Disturbing reason you never see the McDonald’s clown anymore

If you grew up with McDonald’s, there’s a good chance you’ll remember the Ronald McDonald clown.

He was the face of the fast food giant, and someone that you’d see plastered all over the marketing, advertisements and also the diner itself.

However, you might also remember that you’ve not seen the clown for a while, which is weird, because he had been a staple since the 1960s.

The mascot was a happy clown, who wore a yellow boiler suit, a white face and a red wig, with the stereotypical clown makeup and big red shoes.

Not only did Maccies have good-old Ronald, but it also had other characters such as Mates with Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird and The Fry Kids to entertain the kiddies.

Ronald McDonald was a staple (Getty Stock Images)

But not everyone liked Ronald.

I know, it’s hard to imagine that - but oddly, that has nothing to do with why he was axed after decades of being a large figure in the company.

It was around 2016 that you might have last seen his face, as McDonalds took the time that year to begin cutting characters.

It all began as a response to the social media trend called the Mannequin Challenge.

Sadly it was around August 2016 that the grim trend of killer clowns sent the world rather mad for a short period of time.

Scarily, sometimes they also came armed with knives to add further fear to those they preyed on.

It was happening everywhere, and for a long time, many countries around the world saw 'killer clowns' terrorise them for no good reason, other than to make people scared of clowns.

Like enough people aren’t scared of them already.

Anyway, while the trend was initially a marketing stunt for a horror film, it soon got out of hand when people online decided that they’d give it a try themselves.

Queue the end of Ronald.

The end of Ronald was due to a social media trend (Getty Stock Images)

Maccies released a statement at the time, which read: "McDonald's and franchisees in the local markets are mindful of the current climate around clown sightings in communities and as such are being thoughtful in respect to Ronald McDonald's participation in community events for the time being."

A statement on the UK McDonalds website also said: "We're afraid that Ronald McDonald no longer appears in McDonald's UK advertising, but he is still very busy working for us.

"He often travels up and down the country to help promote some of our exciting new activities and visits our restaurants to make sure everyone is enjoying their meals."

Thanks, killer clowns.

To be honest, clowns have regularly been given a bad rap when it comes to their association with killings.

For example, you had real-life serial killer, John Wayne Gacy who would dress up as a clown to entertain kids in his area.

Then, American Horror Story created a season which saw a clown kill a whole load of people.

Again, another scary clown is Pennywise from Stephen King’s IT.

Really, there has never been a worse time to be a clown.