Halloween is fast approaching and we all know what that means: cat imitators, bunny wearers and overly done clowns are slowly coming out of the woodwork. Having said this, this by no means is the green light for the most recent craze to turn into the next big thing.
What began as a motive for humor around college campuses and friendly communities is now a reason for concern - a concern that has lost its original meaning for hilarity. For as long as I can remember, clowns were used for humor and for the pleasure of kid friendly birthday parties and now, based on the more recent events, I don’t think those same clowns are being used for any good to humankind. Coming from a girl that’s not a fan of the ultimate make believe, I’m just one more person that’s completely not on board with the craze that is #ClownSighting2016.
It all began in South Carolina when people were reporting the sighting of others dressed in clown garb, lurking in the woods and attempting to speak to children that happened to be passing by at the moment. The first to ever make a documented police report was a woman who was sure of these clowns making absurd noises in the woods behind her home. Once word broke out that clowns had made an appearance long before Halloween plans were even being talked about, it was unclear whether or not this was just a rare sighting that would blow over or if it would be a trend sticking around for a while. Many people’s reaction to the first sighting was a reasonable one: that people just couldn’t wait the allotted month to start the festivities that come hand in hand with the heavily anticipated holiday. After this, pranksters that refused to take this recent craze to heart, began mocking it. A not so clever guy in Kentucky decided it was okay to cause unnecessary hysteria by dressing up as a clown and hiding in the woods near his own home. Unlike the creepiness that is a clown sighting deep within the woods, people have begun making a mockery of clowns in everyday scenarios. A woman shopping in an Alabama Walmart called the authorities after seeing a clown staring at her from the parking lot. Schools around the East coast have been forced to close down for a day or two in precaution.
People are being arrested and extremely unsettled by the trend. Soon enough, it’ll come time that many people turn to do the most irrational thing and resorting to violence to reprimand the culprits in disguise that are these clowns. With people dressing up as clowns and striking fear in peoples lives, people who find it humorous to simply wear a clown mask just to get behind the joke of it all are getting harmed as well. A man wearing a costume clown mask stabbed a teenage boy to death. Honestly, why do we need to put innocent lives in danger when we can do the simple thing and just not pretend to be an overrated clown?
