‘American Horror Story’ Can’t Stop Making Real Clowns Mad
American Horror Story critics have apparently never heard the phrase “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” There have already been a couple of professional clown associations that have voiced their opinion of this season’s American Horror Story. The number of associations that voice their opinion seems to grow on a daily basis.
The latest group to speak out against the anthology series on FX is the World Clown Association. This follows closely on the heels of the Clowns of America International wanting television shows and movies to stop casting clowns as villains in these scary shows. American Horror Story has arguably made a clown a scary character better than anyone has done in the recent past. Twisty the Clown is the murderous man who wanders around the Florida countryside during the current season of the show.
Twisty murders or captures anyone he comes across. His violent nature is underlined by his costume, which features a traditional clown outfit accentuated with a bloody scalp and a mask over his mouth that features huge teeth in a grin reminiscent of The Joker. There is nothing funny about this particular look, and that has a number of professional organizations up in arms.
According to MTV News, World Clown Association spokesman Randy Christensen came out against American Horror Story, and wants everyone to know that scary clowns are not real clowns. Christensen adds that people should stop dressing like these particular performers in order to scare people.
“The copycat clowns out in California — these are people finding some sick satisfaction in creeping people out,” he said. “These are not clowns. These are people that dress up as horror characters.”
It should be pointed out that Christensen’s stage name is Oxford P. Nuts, and this is far from the first time he’s taken issue with his profession being used to scare people. American Horror Story is hardly the first to use guys in funny costumes and their faces painted. Stephen King managed to make these performers plenty scary all on their own with his book and movie It.
Even those who aren’t professional writers are making sure the clown is something to be feared rather than loved. Wasco the clown has been roaming around California (apparently as a piece of performance art) for the last couple of weeks. There is also a guy in Indiana scaring people for the sake of terrifying them. American Horror Story simply gets the most attention because Twisty is indeed terrifying and reaches a wide audience.
