Can't sleep, clowns will eat me!

[Remus]

It's October again and news outlets are ripe with the latest horror craze. Yes, they're back, the clowns are on the march!
NBC News Reports
CBS News Reports

Now, my niece, who is an expert on all things clown related, assures me that these clown sightings have led to some murders. If they have, that's sad and people take these pranks entirely too seriously. If not, this has been the best viral campaign ever for the new IT remake. So I was debating what to dress up as this Halloween but after all this mischief, how can I not be a clown?

Spoiler

 

[Metalix Knightmare]

I honestly just feel sorry for legitimate clowns at this point. They took the job to make people laugh at their silly antics, but because of the face paint they freak out some people and others go on to make them into horror villains, and now this happens.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Lol. Ain't clowns you gotta worry about laddo...well, not in physical terms, the psychological damage is a whole other story however. Now, furry woodland creatures with big claws and load roars...not a thing to leave your kids around.
Ahh, media and fear. If only more of the public could utilise critical thinking.
Now come a little closer, you have something incredibly tasty on your face.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I guess its meme time? Punks in clown costumes hanging out in a cemetery.

I mean for fucks sake, can you get any cheesier or cliche?! Why not have your little sister paint her face white, wet her hair, and wear a dirty white dress while standing very still in hallways to creep people out?!

OH WAIT!

Its like we're all supposed to be in junior high again and still think the Ring is scary.

 

[Remus]

snip

Your real name must be Chad, or is it Chip? Cuz brah you're too cool for school!

Have respect for each other

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but no one is entitled to attack others for that opinion. If you can't communicate without using combative, aggressive, or passive aggressive responses, then consider that these may not be the forums for you. Focus your response on your disagreement with a person's opinion, not on the person.

As it pertains to discussion, disagreement is unavoidable. However, this is not a license to misbehave - you must provide reasoning and justification for your statements. If you don't like a thread, the people in it, or anyone involved, don't post in it.

Simple rule to follow right? I did not start this thread simply to post a common meme that's been a thing since long before Stephen King wrote about it. This has become a reason for random idiots to scare people for no other reason than "It's Fall and I'm bored". Whatever the intent, I find it sad and a little funny. Some pranks are just that way. It is for this reason that I do not have an active facebook account - people take this website too seriously and rumors can be easily accepted as fact, which can lead to mimics nation or even worldwide. I think this is worthy of discussion as it had made the evening news. If you do not, simply cease and desist.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP

...you truly believe those are ghost clowns that are going to get you in your sleep, do you? Or that an army of clown cultists are on the march to eat you alive and you can't sleep at night?

No hyperbole, no clickbait title, no joke, you truly fear these monstrous daemonic clowns are going to eat you? That's your opinion? That's what you want people to take seriously? You are, literally, scared for your life from the killer clowns? These are murderous clowns?

Seriously? Seriously?!

 

[tippy2k2]

Honestly, I'm shocked that we haven't seen a clown get filled with bullets as it scares the piss out of the wrong person. I suppose most of the stories I've seen on these clowns has been that they just linger in the background being creepy rather than directly confronting anyone but it feels like eventually, one of these clowns (in more ways than one) will decide that they're not scaring people enough and will try to be a bit more direct in their tactics.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

SNIP

...you truly believe those are ghost clowns that are going to get you in your sleep, do you? Or that an army of clown cultists are on the march to eat you alive and you can't sleep at night?

No hyperbole, no clickbait title, no joke, you truly fear these monstrous daemonic clowns are going to eat you? That's your opinion? That's what you want people to take seriously? You are, literally, scared for your life from the killer clowns? These are murderous clowns?

Seriously? Seriously?!

I...think you may have taken the OP a little too seriously with the initial post. Could be wrong here, but it appeared lighthearted in tone. Not legitimate fears.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP

...you truly believe those are ghost clowns that are going to get you in your sleep, do you? Or that an army of clown cultists are on the march to eat you alive and you can't sleep at night?

No hyperbole, no clickbait title, no joke, you truly fear these monstrous daemonic clowns are going to eat you? That's your opinion? That's what you want people to take seriously? You are, literally, scared for your life from the killer clowns? These are murderous clowns?

Seriously? Seriously?!

I...think you may have taken the OP a little too seriously with the initial post. Could be wrong here, but it appeared lighthearted in tone. Not legitimate fears.

See I would agree, but he got all pissy at me for not taking his opinion seriously. Now if he's just reporting news, fair enough my bad, but then there's no opinion offered, and my post about the clowns being try-hard spoopy dudes is totally legit.
The only opinion offered, and one we must respect apparently, is that he's truly scared of these clowns, they are going to eat him and he can't sleep. Oh, and that his niece says the clowns murdered people. Which isn't an opinion. Its either a fact, or untrue.

So I'm sorta' at a loss. I guess we're not supposed to take it seriously, but OP is dead serious?

 

[CrazyGirl17]

I honestly just feel sorry for legitimate clowns at this point. They took the job to make people laugh at their silly antics, but because of the face paint they freak out some people and others go on to make them into horror villains, and now this happens.

Agreed. I think that clowns (and to a degree mimes), get a bad rap from way too many scary clown stories, and now these a-holes... though is it wrong for me to expect one of the "scary clowns" to end up getting shot?

