12 Pun Costumes for Halloween

At your Halloween party, you’ll see the classic scary horror icons, and you’ll see the trendiest pop culture characters, plus a few old standbys like cowboys, clowns, and animals. Every once in a while, though, you’ll see a costume that you have to figure out, because there’s a joke in there that may make you groan. Here are a few of the best costumes that give us a clever visual pun for Halloween.

1. TACO BELLE

AvantGeek, DeviantART

Olivia Mears is a cosplayer and costumer extraordinaire. Her Taco Belle dress decorations are made from card stock, tissue paper, felt, and Taco Bell wrappers. The inspiration came from a previous costume event, when she went for some fast food and contemplated the inadvertent pun. 

2. SAILOR MOON

While everyone else is trying to make their anime Halloween costumes super faithful to the original, this guy took the shortcut with a Navy uniform and a false butt. That's an instant Sailor Moon. Instagram member ubebabe caught this fellow on his rounds last Halloween.

3. ALICE IN CHAINS

colebearden, Imgur

It took redditor colebearden 22 hours of work to get the costume right. Let’s hope that enough people at the Halloween party got the joke to make it worthwhile.

4. AMAZON PRIME

Jerry_Cherry, Imgur

Last Halloween, Jerry_Cherry combined the characters of an Amazon warrior and the Transformer Optimus Prime. The result is Amazon Prime.

5. SILENT KNIGHT

thebobsta, Imgur

Redditor thebobsta’s grandpa made his own Halloween costume out of building materials in his shop. Not only did it turn out to be awesome, but the title gives us a little preview of Christmas dad jokes.

6. THE GRIM REEFER

tehNardDawg, Imgur

For Halloween 2012, tehNardDawg’s father dressed as The Grim Reefer, and didn’t mind his son posting a picture.

7. THE SPICE GIRLS

You know who these ladies are—they’re The Spice Girls! Instagram user kels.vmn and friends dressed up as McCormick spices to raise money for the United Way a couple of years ago.

8. THE THIRD WHEEL

Brettera, Imgur

Redditor Brettera hung a bicycle wheel in front for her Halloween costume. It doesn't make much sense by itself, but as you can see in this gallery of pictures, she spent the evening posing with people wearing couple's costumes. She is the Third Wheel!

Brettera, Imgur

Brettera's inspiration came from her boyfriend, who teamed up with his roommate for a sort-of couples costume without her. A couple's pun costume. These cheerleaders are ceiling fans.

9. ONTARIO BANDANNAS

Photo courtesy of T.J. Griffin, used with permission

In 2005, the big movie in theaters was The Legend of Zorro, starring Antonio Banderas. T.J. Griffin spiced up his Zorro costume by adding some Canadian flags to his neckerchief and armband and was "Zorro, featuring Ontario Bandanas." Ha!

10. EDGAR ALLAN HO

Zacch, Imgur

Redditor zacch mixed a literary figure with a statement on the trend of inappropriately sexy Halloween costumes when he dressed as Edgar Allan Ho. He explained:

I have a little paper sticking out of my pocket that says "Nevermore..." If people didn't get it I told them I was Hipster Hitler.

Of course, the picture sparked dozens of further puns about Poe.

11. ONE-PURSE ENT

yourenotmydad, Imgur

And then there's the pun you have to travel around the world for. It's a good thing redditor yourenotmydad had a sign—otherwise, he'd have had to tell that whole joke to everyone who saw him!

12. WHERE EVERYBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME

Illinformedpseudoint, Imgur

Under the category of things instead of characters, redditor Illinformedpseudoint caught a photograph of a guy dressed as the opening credits of the TV sitcom Cheers (you can see the iconic image itself here). He even has the expression down pat! Strangely, he went to a place "where everyone knows your name,” yet no one knows what his name is.