Prof. Amanda Hallay looks at the current "Creepy Clown" phenomenon and its impact on Halloween retail.
2016: Just when we thought that things couldn’t possibly get any weirder (and is there anything weirder than this Presidential Election?), America finds itself in the terrifying sway of (yup) Creepy Clowns.
And I am not even going to hazard a guess, except to say that the reason we’re seeing so many copy cat Creepy Clowns (and how’s that for alliteration?) is that it is easy to become a Creepy Clown. We’re not talking about a slew of 20 foot animatronic aliens scaring the suburbs; that would take a lot of skill and an awful lot of money to pull off. Yet anyone can mock up a clown costume with a quick trip to CVS and a cheap Halloween costume, and one suspects that many of the unidentified Creepy Clowns are just teenagers out on a prank.
Quite rightly, I say. While most of the Creepy Clown sightings are clearly benign, the fact is that you don’t have to suffer from coulrophobia (irrational fear of clowns) to be frightened by them. So it isn’t very heartening that USA Today reports that the sale of Creepy Clown costumes are up 300% in the lead up to Halloween!
Or when "The Walking Dead" was at its height, and suburban streets were filled with zombies on October 31st? It follows that the Creepy Clown phenom’ was sure to be a Trick or Treating favorite. It checks all the boxes: it’s scary (and Halloween is supposed to be scary, right?), but moreover, it pays ironic homage to the latest social media phenomenon. The wearer of the Creepy Clown costume is saying; "I’m hip to what’s happening; I get the joke."
But is this joke actually funny? I think not. At worst, these Creepy Clowns are dangerous, and at best, they are simply mean-spirited. Why would we want to imitate them and add to the current climate of fear?
Well, according to sales figures, we do.