--- title: pennywise memes 2017, Internet reactions to Stephen King It description: The chilling trailer for the movie adaptation of Stephen King's 'It' has inspired a slew of creepy memes featuring Pennywise the clown. canonical: https://time.com/4740804/pennywise-meme-2017/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-14T20:07:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:42:51.436Z og:title: 'It' Stephen King Movie Trailer Inspires Clown Sewer Memes og:description: It involves Pennywise the clown and a sewer og:url: https://time.com/4740804/pennywise-meme-2017/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'It' Stephen King Movie Trailer Inspires Clown Sewer Memes twitter:description: It involves Pennywise the clown and a sewer twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Stephen King's _It_ Is Already Inspiring a Wave of Creepy Clown Memes > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=a0993ea2-d43b-4236-88a8-788f60c814be&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Apr 14, 2017 8:07 PM UTC  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Apr 14, 2017 8:07 PM UTC The [trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnCdOQsX5kc) for the movie adaptation of [Stephen King](http://time.com/4691760/stephen-king-trump-wiretap-horror-story/)‘s frightening novel _It_ was released in March, much to the horror and delight of the Internet. The film is a remake of a 90’s mini-series also based on the King novel and an iconic (and terrifying scene) from the mini-series has now become a meme in the wake of the preview clip being released. In the scene, [Pennywise the Clown](http://ew.com/article/2016/08/16/pennywise-costume-stephen-king-it-movie/) beckons menacingly from the depths of a sewer until a child crawls to their impending doom in the gutter. The meme hilariously (if darkly) riffs on Pennywise’s ability to persuade people to come into the sewer, with the Internet offering everything from tacos to Tom Hardy as the ill-fated temptations. While the movie’s not slated to hit theaters until September of this year, that only gives the Internet more time to make Pennywise memes. See the funniest memes inspired by _It_ and Pennywise below. How far would you go for the new season of [_Game of Thrones_](http://time.com/4666067/game-of-thrones-season-7-premiere-date-july/)? For some, tacos are worth their eventual demise. For others, it’s a vice of a different ilk. Some people would go to great lengths, even in a sewer, for Tom Hardy. While others would do anything for a Netflix login. Even celebrities got into the spirit of the memes. Singer Sky Ferreira teased at her fans’ thirst for her new album with a variation of the meme. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4740804/pennywise-meme-2017/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4740804/pennywise-meme-2017/"},"headline":"Stephen King's It Is Already Inspiring a Wave of Creepy Clown Memes","datePublished":"2017-04-14T20:07:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:42:51.436Z","description":"It involves Pennywise the clown and a sewer","url":"https://time.com/4740804/pennywise-meme-2017/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Bizarre","memes"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4740804/pennywise-meme-2017/","name":"Stephen King's It Is Already Inspiring a Wave of Creepy Clown Memes"}}]}] ```