Clowns brace for new American Horror Story: Cult publicity problem

Maybe clowns are the sort of people you care about in terms of a fun time, but American Horror Story: Cult could be a big issue for them. In general, we should say that September is a really bad month for them as a whole. The new version of Stephen King’s IT is hitting theaters, and the latest season of Ryan Murphy’s FX anthology series is going to be airing new episodes. It’s going to be a bizarre, fascinating experiment — and the infamous Twisty the Clown back from American Horror Story: Freak Show is going to have some sort of presence in the narrative.

If you can remember back to a few years ago, real-life clowns were not happy with Twisty back then, given that this is the sort of character who puts them out of work. The vast majority of clowns are funny, lighthearted, and goofy characters meant to make children laugh and to be entertaining. They’re a part of a circus, or a part of a child’s birthday party. Unfortunately, clowns have become that sort of blanket-phobia that a ton of people out there get; we’ve definitely got our own set of bizarre phobia, but clowns aren’t one of them. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for other people.

This is where the World Clown Association (yep, that’s a thing) gets involved to handled the American Horror Story: Cult backlash. Speaking to the Detroit Free Press, Pam Moody (the head of the group, and also a clown herself) made it clear that her group is doing everything they can to minimize the clown chaos before things get worse:

“The best possible way is for every true professional clown to be out there in the public and be interviewing and be meeting and greeting … The role of a clown persona, regardless of their style of clowning, is meant to bring joy and laughter, to bring humor to a hurting world. Clowns aren’t just about laughter. They’re about listening and caring.”

Will clowns survive American Horror Story: Cult?

Probably, just as they’ve persevered through a ton of other stuff over the years. They just have to withstand some backlash, especially since there are probably going to be a bunch of lunatics who dress up like clowns in order to scare people this Halloween. Often, subjects of fear come in waves and you deal with the rise and fall of that. Eventually, something will come out in pop culture that popularizes clowns again. Modern Family tried to do that in one way with the Cam character, but we think that something will hit the mainstream in a massive way before too long the changes the narrative even more and tips the scales in their favor.

Are you more or less inclined to watch American Horror Story: Cult because of all the clown imagery? (Personally, it’s the trypophobia that is getting to us.) Share in the comments below right now! (Photo: FX.)