The Best Halloween Costumes Honoring the Weirdest Viral Moments of 2021

It’s been a weird few years, man. Even the dude behind Black Mirror said reality is just “too bleak” to start a new season of their dystopian show, which, fair. Life is so surreal right now, that the world stopped when a lawyer got stuck on the cat filter on Zoom, and Joe Rogan is peddling harmful, horse-juice COVID-19 conspiracy theories. It feels like anything is possible (but we really wish it wasn’t). That being said: Thank god for the internet. Bless the meme lords, the TikTok sound remixers, and anyone else whose cleverness has saved our last two brain cells from rolling off a cliff. 

This version of the future is absolutely not it, but the ingenuity of social media to meme-ify the Suez Canal barge disaster or playfully troll Bernie Sander’s mitten outfit has been so solid. There’s no better time than Halloween to bring those memes to life, especially if you, too, are an aging millennial looking for an easy way to remind the whippersnappers that’s you’re #hip and #online without how do you do-ing (which, actually, is also a great costume idea). Styling your H-ween ‘fit after a notable 2021 meme is your best bet, man. 

Here are some of the best costumes from the most viral 2021 memes, TikToks, Tweets, and what-have-yous, from the gabagool renaissance to the Kim K met gala look that made us go, Hey! That’s where my sleep paralysis demon went.

They were the mittens that launched a thousand tweets and meme accounts:

They just keep on giving [amps up Brooklyn accent], and this costume is so darn easy; you already got the blue surgical mask, you got the puffah (Bernie’s was by Burton, BTW), and you got loads of oatmeal-colored mittens floating around the web that look like they belong to the senator. Just cross your legs, sit down, and boom. H-Ween’s fili-busted.

The actor who played the Little Lad from *that* 2000s Starburst commercial has miraculously not aged a day, and made a comeback on TIkTok (they’re even on Cameo now) in the wake of a whoooole bunch of berries and cream remixes: 

 All you need to recreate the schtick for Halloween, at the bare minimum, is a pilgrim-y collar, black bob wig, and maybe a few Starburst to pelt at the kiddos. 

 The OG #gaslight, #gatekeep, and #girlboss fantasy couple. Before Twilight’s Bella and Edward, there was Padme and Anakin from the Star Wars universe. The memes from The Phantom Menace meadow scene have just been *chef’s kiss*.

What a power move. Remember that? People really went off on the memes, and even the playlists:

Here’s what you do: Either 1) steal Mommy’s recycling cardboard boxes, and build a ship costume like an adult baby, 2) wear a pool floaty with “Evergreen'' written on it somewhere, or 3) animorph into an actual barge. Then, you can go block a doorway at the party for the rest of the night. (Ideally by the restroom.) 

It’s better than Balenciaga. It’s you. Well, somewhere in there. Don’t forget to buy a black wig and cut a little hole in the top of the bodysuit for your high ponytail to peep out to recreate Kim Kardashian West’s look from the 2021 Met Gala. Turn on the vocal fry, and boom. 

We were him, and he was all of us. After you’ve rewatched one of 2021’s few saving-grace moments—in which a lawyer couldn’t take of a kitten filter on Zoom—print out a screengrab of the call through an affordable, custom printing service such as Vistaprint, glue it onto some cardboard, then stick your own cat mask-covered face through the appropriate hole. Meow. 

Everyone has ~opinions~ about The Many Saints of Newark, but we’re just here to applaud The Sopranos theme song remix on TikTok, and the general resurgence of gabagool appreciation inspired by the show: 

For a couple’s costume that won’t give people secondhand embarrassment, you can find a spicy, peppery perfume, and dress-up in a meat-print tracksuit to become some walking capicola, and your better (worse??) half can be Tony in an oversized, retro button-down. Hell, you could even go solo by wearing the beefy pants and the bowling shirt yourself. 

Now go carve a pumpkin or sumfin’. 

The Rec Room staff independently selected all of the stuff featured in this story.