August 26, 2005

Curious George: Obscure Costume Ideas We're having a "Come as your favorite obscure pop culture reference" Halloween party, and I'm looking for some costume ideas.

I definitely want to find something obscure, but not so obscure that no one will get it. It's a delicate balance, I know. The boyfriend is a font of pop culture knowledge, and I think he's decided to be the Steve Buschemi character from Fargo. Definitely obscure. However, if I could come up with a good costume for the two of us, he might reconsider. We're not into cutesy or corny "couple" ideas. Clever, yes. Way out of left field, yes. Traditional, no. Since we're hosting this thing, I want our costumes to be unforgettably awesome. Either way, I need to come up with a great costume. It's 2 months away, so I have some time to either create or find the necessary components. This party is doubling as our housewarming party. Not sure if that has anything to do with anything, but, there you have it.

posted by MsVader 18 years ago
  • I know it's cheesy to ask you guys for ideas, but considering how busy I'll be in the next 2 months (moving to a new place and being in my brother's wedding), I need all the help I can get.
  • Have you got a MonkeyFilter t-shirt?
  • Klaus Nomi!!
  • warning: linked site has audio Klaus goodness
  • No shirt for me. :( I missed the boat on that one. Fes, when I click the link, all I get is HTML.
  • try this one
  • Hey, if he likes Steve Buscemi, you could go as Verna and Mink from "Miller's Crossing." That way you both could hit on dudes.
  • Electro-woman and/or Dynagirl
  • I think you should each dress as a character from the 80s sitcom "square pegs"....
  • The Ted Knight character from some 80s show that I forget the name of. Just wear some university sweatshirt. And put flour in your hair.
  • Northern Exposed - You're thinking of Henry Rush, from "Too Close for Comfort". I had a crush on both of the Rush girls in that show, especially the dark haired one.
  • It isn't very obscure but I once dressed up as Flava-Flav. It scared the shit of people when they realized I put tinfoil over all my teeth. I grabbed the clock off of the wall and took my shoelaces out. Best costume EVAR.
  • Sleestak.
  • Why not just finish out the gag and go as Marge Gunderson? Bonus Pic
  • This isn't obscure either, but I think going as a Smithers and Mr Burns would be pretty hot as a couple.
  • I thought about going as Marge, and practicing my accent, but I didn't think she was obscure enough. And that costume's gonna be DAMN HOT (and I don't mean HOTT). Friend of mine went as Flava-Flav last year - she was brilliant.
  • runaway bride?
  • Phineas Bogg and Jeffrey Jones, a.k.a. the Voyagers!. You could make yourself an Omni and spout random history trivia. You could then shoot yourself in the head later in the evening.
  • I'm going as blue demon. There is a mercado in East LA that has all kinds of cool stuff in little stalls a la' Latin America and I found a bitchin cool luchador mask in one of them for 12 bucks. It acually looks great and is pretty well made. I just need to get a set of tights and "yo soy blue demon."
  • My Dread Pirate Roberts costume was the best I've every had, and it wasn't hard. fortunately, I look good in dance pants Buttercup honestly wouldn't be all that inventive, but you could go glamorous like in her dream of being queen. And if you aren't blonde, that would be a nice drastic change of appearance. And that's the best pop-cluture couple ever.
  • American Maid.
  • Tank Girl? Perhaps not obscure enough...
  • My girlfriend and I went as Boris Badinnov and Natasha Fatale last year, mostly because of our respective height differences. Not super-obscure, but a paragon of pop culture. In college, one year I had a hand-held sign that said, "Existence precedes essence", so I was an existentialist. Two years later (I do my high-concept costumes no more than once every other year) I had a sign that said "Existence preceded essence", so I was a dead existentialist. To second patita, American Maid and Die Federmaus would be a good pairing, or Captain Liberty and Batmanuel. Batmanuel is more fun than Die Federmaus, because of the accent, to my mind.
  • How about the girlfriend to the character "Jake" in "Sixteen Candles," where she's wearing the purple dress at the party and half of her hair in the back is cut off because it got stuck in the door? You could find some blonde wig and cut it, and a similar purple dress is probably available in a thrift store somewhere (discarded 80s prom dress).
  • The phrase "obscure pop culture" throws me into a weird feedback loop. I'm going to land on obscure, and suggest the Six String Samurai. (That's what I plan on going as.)
  • Six String Samurai is fantastic, though it'd be better to get guitars and go as the Russian surf band... Could you go as Ponch and Jon?
  • This is one of my favorite Halloween costume ideas, ever. When I showed it to my best friend that year, she made a pair for herself (they're easy).
  • How about going as one of the characters from Los Bros Hernandez's Love and Rockets? Failing that, Penny Priddy from Buckaroo Banzai?
  • yep yep yepyepyepyep yep yep yepyepyep...
  • Torgo or the Master from "'Manos' The Hands Of Fate". You can download the MST3K episode of it, or if you're lucky, you can ask get Quetin Taratino (sic) to loan you his 35mm copy of the film.
  • Ooooooh, telephone! Bbbbbbrrrrrriing! Okay, I might have to do that for halloween this year.
  • Maybe a little too recognizable, but... Go as Uma from Pulp Fiction with a nosebleed and a syringe sticking out of your chest. Don't forget the bettie page wig. And your bf could go as either the bathrobe dealer guy or vincent!
