Once
upon a time, clowns were benevolent figures of laughter and joy.
In
the late 1950s and early 1960s, American children followed the animated antics
of the Bozo the Clown on television hebdomadally . The cartoons were introduced
by local presenters made up because the carrot-topped Bozo. One was Willard
Scott, later to become weatherman with the NBC Today show. Willard Scott was
also the first-ever Ronald McDonald, making his debut appearance during a 1963
TV ad for the burger franchise.
Flash
forward ten years, to Cook County, Illinois (interestingly enough, the
situation of 1 of the primary McDonald's restaurants). a personality calling
himself Pogo the Clown may be a popular attraction at community events.
Meanwhile, young men keep going missing...
Underneath
the clown makeup and garments may be a psychopath named Wayne Gacy. In between
appearances as Pogo he strangles to death 34 victims. He doesn't wear the clown
outfit when he kills, but his alter-ego of Pogo forever shifts the image of the
clown in popular consciousness. Almost overnight, clowns become scary, with
Gacy paving the way for varied portrayals of bad clowns in literature and film,
most notably Stephen King's It.
King's
novel came call at 1986 and was an enormous seller. In 1990, his nightmare
creation, Pennywise the Clown, was delivered to the tiny screen during a
miniseries. Also in 1990, a Florida woman, Marlene Warren opened her front
entrance to a brown-eyed clown bearing flowers and balloons. The clown shot her
within the face and drove off during a white Chrysler. The clown's victim died
two days later. The killer, a woman, eluded capture for over 1 / 4 century, but
now she's serving time for murder.
The
nineties and noughties saw chilling portrayals of The Joker, the green-haired
prankster within the Batman franchise, by the likes of Jack Nicholson and Heath
Ledger. Plus we met Krusty, the degenerate clown within the Simpsons.
But
it wasn't until 2016 that Caulrophobia - the fear of clowns - reached truly
excitement . within the latter a part of that year, the planet was gripped by a
wave of 'scary clown' sightings. within the lead-up to Halloween, social media
sites received numerous postings about sinister-looking clowns who were
reported lurking first in forests, then during a host of urban locations within
the US, UK, Australia and variety of other countries. It got so bad that the
president of the planet Clown Association, Randy Christensen took to YouTube to
condemn people dressing up as clowns to frighten people. "Whoever is doing
this crazy stuff isn't a clown," stated Christensen, a Minnesota-based
party clown. "This is someone who is employing a good, clean, wholesome kind
and distorting it.' Christensen added that members of his association had
suffered job cancellations and felt under threat following coverage of scary
clown sightings.
It
all got an excessive amount of for McDonald's. On October 11, 2016 the burger
giant announced that its mascot would be keeping a lower profile as a results
of the incidents. A spokesman said the hamburger clown was curtailing on
appearances at community events as a results of the "current climate
around clown sightings in communities."
There
was a kneejerk reaction from other corporate entities like Target, which took
clown masks from its website and stores. Schools as far apart as Ohio, USA, and
Otago, New Zealand, banned clown outfits and masks.
Cut
forward to Halloween night, Monday October 31, 2016. Caulrophobia had taken
such a terrifying hold within the us that enormous numbers of both householders
and therefore the parents of trick or treaters had firearms at the ready that
night.
Fearing
vigilante retribution, most clowns kept a coffee profile that witches' eve. Not
so in Orange County, Florida, where two men needed medical treatment after
being attacked by a gaggle of 20 people in clown masks. But aside from that,
Halloween night 2016 seems to possess been a touch of a fizzer within the scary
clown department, given all the hype leading up thereto .
Flashing
forward now to May 2017. A bald, bespectacled man fronts a court in Nova
Scotia, Canada. he's Dale Raincourt, aka Klutzy the Clown. He pleads guilty to
the sexual abuse of a 15-year-old girl over a six week period. The judge jails
him for 2 years and bans him from ever working as a children's entertainer
again. Another nail within the coffin for real clowns trying to earn an honest
living.
Then
within the fall of 2017 came the large budget cinema production of It.
Pennywise was back, scarier than ever! The film proceeded to try to to very
brisk business indeed at the box office, with the most important attendances
ever for a September-October release.
So
where does that leave the benevolent, child-friendly clown of yesteryear? Well,
tons of them have hung up their clown outfits and wigs permanently . Others
have strategically re-aligned themselves within the marketplace, promoting
themselves as "balloon artists" and avoiding all use of the
"c" word.
And
poor old Ronald McDonald has been put bent pasture in most parts of the planet
. On a recent trip to Thailand, I did encounter his life sized effigy outside a
McDonald's in Bangkok. He had his palms pressed together during a
"wei" greeting. Alternatively, he may need been praying, appealing
for divine intervention because the clown joins the ranks of vampires, zombies
and other denizens of our worst nightmares.
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