If you thought the most insane thing to happen this year would be this out-of-whack election, then you might be right. But it turns out a recent, sporadic outbreak of clowns may come in as a close second.
All across the nation, there has been a sweep of random creepy clown sightings. Photos and videos began surfacing across the internet of these clowns, which have allegedly been spotted lurking outside people’s homes and in the woods.
However, some of the encounters have supposedly been more sinister.
Some of the clowns have tried luring children into the woods with money, stalking people, coming up to people’s cars and even going so far to chase people with knives and machetes.
That’s it. Now we are all truly caught up in a real-life horror movie, and believe me, it’s not a good one. This whole thing feels like some twisted blend of “Friday the 13th” and “Killer Klowns from Outer Space.”
I guess we can’t be too surprised.
It only makes sense that after we elected two jesters to be our presidential nominees, someone would release a plague of red-nosed, always-grinning monstrosities upon us all.
Beginning at the end of August in the East Coast, the massive clown scare lurked its way across the rest of the country in only a matter of a couple of weeks. Now, just about every state in the country has had its own clown sighting. Rightfully so, several people are terrified to walk alone at night.
While coulrophobia, the fear of clowns, has been around for centuries and is now considered one of the most common phobias in the world.
The embers of fear for clowns have only been fanned by frightening portrayals of them in popular horror films like “It” and “Poltergeist.”
In recent years, the fear has only become more widespread through the media. One of the most memorable villains in “American Horror Story” is Twisty, a heavily disfigured ex-circus performer who kidnaps children and vainly attempts to entertain them.
Of course, we also can’t forget the Clown Prince of Crime himself, the Joker. This popular “Batman” character has ranged from eerie to sadistic to terrifying through memorable performances from Jack Nicholson, Mark Hamill, Heath Ledger and most recently Jared Leto.
Killer clown movies have become so popular that they practically branded their own subgenre in horror, creating B-horror classics like “Clownhouse,” “Gacy” and “100 Tears.” They have also made appearances in popular movies like “The Devil’s Rejects” and “Zombieland.”
But, of course, everyone is slowly growing tired of this clown craze. It’s one thing to try to scare someone and another to attempt actual harm.
Even Stephen King, writer of “It,” is annoyed by the whole insanity.
“Hey, guys, time to cool the clown hysteria — most of em are good, cheer up the kiddies, make people laugh,” he tweeted.
That’s right. The man who made sure you would have nightmares for the rest of your life about killer clowns eating children from drainpipes is tired of this hoax.
Perhaps now he is having second thoughts on making the “It” remake, set for release next year.
He’s not wrong though. This hysteria has only done more harm than good for this Halloween season.
Harmless professional clowns, who were in no way trying to add to the national scare, have been targeted by hecklers and scared individuals.
On Saturday in Tuscon, Arizona, more than 100 professional clowns are expected to show up to a “Clown Lives Matter” rally taking place in the city. The event is being held to bring awareness that not all clowns are killers.
In fact, for those of you who are still scared, remember that killer clowns in no shape or form actually exist. Real-life murderers would never be foolish enough to draw so much attention to themselves.
Just take a deep breath and keep telling yourself it is only a person. It is only a person.
