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The Conner & Smith Show · October 26 · 5 min

Clown Panic (2026)

Episode 236 — Clown Panic (2026) Day 25 of 31 Days of Halloween takes us into Clown Panic, the Hulu documentary exploring the creepy-clown craze that swept across America—and then the world—in 2016. I found this a fascinating time capsule of a year already filled with anxiety. Looking back a decade later, through COVID, political violence, fears surrounding federal agencies, and the rise of AI, there’s something almost surreal about remembering a moment when people were terrifying one another simply by putting on clown costumes. I also reflect on the horror imagery surrounding that moment, from Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight to the portrayals that followed in Stephen King’s It and American Horror Story: Cult. But behind the masks and viral videos, the consequences were devastatingly real. The documentary introduces families on both sides of a fatal encounter involving a young person wearing a clown mask, showing how a scare could change—and end—lives. A compelling, unsettling watch about fear, viral attention, and the human cost of turning a scare into content. Support The Conner & Smith Show on Patreon:
👉 Support us on Patreon

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Episode 236 — Clown Panic (2026)

Day 25 of 31 Days of Halloween takes us into Clown Panic, the Hulu documentary exploring the creepy-clown craze that swept across America—and then the world—in 2016.

I found this a fascinating time capsule of a year already filled with anxiety. Looking back a decade later, through COVID, political violence, fears surrounding federal agencies, and the rise of AI, there’s something almost surreal about remembering a moment when people were terrifying one another simply by putting on clown costumes.

I also reflect on the horror imagery surrounding that moment, from Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight to the portrayals that followed in Stephen King’s It and American Horror Story: Cult. But behind the masks and viral videos, the consequences were devastatingly real. The documentary introduces families on both sides of a fatal encounter involving a young person wearing a clown mask, showing how a scare could change—and end—lives.

A compelling, unsettling watch about fear, viral attention, and the human cost of turning a scare into content.

Support The Conner & Smith Show on Patreon:
👉 Support us on Patreon


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