clowns

For hundreds of years, we lived in a world where clowns were popularly understood to be funny and whimsical ... or, at the least, not absolutely freaking terrifying. Pop stars sang songs like “Everybody Loves a Clown” and “Send in the Clowns.” Parents hired entertainers in colorful satin outfits to do magic tricks and make balloon animals at their children’s birthday parties. Ronald McDonald sold us hamburgers. Emmett Kelly and Red Skelton were TV staples. We had a tacit cultural agreement not just to tolerate clowns, but to look forward to having them around.

Whether you believe the reports of clown sightings across the nation, blame them on mass hysteria or chalk them up to a promotional frenzy for upcoming Halloween movies or haunted housed, or even the upcoming release of the remake of Stephen King's "IT", you have to admit, we have been inundated lately with reports of eerie, threatening clown sightings.

This may be the most frightening thing we've encountered seen since George Clooney tried to pull off playing Batman.

Ever wonder why some people have an irrational fear of clowns? Well, this clown in Peru certainly isn't helping the matter! I guess this was suppose to be a magic show at some poor kid's Birthday party and it ended up being a birdie homicide! During one of the tricks this clown accidentally lit his bird on fire, oh' the humanity!

A clown has scared the Dickens out of people in the British town of Northampton by hanging around the area every night since Friday the 13th. Insert your favorite 'It' joke here.

Nate Bargatze is a New York-based comedian who was recently mentioned in Rolling Stone magazine as a "comic who should be big." He's already big in our books; the funny guy has had his own Comedy Central Presents and he's performed on 'Conan' three times! Bargatze also won both the NYC and Boston Comedy Festivals in 2010.