Where Bozos’ Lurk: The Wasco Clown Hysteria

Where Bozos’ Lurk: The Wasco Clown Hysteria

In the beginning of October 2014, the Halloween spirit was in full fall bloom, and it was evident that the flamboyant holiday was right around the corner. What was not expected in a small town located outside of Bakersfield, California, was that “Threatening Dark Clowns” with Machetes and Baseball Bats could be lurking behind every corner of the sleepy streets of Wasco.

According to ABC Channel 7 News Los Angeles, the local panic craze started when a Bakersfield area couple made a Social Media post of them dressed in somewhat menacing clown costumes in the small outskirt community of Wasco, quickly turned into Social Media Hysteria when copy-cat’s posts appeared on Instagram with pictures of their own horrifying looking clowns, at numerous local Bakersfield California and surrounding area landmarks, Wasco being one of them.

Once Social Hysteria set in full force the Bakersfield Police Department began to receive numerous calls of evil looking clowns lurking in their neighborhoods, some with machetes, others holding baseball bats, and other assorted dangerous weapons of ill intent.

The local authorities have played down the hysteria noting that only one menacing clown was caught and arrested so far by police, and that “Rogue Clown” turned out to be a fourteen year old boy who was chasing younger kids in order to scare the crap out of them. The boy was charged with the very serious crime of – Annoying Fellow Juveniles; the kind of criminal record of which will undoubtedly haunt the poor boy for life when he has to find a job, or get an apartment.

So far this latest Social Media Social Hysteria has not materialized to be a demented invasion of the John Wayne Gacy Fan Club, or anything demonic or more sinister than a World-Wide-Web full of eager and willing copy-cats.

With Ebola, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and random psychotic killers that seems to be perceived by the general public in the new millennium, maybe righteously,  as being ready-to-strike anywhere, or at any time around the nation. It is no wonder we tend to jump on the media bandwagon, and allow ourselves to become hysterical about some inconsequential controversy, or new national social concern that the American people suddenly demand to be addressed and fixed in a week or two; in order to make room for the next internet craze, panic, or outrage.  

With “Real” Pennywise and John Wayne Gacy wannabes’ roaming California’s  sleepy little communities once again, it’s all right to feel paranoid these days, and more importantly,  to hope that the new viral Social Media craze doesn’t infect your home town next!