What is it with clowns?

OK, now — the clown thing. Really?

Surely, you saw some of the stories. The Washington Post reported on a “sighting” at James Madison University in Virginia in which “a grainy Snapchat video purported to show a menacing clown outside of Weaver Hall. Freakout ensued.”

So, I agree they’re sorta scary — or at least, they have been since Stephen King ruined a once-noble entertainment profession with a single novel — but what explains the way they’ve run amuck in the national headlines of late?

Some stories have suggested a frothy brew of social media, bored students, crooks with a sense of humor (gotta rob that gas station wearing a clown mask, right?), runaway imaginations and Halloweenish pranksterism all ran together to create our latest clown crisis. I say “latest” because Slate observed that scary-clown crazes have popped every few years since the early 1980s.

Anybody want to speak on behalf of clowns? Email rrollins@coxhio.com.

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