Are you afraid of clowns? Maybe you should be. When a “do not open” sign is ignored, a woman finds herself haunted by "The Cracking Man", a frightening clown doll with a noisy presence. In this episode, Greg dates a Christian clown, Dana stumbles into paranormal ASMR, the gang cracks a cursed doll case, and Connor digs up a terrifying true story of possession-by-clown. Get ready to enter the Big Top, because it's time to stoke your coulrophobia! 

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SHOW NOTES:

- Chiropractic Ghosts: https://tinyurl.com/5dzfn2jt

 - “Coulrophobia and the Trickster” by Joseph Durwin: https://tinyurl.com/3pbrrrns

- Ringling Brothers official “How to Be A Clown”: https://tinyurl.com/54c4tckx

- Actual Clown Tryouts: https://tinyurl.com/5e3zdka9

- Fear Survey from Chapman University:  https://tinyurl.com/4f8z9sb3

- Why Are We Afraid of Clowns?: https://tinyurl.com/2p8jkjnh

- Reader’s Digest Covers Clowns: https://tinyurl.com/5a87888m

- Atlas Obscura Clown Sighting Map: https://tinyurl.com/5x47ew3e

- The Clown Panic of 2016: https://tinyurl.com/2cwvcycx

- The Clown Who Started the Craze - Gags: https://tinyurl.com/vjasd6vd

- Learn More About Sleep Paralysis: https://tinyurl.com/bde6yu5p

- Emmett Kelly / Weary Willie: https://tinyurl.com/2s4zjbk2

- More on the Kelly Family Story: https://tinyurl.com/wwude726

- Emmett Kelly & Carol Burnett: https://tinyurl.com/2urabcs3

Timestamps:  

00:00 - Ever Been To A Chiropractor?

04:50 - Meet The Cracking Man

06:53 - The Letter & Backstory

15:11 - The Dark Side of the Clown

23:00  -  Slapstick & Resilience

27:58 - So You Want to Be A Clown?

36:16- The Great Clown Purge of 2016

42:36- The Cracking Man Cuddles

58:24 - Mystery Solved?

1:03:05 -  But Wait, There’s More!

01:08:24 - The Clown Classification System

01:12:04- The Bizarre Tale of Weary Willie

01:29:52 - Clown Mode & The Importance of Archetypes

Copyright 2023 Planet Weird

Hosted by Greg and Dana Newkirk

Produced by Connor J Randall

Additional Research by Keelin Mathews

Photography by Karl Pfeiffer

Art by Dustin Williams

Theme by Adam Hayman

"The Disembodied Voice" by Chuck Fresh

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