- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
- Click here to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
- Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)
(CNN in Spanish) - In the summer of 2016, people saw that clowns in South Carolina were trying to attract children from an apartment complex into a forest; then, in October, in Texas and West Virginia, they arrested some clowns chasing strangers with baseball bats and bats; In Ohio, Phoenix and Kentucky, clowns stole service stations and restaurants from Taco Bell and Domino's. Even a clown carrying a knife was shot by a man in Los Angeles. The trend was replicated even in the United Kingdom days later.
Clown sightings were not only seen in the United States, some were registered in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Many media outlets covered the phenomenon, the White House press secretary of the Obama administration, Josh Earnest, was questioned on the issue - "I don't know if the president has been informed about this particular situation," he said - the writer Stephen King - creator of the dark "It" - invited "down to the hysteria of the clowns" in a tweet and even Wikipedia has the historical account of the fact: "2016 clown sightings" (Clown sightings in 2016). The situation reached the point where the Target retail store withdrew certain clown masks from the market - one of the classic Halloween costumes - "given the current environment," the statement said.
LOOK: 'Joker' hits theaters amid controversy and increased security
What was happening in 2016? Why did the inhabitants of several cities in the United States begin to see people dressed as sinister clowns in the streets, standing alone, in the middle of the night?
"It's a snowball effect," Benjamin Radford, author of the book Bad Clown said in CNN in 2016 - no kidding, look here - and talks about similar phenomena in the 1980s and how South Carolina clowns who They sought to attract children to the forest, perhaps they were the ones that triggered the rest of clown appearances in 2016. These sightings are, in short, “where rumor and legitimate concern are mixed with our human inclination for a good story,” wrote AJ Willingham for CNN.
But Radford also explored the possibility in 2016 that the phenomenon could come from someone's search for a viral photo on social networks, and even a marketing strategy, as happened in Massachusetts, that used a scary clown as a trick of Viral marketing for a local haunted house.
READ: The FBI asks the police to be alert during the premiere of the movie "Joker"
However, there is something deeper in this: coulrophobia, phobia or irrational fear of clowns, showed a prevalence of 43% of respondents in a 2014 Rasmussen Reports survey conducted in 1,000 American adults. So those who took to the streets disguised as clowns knew that they were playing with deep and rooted fear, that psychologist Linda Papadopoulos traced back centuries ago in a CNN article in 2016: “They are supposed to be fun, playful and remember the innocence of childhood. But already in the 16th century, Shakespeare's jesters were often associated with death and darkness. ”
New fears for clowns
And from Shakespeare to the last role of actor Joaquin Phoenix there is only one step. This October, the concern for clowns returned: a chain of theaters banned all costumes during the screening of the movie "Joker" (Joker) - "masks, painted faces or costumes will not be allowed in our theaters -" because "many they remember what happened in 2012 in Colorado during a midnight screening of 'The Dark Knight Rises' in which there was mass shooting, ”CNN reported. Recall that "The Dark Knight Rises" was the second installment of the Batman trilogy of director Christopher Nolan, and in it the late actor Heath Ledger played "Joker."
LOOK: Why do clowns like The Joker and Pennywise from 'It Chapter 2' give us the chills?
The Los Angeles Police Department announced that agents will have "high visibility" in theaters during the screening of "Joker" and the US Army. He sent a memo in Oklahoma that talks about a possible violent threat during the movie's premiere.
Why do we fear clowns?
How does a character who makes children laugh at children's parties and circuses end up causing fear and is associated, even, with shootings and threats? Frank T. McAndrew, a professor of psychology at Cornelia H. Dudley at Knox College in Illinois, wrote in The Conversation an article entitled "Why do clowns like Pennywise from 'IT Chapter 2' give us the chills?", In which He talks about a study in which he worked: in a survey of 1,341 volunteers, aged 18 to 77, to complete an online survey in which they asked to rate how creepy certain traits were. "When we asked people to rate the creepy of different occupations, the one that reached the top of the creepy list was, they guessed it, clowns," McAndrew wrote.
READ: Joaquin Phoenix dazzles in the official 'Joker' trailer
McAndrew, furthermore, has the theory that "'getting scared' is a response to the ambiguity of the threat and that it gives us chills only when we face uncertainty about the threat." And what can be more ambivalent than a clown? “The clowns hide behind the masks, preventing us from seeing what they are feeling, thinking or even guessing their true emotions. A mask not only hides the appearance, hides the intention, and when we are not sure of the person's intention in front of us, it scares us, ”Papadopoulos wrote in 2016.
"People who interact with a clown during one of their routines never know if they are about to receive a cake on their faces or if they will be victims of some other humiliating joke," says McAndrew, something that coincides - chillingly - with something which caught the attention of “Joker” to CNN journalist Brian Lowry: “When the movie starts, Arthur is working as a part-time clown and is immediately beaten brutally. 'Is it me or outside is everything getting crazier?' He asks a social worker. ”
Clowns "are human enough to be recognizable, but far enough away from normal to be strangers and strangers," concludes Papadopoulos.
HalloweenITJoaquin PhoenixJokerClownsDiabolic Clowns