Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

Scary clowns wish you a happy holiday

Some Californians enjoyed Valentine's Day wishes delivered by scary clowns.

The three clowns, named Tiny, Peddles and Blanco, have been spotted up and down the Central Valley delivering the grams. They were in Fresno on Friday morning and were planning to deliver all day - and extend into Saturday too.

Each clown is joined by a driver, who scouts out the venue and ensures the clowns don't scare anyone too much. Regalo says the reactions ranged from people shutting their doors on the clowns to people laughing and asking for pictures.

(thanks to Thomas Burkdall)

Today's cheerful clown image

Found on Derren Brown's Twitter.  "He will make you laugh"

(thanks to Rob Henderson)

Gothic car wash

An Ohio establishment improved the car wash experience by adding scary clowns.

(thanks to Thomas "Red Nose" Burkdall)

Clowns against fear

While some people fear clowns, apparently others consider clowns to be defensive weapons.   In one New Zealand case, an employee about to be fired turned to a clown for support.

A Kiwi adman has chosen an unusual support person to accompany him to a redundancy meeting.

In lieu of the usual suspects of a friend, colleague or family member, the member of the creative team at FCB hired a professional clown to attend the meeting with him.

An image sent to the Herald overnight shows the staffer, sitting alongside his support clown while he talks to the individuals running the meeting.

The Herald understands that the clown blew up balloons and folded them into a series of animals throughout the meeting.

It's further understood that the clown mimed crying when the redundancy paperwork was handed over to the staffer.

Infocult in HR!

Clown panic on the high seas

Three years after the Great Clown Panic of '16 the fear of clowns keeps shambling along.  Today's incident involves a British cruise ship visiting Norway.  Inebriated guests were horrified when a clown appeared, and violence ensued.

According to one seagoing reporter, 

One witness, part of a group involved in the trouble, explained to staff that things kicked off when another passenger appeared dressed as a clown. This upset one of their party because they’d specifically booked a cruise with no fancy dress. It led to a violent confrontation.

Panic ensued:

“There was blood everywhere”. Violent late night brawl in the buffet onboard @pocruises Britannia left staff who intervened injured, as passengers used furniture and plates as weapons. Witnesses told me they were so frightened they had to hide, as family groups fought.

The Telegraph characterized the coulrophobic scene thusly:

Families were forced to flee to their cabins or hide as apparently drunken passengers hurled furniture and plates at one another as a buffet descended into violence.

The ship's crew then contained the mayhem:

The buffet area was immediately sealed off as medical teams went to help the injured. Staff told me they’d never experienced anything like it and those behind the violence were confined to a cabin for the last day of the cruise, waiting for police here in Southampton.

Chaos, violence, clowns: and we're just starting the second half of 2019.

(via Naked Capitalism)

Another scary clown story

Police in a Tennessee town investigated a scary clown event.

At first, it looks quite creepy:

The man, with a white painted face and red nose, was driving a silver or gray sedan and the children believed he motioned for them to come to his vehicle, as he tried to entice them with candy.

The vehicle never stopped and the children ran, they told officers.

A quick investigation de-Gothic'd the story:

Police have located the man who was spotted in a clown costume. He is an older man who dresses up once a year on his birthday as a clown and hands out candy Today, is his birthday. We went to a couple of places where he frequents and they verified he was at those places this morning dressed up as a clown. They say is a nice man that dresses up and is known to give out candy. Police had contact with him and he said he had been dressed up as a clown and did not mean any harm. There was also nothing that indicated police that his actions were intentionally harmful or meant to scare anyone. The businesses and locations he was spotted all fall in line where he was at today.

Adding in all caps, "EVERYONE CAN NOW BREATHE!!!!"

(thanks to Jesse "Floppy Shoes" Walker)

Scary clown story from Britain

Two British boys reported a disturbing encounter with a clown.

The boys were cycling in Joyden's Wood, near Dartford, when they were met by the clown.

They told police that he shouted "run or die!" and held something 'which looked like a knife'.

Perhaps it's a one-off, but it could also be a sign of another clown panic, a la 2016.

(thanks to Jesse "honk honk" Walker)

"Warning to evil clowns"

The Great Clown Panic of 2016 is behind us, but echoes and perhaps nostalgia still appear.

For example, one Florida sheriff's office warned locals about the dangers of clown costumes.  Their Facebook update begins with the best salutation one could hope for:

***Warning to evil clowns and anyone considering creepy clown activity: We will not be there to save you if your intended target defends himself or herself, and you may face other penalties as well.***

(asterisks in original) (promise of eager Floridian violence also in original)

They also added this grim warning image:

The warning came in response to a boy's story which has since been retracted:

The warning was issued after an 11-year-old boy told deputies Monday that he was nearly attacked in DeLand by a man dressed as a clown, WESH 2 reported. The boy told deputy Justin Lococo he was riding his bicycle and as he approached Pine Ridge High School, a clown jumped from behind a light pole and bushes and tried to grab him.

The boy used his metal selfie stick to whack the clown multiple times, he said. The clown was described as about 5-foot, 9-inches and 230 pounds, wearing blue hair and a rainbow painted face.

The clown, the boy said, chased him then tripped and scurried back into the bushes and out of sight.

Gotta watch those selfie sticks.

(thanks to Jesse Walker)

Florida clown murder case possibly solved

Police arrested a woman for allegedly murdering a Florida women while dressed as a clown.

The crime took place way back in 1990, like so:

A clown bearing gifts of flowers and two balloons -- one with the saying ``You`re the greatest!`` -- shot a woman as she accepted the bouquet in front of her Wellington home on Saturday.

Marlene Warren, 40, was shot at least once in the head by the clown wearing a red wig, a red bulb nose, gloves and a smile painted on its white face.

Alleged killer on the left, victim on the right:

(CBS says that the left photo of Sheila Keen Warren (alleged clowner) is her booking photo, and she's smiling.  Yes.)

1990... it's not the great clown panic of '16, but a fine antecedent.

(thanks to Ted Major and Jesse Walker)

Clown panic comes to Australia

The great clown panic of '16 had another recent echo, this time in Australia.  

The New York Times notes a local Facebook page with an ominous name - Clown Purge Australia - and spooky intent: “On Halloween we’ll have 50 clowns go to one place.”  The new It movie was mentioned. Some locals were frightened.

...and that seems to be about it.  No clown be-in seems to have happened.  And the creator of Clown Purge Australia seems to have been running this theme as a way to build Facebook audience:

The public reaction seemed only to fuel the anonymous clown behind the Facebook page to seek more attention. The user promised to reveal the locations of the so-called purge if he reached a certain number of new followers. In just days, the account added more than 25,000 followers.

Clown-mail?

(thanks to Ted Major)