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Ok so what is with this clown hysteria?


SparklyUnicorn
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What do you mean by hoax?  That there aren't actual clowns?  That the sightings are fake?

 

 

From the news stories I have read: 

 

Some of it is "hoax" in the sense of the person dressing as a clown doesn't intend to commit an actual crime but does do it to scare people for a prank. 

 

There has been at least one instance of a hoax where a man made a false report of a clown with himself as the hero trying to chase it off with a machete. 

 

And it appears that there are criminals now dressing as clowns with the intent to do crimes. 

 

So you have copycat "pranks," people wanting attention by making up sightings, and copycat criminals. 

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Not just the US, I'm in the middle of England and we've had reports, including from the police in multiple UK cities, of people dressed as clowns filming cars/houses/people as well as people dressed as clowns attacking people with knives.

 

We've had odd stories of people dressed as clowns standing in weird places at night for years now, some stories are decades old, but it's this recent bandwagon is the first I've heard of anything getting stalker-ish or violent. I agree with the assumption that it's most likely young adults copycatting internet stories -- but that doesn't mean that people aren't getting hurt or that people shouldn't be cautious. 

 

I've also read stories of groups dressing as Vikings to go through some areas to try to...persuade the clowns to stop. I've no idea how true or effective that would be. 

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I have been reading about this for a while but it has only been popping up in our county the past week.

 

Honestly, it infuriates me. I don't understand people trying to terrify children and threatening to attack them in places they generally feel safe, like school. What kind of person does that?

 

It's so messed up.

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Is there any chance that this is just the media describing a new youth subculture? Kinda reminds me of the Juggalos of the late 90s.

No it's not that. It seems to have started basically as a prank saying that there were clowns seen trying to lure children in the woods. These reports were not real at all. It was just some teens presumably making false calls to the police. That spread through social media so other people all over the country started making the same false claims about clowns trying to lure children into the woods, when in fact this didn't happen. Then people decided to change the false reports to other odd things involving creepy clowns. Recently it seems it has escaladed to people ACTUALLY dressing up as clowns in order to scare people because of the hype behind the false clown sightings.

 

It is essentially a fascinating example of the spread of a myth that has morphed as more people hear it and talk about it. I fear it may reach a point where someone really tries to harm someone and not just try to scare them. Time will tell.

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I'm really worried about Halloween. Inevitably there are going to be a bunch of older kids dressed up as clowns going trick-or-treating because they think they're funny. Are people going to pull out shotguns and start blowing them away? This was a horrible time of year for something like this to get started. I'm glad dd doesn't have her heart set on going as a clown.

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I'm really worried about Halloween. Inevitably there are going to be a bunch of older kids dressed up as clowns going trick-or-treating because they think they're funny. Are people going to pull out shotguns and start blowing them away? This was a horrible time of year for something like this to get started. I'm glad dd doesn't have her heart set on going as a clown.

 

I've been thinking the same thing too. There is such a weird atmosphere about right now I'm considering just going to one of those community church fall festivals or something else instead rather than trick or treating. Maybe it's just me not being in the mood, but this Halloween is just making me uneasy. We have to drive to trick or treat anyway unless we want to hike down dark country roads from house to house, so might as well go somewhere that obnoxious teens are less likely to be. 

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I read something, last month I think, about the first clown sightings being a promo for some horror movie.  I don't know if that has been confirmed or not.  But then others have used this as a jumping off point for pranks and criminality. 

 

There's a reboot of It coming out, but from what I've seen it doesn't come out until later next year.

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I read something, last month I think, about the first clown sightings being a promo for some horror movie. I don't know if that has been confirmed or not. But then others have used this as a jumping off point for pranks and criminality.

I don't think it was a promo for the movie, which is a remake of Stephen King's It, but more of an inspiration for doing it. The main bad guy manifests as the fear of children, one thing being a clown. The clown tries to lure children to their deaths. Stephen King himself has on Twitter that " it is time cool the clown hysteria, most of em are good, cheer up the kiddies, and make people laugh." He has likened the hysteria to other urban legends like slenderman and some bunny thing I hadn't heard of before. The studio that is producing the remake has denied being any part of the hoax.

 

I tend to believe King is right that this is one of those social media things that blow up in popularity for a bit and go away just as quickly like slenderman. Which isn't to say it can't cause harm if someone takes to to a dangerous level.

