I don't have some exquisite etymology to link to, and I can't speak to Rachel's personal context, but I'm quite confident that anti-corporate Americans of a cer

I don't have some exquisite etymology to link to, and I can't speak to Rachel's personal context, but I'm quite confident that anti-corporate Americans of a certain age will read "the clown" as a reference to Ronald McDonald, in much the same way that "the mouse" means Mickey Mouse, i.e. Disney.