My girlfriend is Mexican and I am clearly not, so last year I went as a Illegal Immigrant and she went as border patrol. The costumes were a pretty big hit, but the theme is obviously more of a big ticket item in California. Some things I should have thought about before I did it were:
-Fake mustaches are very uncomfortable to wear, but were a necessity as I didn't decide on it until fairly last minute and didn't have time to grow my own.
-The costume was only hilarious (to others at least) when my girlfriend was around. The rest of the time it was racist. I was fortunate not to have ran into any scary cholos and thus am still alive.
Other than that, I think it went well.
Other things to avoid:
-Whatever just happened in the news, unless you're ballsy enough to approach an incredibly taboo subject. The Crocodile Hunter was not that taboo and I saw 8,000 fake stingrays that year. Scott Peterson in a fishing outfit with a prop fishing pole with a baby on the hook WAS taboo. I just wasn't ballsy enough to do it. Apparently, neither was anyone else.
-Any character from any recent blockbuster movie. You're going to see a billion variations of each one, no matter how clever you think yours is.
-Costumes that require you to wear something that isn't warm enough for the weather. This might also be more of a problem in California though, because I imagine in Indiana it's already too damn cold to be outside in anything but winter attire already. Here we typically bar hop around the downtown area, so are frequently walking to and from different places.
-Generally uncomfortale costumes (mustaches, bulky, etc. as was mentioned before).
-Costumes which impeded you ability to drink. I'm wrestling with the ninja mask thing alread because I'll have to remove it every time I want to drink. I was going to go as an old school ghost one year too (sheet), but ultimately decided that it wasn't worth the sacrifice of my arms. Also, the rollerblades I planned on wearing would have eventually been an issue. The floating effect would have made the costume, so the blades combined with the lack of arms resulted in me scrapping the idea.
That is my advice.
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