The Most Cliched Halloween Costumes to Avoid This Year

Halloween is a few weeks away, so it's time to ask yourself what you're going to wear this year. This is a deeply revelatory question because Halloween is the one day a year when you can (almost) wear exactly what you want and no one will judge you. Except me. I'll judge you hard.

There are three kinds of Halloween costume wearers. The first are people who don't wear costumes. I won't be discussing them because they're beneath my contempt. The other two groups are people who wear something original and self-defining-my wife and I will be dressing Minnie and Roman Castavets from Rosemary's Baby, for instance, a costume you can't buy in a store that reflects our commitment to Satanic ritual. Most people, though, seem to like "funny," pop culture costumes that other people will recognize; basically the lumpen masses of Halloween, trying to wear something so other people think, "I know what that is." If you want to avoid a cliche-ridden Halloween, avoid the below trending costume gear.

Basic rule of Halloween: homemade is (usually) better

Even if your costume-making skills are sub-par and you have no ideas, a homemade costume is usually better than a store-bought one. Wearing a sheet with some mismatched eyeholes indicates you put in a little effort. If you just walk into Target on October 30 and say, "Yeah, I'll be Mario!" I have no respect for you.

The exceptions are very elaborate pre-made costumes like this one and very stupid costumes, like this breathalyzer or this Nacho Libre.

What will be the most popular Halloween costumes in 2024?

In trying to determine the top costumes in 2024, I first checked out Google's Frightgeist site. Google seems to be the media's trusted source of Halloween costume research this year, but its list only compares costume-related searches from September 2023 to searches from 2024, so it's a trend snapshot, perfect for avoiding the most over-used outfits.

I also checked Spirit Halloween's Hottest Costume Trends for 2024 looking for some hard retail data, but it doesn't say how it compiles its list, so I'll assume it's "costumes we'd like to sell this year."

2024's most popular costumes (according to Google)

Here are the trending costumes from Frightgeist:

• Shrunken Head Bob:Tiny-pated ghoul from Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

• Raygun:Australian Olympian.

• CatNap:A character from indie horror game Poppy Playtime.

• Delores:Beetlejuice's ex-wife in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

• Pomni:Main character of cartoon seriesThe Amazing Digital Circus.

• Envy:Character fromInside Out 2.

• Red:Hero of Disney's Descendants: Rise of Red.

• Dr. Doom:Marvel comics supervillain.

• Sabrina Carpenter: Pop star.

• Lady Deadpool:From the movieDeadpool & Wolverine.

An interesting set of costumes. Lots of movie characters from all over the pop culture landscape. Even though it's an election year, there's no "Donald Trump eating a baby" costume or "Kamala Harris in prison" themed gear in evidence. Probably because Halloween is supposed to be fun and politics has become a brutal cultural death march.

My top pick for most interesting choice is actually America's top pick too: Shrunken Head Bob. It's an attention-grabbing special effects-based costume, and if you do it with a quality off-the-shelf outfit, some people will be mildly delighted for very little effort, which is what people seem to be going for. It's likely too pricey and too much trouble to be overly represented.

I think the most cliche choice here is the Raygun costume. First because a lot of people are likely to be rocking her trademark green track suit, and secondly, it's not really that clever, and third, it's too late. Raygun's fame was universal a few months ago, but it's so one-note, it's already being forgotten. So don't wear it, unless you can do the dance perfectly.

Also: if I see someone dressed as Pomni, I'm not going to have any idea what they're supposed to be, which defeats the point of pop-culture based costumes, unless you like explaining what The Amazing Digital Circus is to disinterested strangers. So not a cliche, but not a good choice either.

The hottest Halloween costume in Juneau, Alaska

Google's Halloween map is searchable by region. The most trendy Halloween costume in Juneau, Alaska area is Pebbles Flintstone. What the hell is going on in Juneau, Alaska?

Spirit Halloween's "hottest costume trends" for 2024

Spirit Halloween's top costumes for 2024 offer little in the way of surprises. Here's what the retailer picks for this year:

• Deadpool & Wolverine costumes.

• Inside Out 2 costumes.

• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice costumes.

• The Amazing Digital Circus costumes.

• Meme costumes: Skibidi Toilet, mob wife, country chic.

• Terrifier costumes.

Spirit Halloween has an amazing variety of costumes, but they all look crappy. On one hand, I like this, because it reminds me of the vinyl, mask-based costumes of my youth which were barely costumes. Like this Jaws costume, where you dress as a shark wearing a picture of itself on a bib. On the other hand, those old costumes were for children, and you're (presumably) an adult. Maybe aim a little higher than "cheap-as-hell costume from a movie that people know about" and avoid shopping at Spirit Halloween entirely.

I do like the inclusion of the Skibidi Toilet costume though. Kids are going to go nuts for this one, because it's so obnoxious. In later years, they're going to have pictures of the year they dressed as a toilet for Halloween, as an added bonus. If you're over the age of 14, though, please do not wear this costume.