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I don't think it was a promo for the movie, which is a remake of Stephen King's It, but more of an inspiration for doing it. The main bad guy manifests as the fear of children, one thing being a clown. The clown tries to lure children to their deaths. Stephen King himself has on Twitter that " it is time cool the clown hysteria, most of em are good, cheer up the kiddies, and make people laugh." He has likened the hysteria to other urban legends like slenderman and some bunny thing I hadn't heard of before. The studio that is producing the remake has denied being any part of the hoax.

 

I tend to believe King is right that this is one of those social media things that blow up in popularity for a bit and go away just as quickly like slenderman. Which isn't to say it can't cause harm if someone takes to to a dangerous level.

 

A couple of tweens tried to murder a classmate for Slender man.  http://www.newsweek.com/2014/08/22/girls-who-tried-kill-slender-man-264218.html

 

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Ronald is weird looking.

 

I can see what you are saying. Sometimes the make up and costuming looks dark and strange rather than fun and funny.

There was a science article around a while ago about why clowns are creepy to many people. Apparently a lot of it is the painted smile. People are awesome at reading facial expression etc and people are meant to smile but not all the time. When our brains see someone smiling constantly it tells is something isn't right and be on guard. Particularly when the eye expression doesn't match the smile.

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I've also read stories of groups dressing as Vikings to go through some areas to try to...persuade the clowns to stop. I've no idea how true or effective that would be. 

 

Because Vikings are the natural enemy of clowns?  This idea seems equally weird to me.  Then will people have to come out dressed as cats or something to get rid of the Vikings?  Where does it end??

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A couple of tweens tried to murder a classmate for Slender man. http://www.newsweek.com/2014/08/22/girls-who-tried-kill-slender-man-264218.html

 

Oh I know! My thought is it all started as a social media phenomenon with the quick morphing of this urban legend that really did eventually die out relatively quickly. Buy of course someone took it too far because they thought it was real. My dear is that this will get to that point as well, at least for one person if not more. I still only think it started as a joke though.

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I heard about one story where a few fightfighters got fired because they had one of the guys dress as a clown while the others took pictures and reported it as a sighting. I also heard about a local sheriff that spotted a clown and sent out a warning on social media to the clown.

 

I suspect a lot of the clown sightings are fake (people just claiming they saw one but lying) or people just dressing up and having their photo taken like the firefighters did.

 

I heard about a store robbed by a guy in a clown mask locally, but I couldn't find the story online so I don't know if that was a legit story.

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I'm really worried about Halloween. Inevitably there are going to be a bunch of older kids dressed up as clowns going trick-or-treating because they think they're funny. Are people going to pull out shotguns and start blowing them away? This was a horrible time of year for something like this to get started. I'm glad dd doesn't have her heart set on going as a clown.

I've been concerned about Halloween, too. I have been wondering if I should take dd (4) this year. It would terrify her if someone did decide to play a prank.

 

Also, this is not just a Halloween prank. It's been going on for months. Here's a link to a timeline of sightings. Warning: creepy clown pics.

 

http://abc7chicago.com/news/clowns-in-america-timeline-of-scares-and-sightings/1544319/#videoPlayer

Edited by MaeFlowers
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My boss just emailed me this link:

 

 

http://www.wideopenspaces.com/killer-clown-with-knife-harrasses-bow-hunter-all-caught-on-video/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily-10.8-bowhunt&utm_term=bowhunting

 

Basically, a hunter in a tree stand in WV is harassed by a clown. According to the article, the man calls the police and they come to escort him out of the woods. I think this has to be fake (there is a video too!), but this is the sort of thing that keeps getting shared and scaring people.

 

Also, my boss sent this to me because I live in WV (he doesn't). His way of teasing me.

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My boss just emailed me this link:

 

 

http://www.wideopenspaces.com/killer-clown-with-knife-harrasses-bow-hunter-all-caught-on-video/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily-10.8-bowhunt&utm_term=bowhunting

 

Basically, a hunter in a tree stand in WV is harassed by a clown. According to the article, the man calls the police and they come to escort him out of the woods. I think this has to be fake (there is a video too!), but this is the sort of thing that keeps getting shared and scaring people.

 

Also, my boss sent this to me because I live in WV (he doesn't). His way of teasing me.

 

If you're going to mess with someone---a hunter doesn't seem like a good target.  :confused1:

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