Circus

"Circus" is a frequently ripped track from the game .

Summary
"Circus" is the unofficial name given to a 22-second-long sound file randomly played during a normal play-through of the horror game Five Nights at Freddy's. It is a generic sounding circus-like fanfare, although its cheap quality, clicking sound effects, and slightly broken rhythm are supposed to unease the player.

Although no official credit is given to this track, it was featured on the album Organ Music: Sound Effects in 2012.

Rips
The first rip of this song, "Circus Theme - Five Nights At Freddy's", later changed to "Circus (Demo)", was uploaded to the GiIvaSunner channel on March 21, 2016, with a second rip following shortly after on March 23. After the GiIvaSunner Termination wiped those rips, this song changed name to "Circus", starting with the Beta Mix and Alpha Mix uploaded for 4/20 2016.

Most Five Nights at Freddy's series rips, including the vast majority of "Circus" rips, are switcheroos, usually beginning with the actual track before transitioning to a mashup with absolutely no relation to the game (although some don't even bother and directly start with the mashup). The franchise is usually used as a free title slot for contributors to upload whatever they want, but "Circus" was particularly favored and has received the most rips. Over time, realistic mix names names stopped being used for "Circus" rips in lieu of the mix being some sort of clue to the content of the rip.

For the Channel Ending, a mixless Circus rip was finally uploaded to the SiIvaGunner channel, although it's not featured in the FNAF playlist, instead being the announcement for the album Five Nights at Freddy's Original Soundtrack, which holds most of the Season 1 "Circus" rips. As a final twist to the joke, this announcement video is the actual unedited track.

Starting in Season 2, "Circus" rips became more scarce as fake game playlists became more common instead. However, near the end of Season 3 and especially in Season 4, "Circus" rips started being uploaded more often, with a new running gag where they often feature very bizarre mix names that are usually completely unrelated to the rip, usually being puns on "mix". Ironically, the gag became a lot more common in Season 4 compared to previous seasons.

There are currently "Circus" rips on the channel, making it by far the most-ripped song on the channel; "Slider" is a distant second with only a few dozen versions.

Trivia

 * "Circus" rips in Season 1 are usually credited to "N/A" or uncredited, but rips in Season 4 and onwards credit artists or characters related to at least one of the jokes involved.