What started in August as reports of storybookĀ clownsĀ āluring children into the woodsā has grown into a national ouroboros of clown-induced mania. Both real and fake clowns of increasing creepiness have been making headlinesāand headlines have been making more clowns.
āThe number of people searching for āclown sightingsā on Google has spiked in the past several weeks, from no searches in late August to dozens each day by the start of October,ā Mashable reports.Ā As clown panic grips the country, it becomes difficult to distinguish terrorizing clowns from professional ones. In a viral marketing campaign for the short horror film Gags, a clown spent nights in Green Bay, Wisconsin, standing alone,Ā holding black balloons and waving silently and menacingly at passersby. In a video viewed more than 175,000 times (and largely decried as fake), a clown chases joggers through the woods. Culprits behind recent national headlines include criminals harassing communities in clownface, professional actors paid to capitalize on clown fear, and shit-stirring pranksters.
This ambiguity between joy/terror and pleasure/pain is as old as time, and this blend of opposites manifests today through modern clowns influenced by Joseph Grimaldi. āThe first recognizable ancestor of the modern clown,ā according to Smithsonian, Grimaldi died alone, a penniless alcoholic in 1837. A young Charles Dickens was charged with editing the clownās memoirsāwhich were anything but comedicāand he made the already grim narrative even more Dickensian: āFor every laugh he wrought from his audiences, Grimaldi suffered commensurate pain.ā
For every laugh he wrought from his audiences,Ā GrimaldiĀ suffered commensurate pain.
Clowns have long possessed a sinister undertone; as Smithsonian notes, āThese were characters who reflected a funhouse mirror back on society; academics note that their comedy was often derived from their voracious appetites for food, sex, and drink, and their manic behavior.ā David Kiser, director of talent for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, told the magazine, āThe clown has always been an impish spiritā¦ as heās kind of grown up, heās always been about fun, but part of that fun has been a bit of mischief.ā
Mischief can function as freedom when suspended by questions: Is this act joyful or harmful? Are we laughing at the clown, or at ourselves?
Criminals have capitalized on this confusion: āKiller Clownā John Wayne Gacy worked under the name Pogo while sexually assaulting and killing more than 35 young men in the Chicago area between 1972 and 1978. āYou knowā¦ clowns can get away with murder,ā he told investigating officers before his arrest, according to Smithsonian.
The modern clown-villain archetype birthed from an exaggerated Grimaldian clown has pushed boundaries and blurred lines between pain and performance for centuries. In the 1892 Italian opera Pagliacci (Clowns), the main character is a cuckolded clown who murders his cheating wife on stage during a performance. This narrative continues today, most notably with American Horror Story character Twisty the clown: Although he is terrifying, audience members and victims let Twisty approach them out of morbid curiosity.
I'm so done with these clowns bc every time someone brings them up all I can think of is Twisty the Clown and I just can't do it man pic.twitter.com/IQwEgIv1Ti
Todayās headlining clown incidents are similarly muddy and prove that humans desire fear and excitement, and reify the power of their unnamable combination.
Is this act joyful or harmful? Are we laughing at the clown, or at ourselves?
Mashable reported that in Kentucky, 20-year-old Jonathan Martin was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for dressing like a clown and hiding in the woods. In Virginia, two teenagers were arrested after wearing clown masks and chasing children. In Alabama, four teensĀ were charged with making āterroristic threatsā from social media accounts under clown pseudonyms. In response to growing reports of criminal clowns, there have been āclown-huntingā events, and one TexasĀ police officer even urged people to āpop a cap in the first clown you see.ā
While the nation is gripped by multiplying accounts of real and fake clown terror, audiences hate clowns but love succumbing to the fear-machine. This culminated in Pennsylvania, when a 16-year-old wearing a clown mask was stabbed to death by a 29-year-old man.
Caught in the crossfire of criminals and trouble-makers are career clowns, who love their craft and are trying to make a living by giving audiences what they want (and fear).
Jordan Jones, a 22-year-old from Pennsylvania who works as Snuggles the Clown at Screamland Farms in Frederick, Marylandā, tells Complex that heās had a passion for theatricality and clown-related characters since he was 13. āMy daily job is to entertain people, to scare people," he says. "Itās what Iām paid to do, and Iām very dedicated to it.āĀ
Snuggles the Clown "really took off about three or four years ago," Jones says. He used to work at a local "haunted mill" in Pennsylvania, but has moved on to "bigger things" at Screamland Farms, one of Maryland's "biggest haunts."Ā
āWhen itās time to act, Iām a scary clown but also Iām a funny clown. I entertain people when they come through the hay ride,ā he says. āIām not one of those āIāll kill youā clowns, Iām more of an āI laugh with you, you laugh with meā clowns. And Iām also a silly clown and I have fun with it. When Iām not acting, Iām still a clown. I love laughing and I love having fun.ā
Jones says he created the #ClownLivesMatter hashtag and āmovementā a few months ago after he first saw threats against clowns, but itās only recently gained popularity.
āThis has nothing to do at all with Black Lives Matter because I respect their protests and they have a good meaning,ā he explains. āIām in my own category, standing up for professional actors all around the world so we donāt get profiled. So I thought: Let me start something.ā
People reallyĀ want toĀ kill clowns. They threaten me all the time.
While he may not understand that the "X lives matter" phrase doesn't exist in a political vacuum, he invoked the words in an attempt to make his cause more serious. Jones is frustrated that pranksters are making clown mania worse by trying to make it funny. He says he encountered a group of teenagers posing as Snuggles the Clown on Facebook, but decided to reach out to them rather than report the page. Jones warned the teens that posing as a clown may put them in danger, and discouraged them from posting anything that āwasnāt positive.ā
āThey think itās a joke, but itās not a joke. People want to hurt them,ā Jones says, adding, āPeople really want to kill [clowns]. They threaten me all the time.ā
Increasing reports of clown-panic and clown-hater-panic have left Jones and other professional clowns vulnerableābut is that the way we want it? Clowns were created to reflect and make light of pain and danger; like Grimaldi before him, Jones is isolated by the people while we cheer for more. āMy family fears for my life,ā he says. On the other hand, business is booming.
āItās going to be packed at work this weekend,ā Jones says. āIām not going to stop this, Iām going to continue entertaining people. This is what I do, I love it.ā