Circus Clown Nearly Paralyzes Man with Trick-Gone-Wrong

There's a stigma around clowns that they're creepy, annoying, and evil - sometimes this actually holds true, like in England where a circus clown's stunt went terribly wrong, knocking a man unconscious to the ground.

When Ben Garnham, 37, from Wales made his first-ever trip to the circus with his daughters on Monday, he was picked out from the crowd by a clown to be lifted and spun in the air during the show. To perform the stunt, the clown asked Garnham to push his hands against his legs so he could lift him up in the air.

Well, of course this trick ended very badly - Garnham fell to the ground and was knocked unconscious.

"I just thought he was going to pretend to do something but not actually do it to get a laugh," Garnham tells USA Today. "I thought he was just going to squirt me with water or something. ... It looked more like a wrestling move."

Garnham says no paramedics were on site, though trained first responders in the audience came to his assistance. An ambulance was then called.

"I was unconscious right until they put me behind the curtain. They lifted me out and I was manhandled - they could've paralyzed me for life," said Garnham, who was fitted with a neck brace and spent 4 hours in the hospital. He left with a small cut to the back of his head with swelling on the left side of his face and one really bad headache. He didn't suffer any serious injuries, however.

The circus clown that dropped Garnham, named Ben Coles, offered him a full refund along with complimentary tickets for his family to see the show again. Garnham says he does not blame Coles for the incident; instead, he wants people to be aware of the need for paramedics on site.

"When I watched the video back the first time, it was like Macaulay Culkin when he first puts on the aftershave in Home Alone. I just thought, 'Oh my God.' The fact it happened, it was just such a shock," said Garnham. "I'm so lucky. I could've died or been paralyzed."

The circus didn't respond to USA Today's requests for comment, but for real, this is super creepy and just validates my personal fear of clowns.

Now, I know coulrophobia (the fear of clowns) is pretty common - so common that there have been numerous movies produced and books and stories written involving the "evil clown archetype." Because of that, there's a pretty good chance you've had a bad experience with a clown yourself, and I wanna hear about it!

Tell me your creepy clown story in the form above!