Thinking of Clowning Around This Halloween? It's No Laughing Matter

From playful pranksters to benign children's entertainers to macabre menaces, clowns are a pop culture paradox. As such, they've become the Halloween costume du jour for those seeking to capitalize on the public's unease for a good ol' fashioned fright.

While clown costumes are typically donned on All Hallow's Eve for a few laughs and cheap scares, this season they've taken a darker turn, as sightings, hoaxes and legitimate threats across the country have been linked to people dressed as clowns.

But are the masses taking America's clown hysteria to heart as they shop this Halloween? For some costume stores, the Bozo business is booming.

Tyler McKenna, manager of Party City in Brighton told Patch that the popularity of clowns is nothing new around Halloween, but this year he's seen an upswing in the number of costumes sold. And the customers typically buying them – young males.

He's not sure if they're trying to get in on the clown craze, but he definitely wouldn't recommend it.

"That's how you get shot," McKenna said. "You're asking to get hurt."

Sammy Manoo is taking his diligence a step further. Manoo, manager of Party City at Boston's South End Mall, said he will sometimes refuse to sell clown paraphernalia to customers.

"You pick and choose," Manoo said.

Manoo has also noted an uptick in the popularity of clown costumes, particularly masks, among young males. Some, he said, have even tried to steal them.

But Manoo knows the tension surrounding this year's crop of clown costumes, and is especially vigilant when it comes to selling them.

"I try to keep people safe," he said. "You try to get the cameras to pick them up on their way out."

That way, he knows who leaves with a clown costume – just in case.

One parent, Vera Almeida, forbids clown costumes in her home. Though her youngest child is afraid of clowns, she said if her teenage son said he wanted to dress as one, she would not let him, calling the costume "creepy."

And given the stigma surrounding the costume this year, she's also thinking of his safety.

"I think it poses a danger," she said.

The panic has caused administrators in some Massachusetts school districts to issue alerts or respond to perceived threats. Last week, Dedham Public Schools sent an email advisory after several high school students received vague text messages about clowns from unknown phone numbers.

The incident came two days after a shelter in place was called at Merrimack College and a dorm was evacuated amidst reports of an armed clown on campus.

But in Newton, Superintendent David Fleishman said in an email schools would send out the same yearly notice to students. While a sample provided by Fleishman doesn't address clowns directly, a number of its stipulations, such as dressing in costumes that are "kid friendly, not frightening," prohibiting masks on children and instructing students to leave colored hair spray at home, could mitigate the number of clowns who show up on Halloween.

So leave the red nose and face paint at home, or the joke's on you.

Photo by Alex Newman/Patch Staff