Clowns: Evil Or Funny?

[ramonmercado]

 

[GerdaWordyer]

Well some good has come of this. Ronald McDonald is limiting his public appearances due to "the current climate around clown sightings".

If only he were limiting the nasty food. Just their fresh coffee is v good

 

[bushkindle]

There was an interesting item on BBC Breakfast news this morning about the killer clown phenomenon. The interviews with the schoolkids reminded me so much of the stories retold about the skinhead school attack hysteria in the late 70s

 

[Coal]

If only he were limiting the nasty food. Just their fresh coffee is v good

Best value coffee around.

 

[gellatly68]

my 9-year-old son asked me on monday 'Have you heard of the killer clowns?'. I told him that it was just people mucking about, and he said, 'yeah, but they're killing kids. With their big knives'.
It's always good to have a Scare Story doing the rounds - it makes the kids behave themselves

 

[Swifty]

my 9-year-old son asked me on monday 'Have you heard of the killer clowns?'. I told him that it was just people mucking about, and he said, 'yeah, but they're killing kids. With their big knives'.
It's always good to have a Scare Story doing the rounds - it makes the kids behave themselves

It's like the 70's all over again

 

[gellatly68]

I was forced to make one up on the spot for his birthday party last year, as it was just before Hallowe'en. I came up with a variation on 'The drummer boy sent down the mysterious tunnel' story - The Legend Of Bob Simkin.
I had two kids in frightened tears by the end of it.
Bwa-ha-ha-haaa!!

 

[Swifty]

I was forced to make one up on the spot for his birthday party last year, as it was just before Hallowe'en. I came up with a variation on 'The drummer boy sent down the mysterious tunnel' story - The Legend Of Bob Simkin.
I had two kids in frightened tears by the end of it.
Bwa-ha-ha-haaa!!

Does 'em good .. my big sister used to shit me up with the tale of the little girl with the wooden leg and the gag that she was a reincarnated guard dog that had been killed by burglars .. if anyone's interested enough, I can type that one out ..

 

[JamesWhitehead]

Be careful! Telling scary stories could get you sued in today's litigious world!

I have, on occasion, received letters from parents, expressing horror that a "responsible person" should ever think of filling juvenile minds with disturbing ideas. In consultation with the Head of the Department, on one such occasion, it was thought wise not to respond with a snappish one-liner about the first idea being always the most troubling!

 

[ramonmercado]

Jim Waterson ‏@jimwaterson 23h23 hours ago
Russian Embassy in London issues formal warning to Russian citizens to beware of British clowns. v/@stuartmillar159

 

[Graylien]

A clown troupe have cancelled a celebration event at a Newcastle children's hospital after it was threatened with a visit from the North East Killer Clowns.

Hospital security staff were worried that "multiple clown sightings could lead to confusion".

The Clown Doctors include Dr Rumtumtumich, Dr Lulu McDoo and Dr Poppy.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I notice that the 'twisted evil' smiley has disappeared.

 

[Tribble]

A few other sightings : The Netherlands -

The creepy clown phenomenon, which has been spooking the United States, appears to have arrived in the Netherlands after sightings of two people dressed in masks and bearing weapons, Dutch police said.


One person was seen overnight on Monday armed with a knife and a hammer, dressed in a costume and a scary clown mask near a park in the southern town of Oss.


And another was seen on Tuesday, after being spotted earlier in the week by residents in Almere, close to Amsterdam, further north in the country.

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-10-12-creepy-clowns-spotted-in-netherlands/#.V__rOcnAuJw

Sweden (Google translation) -

Police in Östergötland in the past week received three notifications of costumed clowns who intimidated and threatened people.

Events with menacing clowns has also occurred in other parts of Sweden. According to unconfirmed information, one of the events occurred in Skaraborg.

Thomas Agnevik, spokesman for the police in Östergötland, stated that the suspicion is that many people are behind the incidents with the clowns.

In recent months, threatening clowns seen in several locations in Sweden.A compilationNyheter24have done shows that cases have been reported in Karlshamn, Ronneby, Mariestad, Katrineholm, Uddevalla, Forshaga, Karlskoga, Västerås, Stockholm, Skokloster, Söderhamn and Timra.

http://www.skovdenyheter.se/article/polisen-varnar-for-hotfulla-clowner/

 

[Tribble]

Loren Coleman's piece on Phantom Clowns, Stalking Clowns and the Media -

http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2016/10/Clowns-Media.html

 

[ramonmercado]

PSNI North Belfast ‏@PSNIBelfastN 5h5 hours ago
Please take a moment to watch our advice about 'killer clowns'. http://ow.ly/e1Mq3059gaV #PSNI #KeepingPeopleSafe

 

[Ermintruder]

Jim Waterson ‏@jimwaterson 23h23 hours ago
Russian Embassy in London issues formal warning to Russian citizens to beware of British clowns. v/@stuartmillar159

Actually, the Russian embassy press release starts off from a different perspective:

"There are cases of attacks against malicious people in clown suits"

Did anyone see that desperately-unfunny clown being (I believe the term is) 'interviewed' by Philip and Holly on ITV morning tv? Or all that complete bollocks with the Geordie Batman Skype helpline (yes folks, if your children are afraid of a non-existent threat from anti-social media constructs / photo regurgitations and ersatz group hysteria, get them calmed-down by having online conversations with a middle-aged masked man wearing rubber pants in Tyne & Wear).

