Ah yes, Halloween. The one night of the year where you get to pretend to be someone else, or for some, the night you really get to show off your own interests in the form of a costume so obscure you’ll likely be explaining it for the rest of the evening.
It seems I can’t go a day without scrolling on TikTok and seeing someone dressing up as something so abstract; I have to question if it’s genius or just pretentious as hell. You don’t even need to be a “character” anymore. You could be an object, an event, an abstract concept. I, no joke, saw someone dress up as “The microphone around James Charles neck” the other day. And while it’s all in jest, I have to question: how niche is too niche? Do you really want to keep clarifying your costume to every person you meet?
I suppose I can’t be one to judge; last Halloween my friends and I dressed up as Art, Patrick, and Tashi from the movie Challengers (which, to our credit, was a very popular movie at the time). However, we spent the better part of the night explaining who we were rather than laughing along with people who were able to recognize us. I still stand by that costume, though. It was fun to dress up as the characters and joke around as them among my friends who did understand it. So, I’d say I am more in favor of the more obscure costume than not.
There is no shame in going as a “classic” Halloween costume either. Witches, princesses, vampires, superheroes; they’re all super great and also super easy to put together. In this economy, sometimes the cheapest costume is the best costume. But nowadays, I think there is a certain level of pressure to do more than the “basic” Halloween costume. For some, that means making a really intricate vampire costume; for others, that means being something so niche it’s unlikely anyone else will have a costume like yours.
Self-expression goes hand-in-hand with the holiday as well. Certain characters may be an extension of a person’s personality or interests. For example, this Halloween my friend and I are going as Statler and Waldorf (the two old men critics from the muppets). I am already prepping for people to just think we’re going as old men, but my love of the muppets and my desire to portray this love through a fun costume is enough to outweigh the annoyance that may come with no one fully getting it the first time.
Really, I think it comes down to who you are around. Something that may be niche to one person could be common knowledge to another. Pop culture is so varied, so if the costume doesn’t land with someone, that doesn’t mean no one will get it. Do I think having a costume that requires a lot of extra clarification may be taking it a little too far? Yeah, maybe, but if you think it’s funny and it resonates with you, then who am I to stop you? The heart of the holiday is to have fun, so go niche!