Winston: Strange Sightings: What You Need To Know About The Clown Epidemic

by Audrey Buhain and Xuanlin Tham, Year 12

In late August, policemen in Greenville, South Carolina received disturbing reports of a suspicious character dressed as a clown seen trying to lure children into the woods. Residents allegedly began taking violent action in response to the panic, firing gunshots into the woods and escalating an already uncanny atmosphere of apprehension and fear - an atmosphere that would soon invade the rest of the United States, extending its sinister influence like an airborne contagion.

“Clown hysteria” has since spread to nearly all U.S. states as well as nineteen other countries. Reported sightings have flooded social media sites like Facebook and Instagram, with these platforms also being used to spread ‘clown’-perpetrated threats of violence that have resulted in numerous schools across America declaring lockdowns. In Philadelphia, threats against students and schools have even prompted investigation by the FBI and a terrorism task force.

According to an interactive map curated by Erik Shilling of Atlas Obscura, there have been over 100 reported and legitimate clown sightings since the first attack in Greenville. There are quite a few notable incidents that this map recounts: in Pennsylvania, over 500 Penn State students went on a ‘clown hunt’ in search of clowns reportedly roaming around campus; in New York, a 10 year-old was found in hiding after reportedly being pursued by three clowns; in Tennessee, high schools had to be placed on lockdown after clown threats were posted on social media. Now comes the equally reassuring and unsettling similarity between all three of these clown threat responses - no clowns were actually found after these reports were issued.

Yet what has become clear is that the clown impostors themselves are nowhere near as frightening and dangerous as the reactions of the people they intend to scare. In late September, a 16-year-old boy trying to scare neighbourhood children while wearing a clown mask was stabbed to death after a confrontation. Many other reported incidents have shown that people are shockingly likely to respond to these pranksters with violence, and this is especially alarming in the United States, where guns are easily and commonly accessible. Something that started off as a prank has twisted into a phenomenon that has proven to be dangerous and even fatal, and this is the true terror of the clown epidemic: it has brought out violence in the ordinarily quiet and peaceful environment of people’s communities.

But where do these clowns come from? An explanation that has surfaced is that the clown epidemic is really just a very innovative (and seemingly very effective) promotional campaign for the movie adaptation of Stephen King’s ‘It’, set to release in 2017 and featuring the infamous shape-shifting demon clown Pennywise. A more likely explanation, however, is that the recent clown craze is simply an amplification of a morbid fascination with the idea of an ‘evil clown’, dating back all the way to 1811 and emerging with increasing frequency as the years go by. ‘Clown sightings’ have been in the news since 25 years ago, but it has taken the social media capabilities of today to catapult these scattered incidences into a widespread phenomenon. This is only helped by the convenience of posing as a clown: one, the ‘scare factor’ seems to have already been built-in; two, there is an appeal in the anonymity of the mask; three, the copycat effect further eliminates any sense of personal engagement with the act, provoking similar action in others.

Yet, there is a sad truth behind this phenomenon, whether you find it terrifying or purely laughable: it’s not the general public who inevitably suffers most from the clown epidemic, but the real clowns - the clowns we’re forgetting about amidst the increasingly dominant impression of clowns as evil, homicidal psychopaths.

What with the rapid dwindling of World Clown Association (the biggest global clown community) members in the last 10 years, the recent killer clown phenomenon further aggravates this deprecation. Blinded by the shock value of these clown impostors, the general public have become unable to differentiate professional clowns from people simply dressed as clowns. Professionals are now afraid to hold performances or go out in costume by the fear of being attacked. Missed performance opportunities translate into less money made by these professionals, compromising both the validity of their craft and their own financial stability. Looking back at the culturally significant role of clowns and jesters in our history, it is saddening to see the degradation of clowning into simply entertainment at a child’s birthday party, and even more devastating to see that standard being destroyed by the increasingly prevalent ‘killer clown’ stereotype.

We can now address the question plaguing your mind since you began reading this article: should you, as a resident of the Philippines, be scared of these killer clowns? We think not.

A few clown sightings have been reported in Bohol, Cebu, and Manila, as well as clown threats on social media affirming their presence on the islands. But when there are day-to-day accounts of violent murders and chilling reports of traumatised, orphaned children, ranking killer clowns as the country’s top terror just does not make sense. The Filipino people are rapidly becoming acquainted with the idea that lives are expendable and that each day is an uncertainty waiting to unfold. In many ways, it’s hilarious that these clowns are so confident in their abilities to shake the public. The Philippines no longer has time for these inconveniences - not when there are real, life-ending horrors staring us in the eye everywhere we look.

In summary: the clown epidemic of 2016 seems to be a result of the power of social media magnifying a long-present fear of the ‘evil clown’, but what is truly unsettling is the often violent and uninhibited reaction to these ‘clowns’ seen in places like the US. Yet here in the Philippines, perhaps what is more disquieting is the fact that the nation is becoming somewhat desensitised to death, rendering these threats almost negligible in the face of extremely pressing social issues. But though the clown threat is probably not something you should be worried about here, it is never a bad thing to practice good sense and caution this All Hallows’ Eve: don’t dress up as a clown, and pick another costume for your trick-or-treating this year.

Sources:

Strange Sightings: What You Need To Know About The Clown Epidemic

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