Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Halloween Store Forced To Respond After Fake 'Gay Guy' Costume Makes The Rounds On Twitter

Spirit Halloween storefront
Ben McCanna/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

Spirit Halloween keeps having to respond to photoshopped 'Gay Guy' costume.

If you're ever in a quandary as to what to wear for a costume party during All Hallow's Eve, then Spirit Halloween is the store for you.

With over 1,400 stores across the country, the seasonal pop-up retailer has every creepy prop, costume, and decoration to suit your needs.


What the store doesn't have in stock, however, is the "Gay Guy" costume.

The fake outfit that is not sold at any Spirit Halloween location appeared on Instagram alongside other mocked-up merchandise, according to Queerty.

The photo of the fake "Gay Guy" costume shows a Photoshopped image of a young White male with bleached hair wearing a tank top and jeans and draped in a large Pride flag.

@beyondalxander/Twitter

The photo made its way over onto Twitter where it went viral.

Some got the joke, while others didn't.

"My culture is not your costume," wrote Twitter user Andrew Alexander.

Others who were convinced that Spirit Halloween was hawking the "Gay Guy" merchandise lambasted the retailer on Twitter.

After being barraged with complaints, the store's Twitter account emphatically maintained the product was fake and not conjured up by them.

On October 21, they declared once and for all:

"Hey! This is not something we carry or have carried before."

Clearly, once was not enough.

On October 23, the retailer once again announced:

"This is not an officially licensed costume from our company."
"Photoshopping our packages seems to be trending at the moment. We will be passing this to our review team."
"Thank you for bringing this to our attention."

Rest assured, discerning Twitter users responded with wisecracks.


Jokesters found Spirit Halloween's predicament delightfully hysterical and stirred the cauldron by adding their own costume ideas using gay stereotypes.

These examples are fun and hilariously accurate.

We know these people.

The meme also inspired a sub-genre called "Gay Loser."

The fake costume giving a nod to HBO's period comedy, Our Flag Means Death–which was lauded for its LGBTQ+ representation–is especially clever.

The theme expanded by dropping the "Gay" descriptor to show the Republican Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis–who signed the controversial "Don't Say Gay" bill on March 28, 2022.

He clearly was not a winner in most people's eyes.

Finally, our favorite out rapper Lil Nas X was dragged into the online frivolity and was teased for the orange outfit he wore to the Variety Hitmaker Brunch in 2019.

This fake item was labeled, "Gay person in terrible outfit."

We still love you, Nas.


When it comes to Halloween 2022 costume ideas, there is definitely no shortage of inspiration.

More from Trending

Jimmy Kimmel; Jon Stewart
Araya Doheny/WireImage; Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Comedy Central

Jimmy Kimmel Reveals How ABC Almost Hired Jon Stewart Over Him For Late-Night Hosting Gig

Jimmy Kimmel very nearly lost his job on Jimmy Kimmel Live earlier this year for the supposed crime of having an opinion, but it turns out he very nearly never had the job in the first place.

During a visit to actor Ted Danson's podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name, Kimmel revealed that at the time he was in the running to host the show, so was a much bigger colleague: Jon Stewart.

Keep ReadingShow less
Tess Holliday
@tessholiday/TikTok

Model Speaks Out After United Airlines Flight Attendant Body-Shamed Her Mid-Flight

Three things are true: many people take flights every day in the U.S., many Americans are overweight, and people often make a habit of offering completely unsolicited advice to larger individuals in completely the wrong way and in utterly inappropriate circumstances.

Supermodel Tess Holliday was unfortunately the victim of all of these elements converging during a recent flight with her child on United Airlines.

Keep ReadingShow less
Laura Loomer; Marjorie Taylor Green
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images (both)

MAGA Influencer Rages At 'CrossFit Bimbo' MTG For Refusing To Back Down On Epstein Files Release

The Republican Party finds itself taking sides over the release of the Epstein files, with the sides publicly attacking each other and observers predicting an implosion is imminent.

Jeffrey Epstein, a registered sex offender previously convicted in Florida for sex crimes against a minor, was investigated, indicted, and arrested by MAGA Republican President Donald Trump's FBI and Department of Justice in July of 2019.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of girl giving school presentation about Charlie Kirk
sola_chad/X

Young Girl's School Presentation About Her 'Hero' Charlie Kirk Has People Sounding Off

MAGA X user @sola_chad sparked a heated debate after sharing footage of his daughter's school presentation about an "inspiring hero"—none other than the late far-right activist Charlie Kirk.

Kirk was assassinated last month while speaking at a university in Utah; the suspect was caught after a two-day manhunt and has since been charged. The Trump administration has used Kirk's death as an opportunity to crack down on free speech rights and to target and blame leftists for Kirk's murder, even though the shooter is aligned with the far-right.

Keep ReadingShow less
Rob Schneider
Thomas Cooper/Getty Images

MAGA Actor Rob Schneider Gets Blunt Fact-Check After Making Bonkers Claim About Children's Hospitals

Actor Rob Schneider was bluntly fact-checked after making the bizarre claim that children's hospitals did not exist when he was a child himself, suggesting that kids "weren't sick" back then.

That claim is par for the course from Schneider, a prominent anti-vaxxer who once campaigned against a bill in California requiring parents to get a doctor's signature if they choose not to vaccinate their children and was dropped from a State Farm ad campaign after claiming, among other things, that vaccines are "against the Nuremberg laws."

Keep ReadingShow less