Absolutely No One’s Safe From the Spirit Halloween Costume Parody Meme

Looking for a last-minute Halloween costume? Consider going as a 30-minute phone call that really could’ve been an email. It’s one of many creative 2022 costume ideas from Spirit, seasonal American pop-up retailer of Halloween getups. Well, one of the ideas from the internet dressing up as Spirit, that is. 

The Fake Spirit Halloween costume meme involves adding an image and text to a blank template of a prepackaged Spirit costume. The meme started in 2019, but it’s really picked up this Spooktober as Halloween approaches. Spirit itself has even gotten in on the joke, going meta with a fake costume that turns you into an actual Spirit Halloween store. The costume comes with a sign for the abandoned building you take over and “the will to exist for only three months.”    

The meme can get pretty pointed and political (this is the Internet after all). Fake costumes jab at short-lived UK Prime Minister Liz Truss (“discard after 45 days,” reads the package for the Truss parody costume); President Joe Biden; Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, California Governor Gavin Newsom and local politicians. But a lot of the parodies just poke at professional stereotypes and pop culture. 

There’s the venture capitalist costume that’ll have you wowing any party with your “generic advice” and “aggressive term sheets.” And the private equity associate costume, which comes with an “elitist personality” and “business jargon flashcards” (sorry, newsletter subscribers sold separately). 

Pro tip: If you put on the rust cable knit sweater that comes with the geospatial-professional costume, be sure to read phrases from the included phrasebook for extra realism: “No, a PDF of tables is not a database.” “It’s like Google Maps with more layers.”  

If you’d rather eschew the worlds of Wall Street and Silicon Valley and aim for celebrity culture this Halloween, you can go as the “biggest bully in Hollywood and everyone knows it,” aka Lisa Rinna. If you follow The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, you’ll know cast member Kathy Hilton accused fellow housewife Rinna of being precisely that during the show’s much-publicized reunion earlier this month. 

Going as Rinna will require a sparkly silver pantsuit, jewelry and heavy makeup. If you want something more low maintenance, try going as a financial podcaster like CNET’s Farnoosh Torabi, or as an aerospace intern in a simple black T-shirt, jeans and Converse kicks. The unprepared-hiker costume only requires flip-flops and a sunburn. Then there’s the professional screenwriter costume. All you need is a robe, slippers and that haven’t-showered-in-days look.