5 Low-Effort Harvard-Related Halloween Costumes

Halloween is one of the most wonderful times of the year because it’s an opportunity to show off your creativity and ingenuity through a thoughtful and well-crafted costume. Or, if you’re too lazy for that, you can just do one of these low-effort Harvard-themed costumes instead. Please note that if you do do (ha ha, doodoo) one of these costumes, you are legally obligated to tag @flybyblog on all your posts and staple a piece of paper advertising Flyby Blog to your costume.

A Communal Bathroom Puddle

Imagine this: you’ve had a long day of classes followed by grinding away in Lamont, followed by more classes, and you’ve finally arrived back in your dorm, ready for a hot, relaxing shower. You enter your hallway bathroom only to find the entire place is flooded, making it completely unusable. The horror! What could be scarier than that?

For this costume, you’ll need:

- A bucket of water to periodically throw over yourself throughout the night to really get that moist, drenched look

- Either wading boots or a tasteful assortment of mushrooms to tape to your bare feet to emphasize the threat of communal bathroom foot fungus infections

- A sheet of paper with the text “Follow @flybyblog on Instagram!” stapled to your shirt

Celsius Can

The Harvard student’s relationship to Celsius is a difficult one: a mix of love, admiration and toxic codependency. This costume is sure to terrify all of the students out partying instead of studying for their midterm the next day.

For this costume, you’ll need:

- A white shirt, black shorts, and a black cap

- Fresh fruit to tape onto your shirt

- A bubble wand and bubble solution for that ~sparkling~ effect

- Crazed, shaky eyes

- A tattoo pen to tattoo “Follow @flybyblog on Instagram” on your forehead

Cs50 Duck

There are many ways the world could end: rising sea levels drowning us all, devastating heat waves that kill off all of our crops and leave us with nothing to eat, a terrifying new disease that’s spread through communal bathroom puddles. But I think the most realistic way is the CS50 Duck becoming sentient and taking over our world. First, it expands to universities across the globe; then, it moves into high schools. Before you know it, it starts making guest appearances on late-night talk shows and hosting SNL. BAM! CS50 on Broadway! CS50 ON ICE!

For this costume, you’ll need:

- Yellow paint (for your entire body — yes, even down there)

- An orange duck bill mask

- An “I teach CS50” shirt

- Duck flippers

- Encyclopedic knowledge of CS50 material such as “What is the percentage of students who take this class SAT/UNSAT?” and “What does David Malan wear every day?”

- The ability to quack “Follow @flybyblog on Instagram” in a convincing Donald Duck impression

Rats
This one is kind of self-explanatory, but rats actually lend themselves quite well to a group costume. Rats come in all shapes and sizes, just like people, and some people in the group could even be mice if they wanted to. While they don’t often move in packs, if I learned anything from Ratatouille, it’s that rats have a strong, unbreakable bond with each other that even the most tight-knit friend groups could aspire to.

For this group costume, each person will need:

- A rat onesie, or an all-brown outfit with cardboard rat ears

- Cheese

- The ability to scurry quickly across the floor

- A genuine sense of wonder and curiosity about the world around them

- A subscription to Flyby’s newsletter Harvard Today, your #1 source for Harvard news and events

The Crimson Cruiser & The 1636’er

If you’re looking for a couple’s costume, look no further. If having to check Passio GO! wasn’t enough to send a shiver down your spine, then the slow realization that it’s the weekend and you just missed the Crimson Cruiser or 1636’er shuttle to the quad definitely will.

For this couple’s costume, both people will need:

- A black and white outfit with either crimson or neon green accents

- A place to hide every half an hour

- A driver’s license (for legal reasons)

- A flashing neon sign saying “READ FLYBY”

There you have it: five terrifying, low-effort Halloween costumes perfect for those who still haven’t figured out what they’re going to be. And isn’t that the scariest part of life? Not knowing what the future holds? If it’s any solace, I do occasionally get visions about the future, and I see you following @flybyblog on Instagram in the very near future. Like right now. Go!