Do you remember when everywhere you turned you heard about clown sightings? In August 2016 there were worldwide reports of people dressed as scary clowns just standing outside of schools, woods, and other public places.
In early August 2016, the clown phenomenon began in Green Bay, Wisconsin and according to The New York Times, reports began to surface of clown sightings in Greenville County, South Carolina in late August. In Greenville County, it was rumored that clowns were attempting to lure children into the woods with money or loitering around. Similarly, a clown was sighted in Winston-Salem, North Carolina offering treats to children; the clown fled when police arrived. Five pictures of a creepy clown roaming a vacant parking lot under a bridge in Downtown Green Bay at night started going viral on 1 August 2016.
A Facebook page was created shortly after, claiming that the clown was named “Gags”. In the days that followed, the pictures were discussed on numerous news outlets including Fox News, and USA Today. Suspicions of the character being related to a horror film were confirmed when a Wisconsin filmmaker announced the pictures were a marketing stunt for a then-unreleased short film titled Gags. A feature film was produced based on the short film and premiered in 2018, with the film having a limited theatre run and released on VOD platforms in September 2019.
Every news story on the television was about new sights. At first the clowns would just stand awkwardly in scary masks. It really made people wonder if it was just a silly harmless joke, or a serious incident. This ‘’trend’’ came out the blue and it wasn’t until some clowns started committing crimes and trying to lure young kids into woods that it was taken seriously. Police immediately took serious measures and questioned and arrested killer clowns on the street. I personally remember exactly where I was when first hearing about it. Several New Zealand shops withdrew clown costumes from their shelves.
In the United States, the East Side Union High School District, the West Milford School District, Ohio school district, and Springboro Community Schools issued a blanket ban on all clown costumes and clown masks in addition to previously existing policies and restrictions. Target pulled clown masks from its website and stores as a result of the scare, as did Canadian Tire. The village of Memramcook, New Brunswick asked residents not to dress up as clowns on Halloween. Employees of theme parks were instructed to remove any horror costumes and make-up before leaving work.
Nowadays you rarely see anyone talk about this anymore, but I remember this being so silly until serious precaution was made against these clowns. This was an odd encounter to be alive during.
