An eerie clown closely resembling Pennywise from Stephen King’s It has been lurking around Staten Island over the past few days, terrifying local residents and causing a stir on Twitter. It’s now being reported, however, that the clown may be a hoax and publicity stunt created by the local film production company, Fuzz on the Lens — as opposed to a legitimate satanic demon clown, I guess? The International Business Times reports:
According to Headlines and Global News, it appears that some of those who posted photographs of the clown were linked to the company – although it is unclear as to whether this is a coincidence or not.
The Staten Island Advance reported that three of the men who posted pictures, Vincent Innocente, Robert Privitera and Michael Leavy, are all friends with one another on Facebook.
All three, along with Vic Dibitetto, are linked with the film production company. The connection was first reported by the New York Post. Dibitetto has since admitted to being involved in the whole scary act but denied that he was aware that it was a publicity stunt.
If the clown stunt is for publicity, the reason being is still unclear. All I know is that it’s all fun and games freaking out people with a clown costume until one of those people triggers a panic reaction so strong that it forces them to lose control of their car and mow down the scary clown in cold blood. It’s like realizing there’s a spider in the car with you times a thousand.
There’s also a YouTube sighting, which is NSFW due to overwhelming Staten Island-ness of the language: