I’ve been to a good number of costume parties in my time. Some of them tend to be filled with unimaginative outfits (read: predictable store-bought items), but a few of them are attended by folks who have tons of creativity and imagination.
A while back, I was at a large costume dance party with over a hundred attendees. Because of the sheer number of people, the emcee decided to limit the number of people in tn the costume contest. He said, “Please, you can only join the contest if somebody nominates you because you have a really clever or amazing costume. If you’re nominated, line up by the stage and announce yourselves one by one.”
So people nominated their favorite costumed dancers. These were folks with really funny or elaborate outfits – TV characters, comic book characters, and so forth. Some people had clearly put many hours into building their costumes, and it showed. (You folks would have loved some of the Star Wars and Firefly outfits that people wore, for example.)
A few people decided to join the contest even though they weren’t nominated, though. Not a huge deal, except that their costumes were really kinda… lackluster. When his turn came around, one guy – an acquaintance of mine – jumped into the circle and yelled “Taekwondo!” He was wearing his taekwondo uniform.
Now, I’m not saying that it’s not a perfectly good costume. Nor am I saying that every costume has to be outstanding or even clever. However, if the costume contest is supposed to be restricted to the more clever, more interesting costumes, you probably shouldn’t field an entry that was basically pulled out of your gym bag. It’s really not that clever, dude.
Kind of a weird post. Also, I wouldn’t assume that having an “unimaginative outfit” means that a person is necessarily not creative or imaginative. It just means they were unable or unwilling to spend the large amount of time (and sometimes money) necessary to make a really cool custom costume for that one party. Of course, they may also be non-creative and/or unimaginative, but you can’t assume that.
Are you saying that’s mundane? Or perhaps pointless?
I agree, which is why I never said such a thing. Please note that I was only commenting on the costumes, not on the creativity of the people wearing them.
ETA: Okay, I see that I did say that there were people who had tons of creativity and imagination, in contrast to the ones who wore the predictable outfits. Yeah, this could be taken to imply that the ones in the predictable outfits were necessarily uncreative. No, that’s not what I meant, though I do see how that could be inferred.
It seems the umbrage is because given the particular constraints (too many people to judge everyone), you weren’t expecting him to participate in the contest. What if he jumped out with a couple extra gis and yelled “supplies!”
Hey, I went as Greg Wiggle last year. No, my costume wasn’t as elaborate as Lego blok guy or spray painted green army guy or actually wore parts of a pumpkin on his head headless horseman guy but I could pee without help and cleanup after was a breeze. No, I wouldn’t have jumped in the best costume line, but I still had fun.
I believe there were two Zach Galifianakises from The Hangover complete with a doll in a snuggy. They didn’t win the contest either.
Well, it seems to me that if the emcee says that the contest is limited to the more clever and/or creative costumes, then one should make sure that his outfit is at least reasonably clever. I realize that most of us tend to view our own works through rose-colored glasses, but really… wearing one’s taekwondo uniform? Not even remotely interesting.
Nope, no alcohol whatsoever.
I think that a lot of people do tend to think that their costumes are way more awesome than reality warrants. I remember one Halloween party wherein the emcee opened up the costume contest. Most of the folks with store-bought or otherwise mundane costumes sat this out, but several ladies did dash to the stage, wearing standard (and clearly store-bought) witches attire. Nothing distinctive; just the standard black garb with the pointy hats. I realize that these are perfectly cromulent Halloween costumes, and the emcee didn’t place any restrictions on who could join. Still, they hardly seemed like contest material.
Sorry, I was referencing an old joke. Keep in mind that Mrs. Devil and I start gearing up for Halloween sometime in mid-November, but if someone did the above I’d take it as a pretty cool concept.
I saw a video where the Habs players were asked what their least imaginative Hallowe’en costume was. They all pretty much admitted that at some point they just went out in their hockey gear. Given as they are NHL players now…they kind of went as themselves…from the future! See, it’s cool!
The coolest costume I saw last Halloween was a girl who dressed as a female version of the Monopoly guy. Monocle, top hat, and a sexy black and white tuxedo-styled bodysuit (similar to this: Luxury fashion & independent designers | SSENSE).
As for the karate kid, that fits in well with my impression of the overly-enthusiastic strip-mall martial artist.
The best I ever did was a homemade cardboard robot. I used aluminum foil and chrome spray spaint, and really went to town. I even put in sunglasses’ lenses to make a robo-visor to hide my eyes. It was very Bender-esque. But I kept on drinking as I made it, and I decided that I wanted to be a superhero robot. I needed a cape, but all I had was an American flag. So I went this that, and turned my robot into a patriot-type superhero. Straightaway I was confronted by a bunch of red stater good old boys who threatened me with an ass kicking if I let my cape touch the ground. So I revised my costume a third time and became The Robot Who Threatens to Desecrate Your Flag. That was fun.
Oh, and I got carded at every bar I went to, but was never asked to remove my head-covering robot mask.
