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, fails to cheer anyone up, and only stops visiting once the painting is sold. 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 (added in the Livin' Large expansion) 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.