I remember one Hallowe’en it was around -5 Celsius with a bit of snow and there were basically no kids around. One guy came up to the door trick or treating in a winter parka. I asked who he was supposed to be and he said “Man, give me a break, it’s freezing out here.” I couldn’t argue with that!
A friend of mine, who is a tall, dark and handsome kind of guy went to a fancy dress party wearing a pullover and carrying a box of Milk Tray chocolates…yes, he was the Milk Tray Man 
Some of the lazy and/or cheap costumes I’ve seen…
Kid with a KFC bucket (clean, I hope) upturned on his head. He had a sign taped to his back that read “Don’t kick the bucket!” I had to admit it was marginally amusing; he got the standard handful of candy. (I award kids extra candy for better costumes. A token amount for no costume/lame costume.)
When I was a kid, if you didn’t have money for a proper costume, there were usually a few costumes that you could do with stuff from around the house - Hobo was one, we’d always see a good handful of kids with dirty faces and hands, super-ragged out ill-fitting clothes, and a bundle tied to the end of a stick. I don’t think I’ve seen any hobo “costumes” in the last 10 years or so at least, so I guess that’s gone out of style.
Seems like there’s always at least one or two kids each year that borrow Mom’s eyeliner to give themselves a widow’s peak (vampire) black nose and whiskers (cat) or an outlined eye-patch/mustache (pirate) and very little else in the way of costume.
The best lazy costume I’ve seen was a guy who wore his normal business suit to a costume party - he had on a blue t-shirt with the Superman S logo on it under the suit, had his dress shirt unbuttoned a few buttons and pinned back, his tie pinned back over his shoulder and false chunky black glasses. Really worked and only needed the t-shirt…
I did the same thing once, except I wrote 'Ishmael". Only one girl got it.
One Halloween I answered the door to reveal a large black teenager dressed in street clothes using a backpack for his loot. We decided he was Shaft.
Laziest costume I ever saw was a women with black makeup around one eye, and a name tag that read “Susan.” She was a Black-Eyed Susan.
Wear regular clothes Attach sign saying “Nudist on Strike.”
I wore Dad’s Navy uniform from WWII at least once, might have worn it again after we moved to another state. Weird that I, at age 12, could fit something that he last wore at age 19.
Personally, I’m of the opinion that for something to be a costume, it must include at least three separate components that aren’t part of your normal accoutrement. This can include accessories, and you can have more, but there need to be at least three.
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A hat
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A cape
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Hi Opal!
NO CAPES!
(WhyNot, recycling catch phrases from movies everyone else has forgotten since 1983)
An ‘Aang’…who just painted the arrow over his not particularly short hair, and wore regular clothes.
Mister, we don’t cotton to that kind of high falutin talkin round these here parts. And to be honest that word sounds kinda French and dirty.
Sometime in my later kids days my friends and I had decided that Halloween was too childish for us. But we got together for Halloween anyway. It was probably a a Friday or Saturday night where we got together at somebodies house anyway.
Well, back in the days of 3 channels we not surprisingly got bored rather quickly. Then we decided trick or treating beat a night of checkers. Random crappy costumes ensued.
Mine was a poncho and a full motorcycle helmet with a visor. The third “part” was only apparent later. At the end of the night I realized I had had my fly quite and obviously open the whole night (but my mothers constant advice about clean underwear saved the night to some extent I suppose).
In hindsight I guess I was going as my future self when on a tequila bender.
This is when you need a few strips of paper with ‘candy’ written on them to hand out. 
We don’t really have Halloween or trick-or-treating here, occasionally you’ll see a few kids who make an effort but seem to end the night dissapointed because none of the home-owners remembered or have anything to give out.
(WhyNot I remember the movie. I used that line myself on Friday.)
My husband and I often do lazy costumes. We get invited to a costume party every year and I’m a terrible planner. Last year we went as each other. I wore a polo and jeans with tennis shoes, which is his standard work clothing. He wore one of my shirts, jeans, and a wig. We got a lot of laughs. This year I ironed a black Fe on to a white t-shirt for him which he wore with jeans. I wore a grey business suit, put my blond hair up, and carried a pot (to try and hint at my character’s last name.) Everyone got my husband’s costume and no one got mine, so my costume was pretty much a failure. (Probably because I look nothing like Gwyneth.)
We always do couple costumes though because it’s one of the best parts of being in a relationship and also one of three ways to show I have a husband and he’s not made up.
Didn’t Fonzie do that once? Or maybe he was trying to be Marlon Brando.
Preach it! I’ve ranted about that shit before.
That was going to be my answer, too. Standard guy’s halloween costume - hockey jersey and jeans. Lame. Lame lame lame.
Pictreof my husband’s costume from yesterday. He’s got tons of jerseys, but he’s not lazy like that!
My tactic for dealing with poor costumes:
Saying “Trick or treat” gets you a piece of candy.
Any attempt at a costume gets you two.
A cool-looking costume gets you three pieces.
Teenagers who were taking their kid siblings out and couldn’t be arsed to so much as wear one of Dad’s work shirts and draw a fake mustache with an eyebrow pencil may have been annoyed, but scroom. It’s Halloween.