Mississippi had creepy clown years ago

Maybe it's because we're tired of reading election stories. Or maybe it's because we've been reading so many election stories that we, as a nation, are now obsessed with clowns.

Playing off these (justifable) fears, clown sightings or rumors of the make-up'ed menaces have run rampant — one such rumor was found to be untrue in Starkville this week.

Yet, I'd like to remind everyone who has added "killer clowns" to their Google alerts that Mississippi has "been there, done that" with this new trend nearly two years ago.

2014 STORY: Creepy clown lurks in town  

Yeah, check out the gallery of this bucketful of nightmares.

Shortly after writing the first story, breaking news reporter Therese Apel decided to take on the craziest mission (in my opinion) that's ever been attempted in the history of "You know this will end in murder" ideas — she talked to It. (I'm not saying the entity was capable of homicide by ax, but I'm pretty sure that's taught in clown college.)

2014 CLOWN UNMASKED: Therese talks to 'It'

For the record, I am not scared of clowns.

I'm just scared of what those evil demon spawns will do to me when they catch me (probably murder me while laughing).

More sightings have been seen in other states over the last few weeks, or what I call "behind the trend" states. Check 'em out below.

GEORGIA

ALABAMA

SOUTH CAROLINA

NORTH CAROLINA

WISCONSIN