Clown Conundrum: Crazed Carnies or Just Clownin’ Around?

By: Arianna Grewal

     Most students have probably heard about the clown sightings happening across the country. Scary clowns have seemed to be making appearances as far back as the 1980s, however, the first recent clown sighting happened in August.  In South Carolina, a woman filed a report with police saying her son had “seen clowns in the woods whispering and making strange noises.” Since this incident, clown sightings have been on the rise, certainly because of copycats with a bad sense of humor. So should people fear these “dangerous” clowns or is it simply some sick joke?  In Ocean county, New Jersey, two girls (14 and 12 years old) are facing charges for making up a clown hoax, a false public alarm. This just shows how social media makes it easy to spread misinformation or simply create a false story.  As a matter of fact, most of these sightings have been revealed as pranks.  According to the New York Times, at least 12 people in the last week have been arrested for clown hoaxes.

     This is not to say that every clown sighting is a hoax. Two 18 year old women were arrested in Roseville after dressing up as clowns and chasing two teenagers girls.  The two adults, Jaime Salinis and Elandra Sledge, stopped their car in front of the two 14 year olds. The women then exited the car before proceeding to chase the young girls down the street. These scary clowns, if not hoaxes, are bad pranksters not mass murderers. They have nothing better to do with their time. They think it is funny to chase somebody down a street or creepily wave at them in a Walmart parking lot.  That is not to say the act of terrorizing young teenagers should be taken lightly, and for that, there should be a price to pay, however, most of these clown “sightings” seem to be hoaxes.  If they are real, nobody seems to get hurt, except for the clowns that is.  In Pennsylvania, a teenager was reportedly stabbed to death after wearing a clown mask.  The report makes clear that the mask was not on his face but on top of his head. 

     People, in general, are known for spreading mass hysteria and social media doesn’t help the matter.  It is part of the human condition; f we hear about some creepy clown approaching people with knives, we tend to get scared.  And when people get scared, people get paranoid.  So when they hear more clown “sighting” stories whether credible or not, their fear makes them more inclined to believe them. Stories get out of hand and exaggerated, similarly to when people believed Dungeons & Dragons encouraged Satanism.  But people have to stop for a second and think about how ridiculous this entire thing is.

     While it is important to be aware of our surroundings as well as be cautious, citizens should not be afraid of the clowns.  According to theverge.com, band member of J-WEBB said, “So there ARE no "killer clowns"--it's just jacka***s being jacka***s. So everyone relax!” This clown phenomenon is simply a trend, one person started it, so now other people copied.  And like many other trends; once people stop talking about it, the trend will fade. These scary clowns are tricksters, and once people stop fearing it and giving it the attention it feeds on, this clown conundrum will surely blow over.