The Sims · PC · 2000
A deliberately cursed in-game painting of a sad clown that, when hung in a Sim's home, causes the household's mood to deteriorate and summons a manifestation of the clown himself.
The Tragic Clown painting is an in-game object with a hidden negative effect: Sims who live in a house where it is displayed will suffer a persistent mood penalty and may eventually be visited by the Tragic Clown NPC, a morose clown character who arrives uninvited and cannot be removed from the property without an elaborate series of interactions. The joke is layered — the painting exists as a deliberately bad piece of art in the game's furniture catalogue, purchasable by players who presumably want their Sims to have poor taste in decor, but it functions as a kind of curse. Maxis designers used it as an internal reference to sad-clown kitsch, and it became one of the most discussed Easter eggs among the game's enormous early community.
Purchase the "Tragic Clown" painting from the Decorative section of the buy-mode catalogue and hang it in a room your Sim uses frequently. After several in-game days, the household's mood will deteriorate and the Tragic Clown NPC will eventually appear and refuse to leave.