These clowns I know were having a yard sale Sunday, so I swung by. I picked up a sweet plumed marching band hat, a pair of tinted goggles for Burning Man, and a really cool long cloak, also for the desert. While shopping, I spotted this smiling clown face sweater in the rack of multi-colored clothes.

I recognized it immediately.

Wil Wheaton had once (famously) wore one just like it.

That's a friend of mine in the lead picture (who wanted to remain anonymous, for reasons). At the sale, she tried the 100% acrylic monstrosity on with little to no intention of actually buying it. In fact, as she was pulling it over her head, she mumbled a couple times, "I'm no clown. I'm no clown." I took a photo of her not being a clown, because.

When I got home, I posted the photo on Facebook and people wanted to know if I had bought it. I hadn't.

One friend wondered if anyone we knew was involved in The Clownsweater Project which has many photos of people wearing a clown sweater, just like the one at the yard sale. Another friend, Valerie, piped in, "Me!" and shared this photo of herself. In fact, the sweater that she's wearing is the exact same one that Wil wore:

I then started reading up on The Clownsweater Project. I was happy to discover that they've shared its entire history, including Wil Wheaton's part in it on their site:

In 2002 at another EFF Fundraiser at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco, Barney (yes, the purple dinosaur) and Wil Wheaton were pitted against each other in a boxing match...

Between Las Vegas and Reno, there is a sleeping establishment like no other. It's simply called The Clown Motel and it's been deemed "America's scariest motel."

In 2014, Cory described it as follows:

Hundreds of clowns stare from every corner, the walls are hung with clown-portraits, and there is a "historic miners' cemetery" out the motel's back door, wherein rest the mouldering corpses of the victims of a mysterious epidemic that is only known as "Tonopah plague."

Now it can be yours for $900,000.

According to LasVegasNow.com, the motel's current owner (of 22 years) Bob Perchetti is selling it so he can retire, "I'm going to go fishing. I want to go enjoy myself. I'm going to do a little camping with the grandkids."

One condition of the sale: "the new owners can upgrade it but don't lose what the people love."

Wait, does that mean the clowns or the corpses? Either way, no thank you. Read the rest

A person in Virginia devised a strange-but-effective method to discourage bears from rummaging in the garbage cans. I'm sure the bears will have their revenge.

Read the rest

Pornhub reports that creepy clown surges spark creepy clown urges. As the creepy clown fad has spiked, so has interest in clown-related erotica. And it's popular with the ladies: "women are 33% more likely to search for clown porn than men." Read the rest

The creepy clown ebb and flow is currently in full flow, so Atlas Obscura has created the definitive creepy clown incident map, replete with dates, details, and outcome. Read the rest

The Associated Press reports that McDonald's restaurants are to lay off using mascot Ronald McDonald for a while, until the current phase of "creepy clown" sightings fades.

The burger chain said Tuesday that it is being “thoughtful in respect to Ronald McDonald's participation in community events” as a result of the “current climate around clown sightings in communities.”

The company did not provide any other details about how often its red-haired mascot makes appearances and how or whether that will change.

McDonald's decision comes after a rash of pranks and threats nationwide and abroad that have involved eerie clowns. The trend began this summer with unconfirmed reports in South Carolina. Since then, reports have involved costumed hoaxsters frightening people on the street or people terrorizing others via social media.

“They just kept coming, and coming, and coming, across multiple states. Clowns in vans. Clowns in the woods. Clowns lurking in the shadows. Clowns chasing people or doing crimes.” Read the rest

Everyone thought it was some kind of mass kid-hysteria inspired by marketing for the new version of Stephen King's IT, but guess what! There was an evil clown after all!

Kentucky police have arrested a man dressed as a clown lurking in a wooded area amid a wave of clown reports in at least six US states.

Jonathan Martin, 20, was charged with wearing a mask in a public place and disorderly conduct in Middlesboro.

He was found at about 0100 EST (0600 GMT) on Friday in "full clown costume" and mask crouching among trees by an apartment complex, according to police.

"Wearing a mask" is a crime, eh? Read the rest

Last week, freaky photos appeared online of a strange person dressed in a filthy clown costume and carrying black balloons wandering the night streets of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Turns out, "Gags the Clown," as the character was known, turned out to be a hoax by indie filmmaker Adam Krause. He hoped the online freak-out would help market a new short horror film that he plans to complete in the next few months. It worked. From the Green Bay Press-Gazette:

Krause and his film crew had wanted to keep Gags' secret for a little longer and include four more Gags sightings in Green Bay to promote the film. However, according to Krause's post, some actors who did not get parts in the film "felt it was their civic duty to inform the media of what was really going on."

"Green Bay's creepy clown was marketing ploy"

Read the rest

Driving past a Chicago cemetery at night, Julia Graham and her husband were "freaked out" when they noticed a clown who climbed the 7-foot gate and "waved slowly" at them as they took photos.

"I mean, this was somebody putting forth a lot of effort — and being really weird,” Graham told CBS Chicago.

TV news report below:

Read the rest

Coulrophobics were unable to convince England's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to ban a movie poster with a sinister-looking clown. Read the rest

From 1995 to 2007, Joe Maggard was Ronald McDonald. "The clown is right in there. The clown is ready to go." Read the rest

"Sparky's wheezy baritone voice is loud and grating," writes Esquire's Mike Sager. "He is at once funny and annoying, ingenious and stupid, insightful and insipid, friendly and backstabbing, attractive and repulsive." Read the rest

Tonopoah, NV's Clown Motel is a relic of the Gold Rush town's faded glory years, and it is filled with clowns. Hundreds of clowns stare from every corner, the walls are hung with clown-portraits, and there is a "historic miners' cemetery" out the motel's back door, wherein rest the mouldering corpses of the victims of a mysterious epidemic that is only known as "Tonopah plague." Redditors who've stayed at the Clown Motel have taken to this thread to one-up one-another with tales of the establishment's freaky weirdness. Norwegiancoconut dropped a link to this gallery of photos from a previous stay.

America's scariest motel is haunted... by hundreds of clowns Read the rest

Redditor CptQuestionMark posted this photo of a birthday clown from 1969. The clown is so frankly terrifying, it suggests some kind of profound aesthetic/cognitive shift in human perception in a scant 45 years. Read the rest

Our friends at Futility Closet (hosts of Boing Boing's wonderful Futility Closet podcast) have a short item about The Clown Egg Register. Apparently, a clown's face can't be copyrighted, but if you decorate an egg with the clown's face, you can copyright that, which stops unscrupulous clowns in their tracks. Read the rest

This is Colin Smith, a con artist clown who was busted for posing as a charity collector. Apparently, there were nearly 20 unrelated police incidents last year in Manchester, England involving clowns reportedly engaged in creepy behavior like following children to school, vandalizing property, or robbery.

“The clowning profession can do without stupid people who don’t understand the profession and appreciate that it is a performing art and not a spontaneous jolly jape," Dave Tawney, European director of the World Clown Association, told the Manchester Evening News. Read the rest