‘Criminal Minds’ and ‘Law & Order: SVU’ Both Featured Creepy Clown Cases on Wednesday Night

Criminal Minds and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit both a similar theme on Wednesday night: cases involving killer clowns.

While the two crime dramas took the theme is two very different directions, there were were enough similarities in their premises to stand out.

As CBS’ synopsis states, the Criminal Minds episode, entitled “The Capilanos,” sees the team going “to Oklahoma to investigate a murderous clown terrorizing the sleepy town of Guymon.”

Over on SVU, the plot revolved around a missing 16-year-old girl (Mallory Bechtel), who was believed to be murdered by a man (Eric Tabach) she met at a nightclub. She was on a school trip, and she and a friend slipped away from chaperones, including her music teacher (Erik Jensen).

The man in question was wearing a clown mask in the nightclub, and was just a creepy presence overall. The episode quickly ditched the killer clown gimmick early on and settled into a fairly standard story.

Regardless, the clown connection was an easy topic of discussion for fans of both shows, who took to Twitter to point out the similarity.

“Tonight’s episodes of Criminal Minds and SVU BOTH include clowns,” one fan wrote. “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhm, no thanks, I’ll pass.”

Another fan wrote, “The best part is, even if you wanted to turn [SVU] off cause you don’t like clowns, you turn on Criminal Minds and it’s more clowns! (But who in the right mind wiill turn off SVU?)”

Law & Order: SVU airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC. Criminal Minds airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.

Photo Credit: NBC / David Giesbrecht