In 2016 parts of the United States, Canada, and the UK were under siege from “Creepy Clown Sightings”. This Clown Hysteria actually pushed McDonald’s to do the unthinkable. They “retired” Ronald McDonald from the Company. Ever since then he’s been pushed to the sidelines and largely forgotten about. Let’s talk about Ronald McDonald’s creator Willard Scott, Coco The Clown, and how the Pop Culture Americana Icon came into existence…before being pushed to the back and never seen again.
Matt’s Thoughts:
In terms of recognizable figures, Ronald McDonald was a pretty good part of my childhood. The Red Clown was everywhere, and every time my mom and I went to a fast food place, I was excited to get a happy meal with his face on it. Strangely, I didn’t notice him as much as I used to as I got older. Maybe it was because I was older and no longer ate meals made for kids, or maybe it was because McDonald’s was slowly getting rid of the clown.
As I learned more about this story, I realized how Ronald McDonald made children happy. And it made me sad that some idiots in Canada and South Carolina were able to mess up the internet so badly in the fall of 2016 that a multi-billion dollar fast food chain had to get rid of the clown for good.
The internet can be used for good or bad, and in this case, it was definitely the latter.
About DEEP LORE
Deep Lore is a weekly history podcast hosted by Matt Jarbo. Each episode will go into scary True Crime stories, adventures of the unexplained, Pop Culture Lore, Internet Oddities, and even the occasional Reddit Story. This podcast is for people who are interested in the strange and obsessed with The Weird. The Wild. The WTF.
Deep Lore 