Word on the street: Are you afraid of the killer clowns?

The creepy clown situation in North Carolina is freaking people out across the country. Swerve reporter Nicola McIrvine took to the Pit to ask UNC students: Are you afraid of the clowns?

Laleh Emadi 

Biology major

Sophomore

“I’ve seen a lot of stuff about it on Facebook where it’ll have national news. I had seen videos on YouTube of pranks where people walk around in clown outfits and jump out at people to scare them. I always thought that was kind of a horrible thing to do because if you had always been scared of clowns or something, you could have a panic attack or something like that. Who has time for that? Like, what kind of person even comes up with something like that?"

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Casey DeMarco 

Exercise and sports science major

Sophomore

“I think people are really freaked out and probably a little bit angry because that’s just a really creepy thing to do. There’s no possible way that they could have good intentions. It makes me feel a little angry — like, I kind of want to go fight these clowns. I’m from Asheville and there are lots of forests and I know lots of kids play outside there, so that kind of makes me nervous that they could make their way up there and someone could get hurt.”

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Ommar Khawaja 

Exercise and sports science major

Sophomore

“Well, I’m actually from High Point, and I kind of feel like it’s not unexpected for this thing to happen there. I mean a lot of stupid stuff happens over there. I just think there are a lot of crazy people from around that area. But I don’t think that the High Point cases are related to when it’s happened in Wilmington — I kind of think it’s impersonators. I wouldn’t really think it makes sense for a gang of clowns to separate between Wilmington, South Carolina and High Point.”

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Emmanuel Okwudi 

Biology major

Sophomore

“Well I’ve never heard about this before, but first impressions: people are getting crazier and crazier. At first, I thought killer clowns and I thought about the joker or something. But now that I know it’s mostly just clowns scaring people at night, I mean it’s still messed up, but it’s just a prank. It’s probably just a fad thing that will go away relatively soon.”

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Liza Zhytkova 

Political science and contemporary European studies major

Sophomore

“I think it’s just creepy teenagers. I have a little brother but he doesn’t venture outside much, so I personally am not too concerned. I just think the whole situation is pretty bizarre. If no one has been harmed during this weird thing, it doesn’t seem like it’s of much concern to me. I think it’s just weird people messing around.”

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Caleb Whitlock 

English major

Sophomore

“I’ve never been afraid of clowns. I mean it’s silly, of course, but I don’t have any strong opinions on it.”

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Beth Clifford 

Undecided major

Sophomore

“I actually was alerted about the clown problem from a friend who is from the town it originated in in South Carolina. She said it’s become a societal issue that people are seeing clowns in their forest areas. I’m just so confused in general about a lot of things about the South since I’m from the North, but this one is particularly weird. Part of me thinks that this might be a reaction to the Stranger Things phenomenon, you know, just people trying to freak each other out. I don’t know. Because Stranger Things isn’t about clowns in backyards, but it is about odd figures abducting people. I just hope the clowns don’t come to Chapel Hill any time soon because I would be hiding out in Davis forever.”