The Social Acceptability List 2016

Another year whipped by, and it turned out to be a year like no other. Rulebooks are being burned and ripped up and rewritten, and what’s deemed acceptable has become a game of trial and error. The Overton Window has been stretched, but perhaps only for those with the most vocal following. So what’s in and what’s out? The Fallen in Public look at our politicians, newspapers and netizens - What’s in? What’s out? What’s OK? What’s not? Read on to find out...

IT'S IN! Scaring the shit out of people

AT THEIR BEST, CLOWNS ARE UNSETTLING, BUT IN 2016 THEY WENT TERRIFYING. The killer clown craze, starting in the USA, later embraced in the UK, Canada and Australia was born by social media, and boosted by the constantly mortified traditional media, putting fear or joy into readers' hearts depending on their blood pressure.

A harmless prank or a menace? Why not both?

Clowns with knives were seen, lending weight to the theory that these are a new breed of terrorist; panic that paedophiles and sexual molesters might disguise themselves as clowns spread in the news, which would be a strange occurrence because these sorts tend to have more success when they disguise themselves as people.

How coincidental is it that this craze occurred in 2016? ‘You have no right not to be scared’ weirdly parallels the ‘you have no right to not be offended’ jibe coming from the anti-liberals on Twitter, or those who wear T-shirts saying ‘Does my American flag offend you? Call 1-800-LEAVE-THE-USA’. It’s been a year of victory for those that scaring the shit out of people, being offensive, being unkind and inconsiderate, all for kicks is appropriate because it’s not illegal. Don’t like it? Deal with it.

Even scarier were the clowns on the TV – Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Nigel Farage, and Donald Trump – proving once and for all that clowns aren’t funny but just give you nightmares.