Dr. Frank McAndrew

You know there are going to be clowns there.

You're ready to enjoy the act and laugh.

But

You know, when you run into one in a restaurant or, you know, at a kid's birthday party.

Yeah.

Your front yard at night.

You know, it's like, okay, now I'm creeped out.

So they're okay when they are where they're supposed to be.

But when they step out of that, they become even more threatening.

And I think this all started with the John Wayne Gacy thing.

The guy who dressed like a clown, he worked kids' birthday parties as a clown, used to paint pictures of clowns.

And then they found out he had 33 bodies buried in the crawlspace of his house.

And so right away, you said when you hear the word creepy, the noun that pops into your head first is clowns.

That kind of kicked it off.

And then all the horror movies started, right?

The killer clowns from outer space.

Stephen King's It, you know, Pennywise.

So now it's very much in the public imagination.

So that connection is there, I think, for good.

Yeah, yeah.