 

[Remus]

I honestly just feel sorry for legitimate clowns at this point. They took the job to make people laugh at their silly antics, but because of the face paint they freak out some people and others go on to make them into horror villains, and now this happens.

Agreed. I think that clowns (and to a degree mimes), get a bad rap from way too many scary clown stories, and now these a-holes... though is it wrong for me to expect one of the "scary clowns" to end up getting shot?

Only if the police are wearing a body cam. I would love to see that arrest/manslaughter charge!

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

SNIP

...you truly believe those are ghost clowns that are going to get you in your sleep, do you? Or that an army of clown cultists are on the march to eat you alive and you can't sleep at night?

No hyperbole, no clickbait title, no joke, you truly fear these monstrous daemonic clowns are going to eat you? That's your opinion? That's what you want people to take seriously? You are, literally, scared for your life from the killer clowns? These are murderous clowns?

Seriously? Seriously?!

I...think you may have taken the OP a little too seriously with the initial post. Could be wrong here, but it appeared lighthearted in tone. Not legitimate fears.

See I would agree, but he got all pissy at me for not taking his opinion seriously. Now if he's just reporting news, fair enough my bad, but then there's no opinion offered, and my post about the clowns being try-hard spoopy dudes is totally legit.
The only opinion offered, and one we must respect apparently, is that he's truly scared of these clowns, they are going to eat him and he can't sleep. Oh, and that his niece says the clowns murdered people. Which isn't an opinion. Its either a fact, or untrue.

So I'm sorta' at a loss. I guess we're not supposed to take it seriously, but OP is dead serious?

Okay, yes, I understand what you mean. May I entertain an assumption that, of course, anybody can tell me if I'm wrong here? It could be that your Morpheus (bless him!) meme was taken as a personal jab towards the OP as opposed to the jab I'm seeing directed towards people doing the whole clown horror attempts these unknown people are responsible for. Because at this moment, that looks to be the misunderstanding. The internet is a little too great at these things!

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP

Oh fuck, yeah! That's not at all what I meant! I was slagging off the clowns themselves!

SNIP

Mr. Op, I wasn't harshing on you or your choice of topic, my Morpheus meme and subsequent disbelief in the cheese and corniness of it all was directed at the clowns themselves. I wasn't saying you are lame and cheesy and should post creepy girl videos, I was saying the idea of dressing up as a clown and hanging out in cemeteries is lame and cheesy.

Total miscommunication.

Thanks Xsjadoblayde for clearing that up. Have a fish.

Spoiler

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Americans are weird... I did hear about this creepy clown cult and frankly I support it.

Life is boring if there are no eccentric people.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Americans are weird... I did hear about this creepy clown cult and frankly I support it.

Life is boring if there are no eccentric people.

Yeah but clowns? As Yatzhee would say, that's entry level creativity in the horror department. That's one step above Zombies and one step below zombies that can run on the rung of cliche.

And to be fair, I don't we Yanks invented the clown, or its inherent unnerving-ness.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I honestly just feel sorry for legitimate clowns at this point. They took the job to make people laugh at their silly antics, but because of the face paint they freak out some people and others go on to make them into horror villains, and now this happens.

I mean, John Wayne Gacy probably didn't help either.

No need to make up killer clowns when he was an actual serial killer clown.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Thanks Xsjadoblayde for clearing that up. Have a fish.

Spoiler

That...is a beastly fish! Thankyou!! I got some parsley set aside for this, don't ask why or how...parsley kinda just happens in my world. But we must know of whether the OP did percieve such things, otherwise this fish is unearned and there are probably eggs out there being eyed up by sinister pimp eels as we speak! Did you vet this fish for connections? They can be slippery, elusive folk. Hoarding all that omega 3.
But yeah, clowns are hack attempts at horror. I liked Spawns depiction of specific ones. But they put the effort into making them a despicable character. Not just shorthand for "oh clown, doing clown stuff! Be afraid!" But mainstream US and horror seem to revel in cliche. Not just the US, everywhere is guilty. But the US appear to pride themselves on it without exploring what fear is. These writers don't seem to even understand what fear is, they just coast off of tropes they have observed are effective. This is such an annoyance for me lately that I have been looking into and attempting to devise/create different ideas, not through any desire to do so, weirdly, just a frustration that the genre is stagnating and nobody seems to care about embracing fear. They want it as a salad dressing, nothing more. a sales pitch steeped in comfort zones. Well fear doesn't work in comfort zones.
It a little annoying the consistent hack writing and incompetence goes unnoticed, even acceptable as the norm. I know we can do better than this if we just try! (Mini rant over, sorry!)

 

[Kolby Jack]

I caught on to the "scared of clowns for humor" fad for a while but it just seems dumb to me now. Clowns are funny, and the reason why scary clowns work is the same reason why scary toys work: they're not supposed to be scary. I'm pretty sure the actual number of people suffering from a clown phobia is fairly small.

I mean come on, clowns are about the only part of circuses besides acrobats that haven't been ruined by things like "knowledge" and "basic human decency." I think it's high time we give clowns the respect they deserve as comedians.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Honestly, I have never liked clowns... Never been afraid but... Damn, they ain't funny and are creepy.