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Last week we asked you to send us picture of your Halloween costumes, and did you ever! Picking our favorites was no easy task. Leave it to our readers to get creative on Halloween; no off-the-rack costumes here, and a minimum of blood and gore, to boot. Not that we don’t fully embrace blood-’n'-gore here at the floss, but I’ve seen so many Jason, Freddy, Leatherface, Scream guy and Jigsaw costumes over the past few ‘weens, it makes me wonder why instead of dressing up like fictional serial killers people never cross that line and dress up like real ones? You’d think a Jeffrey Dahmer costume would be pretty easy to whip up, for instance: just put on your mid-80s rapist glasses and carry around a few fake body parts for the evening. (No? Oh, well.) Unfortunately, I’m a bad role model — my costume was unspeakably lame — partly because I had already put together a costume for John Green, who was in LA doing a book reading and needed a last-minute costume. Since it was up to me, I dressed him as Walt Whitman:
(If he doesn’t look like he’s about to loose any barbaric yawps, it’s because he kept swallowing bits of the $5 beard which was, by all accounts, the centerpiece of the costume.) Now without further ado, on to the reader-submitted costumes!
Well actually, first we’ll do a blogger-submitted costume: Stacy and friend went all-out as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett (at Disneyland?) — and even had this talented person make her pie purse!
Reader Kyla dressed as her favorite non-Charlie-Brown Peanuts character, Lucy Van Pelt. She writes: “I built the booth so I could wear it at my desk and carry it around with me when I walked. It was a lot of fun, and the best part was every one who walked into my office on Friday and saw me sitting there in it had to smile (I’m a receptionist.) Not to mention people kept putting money in my jar (not pictured!) The costume ended up paying for itself!”
Kate Bryant came up with a flossy twist on your typical “sexy” female costume (sexy witch, sexy cop, sexy vampire, etc) — sexy Abe Lincoln! Hey, Kate: you can emancipate us anytime! Hubba hubba!
Megan and her friend Arnie dressed as a cheap romance novel cover, which I assume only makes sense once they’re photoshopped onto said cover, as they are here:
But because Megan refuses to repeat a costume, even if it’s at two parties on the same night, she also dressed as Carmen Sandiego:
… as did Victoria Gonzales, complete with cheap ploy to get us to print her photo (it worked):
Bryan Yerman went as Waldo …
… while Jeannie and her husband went as Carmen Sandiego and Waldo. OK, we get it — our readers love missing persons costumes! What, no Amelia Earhart? No Jimmy Hoffa, no Steve Fossett? (Oh wait, they found him. It woulda been funny, tho.)
Finally, reader Peter Donahue couldn’t bear to pry himself away from his Facebook page to go trick-or-treating … so he took it with him. (We just hope he didn’t superpoke anyone.)
Thanks again for all your great entries — we’re looking forward to next year!
Comments (12)
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Who’s Steve Fossett? To Google, I reckon!
posted by Sara on 11-3-2008 at 12:58 pm
Steve fossett was an adventurer, they have been looking for his plane wreckage for a while now, and they just found it and possibly his remains..
maybe it was a little too soon for a joke on that one, eh ransom?
reCAPTCHA: Review ITY
posted by Future Mrs. Frusciante on 11-3-2008 at 1:02 pm
Nice work, everyone! Sexy Abe Lincoln made me laugh out loud. Love it!
posted by kate on 11-3-2008 at 1:29 pm
Stacy and husband, at Disneyworld :)
recaptcha: securely Election. Hmmm.
posted by stacy on 11-3-2008 at 3:16 pm
I love the Carmen Sandiego costume, and actually thought, “Wow, how original!” until three different people came as Carmen.
My high school lets everyone dress up on Halloween, and has a contest for the best costumes. One group of friends dressed up as the cast from Arthur. They even had our math teacher don a pointy nose and portray Mr. Ratburn!
ReCAPTCHA: injured deeply
posted by Allison on 11-3-2008 at 6:31 pm
This is why I love Halloween! Speaking of missing persons, what about a D.B. Cooper costume? A suit, a pair of sunglasses, a pillowcase full of fake money…and a parachute (backpack?).
I dressed up as a monster doll- complete with teddy bear with four safety pins I stuck in it.
posted by sb22 on 11-3-2008 at 7:51 pm
Thanks for telling me about Steve Fossett, Future Mrs. Frusciante.
posted by Sara on 11-3-2008 at 10:02 pm
Once, in twelth grade. I dressed up as the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. I did it for Halloween the one semester I was at Faulkner University and won second place in the costume contest. Although people kept thinking I was a farmer.
posted by Sara on 11-3-2008 at 10:06 pm
One year I scared people with my costume. I dressed as the “artist conception (description) of the unibomber.” All I did was wear a gray hooded sweatshirt, sunglasses, and carry a small box wrapped in brown paper(with a mailing label). A guy told me that even my car scared his wife.
Come to think of it, that ugly old LeSabre was a scary looking bomb.
posted by Tdave on 11-4-2008 at 2:52 am
Those are great. I should’ve submitted my Joker costume. I dressed like the Joker from Dark Knight, buying my outfit almost completely from Goodwill. I found purple leather gloves at Burlington Coat Factory, they were the only new item I bought for the entire outfit plus they were the last ones! I did all the make-up too, I even sprayed my hair green(part of my scalp is still green and I’ve washed it 6 times!!)!
posted by Taryn on 11-4-2008 at 7:44 am
I wish I had been more on top of this! I should have submitted my condom costume! Hula hoop + plastic table cloths + cardboard + tin foil + plastic sticky book covers + a marker = best costume everrr
(and the best part is – it was my mom’s idea!)
..maybe when I get home I’ll send it in anyways.
posted by Bri on 11-5-2008 at 2:43 pm
oh my god!!! john green!!! i love him!
posted by Allison on 10-15-2009 at 9:28 pm