Celebs have the money, glamorous entourages, and access to movie-grade prosthetics. All that power could be used to make the best Halloween costumes, but alas, so many of them still default to boring “sexy” clichés or ambitious ideas that crash into the uncanny valley. Sure, there are celebrities who go all-in, like Heidi Klum, who practically turned October into her personal Met Gala of spooky but fashionable outfits. But for every jaw-dropping transformation, there’s a costume that makes you wish your eyeballs had a “reset and forget” button.
From haunted morning shows to toys that never should’ve left the ’90s, here are the celebrity looks that prove spooky season doesn’t always mean stylish season.
Megyn Kelly’s MAGA Trash Bag
For the 2024 Halloween Megyn Kelly posted “Happy Halloween, Garbage People!” while dressed literally as a bag of trash topped with a MAGA hat, heavily hinting at something or other. It’s rare to see a costume that’s both low-effort and can annoy half the population of your country. Was the joke the bag? The hat? The caption? The answer is yes. If the goal was “viral, but make it cringe,” mission accomplished.
Colton Haynes’s Miss Piggy
If Miss Piggy fell victim to the Mar-a-Lago face trend, this is what she might look like. In felt puppet form, Miss Piggy always looks fab, but “Teen Wolf” star Colton Haynes’ cosmetically corrupted take on her iconic look almost feels like an insult. The blend of human, hog, overstuffed lips, and generously enhanced “assets” also makes for one downright disturbing Halloween costume mix. At least now we know that the world doesn’t need a “The Muppets Take Mar-a-Lago” movie.
“Today” Show’s Peanuts
Morning TV tried 2015 cosplay and summoned sleep paralysis demons because what the heck, man? Hoda as Snoopy, Kathie Lee as Woodstock, Meredith Vieira as Pig-Pen, and Al Roker as Charlie Brown should have been cute, but instead, the oversized heads, tiny ears, and that scribble of Charlie’s hair turned beloved comic strip characters into uncanny freaks. It was less of a “yikes” and more of a “dear god, make them stop!”
Elon Musk’s Iron Man From Hell
At Heidi’s 2022 bash, Elon arrived in deep-red armor, looking sort of like RDJ’s legally distinct Iron Man. The most significant difference is the breastplate featuring Baphomet, and the official label dubbing it “Devil’s Champion.” Tech-bro cosplay meets Hot Topic CEO. If you squinted, you could almost see all the people around him rolling their eyes. Musk had those cheesy super-villain vibes minus the self-awareness that makes comic book baddies fun.
Paris Hilton’s Furby Fever Dream
In 2018, Paris resurrected the most cursed toy of the late ’90s: Furby. She literally wore its face on her chest, plastic beak and all, like an iridescent gremlin trying to summon an ancient Furby deity. Those unblinking eyes peeking out of a feathered frame will haunt people for years to come. Nostalgia can be cute, but this was more “Furby heard you talking smack and will now eat your soul.” Let’s just be grateful she didn’t staple a hungry Tamagotchi to her choker just to make it suffer.
“The View” Does Cartoons
In 2016, “The View” went animated and accidentally made nightmare fuel. Whoopi’s Marge Simpson wig was a traffic cone with a medical condition, her lashes looked like weapons, and the bug-eye prosthetics could’ve flagged planes at night. Raven-Symoné’s goth makeover of Eric Cartman transformed the show’s most obnoxious character into a mild mall-goth version of himself.
Matt Lauer Does Pamela Anderson From Baywatch
While those prosthetic breasts were impressively realistic, no one needed to start their day by seeing Matt Lauer in a red Lycra one-piece running in pretend slow-mo down the street. In 2013, the now-disgraced news anchor dressed up like Pamela Anderson’s “Baywatch” character, C.J. Parker, for the “Today” show’s Halloween episode. He wasn’t brave enough to sport her iconic swimsuit without a pair of flesh-toned tights (small victories), and there’s no way he paid for that wig with real money.
Heidi Klum’s Jessica Rabbit
Heidi is the queen of Halloween—the final costumed boss, so to speak—but even queens have off days. In 2015, her Jessica Rabbit went heavy on silicone curves and looked really lame. The concept of bringing a 2D bombshell into 3D was great, but the result was a huge letdown. Instead of sultry confidence, we got a shiny but soulless Temu version of Jessica. Even the Queen of Halloween isn’t immune to the latex curse.
