The evil clown, also known as the killer clown, is a subversion of the traditional comic clown character, in which the playful trope is instead depicted in a more disturbing nature through the use of horror elements and dark humor. The modern archetype of the evil clown was popularized by DC Comics character the Joker starting in 1940 and again by Pennywise in Stephen King's It. The character can be seen as playing on the sense of unease felt by sufferers of coulrophobia, the fear of clowns.
Scare Tactics is an American comedy horror hidden camera television show, produced by Scott Hallock and Kevin Healey. Its first two seasons aired from April 2003 to December 2004. After a hiatus, the show returned for a third season, beginning July 9, 2008. The first season of the show was hosted by Shannen Doherty. Stephen Baldwin took her place in the middle of the second season. At the beginning of the third season, the show was hosted by Tracy Morgan. The fourth season began on October 6, 2009. On July 17, 2017, it was announced that Blumhouse Television was going to produce a new season of the show.
Improv Everywhere is a comedic performance art group based in New York City, formed in 2001 by Charlie Todd. Its slogan is "We Cause Scenes".
YouTube is an online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States. Accessible worldwide, it was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google and is the second most visited website in the world, after Google Search. YouTube has more than 2.5 billion monthly users, who collectively watch more than one billion hours of videos every day. As of May 2019, videos were being uploaded to the platform at a rate of more than 500 hours of content per minute.
PrankvsPrank, also known as PvP, is a YouTube channel created by Jesse Michael Wellens and his then-girlfriend Jennifer "Jeana" Smith. In 2007, the two began to play pranks on each other and post videos of the pranks on websites, eventually forming a channel on YouTube. The channel has more than 1.8 billion video views and more than 10.2 million subscribers as of February 2017. After Wellens and Smith split in May 2016, Wellens became the sole user of the channel.
Vitaly Zdorovetskiy, better known by his YouTube username VitalyzdTv, is a US-based Russian YouTube personality, content creator and website owner. His YouTube videos, as of November 2021, have reached over 1.8 billion views and over 10 million subscribers, while his video blog channel has more than 270 million views and 1.93 million subscribers.
Alex Goyette is an American film director, writer, producer, actor, and YouTube personality. He is the writer/director of Expelled, a comedy which ranked #1 worldwide on iTunes during its December 2014 release. Goyette studied film at Cal State Northridge, and created his sketch comedy YouTube channel on April 17, 2011. The channel's videos have been viewed 13 million times.
Thomas George Cassell, known online as Syndicate, is an English YouTuber and Twitch streamer. Regarded as one of the earlier known gaming personalities, his videography consists of Let's Play videos on Call of Duty and Minecraft. Born in Manchester, Cassell had passion for a career in the gaming industry, which he started by purchasing gaming equipment using his money from McDonald's. On 3 September 2010, Cassell registered his gaming channel "TheSyndicateProject", where he found success and an online community. His prominence online was recognized by Call of Duty publisher Activision and multi-channel network (MCN) Machinima, where he signed to the network to monetize his content. Cassell's channel achieved substantial growth, passing one million subscribers in June 2012 and one billion views in late 2013. He further expanded his career into livestreaming on Twitch, hosting the same commentary over his gameplays. His Twitch channel became the first to reach one million followers in August 2014.
Pepsi Max & Jeff Gordon Present: Test Drive is a 2013 short film produced by Gifted Youth, the commercial division of Funny or Die. The film was directed by Peter Atencio and stars NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon. The film served as part of a viral marketing advertising campaign to promote Pepsi Max. The film was released through Pepsi's YouTube channel on March 12, 2013. It quickly became a viral video, and earned more than 45 million views on YouTube as of March 2016. The film was shortened into a television advertisement which aired in North America during the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.
Roman Bernard Atwood is an American YouTube personality and prankster. He is best known for his vlogs, where he posts updates about his life. His vlogging channel, "RomanAtwoodVlogs", has a total of 5 billion views and 15 million subscribers. He also has another YouTube channel called "RomanAtwood", where he used to post prank videos. The channel has been inactive since 2016. His pranks have gained over 1.4 billion views and 10.4 million subscribers. He became the second YouTuber after Germán Garmendia to receive two Diamond Play Buttons for his first two channels.
A jump scare is a technique often used in horror films and video games, intended to scare the audience by surprising them with an abrupt change in image or event, usually co-occurring with a loud, jarring sound. The jump scare has been described as "one of the most basic building blocks of horror movies". Jump scares can startle the viewer by appearing at a point in the film where the soundtrack is quiet and the viewer is not expecting anything alarming to happen, or can be the sudden payoff to a long period of suspense.
Trollstation is a YouTube channel consisting of, as well as collaborating with, numerous British pranksters who perform pranks and social experiments, more recently focusing on the latter. The pranks carried out by members of Trollstation are filmed covertly, often without the permission of those involved; however, they are revealed to be pranks soon after. Some of the group's stunts have led to criminal convictions.
Million Dollar Extreme (MDE) is an American sketch comedy troupe. The group consists of Sam Hyde, Nick Rochefort, and Charls Carroll. The group remains largely inactive since the cancellation of their show World Peace in 2016. They are known for their online videos, anti-comedy, and public pranks mainly uploaded on their several related YouTube channels. They are also controversial for their support from alt-right and white supremacist fans, and Sam Hyde's connections to the alt-right. The group's first YouTube channel was permanently banned in 2018 for violating the website's community guidelines.
Samuel Pepper is an English internet personality. He created his YouTube channel in 2010, accumulating over 2 million subscribers and 55 million video views as of October 2020. He joined TikTok in 2020 and has amassed more than 1 million followers there as of October 2021.
The 2016 clown sightings was a case of mass hysteria fuelled by reports of people disguised as evil clowns in incongruous settings, such as near forests and schools. The incidents were reported in the United States, Canada, Australia, England and subsequently in other countries and territories starting during August 2016. The sightings were first reported in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in what turned out to be a marketing stunt for a horror film. The phenomenon later spread to many other cities in the US. By mid-October 2016, clown sightings and attacks had been reported in nearly all U.S. states, 9 out of 13 provinces and territories of Canada, and 18 other countries.
FamilyOFive, originally known as DaddyOFive, was a controversial YouTube channel and online alias of Michael Christopher "Mike" Martin, which focused on daily vlogging and "prank" videos. At its peak, the channel's videos featured Martin, his wife Heather Martin—also known by her online alias MommyOFive—and their children. In 2017, following a series of "prank" videos showing the parents physically and emotionally abusing their children, the channel became the center of a public controversy, as outrage grew over their mistreatment of their children.
Lucas and Marcus Dobre-Mofid, collectively known as the Dobre Twins, are an American dancing duo and YouTube personalities who rose to prominence on the now-defunct video application Vine. They are part of the Dobre Brothers, where they are joined by their older brothers, Cyrus and Darius.
Nelk, also referred to as the Nelk Boys, is a Canadian-American YouTube channel and entertainment company.
Joshua Pieters is a South African YouTuber known for pranks on celebrities. Originally from Knysna, he is currently based in London.
Alan Chen Stokes and Alex Chen Stokes are American-Chinese twins and Internet celebrities known for their YouTube and TikTok accounts with 19.9 million subscribers and 31.1 million followers respectively. They began making videos separately and then combined their following into a shared twins account. As of 2022, their YouTube channel is the 9th largest in the world as measured by views per episode.
