Mundane Halloween

November 2, 2021 9:30 PM

Costumes so ordinary they need to be explained.

Previously.

posted by toastyk (24 comments total)

Hahaha. I forgot. Thank you! (Cafeteria costume/pose is so good)
posted by firstdaffodils at 10:01 PM on November 2, 2021

So cute... He'll tear your homework apart.
posted by zaixfeep at 10:14 PM on November 2, 2021 [2 favorites]

man, I love these, but I get a little salty at times thinking about them, because I first encountered them on Twitter in 2019. "Oh man, nice, gotta make a point of checking out this costume party next year!" I thought, making the critical mistake of looking forward to something happening in 2020.
posted by DoctorFedora at 12:49 AM on November 3, 2021 [11 favorites]

The Japanese hashtag for these is 地味ハロウィン2021 or jimihalloween, and a writer I follow, Makiko Itoh usually does a solid roundup of them, with explanations.

Easily my favorite this year: Neighbor in a crime drama who tells police "They haven't been home for three days."
posted by Ghidorah at 1:05 AM on November 3, 2021 [17 favorites]

*Me, with khakis, white button-down and a tie printed with the image of Marvel's God of Thunder*

HIM: So, what's your costume? I don't get it.
ME: I'm a law enforcement officer.
HIM: What's it got to do w--
ME: ARE YOU QUESTIONING MAH THOR-TIE? *aggresive step-in* ARE YOU QUESTIONING MAH THOR-TIE?

No, I didn't actually do it, but I've been threatening the SO that I would do it for years. I even have the tie. Srsly.
posted by eclectist at 3:39 AM on November 3, 2021 [18 favorites]

Street vendor with thumb in soup FTW.

And not just because of the effort made to produce a round ramen photo so as to not actually spill soup or burn finger.
posted by chavenet at 3:48 AM on November 3, 2021 [8 favorites]

Not pictured: Woman who bought a Costco-sized bag of candy but had no takers because two years ago, all she had to offer the single pint-sized Batman who came to her door was a bag of ginger chews from Trader Joe's (Batman was extremely polite with his high-pitched "no, thank you;" no BIFFs or POWs at all!), and of course last year there was no Halloween, so this year she was ready to go all out, but Batman has either moved or didn't want to risk being offered a non-candy candy, so now she's eating her way through the Twixes and KitKats and is trying to figure out what to do with the disgusting discs that are York Peppermint Patties.

Phew.
posted by basalganglia at 4:43 AM on November 3, 2021 [16 favorites]

I love these so much. I very strongly related to “Someone who was taking their mask off, and accidentally took their glasses off too.”
posted by trillian at 5:13 AM on November 3, 2021 [22 favorites]

Grocery shopper wearing blue surgical mask.
posted by y2karl at 5:40 AM on November 3, 2021

The woman whose glasses fogged up with a hot drink: me every day with a mask on, going indoors.
posted by lhauser at 5:51 AM on November 3, 2021 [4 favorites]

One of the better examples of this concept that I’ve seen outside of these actual parties is a couple I saw years ago, who dressed up as the people from the Tapatío and Cholula hot sauce labels
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:12 AM on November 3, 2021 [2 favorites]

Thanks Ghidorah! It was late and I couldn't figure out how to make the encoding for the Japanese hashtag link work.
posted by toastyk at 6:40 AM on November 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

Also I am the person who tried to declutter and ended up on her phone.
posted by toastyk at 6:41 AM on November 3, 2021 [7 favorites]

My favorite Japanese mundane Halloween costume (which I can't find an example of right now) is the guy who went as "everybody's dad in pictures from the 1970s." I think he had a version with and without a mustache, too.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:36 AM on November 3, 2021 [5 favorites]

My favorite this year is the person who showed up for the free trial lesson.
posted by emmling at 7:47 AM on November 3, 2021 [15 favorites]

the disgusting discs that are York Peppermint Patties

We must fight now.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:58 AM on November 3, 2021 [15 favorites]

The next time I find myself living somewhere with friends in travelling distance, I intend to host one of these parties.
posted by acb at 9:53 AM on November 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

Guy who accidentally wore a really elaborate and cool costume to a mundane costume party.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 9:57 AM on November 3, 2021 [5 favorites]

My favorite this year is the person who showed up for the free trial lesson.

So perfect. The mismatched top and bottom, the arm clutching bottle and towel, the anxious, peering face.
posted by penguin pie at 10:50 AM on November 3, 2021 [2 favorites]

I inadvertently wore a mundane costume to a concert this year. I thought I was going as Overloaded Ben Affleck but nobody really got the joke and people just thought I was "Guy from Boston Who Managed To Find A Dunkin Donuts in the MGM Grand Arena."
posted by bondcliff at 3:02 PM on November 3, 2021 [6 favorites]

This is the ur-illustration of relatableness. Or I guess it is not necessary to have been exactly that person (hello person looking for a table at the food court), but to be familiar with that person. I want to dress up as person at the fast food restaurant who has forgotten what nugget sauces they offer, but I'm afraid that the expression of befuddlement will become permanent. Or person who forgot they hid their bowl of curry rice (or omelet, or anything that is gross dried out and not very shelf stable) from the cats in the microwave and left it inside overnight.
posted by spamandkimchi at 3:18 PM on November 3, 2021 [3 favorites]

a gaijin who is upset because he accidentally bought doggy snacks instead of human snacks
posted by myotahapea at 3:20 PM on November 3, 2021 [6 favorites]

Today I was the person who used an automatic hand-sanitiser dispenser on entering a store and it slopped out an obscene amount of a particularly sticky and clingy hand-sanitiser that just wouldn't absorb and evaporate so they ended up walking around the store surreptitiously wiping their hands on their trousers and trying not to touch anything which sort of defeated the point of going into the store in the first place.
posted by Balthamos at 4:10 AM on November 4, 2021 [2 favorites]

Balthamos' story reminds me of a tweet I saw some time ago from someone who got the dispensers confused at a coffee shop and, instead of sanitiser, pumped simple syrup over their hands; a cursory Twitter search for the words syrup and sanitizer seems to indicate that this was not an isolated incident.

As I no longer go places where any Halloween costume would be appropriate, much less one of such subtlety, I make a free present to whomever may wish to deploy it the idea of wandering one of these gatherings with chagrin on one's face and sticky goo on one's hands.
posted by myotahapea at 10:15 AM on November 4, 2021 [1 favorite]