An internet meme costume is cool as long as at least a few of your fellow Halloween party-goers recognize what you are trying to portray. Of course, not everyone is a citizen of the 'net (believe it or not), so you must be prepared to explain yourself to someone who is not familiar with the meme.
Internet meme costumes generally fall into two categories: topical and perennial. Topical memes are centered around an event, like a news story. With these, timing is everything. Let's look at topical meme costumes first.
Bed Intruder
A home intrusion and attempted rape last summer led to the hottest internet personality of 2010. The original news report grabbed our interest. Antoine Dodson, the victim's brother, was autotuned into a hit song. The likable Dodson leveraged the notoriety into a new home for his family and an appearance at the BET awards. And a Halloween costume.
The Bed Intruder Halloween costume, purchased or homemade, is set to be the number one meme costume for 2010. In contrast, Officer Bubbles would be an easy costume to pull off with just a police uniform and a bottle of soap bubbles, but the meme is so new that there are no pictures of such a costume ...yet. No doubt someone will try the costume this Halloween, but may have to explain it to everyone.
Old Spice Guy
Another topical meme costume popular this year is the Old Spice Guy. The costume shown was seen at the Wizard World Con in Chicago. Know Your Meme has instructions for pulling this one off.
Double Rainbow
A meme doesn't have to be illustrated as the character behind it. This costume was obviously inspired by the Double Rainbow meme from Paul Vasquez’s video recording his awe at seeing a double rainbow at Yosemite. Only time will tell if the Double Rainbow meme will be popular next year.
Balloon Boy
In contrast, the Balloon Boy costume was perfect ...for 2009. This year, it just seems like something that you should have worn last year.
Spaghetti Cat
Spanning the gap between topical and perennial, Spaghetti Cat was a meme born of a one-second piece of video used to cover up a NSFW moment on a talk show in August of 2008. However, if the costume is as good as the one pictured here, you could probably get away with wearing it two years later. Cats never go out of style. Speaking of cats...
LOLcats
LOLcat costumes are truly perennial, and a natural since cats have always been associated with Halloween. You just take any cat costume and add a simple prop with a caption, like this ceiling cat costume.
Or the cheezburger cat, worn here by Matt Cutts.
Flickr user Allison Moore apparently couldn't decide on just one caption for her Halloween Kitten costume, so she made a sign with a variety of captions!
Flickr user pinguino k combined two internet memes in 2008 when she made this LOLcat/Soviet Russia getup, complete with a cheezburger.
Keyboard Cat
Keyboard Cat is an easier costume for a human than for a cat. Brad Farrell wore the costume shown for the HallowMeme Costume Party last year. See more versions of this costume, including a video, at WTF Costumes. Image by Flickr user urlesque.
Flying Spaghetti Monster
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories has instructions for making your own Flying Spaghetti Monster costume. Here's another version of the FSM costume. Image by Flickr user Windell Oskay.
Websites
Some poster board and an ability to draw a logo is all you need to make a costume of your favorite website. This is a perennial meme, but which website you choose will show how current you are. Facebook is hot; MySpace, not so much. Wearing a GeoCities website might just be retro enough to be cool -especially if you include a lot of glitter! This post features instructions and pictures of costumes portraying Facebook, Digg, MySpace, YouTube, and even a 404 page ...which is what you wear when you DON'T show up at the party!
If it's recognizable, even a small part of a website can be a costume, such as this Facebook Default Profile.
This homemade Twitter bird costume by Carol Zara had to be the life of the party!
You can even dress up as a browser logo. Firefox is the preferred costume, as it has recognizable features. This Firefox costume was entered in Crunchgear's contest last year. It can also be done as a couple costume.
All these costumes have the most important ingredients for an internet Halloween costume: imagination and a sense of fun!