There are going to be dozens of Barbies and Kens at your Halloween party this year. Just don’t. Please. They are selling Kenough t-shirts on Lazada, but stop being lazy. Don’t Squid Game your way out of it this year. Big Joke, Lisa, cheeseburger—this is your moment. 

The BTS Shadowy Pole Butt Guy

Didn’t your mama ever tell you not to dress like a shadowy weirdo and clench the BTS stanchions with your butt cheeks? This one comes from a campaign from the Skytrain last year. If people don’t remember it, just walk around and show them this article all night. 

All you need is a full-body spandex suit, a pole, and maybe don’t skip glutes day.  

The Three Lisas

If you have been to the cinema recently, you've probably been made uncomfortable by the Lisa ad where she speaks earnestly to the camera about toothpaste in a weirdly intimate manner. If not, check it out here. This is your chance to recreate the charmingly cringe moment. Buy an ash blonde Lisa bob wig, a black sequined top or dress, and of course a tube of Dentiste. Show off them pearly whites. 

But that’s not all Lisa’s been in the news for this year, don’t forget when she drank orange juice and caused a run on, you know, oranges. You just need a peach top, orange juice, and millions of adoring fans.

The last Lisa is the laziest Lisa. Earlier this year the Blackpink star made headlines around Asia after wearing a sarong. Yup, just wore a sarong. A day after the Blackpink singer posted pictures of her trip to the city of Ayutthaya, prices and demand surged. Any Naga pattern skirt may do, but if you want the real deal, it’s B2,800 made-to-order. 

Big Joke in Undies

Deputy police chief Surachate “Big Joke” Hakparn’s house was raided by cyber police last month as part of a nationwide operation to shut down online gambling networks as he stood around looking confused in his underpants, and there’s nothing funny about that. What, you think that's funny? A powerful member of Thailand's elite police force in the street in his underpants, and you think that's funny? How's that funny?

It’s a bit of a thinker costume—just some white socks, white shirt, and some blue boxers. If people don’t know what you are, extort them. 

Pad Kaphrao Muu Sap

The perfect group costume, and it’s instantly recognizable to anyone as long as they’re on mushrooms. Spread out and make people guess, or rub together and make it weird. Delicious pork, a crispy fried egg, fragrant holy basil, a spicy chili, and perfect fluffy rice. 

You’ll need a creepy pig head, a fried egg costume (singe the edges for extra effect), a leaf skirt for your basil, and a red chili. Plain rice, well, you’ll need to get a little creative; luckily there’s a rice bag dress on Shopee. Or maybe just packing peanuts hot glued all over your naked body; you do you. 

The Thai Life Insurance Unsung Hero 

This ad is almost a decade old, but it still gets you. If you haven’t seen it in a while, watch this ad if you are alone for a big ugly cry. Viewed 114 million times, the ad features an average dude doing small good deeds while others scoff at his naivete. He eventually reaps the rewards of happy people, dogs, plants, and sends a little homeless girl to school. So lame—whatever—don’t look at me. 

Put on your best public servant office drone attire of a white button-down shirt with sleeves rolled to the elbows, black trousers, generic black backpack, and sensible shoes. Stick a pen in your top pocket and spend Halloween night doing good deeds. Bonus points for having a friend sporadically dumping water on your head.
 

Legal Weed

This one’s for those who can’t be bothered to put any thought into it. Just walk around not breaking any laws while being ganja all night. If you have lots of friends, even better, do a group costume to represent the oversaturation of the devil’s lettuce. Find this “funny potted plant” costume on Shopee. 

BKK Real Cheeseburger

Ah. Good times. This godawful abomination against food at Bangkok Burger Kings made headlines around the world this year. It was a short-lived but unforgettable crime against food (but not against shopping, 109 baht for 20 slices of cheese? Not too shabby). The concept was horrible, the execution worse, but it sure did get people thinking about Burger King. 

Simply get this sexy burger costume and then about 10 meters of yellow foam bumper strips to stick horizontally over all the non-cheese ingredients.  Alternatively, a brown hat, yellow shirt, and brown pants will do the trick. 

The Ghost of FamilyMart 

As the Family Mart franchise rights in Thailand expired in 2023, the Central group rebranded all the stores into Tops Daily mini marts. Now is your chance to bring FamilyMart back from the dead one last time as a ghost to haunt your local Tops. Just get a FamilyMart t-shirt (or get one printed at MBK) and a spooky makeup kit to make yourself up like a zombie with pale skin and fake blood. 

Radioactive Cylinder

Remember the radioactive cylinder that had authorities going nuts this year? They found it with no harm done, and we all learned an important lesson about keeping track of our Caesium-137. Well, this is a really easy costume, because you just need to dress as a brown, rusted rod and cover yourself in glow sticks. 

Kru Kai Kaeo

Photo: Kru Kai Kaeo / Neil Shelley

Not sure if we should have included this one on the list because it's going to upset some folks: people who like the statue, people who hate the statue, and pretty much everyone if you paint your face (Editor’s note: Don’t do that). Dressing up as anyone's sincerely held beliefs is a bit dicey, but if you're doing current events costumes ideas, it's kind of hard to leave out Kru Kai Kaeo, the statue that has caused such a hullabaloo for the past several months and eventually needed to be obscured from view. 

It’s a fairly easy costume if you wear dark colors and some cheap wings, along with the obligatory fangs you find in every costume shop. But don’t come running to us if you get yelled at or the government orders you to be covered with a tarp.