When Will the Clown Sightings Start Again

Story highlights

• Clowns are cryptic characters who charm and unnerve us
• There are some rational explanations for this irrational fad

(CNN)It merely had to be clowns, didn't it? We couldn't indulge in some adept old-fashioned nationwide panic most, say, zombies or sexy teenage vampires. Nope, it had to be clowns and information technology had to be mere weeks earlier Halloween.

Thanks, America. This is just groovy.

Unless y'all've been hiding under a rainbow novelty wig, you know communities around the land have been perturbed by sightings of clowns or possible clown-related threats or any manner of creepiness ranging from apartment-out hoaxes to bodily credible events.

It's and so weird, even Stephen King wants people to chill.

When the dad of "It" wags a finger at this nonsense, you lot know it's serious. Only nevertheless, we need an explanation for why, of a sudden, there are clowns running amok in our neighborhoods and imaginations. Six (by and large) legitimate possibilities:

one. It'southward folklore with a modern twist

Benjamin Radford is a folklorist and the writer of the non-fiction book "Bad Clowns," so he's definitely someone you'd want to call with any clown-related concerns. He says the electric current fad nosotros're indelible is nothing new, and like waves of stories and hysteria have happened earlier.

"In the 1980s, there were these 'phantom' clown reports," he says. "There were stories out of Massachusetts of schoolchildren saying they were chased or lured past clowns, and parents and teachers took it seriously."

If that sounds familiar, information technology's because the pattern closely resembles i of the outset clown encounters that tipped off this latest fascination: In August, kids in an apartment complex in Greenville, Due south Carolina, reported seeing clowns in the forest, trying to lure them into the darkness.

In the '80s, like now, the stories defenseless on, fifty-fifty though they remained unsubstantiated.

"Many of those reports were hoaxes, some were pranks, and some were schoolyard rumors, but the stories continued, in Chicago, Baltimore, and fifty-fifty in the UK."

In other words, in that location's a "snowball upshot," Radford says, where rumor and legitimate concern mix with our man penchant for a good story.

Since the events in Greenville, clown sightings accept been reported in several states, and some people have really been arrested for scaring people in costume, making clown-related threats, and one time, chasing kids with a baseball game bat while wearing a clown costume.

These pranksters and trolls simply serve to strengthen a pretty pervasive myth.

two. Information technology'southward viral marketing

Think most it. Information technology makes sense. Here were are, all talking near clowns. Is someone capitalizing on the fascination?

It wouldn't be unheard of. Radford says creepy clown imagery has been used in viral marketing before, and the whole signal of stunts like that is to get people talking.

In fact, one creepy clown video from Agawam, Massachusetts, has already been revealed to be a viral marketing stunt for a local haunted house. Then fifty-fifty if this whole clown thing didn't start off as a marketing ploy, it's certainly created some fertile ground.

It's as well hard to ignore the fact that, you know, there's a remake of the archetype horror story "It" coming out side by side year. While it seems like perfect timing, the movie's makers aren't toying with your delicate emotions just to get you in the theaters. A Warner Brothers spokesman told CNN there is "absolutely no connection" between the film and recent clown sightings.

3. It'south an expression of human anxiety

Clowns are a source of childlike amusement, but they can also be scary and weird. Life is also scary and weird. It's not a coincidence. Perhaps clowns are like specters of anxiety and discomfort, bogeymen that personify our deepest fears.

"These sorts of panics tend to surface when in that location's underlying social feet," Radford says. "This is an ballot year, at that place's lots of political and ideological divisions, there'due south also of form [the awareness of] school shootings and terrorist attacks." That terminal part explains the kernel of concern from parents and police force enforcement. Even IF well-nigh of these sightings and incidents are overblown, why chance?

Radford says the clown sightings of the 1980s came at a like time -- 1 of cultural upheaval. "At that place was the satanic panic, the hysteria over Dungeons and Dragons, and sensationalized media reports of Satanists trying to abduct children," he says.

It'southward a unlike world today, but underlying patterns are the same.

"These reports get circulated, often sensationalized, there's a smattering of rumors and urban legends, and then there's some idiot who actually dresses up, so before you know it there'southward lockdowns and arrests," he says.

4. It's a social media fad

If you want to creep yourself out, ringlet through ane of the several recently-created "clown sighting" Twitter accounts. They're full of horror-pic-quality clown videos, ostensibly documenting clown encounters in the wild. (FYI, the video below has some potent language).

Among the sightings -- real or not -- the hashtag #IfISeeAClown took off to predictably hilarious results. Obviously, if we're going to become all upset about clowns, social media users are going to find a way to greenbacks in.

"The scary clown image is perfect for social media. Information technology is custom-fabricated to become viral," Radford says. "You have something that is both scary and funny. It's this combination of horror and humor, laughter and fears."

Information technology's all office of the folklore tradition, but instead of sharing around fires and whispered bedtime conversations like we used to, we re-tweet and post about it, embellishing and adding additional touches along the way.

"It's called ostentation," Radford says. "The thought that you lot are enacting a legend. People see this scary clown narrative happening on the news, and they're like, 'Hey I want to be a office of this!'"

v. It's an alternate reality game

Practice you call back Slenderman, the creepy internet grapheme that figured into a brutal teenage stabbing case in 2014?

To some people, Slenderman was part of what is chosen an "alternate reality game." No, not like Pokemon Become, which is an "augmented" reality game -- think of them more like puzzles and interactive narratives that supposedly take place in the real earth and are told over various platforms. Information technology's a souped-up version of a myth, and office of the fun of an ARG is immersing yourself in the make-believe of it all.

Sound familiar?

There'due south no difficult prove to advise this clown fad is actually function of an official or organized alternating reality game, but given the way it's spread and documented online, it'southward not difficult to imagine the spirit of ARGs has infused some of the storytelling. Imagine this situation: Someone dresses up like a clown or leaves a clown antiquity effectually for someone else to observe and certificate.

6. It's not always simply make believe

Hey, the easiest explanation is that there really are a bunch of creepy clowns out at that place hell-aptitude on some nefarious end. Call information technology Occam's Prophylactic Olfactory organ.

But if you really want to take it seriously, the recent spate of creepy clown news is disturbing precisely considering it'south hard to tell where myth ends and reality begins -- we know, intellectually, that information technology's mostly a agglomeration of hogwash, simply then someone gets arrested for making violent clown threats and we kickoff to question it all.

"Rumors can have consequences," Radford says. "This isn't just fun. People are scared, there have been cases where people have become violent [Editor'south annotation: Or shot at other people, out of fear ]. I remember the important thing for the public to realize is underneath all of these sensationalized headlines, there isn't whatsoever original threat. The real threat is overreaction to the story, non the clowns themselves."

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Source: https://www.cnn.com/2016/10/05/health/creepy-clowns-rumors-trnd/index.html