Hooooo boy.
The world still appears to be disintegrating beneath the full weight of a scourge of global ‘clown attacks’ AKA ‘total dickheads claiming assault, stalking and intimidation are “pranks” just because they’re in a costume’.
While all this seems to be incredibly fun and definitely not at all ridiculous or fucked, it’s also seemingly having a bit of a negative roll-on effect towards the global clown community.
Just yesterday, a professional clown community in Queensland spoke to the ABC about the “silly” craze, saying it’s been a huge detriment to their livelihoods.
And now, the reigning King of the clowns (we assume) has been temporarily stepped down from his post: Ronald McDonald.
McDonald’s Corp. has made a statement saying they are “being thoughtful thoughtful in respect to Ronald McDonald’s participation in community events” as a result of the “current climate around clown sightings in communities”.
McDonald’s says due to issues with clown hoaxes, franchises are “being thoughtful” with Ronald McDonald appearances “for the time being.”
— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) October 11, 2016
Reports say that the reason behind this may be the video that emerged in the UK recently, of a man dressed up as a terrifying version of the fast food clown and creepily staring into the window of a Maccas restaurant in Ewood, Blackburn.
Many believe the current ‘clown craze’ started out as a marketing stunt for the rebooted movie of Stephen King‘s iconic novel ‘IT’. And look, if that is the case, then some marketing agency lost control of their campaign a looooooooooooong time ago.
King himself tweeted about the furore, telling those involved to chill:
Hey, guys, time to cool the clown hysteria–most of em are good, cheer up the kiddies, make people laugh.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 3, 2016
So yeah… chill. Otherwise Ronald, the most well-known clown of all, will be out of a job.
Source: NBC Nightly News.
Photo: “Ronald”, The Guardian.
