No More Clowning Around

Clown hysteria has taken the country by storm. Now that schools have sent home letters about the Great Clown Panic, the issue can no longer be ignored. Across the nation creepy clowns are lurking and causing mayhem. Here is what is known about this entire debacle.

It all started in South Carolina. Way back in August there were reports that clowns were in the woods trying to lure children right outside of a town named Greenville. At the time it seemed like it was one of those weird local news stories and not many people payed attention to it. But soon this ignited into a national phenomenon and clown sightings have been reported all across the country. In fact, just the other day there was a post in one of the local Berkeley Facebook groups warning people that the clowns might have arrived in the Bay. For the most part, these incidents have been hoaxes and harmless pranks; however, some of the cases have been more serious and have led to arrests. In Alabama, for example, there have been reports that about seven people face felony charges related to clown related activities. A man in Kentucky was arrested for dressing up as a clown and hiding in the woods. In New York, a clown chased a kid out of the subway. Ohio won the prize for most dramatic reaction in that some schools were closed.

So how big of a deal is this? Basically, should I be losing sleep over this? I’m going to go ahead and say no. Don’t get me wrong, seeing a random knife wielding clown is not a fate I would wish even on my enemy. But in the grand scheme of things, this is probably just another social media trend and in a few months we’re going to look back at this and laugh. As far as we know, nobody has been hurt by the clowns. Can’t say the same for the clowns however. There have been multiple reports of people in clown costumes facing serious physical harm. While we cannot make it illegal for people to dress up as clowns, some police departments have prohibited wearing these clown costumes for the sole reason of freaking people out. The clown panic is another example of the idea of mass hysteria like when people back in the 1980’s thought Dungeons and Dragons was linked to Satanism. This clown thing, however, is nowhere near as bad as the Slenderman scare when two girls went as far as stabbing their friend in order to please this fictional meme.

Why are people so scared of clowns then? Clowns have been represented in different forms across cultures for years. The only difference is that they used to be portrayed as happy and cheerful and now they’re mostly associated with terror. For example, in the 80’s Stephen King wrote a book titled IT which featured the killer clown Pennywise. This book was then made into a movie and perpetuated a hysteria and fear around clowns. The Joker is a more modern day example of a creepy clown. But the scariest clown of them all without a doubt is Ronald McDonald. Criminologists and psychologists agree that the fear is deeply rooted in the fact that clowns have heavy makeup on their face and mask their true selves by painting extreme emotions.

Basically, I think we are all going to be ok. This clown scare seems to be another hoax and funny prank. If you want to join your local clown stopping committee go for it, but for now there is no eminent threat. The real scare is coming to us in November with the potential for Trump to be President. The best thing you can do is register to vote and make sure this clown scare doesn’t become a reality.

But if you’re actually paranoid about this clown trend you can check out a real time clown sighting map here:

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