  • Yaanu, you reminded me of Pumaman...
  • My ex was 3 inches shorter than I was and we went as Boris and Natashia from the Rocky and Bullwinkle show. Pretty easy and cheap costumes. Got the hat for him from a thrift shop and he wore a black suit with the eyebrows and the facial hair glued on. He is dark, very hairy and his name happened to be Gary. The only place hair did not grow was on the palms of his hands and the bottoms of his feet. What the hell was I thinkin? Geez louise. Got rid of him and his hairy little ass. To complete our two some, I found a perfect fitting black dress and a wig at Target that I cut and reassembled to look like Natashia's. Added the black stilettos, black nylons, long cigarette holder, red lipstick, fake eyelashes and we were perfect.
  • Speaking as a fairly hairy man, I'll impart a bit of wisdom: Sometimes you gotta wade through the heavy brush to get to the good picnics.
  • Yep, yep yep yep yep yep.
  • BE A GIANT BEET!!! (thanks flagpole and tom robbins)
  • kittenhead, I might have to steal that idea and go as Jake's girlfriend. Awesome! (Would I necessarily need a Jake?)
  • Go as Louise Brooks, my favorite silent film star. (Why go as Uma in Pulp Fiction when you can go as the original?)
  • Videnio!!!
  • Didn't we have this discussion about wearing something shocking to a costume party sometime recently? Or have I perhaps completely lost it?
  • f8xmulder: You mean the Red Elvises? God, that's awesome. If I wasn't already going to be a Pacific Tree Octopus...
  • Once I went as a lame duck candidate (yellow flippers, business suit, crutch) and no one got it. Go as the Unibomber. Or get a skeleton costume and claim to be Josef Mengela. Just remember that this last one is politically suspect and you may be remembered badly for it. Also Jim Jones carrying grape kool aide might be interesting. I'm sorry, I just can't think of any nice ones. The Flying Nun? Pat Nixon? A badger?
  • After 9-11, a coworker of my wife's went to the office party dressed as a suspicious package.
  • It's really easy to go as the Unibomber, as Blanky suggests. An ex of mine went as him and didn't even need to buy anything. He just wore a hoody and some aviator sunglasses (he already had the mustache). No fuss, no muss.
  • You'd need a high budget to get a pair shoes for a Red Elvis costume. And it's not a Red Elvis without it's shoes.
  • Meredithea, please feel free to be Jake's girlfriend! Alas, I am much too short to pull it off myself. And no Jake required, in my opinion.
  • Skip the dark glasses, and you can go as Kenny
  • Faux-concrete shoes, go as Jimmy Hoffa.
  • You...... Queen Salina your boyfriend...... Justianian from the cult movie "The Viking Queen" (1967) Just think of the fun you could have for the night as a very sexy he-woman Viking Diva. And your significant other could be slingin' his dong with fake blood seeping from his ears and nazel cavities. "To honour her father's dying wish, Queen Salina shares the rule of Icena with Justinian, a fair and just Roman. This displeases the bloodthirsty Druids on one side and the more hard-line Romans on the other. As Salina and Justinian fall in love their enemies start to plot, and blood soon stains the green hills of Britain."
  • You...... Queen Salina your boyfriend...... Justianian from the cult movie "The Viking Queen" (1967) Just think of the fun you could have for the night as a very sexy he-woman Viking Diva. And your significant other could be slingin' his dong with fake blood seeping from his ears and nazel cavities. "To honour her father's dying wish, Queen Salina shares the rule of Icena with Justinian, a fair and just Roman. This displeases the bloodthirsty Druids on one side and the more hard-line Romans on the other. As Salina and Justinian fall in love their enemies start to plot, and blood soon stains the green hills of Britain."
  • A standard backup Hallowe'en costume of mine (should Plan A fail at the last minute), is Cabbage Head from Kids in the Hall. Easy enough to do -- bathrobe and cigars are easy to find. Cabbage for a head isn't too difficult. Take a rubber swimcap, get some cabbage, rubber cement cabbage leaves to swimcap, thus making the cabbage head. (Works best if the swimcap is already being worn.) Obscure, but not too obscure. Easy enough to put together. Plus (and this may be its greatest feature) it gives you free reign to act completely obnoxious for the entire night.
  • Wow, I love some of these ideas. Too bad the boyfriend isn't going for any of them. I may be on my own here. And, honestly, a lot of your suggestions are so obscure that I have no idea what you're talking about... (The Viking Queen, Six String Samurai)
  • melinika wins!!! YepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYepYep unh huh! unh huh!
  • I find that I can't think about Halloween costumes until about 5pm on Halloween. Virtually ensuring that I'm wearing an obscure costume.
  • Yep Melinika's got it. OohhH! Mmmmm Book! Book! yep yep yep yep yep yep unh huh! unh huh!
  • OK, so, I've decided on a costume. Problem is, I'm having problems finding appropriate footwear. Can anyone tell me what these kind of shoes are called? Or where I might be able to find them? I've had my eye on ebay, but haven't found any that are really similar enough.
  • They're t-strap shoes. I saw some on sale in the spring, but they'd be pretty hard to find now.
  • Turns our that Maryland Square has some T-straps. They're not the same sort of sandals, but the same general style. My guess is that other merchants should have them, as well.