“Clown Panic” Looks Beyond Fear
2016 was an inflection point in American history. It was a unique time in that it didn’t take reflection from years in the future to recognize how the world was changing. We were all aware of it as it was happening, seeing the world splinter irrevocably and feeling powerless in the moment as the United States changed. One of the strange occurrences of 2016 that has widely been remembered as just a weird blip is at the center of Ed Perkins’ Clown Panic. More than true crime, Clown Panic looks at 2016’s lasting impact on the country. As one of the film’s subjects says, “the story of the clowns is the story of America.”
Mass clown hysteria hit the United States in August of 2016 in Wisconsin. Reports were made of clowns hanging around an empty parking lot. While that sighting would be revealed to be guerilla marketing for a horror short film called Gags, it would spawn copycat sightings across the country. What started as a prank ended with the death of a sixteen-year-old boy in Reading, Pennsylvania. Clown Panic follows the story, from the early sightings to the boy’s death, using a variety of subjects to help illuminate how a simple guerilla marketing idea could lead to this level of frenzied hysteria.
Courtesy of Hulu
One of the participants in the documentary explains that he was able to predict the escalation of events because it’s happened before in human history. The mania surrounding the clowns is no different than the moral panics from years before. The Salem Witch Trials, Satanic panic, the Red Scare, video games and their connection to real-life violence…the list goes on. The story of the 2016 clowns is no different, but social media allowed the flames to be fanned in a new way. Those of us who vaguely remember hearing reports of clowns popping up in cities, standing at the tree line of forest, ominously waiting, may not have realized that, in some communities, people took action. Multiple schools were locked down due to a threat of violence, Penn State students took to the streets, vowing retribution should they find the clowns. It’s hard to watch these mobs scenes and not see a connection to the Salem Witch Trials.
Courtesy of Hulu
At the end of the day, what humans fear most is not clowns or witches or communists, but the unknown. Much of the reason for the clown hysteria comes from that concern. Of a shadowy threat that lingers in the background. In reality, it seems that most of the people acting as clowns were doing so as a prank. Whether or not you agree that these pranks are fun and good-natured is another conversation, but it’s not the imagery of the clowns that caused this violence. It’s the lack of understanding as to why people were doing this. Instead of asking questions or having conversations, news outlets and the social media algorithm whipped up a sense of dread that made people feel as though their livelihood was at risk.
One of the subjects of Clown Panic is an actual clown who has spent decades dedicated to the craft. He, in full make-up, is incredulous. These aren’t clowns, he says, they aren’t bringing the joy that is the central thesis of the art of clowning. Clown Panic is not a film that leans into the strangeness of the circumstances, but rather the sociological reactions that led to a tragic death. While it could be considered a true-crime documentary, Clown Panic is not sensationalist. It’s grounded in the distinctly human knee-jerk reaction to fear with a mob mentality.
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