a fast one on readers in the It book ending by revealing the creature's true form was a pregnant spider, implying that it is, in fact, biologically female.
Pennywise targets children instead of adults because they are easier to scare and manipulate. Their fears are often simpler, more direct, and easier for Pennywise to exploit.
But, the film makes clear, It (sometimes written as “IT”) isn't just a clown. Oh no. As detailed in King's novel, he's an ancient, cosmic being, described in the novel as an “Eater of Worlds”, who is able to adopt a variety of nasty guises.
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.
IT (2017)- Pennywise is seeing drooling many times throughout the movie. This was not an effect. Bill Skarsgård had to have prosthetic teeth in that made him drool excessively in many scenes.
In both the original novel and made-for-television adaptation, Pennywise is weakened using silver bullets melted down from earrings. While they aren't strong enough to kill him, they do weaken him enough to retreat, allowing the Losers Club an opportunity to regroup and plan their next attack.
He scares them and then kills them. This process seems to capture them in some fashion, presumably in his deadlights, which are closer to his true form. It seems like he doesn't enjoy killing those who aren't afraid of him, or perhaps he only has power over those who are afraid of him.
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.
Georgie Elmer Denbrough is a fictional character created by Stephen King from his 1986 epic horror novel It. Georgie is the younger brother of Bill Denbrough, and falls prey to Pennywise the Clown. He is used by Pennywise to taunt Bill throughout the novel.
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.
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.
[Stephen King's IT] Why doesn't Pennywise go after adults the way he goes after kids? Pennywise's deal is that he strikes fear into the hearts of others before devouring them, as essentially fattening them up before he feasts.
A neighbor witnesses his disappearance, but the fact his body is never found gives Bill hope Georgie somehow survived. Pennywise prays on this in the film, using that hope to lure Bill in the finale. Bill later finds the tatters of Georgie's coat and finally accepts his brother is gone.
Image via Warner Bros. 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.
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.
