NOT funny. Not even remotely.
Original version: you witness what appears to be a murder*. The murderer now comes after you. What should you do?
Clearly, what you should do is: stop him, before he kills you or someone else. But apparently this "prank" is being done in a jurisdiction where no one carries weapons... unless a cop (or a gangster) happens to wander into the trap. So no worries about the prankster getting killed. The victim? If he has a heart attack, or, while fleeing in blind panic, trips and bashes his head against a concrete wall, falls down a staircase, or runs into traffic? I suppose that would just make it funnier... right?
Later versions: you see someone alongside a road, at night, with two bodies and a shovel. He comes after you with the shovel. Or: you enter a parking garage, and someone revs up a chainsaw and comes after you with it.
In any case: you have a well-founded fear that your life is in imminent danger. And, further, that it's not personal, and if this lunatic is not stopped, he'll find someone else to kill. Ergo, if it is within your power to stop him, you have a moral obligation to do so, by any means available.
Oh, sure: as commenters are quick to point out, real homicidal maniacs don't dress up like evil clowns. I mean, apart from the Las Vegas cop-killer, who apparently liked to dress up as The Joker. And wasn't there another mass murderer a few years back with a Joker obsession? But, apart from those concrete examples, it's just inconceivable that, in a society obsessed with grotesque movie villains, a movie-obsessed villain would dress up as one in order to act out the part.
* Clearly not a defensive killing. Someone who kills in self-defense wouldn't be using a giant hammer to smash the head of an "assailant" who's lying on the ground. Nor would he pursue a witness. Stand still and yell for the witness to call the police, sure. Run after him, brandishing a weapon? Not so much.
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