Internet memes and social media websites have become so popular that people take to dressing up like them for Halloween. Having a teenager and an almost-teenager in my household, it probably comes as no surprise that my oldest son dressed up as Facebook for school yesterday, and my youngest dressed up as Nyan Cat. When I told a friend of mine that I was making their costumes from scratch, she thought it was clever and original, so I offered to make a Twitter costume for her thirteen-year-old son, who attends the same middle school as my boys.
I thought I would just find some graphics on the internet and print them out, then glue them to foam board. Then I remembered that I am a graphic artist and a very nit-picky perfectionist one at that. I opened up a few new high-resolution files in Photoshop and got to work. One Friday evening in particular, my husband and sons were away for a Boy Scout camp out, and I was determined to finish the Facebook and Twitter costumes, so that I could find a place locally that would print poster-size images of them to be mounted on foam board. I stayed up until about 3 am, squinty-eyed and weary with exhaustion, but I was successful! The local Fed Ex/Kinkos store printed them both at 18 x 24 poster size, with twenty-four hour turn around time. I was ecstatic! It was time to get to work on old Nyan Cat.
I had some white cardboard lying around that I had saved from buying posters, to be framed later. Always one to upcycle, I cut one to size and hand-painted a pink PopTart, with glittery sprinkles. I copied an actual rainbow from Nyan Cat’s booty off of Google Images, enlarged it in Photoshop, and printed it out. I don’t think we ever regretted buying a laminator a few years ago; it came in handy in making Nyan Cat’s rainbow booty look extra shiny! Next was the annoying, looping music that plays in the popular YouTube video of the rainbow-y, PopTart-loving feline. Sammy’s old mp3 player came in handy, along with a cheap speaker from the dollar store. I easily found the music file for free online and added it to the player. With some duct tape and a little ingenuity, the pink PopTart plays the original theme at Sammy’s will. The finishing touch was kitty ears. I could only find black ears, and since Nyan Cat is grey, a spray paint can of primer fixed them up pretty easily.
I got a short video of Sammy, after I picked him up from school, doing his own impression of Nyan Cat. I put it to the silly music and couldn’t resist uploading it to YouTube for all to witness.
I had a lot of fun designing, crafting, and piecing together these internet-themed middle school disguises. They were definitely the only kids at their school with these costumes. I heard that one other student came to school with a book on his face and Facebook logos stuck all over it, but I don’t think there was any similarity at all. Michael told me that several of his teachers got a big kick out me personalizing his Facebook wall the way that I did, especially having him in a relationship with Betty White! I also “Photoshopped” him into a picture, fighting Chuck Norris, and implied that they were best friends, Chuck having learned all of his awesome skills from my son. Michael and his friend Jack did ask for specific personalities on their walls, but I don’t think they realized that I would have as much fun with them that I did; Jack wanted Rainn Wilson to be one of his Twitter followers, but I also had Dwight Schrute following him as well.
I could say that I did it for the kiddos, but really, I still get excited for Halloween. I have two costumes that I plan on wearing this year myself: Wonder Woman, my childhood heroine, and Flo, from the Progressive commercials. I just have to decide which one I am going to wear to which Halloween function. Decisions, decisions…
Great costume!
Love that your 13-year-old is in a relationship with Betty White. hahahahahaha
Very funny. All of the fake posts are hilarious. Props to the writer. The costume looks great.