Thomas likens the clown sightings to the “satanic panic” she experienced when she lived in the Midwest in the early ‘90s. The rumors of satanists capturing a blond, blue-eyed virgin from the prom have been linked to cultural stresses caused by the rust belt. Even earlier, the Salem witch trials overlapped with cultural and economic problems. During these times, folk stories become an unconscious, cathartic way to vent anxieties.

“I think it’s no accident that it coincides with this particular election cycle,” Thomas said. “It’s been fairly dramatic and divisive, divisive, divisive.”

Lynn McNeill, assistant professor of folklore at USU, says the clown trend is weirdly great for folklorists.

“It’s like, ‘Woohoo!’ Our knowledge is finally useful,” McNeill said.

McNeill describes folklore as word-of-mouth culture. Although it is studied at the university level, folklore itself is very informal. Instead of novels, they focus on oral traditions. Instead of classical music, they focus on folk music and jump-rope rhymes.

McNeill said she has been hearing about clown sightings from her students. They have been popping up in the canyon, outside of dorm rooms, in the cemetery and on the Quad. She says the clown trend is a result of two intersecting phenomenon: moral panic and ostension.

Moral panic is a situation where some perceived threat or public fear — and resulting institutional reaction — outweighs any actual danger. There is no real threat to the public, yet it becomes such a big issue that the police have to address it, which ramps it up even more.

“Rumors spread fast,” McNeill said. “And the internet helps them spread faster.”

Ostension, on the other hand, is the acting out of a legend or an act in response to a legend. After hearing rumors of clowns, dressing up as a clown and scaring people is an example of ostension, and so is shooting a clown.

A classic example of ostension is tampered candy on Halloween. The first recorded example of tampered candy appeared a decade after the rumors began. People hear rumors, and they want to recreate it. In the case of creepy clowns, people see this happening on social media and then they want to make scary Facebook accounts and creep around in the forest.

McNeill said even without the internet, the clown trend could still have proliferated based on previous moral panics. Social media allows ostension to spread rapidly.

A natural question to ask is, if the media didn’t call folklore professors or police officers and publish stories about these clowns sightings, would this still happen?

“It’s all your fault!” Thomas said about journalists, jokingly.

She says these things can spread without the help of the media. Creepy legends and moral panics have been around since pre-Christian times, even in the days of early Rome.

“You can’t stop people from telling a good story,” Thomas said.

So, why now? And when is this madness going to end?

“These things cycle, and they peak, and they die,” Thomas said.

Fall is a natural time for creepy images to appear, with Halloween and costuming on the way. Maybe creepy clowns just like the cold weather.

“But, you know, it has to be a pretty dang dedicated creepy clown to walk through a lot of snow out here,” Thomas said.

If you buy into the cultural and economic stress theory, creepy clowns might be around for a while. The economy is changing: we are moving toward a tech economy while coal and oil jobs are dying. Globalization means people are being left behind. The middle class is shrinking. And with the presidential election just weeks away, many voters — especially in Utah — are very wary of the two major-party candidates.

“It is a crazy time, and what better way to embody that than a creepy clown?” Thomas said.