Whack-a-Clown (on Square Town) is the free public action that removes a clown square from the wall. Square Town (square.pov.town) is a favicon wall; a square with no favicon is a dead pixel wearing a 🤡, and any visitor — no deed, no payment — can whack it off. Kissing is how the town shows love; whacking is how it administers justice.
TL;DR: a free square that still has no favicon 24 hours after claiming can be knocked off the wall by anyone, for free — unless the favicon check at the moment of the whack finds an icon, in which case the whack saves them instead.
The rules on Square Town
- Only free claims are whackable. A paid square keeps its 🤡 but is immune — removing a paid square always costs money (an eviction at 2× what the owner paid). They bought immunity from the mob, not from ridicule. The Throne is paid, so it's exempt.
- 24-hour grace. A fresh claimant gets a day to read the clown on their deed and add a favicon before open season. The deed shows the countdown.
- The mercy check. Every whack re-runs the full favicon check, fresh, at the moment of execution. An icon that now resolves makes the whack fail and clears the clown — a 🎈 escape in the feed. Every whack attempt is a free favicon amnesty; the mallet cannot remove a site that mended its ways, and a check that can't complete removes nobody: unproven guilt walks.
- One whack every 10 seconds, town-wide. The Hall of Clowns drains as theater, one act at a time; each whack is a scarce, broadcast event — a giant mallet falls on the tower on every open browser, the red nose bounces off, three juggling balls scatter.
- No land grab. The freed lot goes straight back on the market with no reservation for the whacker; wanting their spot is an eviction, and evictions cost money. The whacker stays anonymous ("somebody whacked 🤡 example.com off the wall"), and the whacked domain may reclaim a square immediately — the door was never locked.
Where else it appears
Nowhere, as of August 2026. Uploaded-artwork walls can't have it: nothing on them can be missing. Only a wall that displays your live favicon can make "no favicon" a public state — and give the public a mallet.
Example
A domain claims a square, ships no favicon, and ignores the 🤡 for a week. Someone opens its card, holds the 🔨 button for two seconds, and the town watches a mallet drop out of the sky. If the site had quietly deployed an icon that morning, the same button-press would have cleared its clown and put its real favicon on the wall — the whack can only ever punish sites that still deserve it.
FAQ
Can I whack any clown?
No — only a clown that claimed its square for free and has held it for over 24 hours. Paid clowns can only be removed by a paid eviction, and one whack lands every 10 seconds across the whole town.
Do I get the square if I whack it?
No. The lot reopens at $0 for anyone, including the whacked domain. Whacking is justice, not a land grab.
I got whacked. Is my domain banned?
Not at all. Add a favicon (how to) and claim a square again, free, immediately.
Does whacking cost anything?
Nothing, ever. It's one of the town's free verbs, next to looking, kissing and rechecking.