# Just throw in a couple pleats and be done with it! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 29, 2012, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-throw-in-a-couple-pleats-and-be-done-with-it/620295 "2012-04-29T03:04:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-throw-in-a-couple-pleats-and-be-done-with-it/620295/61 "2012-05-02T11:48:31Z")
It’s because of a Japan Feedback Loop™. People have dressed up for ages, in Japan people began dressing up to **anime** and called it “kosupure” (because the Japanese are **obsessed** with shortening words – especially English loan words/terms). Then when anime became popular in America, Americans decided that along with the loan word “anime” (which itself is just a Japan Feedback Loop™ from “animation”) they’d take “cosplay” to go along with it. Then it kind of evolved into “dressing up as any cartoon character when it’s not Halloween.” ---
**Author:** ![Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-throw-in-a-couple-pleats-and-be-done-with-it/620295/62 "2012-05-02T15:39:58Z")
> [@digs](#): > > One so rarely sees an actual tautology in real life. > > And, for the record, as a dad and a teacher I have chosen to act like an adult. But I can’t fault someone for getting to act childishly. Well, when someone uses a word that already has negative connotations to it in order to defend it, there’s little reason to go beyond tautology to explain my distaste. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-throw-in-a-couple-pleats-and-be-done-with-it/620295/63 "2012-05-02T17:05:26Z")
> [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](#): > > If you’re over the age of 12 and playing dress-up outside the confines of your bedroom or a theater, you’re inviting mockery. If you’re being a jerk about it to the parents whom you’ve hijacked into designing your costume for you, you deserve it even more so. Ooooh! Ooooh! What if you’re performing a skit at a fan convention? /two-time cosplay skit winner //probably because she did it with actual theatre nerds ---
**Author:** ![Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-throw-in-a-couple-pleats-and-be-done-with-it/620295/64 "2012-05-02T19:22:06Z")
> [@kushiel](#): > > Ooooh! Ooooh! What if you’re performing a skit at a fan convention? > > /two-time cosplay skit winner > //probably because she did it with actual theatre nerds If it’s a Shakespeare fan convention, you have my blessing. if you’re dressed up as a half-klingon, half-wombat being slain by Sephiroth, I’m taking your lunch money. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-throw-in-a-couple-pleats-and-be-done-with-it/620295/65 "2012-05-02T19:24:07Z")
> [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](#): > > If it’s a Shakespeare fan convention, you have my blessing. if you’re dressed up as a half-klingon, half-wombat being slain by Sephiroth, I’m taking your lunch money. I’m not sure you’d want to try to take lunch money from a Klingon. Even a half-Klingon. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-throw-in-a-couple-pleats-and-be-done-with-it/620295/66 "2012-05-02T19:27:52Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > I’m not sure you’d want to try to take lunch money from a Klingon. Even a half-Klingon. Yeah, I think Trekkie cooties mature into a nasty type of syphilis or something. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-throw-in-a-couple-pleats-and-be-done-with-it/620295/67 "2012-05-02T22:41:15Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Apparently high school plays and historic reenactments need to be clearly separated from Comic Con attendees and Renaissance Fairs - by spelling and affected hipster airs. Are you saying Renaissance Fairs are cosplay? Really? Do I have permission to wear my kilt when I emcee the local Scottish Highland Games or host the Robert Burns supper, or is that geeky cosplay, too? How about if I wear a cowboy hat and boots when I’m in a rodeo? Oh, my! Was it cosplay when I wore a tux to that black-tie New Year banquet? ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-throw-in-a-couple-pleats-and-be-done-with-it/620295/68 "2012-05-02T23:29:37Z")
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:67, topic:620295”] Are you saying Renaissance Fairs are cosplay? Really? Do I have permission to wear my kilt when I emcee the local Scottish Highland Games or host the Robert Burns supper, or is that geeky cosplay, too? How about if I wear a cowboy hat and boots when I’m in a rodeo? Oh, my! Was it cosplay when I wore a tux to that black-tie New Year banquet? [/QUOTE] London, ON, is known for being rather dull. In '96 its fine citizens collectively freaked when some swingers tried to rent the convention centre. I attended a wedding in London at which there was no alochol, and although there was a DJ, there was no dancing. In London, cosplay has been confined to certain places in Storybrook Gardens (refer to the [video at 00:28](http://www.storybook.london.ca/About_Storybook/pdfs/STORYBOOK.flv) seconds in), and even there it is given the more snooty term of _roleplaying_. Storybrook’s mascot is a furry made in memory of a sea lion who after only spending a single night there, said to hell with this and swam off to the far more exciting Cedar Point Amusement Park in Ohio. In short, please forgive Elbows, for she is a victim of her environment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-throw-in-a-couple-pleats-and-be-done-with-it/620295.md?page=3)