In the era of self-driving cars and headphone jack-less iPhone, it is creepy clowns that are haunting Americans. No, this is not something that came straight out from another Hollywood dark comedy movie.
Since it began in South Carolina around late August, clown sightings has been reported from at least twenty-three states. Local districts have locked and closed schools, as is the case in Ohio and Alabama. Police departments are flooded with calls from eyewitnesses who saw the clowns wandering around their neighborhood; at least twelve arrests has been made. In Mississippi, a machete-holding clown escaped after being chased by cop car. A teenager in Pennsylvania died after being stabbed by a knife-wielding clown. One could easily dismiss it as just another silly millennial prank, but for many people, it is certainly no longer a laughing matter.
But one question lingers on: what is behind this nationwide panic of wandering clowns?
American fear of clowns were, surprisingly, a new phenomenon. In the early era of television, clowns were portrayed in a distinctively entertaining light. Baby Boomer generation grew with friendly-looking clowns like Clarabell the Clown (Howdy Doody’s loyal companion), Bozo the Clown, and even Ronald McDonald.
But it quickly faded away in 1970s. It was the era of one of the most prolific serial killer in modern American history, John Wayne Gacy Jr. infamously dubbed “Killer Clown” for his habit of dressing as a clown named Pogo; he abducted, abused, and murdered 33 male teenagers in Cook County, Illinois from 1972 to 1978. “Clowns can get away from murder” was his mantra. Despite being never known to commit the murder behind his masked face (and have been condemned to death by lethal injection in 1994), Gacy changed how Americans view the clowns.
Suddenly, clowns became creepy, gut-wrenching creatures. In 1986, Stephen King’s horror novel It was published, featuring Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Movies like Poltergeist and Clownhouse flooded movie theaters. Popular television franchises feature them prominently, like The Robot Clowns from Doctor Who, Twisty the Killer Clown from American Horror Story, even Bart Simpson’s freaky clown bed. Music groups adopted the trend: you might remember Shawn “Clown” Crahan from heavy metal band Slipknot or hip hop duo Insane Clown Posse. Even video games: remember Kefka Palazzo from Final Fantasy VI?
And by that, the fate of American clowns are sealed. According to 2015 Survey on American Fears conducted by Chapman University, 6.8% of Americans listed clown and clown-like figure as their major fear. To put this in perspective, zombies are feared by 8.5%, while satirical ridicules haunted 10.6% other. Since zombies are non-existent (at least until Elon Musk arrived in Mars) and Jon Stewart now retired, I wonder why clowns did not get much higher rank.
Once an entertaining figure, clowns now ended up in a dark, sinister light. Their sighting around the country only proved the point: clowns are just another example of how pop culture could easily influence the way we view something. It is still, and probably will still be a major influence on our everyday life. Ronald McDonald can enjoy his peaceful retirement, at least for now.
An edited version of this column appeared in the 28 October 2016 edition of LN North Star, the student newspaper of Lawrence North High School, Indianapolis.
