A lot of lies he gets told on TikTok; and, many facts. One such fact came last weekend when a user with the handle @madallthatime explained that all the people looking for different Halloween costume ideas on social media were just being fed the same videos by the algorithm—thereby ignoring their differences. Instead, this Internet genius explained, they should look elsewhere: the #HearMeOut trend.
Trending TikToks, also known as #HearMeOutCake, consist of a simple premise: A group of friends, or enemies, or coworkers, sets a cake on the table and takes turns placing chopsticks on it. On top of each stick is a picture of a person—either a fictional character, human or otherwise—with whom a friend/enemy/colleague has had an embarrassing crush. Sometimes Mr. Burns, sometimes by Fidel Castro. Always, it’s not comfortable. That’s the point.
What @madallthatime was suggesting, however, was that all the faces on those cupcakes represented an unused Halloween costume power font—a string of obscure letters perfect for an All Hallows’ Eve party.
Every October the internet savvy among us look for clever, creative clothes and decorations, and every year many of the best roots come from unusual memes. That’s why the person who made a “Pink Bone Club” of bones in his backyard in honor of Chappell Roan (er, Chappell Bone) has been all over the community feed this fall. (Just me?) But meme-as-costume, as an idea, isn’t trending the way it used to. If anything, it’s millennial cringe. When The Atlantic publishes “Chronicly Online Have Stolen Halloween,” it’s time to pack up your Target Lewis look and go home.
This is where @madallthatime’s show comes in. As algorithms, especially TikTok, gain more experience in providing viral content, homogeneity takes over. If everyone is going to be some kind of Roan—or, perhaps, a Brat in green—then perhaps the best costume is an obscure character from the C-plot of an animated series. Right now, the #HearMeOut trend is offering plenty of them.
Four score and seven internets ago—OK, maybe about a decade or so—celebrating what became known as the HallowMeme was a cultural moment. People dressed as “double rainbows” or Mitt Romney’s “full of women binders”. Unlike the “perfect slut” story of Halloween costumes provided by The girls saidHallowMeme’s costumes used to be flawless. Sometimes they were political. It was the Obama years, before the power of 4chan revealed itself as a true political force.