Ronald McDonald Playground Slaughter turned the McDonalds' mascot into a slasher. While circus clowns are intended to entertain families and young children, there's no denying that many people can find clowns a little creepy. That's one reason they regularly fixture in horror movies and fiction. Pennywise The Dancing Clown from Stephen King's IT is one famous example, with the character really being a shapeshifting monster from another dimension. Tim Curry's iconic performance as Pennywise in the 1990 IT miniseries would only help cement clowns as sinister figures in pop culture.
There's also the Joker, who is arguably the most famous comic book villain of all time. He's been memorably brought to life in various TV shows and movie incarnations, including Mark Hamill in Batman: The Animated Series and Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. Other examples of clowns not receiving a very positive reception include Killer Clowns From Outer Space to All Hallow's Eve and Poltergeist.
Ronald McDonald was famously the mascot of fast-food chain McDonalds for many years. Ronald is an innocent, fun-loving figure but he was essentially retired in 2016 following a spike in creepy clown sightings across the U.S. While time will tell if he's retired for good, short film Ronald McDonald Playground Slaughter turned him in a vicious serial killer. The video was created by brothers Michael and Dan Phillippou for their popular YouTube channel RackaRacka, and is in no way endorsed by McDonalds; fair warning, the video is SUPER gory.
Ronald McDonald Playground Slaughter opens with a boy being forced by older kids to say "Ronald McDonald" into a mirror three times, which supposedly summons him like the Candyman or Bloody Mary. Nothing seems to happen, so the kid's return to a birthday party celebration, while the boy who said his name spots Ronald stalking him. Ronald later gets beaten up by the bullies, but he soon pulls out a hatchet and things get very bloody. The short features graphic disembowelments, decapitations and the clown ripping the tongue out of a luckless victim's mouth, with Ronald McDonald Playground Slaughter generally depicting the mascot as a squeaky-voiced psychopath.
Ronald McDonald Playground Slaughter is actually one of many RackaRacka videos to feature this twisted version of the character. For a short that's less than five minutes long it's certainly intense, and might make even hardened gorehounds wince in a couple of places. When it comes to McDonalds bringing back the clown to be their mascot again in the future, Ronald McDonald Playground Slaughter probably won't help with his image problem.