EXCLUSIVE! Northampton Clown was clowning around

• Northampton Clown has unsettled local community
• In an interview%2C the clown says it was all in jest
• The clown%27s identity is still not known

LONDON — So the mysterious clown that has been giving residents in and around Princess Diana's home county of Northamptonshire the heebie-jeebies lately has finally had his say.

The Northampton Clown has spoken exclusively — albeit anonymously — with local paper the Northampton Chronicle & Echo.

And guess what?

First, he's a he, according to the Northampton Chronicle & Echo story.

Second, the sinister, silent appearances in various locations around the East Midlands town of Northampton, population approximately 200,000, in recent days have all been just a bit of old-fashioned fun.

"I just wanted to amuse people," the creepy Pennywise-lookalike said Thursday. Pennywise is a character from Stephen King's 1990 horror movie It.

"Most people enjoy being a bit freaked out and then they can laugh about it afterwards. It's like watching a horror movie, when people get scared they usually start laughing."

Except that not everyone was laughing.

One Facebook user named Tony Taylor commented on the "Spot Northampton's Clown" Facebook page: "Is it safe to approach him?" Another, Sarah Maley, wrote: "I am unsettled by this."

Yet another longtime former resident of Northamptonshire who asked not to be identified — full disclosure, she is married to the author of this story — said that there are "way more scary people in Northampton than this clown." She did not elaborate.

The Northampton Clown did not immediately respond to a message sent via Facebook, and the journalist who bagged the world exclusive with the clown, Callum Jones, was on lunch when USA TODAY first tried calling the Northampton Chronicle & Echo offices.

However, in his story Thursday Jones said that during his interview with the Northampton Clown the jester "regularly made references" to King's drama that the Internet Movie Database says it about "an evil demon who poses as a child-killing clown."

Later, Jones told USA TODAY that during his discussions with the clown the latter had joked that he was "298 and only wakes every 30 years." When pressed, Jones said that his organization agreed to not reveal the identity of the funny man, although it was not quite clear if that identity was made available to the Northampton Chronicle & Echo.

"Naturally, some people would have been extremely frightened by what they saw, but I hope many are starting to see it as a bit of harmless fun," said the clown, attempting to further clarify his position.

The (comic?) entertainer, who has nearly 130,000 likes on his Facebook page, and whose creepy antics have attracted global attention, appears to regularly use two catch phrases on social media: "Beep Beep!" and "I'll be seeing you soon."

But in one post, the clown says he does not use "Twitter as it confused the heck out of me."

Follow USA TODAY's Kim Hjelmgaard on Twitter@khjelmgaard