Most news is refried rubbish....this is all doubly-garbage.

 

[Graylien]

I believe Batman has had clown trouble before.

 

[Ermintruder]

I believe Batman has had clown trouble before.

That may be the angle being played by this strange bat-guy.

But in any case, this tawdry piece of television is entirely-resonant with the whole in-joke that is the 'Clown pandemic'.

I remembered his accent as being Geordie- I'm now re-guessing, and going to say Hull, rather than Cumbria. Any better interpretations from the board?

 

[Monstrosa]

Definitely Cumbrian.

 

[OneWingedBird]

 

[Ermintruder]

Definitely Cumbrian.

Do they have a lot of superhero-emulating social interventionists in Cumbria? Or is he the only man behind a mask?

 

[David Plankton]

I remembered his accent as being Geordie- I'm now re-guessing,

I've only watched the first few seconds of this, just to verify that he is a 'True Geordie' but he did start swearing almost immediately, so NSFW.
And it's about Batman.

 

[Rerenny]

PSNI North Belfast ‏@PSNIBelfastN 5h5 hours ago
Please take a moment to watch our advice about 'killer clowns'. http://ow.ly/e1Mq3059gaV #PSNI #KeepingPeopleSafe

The message above is, I think, from an overseas deployment of the Scarfolk Police. Scarfolk Council has previously tried to warn citizens about the menace...

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

(for more information please reread)

 

[sherbetbizarre]

I've only watched the first few seconds of this, just to verify that he is a 'True Geordie' but he did start swearing almost immediately, so NSFW.
And it's about Batman.

He's worth watching every time Newcastle lose a football match

 

[Xanatic*]

I don't want to alarm anyone but the clown sightings have spread to Sweden. According to Kvällsposten, the police have had 70 reports in just the last 36 hours. This includes a clownchasing someone with a knife and 4 clowns beating someone with sticks.

 

[David Plankton]

I remembered his accent as being Geordie- I'm now re-guessing,

Sorry to quote you again and also for going off-topic but try watching a bit of The Hairy Bikers. Dave Myers, the smaller, darker bespectacled one is from Barrow in Furness, Cumbria. Si King, the larger though somehow less threatening one is actually from County Durham, although with an accent as near to Geordie as you could wish for such an easy way to draw a comparison between the two.
So there's your homework for the weekend sorted.

 

[Rerenny]

I don't want to alarm anyone but the clown sightings have spread to Sweden. According to Kvällsposten, the police have had 70 reports in just the last 36 hours. This includes a clownchasing someone with a knife and 4 clowns beating someone with sticks.

It has to be said that this clown thing is getting way out of hand. People point and laugh when you mention the Dancing Plague of 1518 or the Salem Witch Trials, but hysteria is hysteria. The main difference is that this is being powered by social media and I assume that the "clowns" are more aware of what they are doing, contextually, than the 16th century dancers or the wee nippers of Salem. Another difference is that future generations of anthropologists are not going to be able to blame this outbreak of foolishness on ergot poisoning. Perhaps they'll decide it was a spontaneous, global reaction to Trumpton...although, thinking of Trumpton, the world would probably be a happier, calmer place if the clowns had settled on recreating this...

Mind you, in that world the British National Anthem would be this...

(thank you to Billy Connolly for thinking the same as me (although I swear I came up with the idea independently), and to the landlord of the Archers pub off Brick Lane for not barring me and my friend after we serenaded your pub one very drunken evening!)

 

[Ermintruder]

So there's your homework for the weekend sorted.

I was never much good at borealingumetrics when I was at school , therefore that's a useful divination tool, thanks.

I don't want to alarm anyone but the clown sightings have spread to Sweden

So do think these 70+ reports are:

- 70 seperate actual sightings of anywhere between 1 and 70 physical clowns

- a report of 70 allegedly-reported sightings, the vast majority of which were re-reported witness contaminated heresay

....or somewhere in between

 

[escargot]

We've visited several cities recently on cycling trips, travelling for hours on relatively quiet routes, and haven't seen a single red nose. Disappointing.

 

[Rerenny]

Halloween this year should be one hell of a mash up between Buffy, the X Files, and Stephen King (I imagine he'll be electrifying his gates as we speak!)

I know these are Christmas lights but surely they should belong to Halloween?
I give you the classic, the wondrous, Slayer "Raining Blood" Christmas Light Show!

Hail, fellow metal dude, well met!