It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t like the fun costumes, copious amounts of candy and good vibes of Halloween. But, when choosing a group costume, the decision is usually a last-minute endeavor. 

Picture this: It’s the night before Halloween, and a friend group is exhausted and out of ideas. Desperately, they search for Best Halloween Costumes on Buzzfeed, narrowing it down to Pixar characters or nurses, which are two painfully basic ideas. 

Here’s an easy way to guarantee you won’t accidentally match with at least five other groups.

Disclaimer: this article is meant to be satirical, and these costumes have potential to be done well. If you’re planning on doing these, we’re sure it’ll be great! 

“Retro” 

“Decades.” “Vintage.” “Retro.” 

These costumes are the same with only three variations. The flare jeans, suspenders, headbands and round glasses. The floral dresses and gogo boots. The aerobics outfits with neon leg warmers and headbands. These have the potential to be fun — it’s extremely funny when people wear over-the-top sideburns straight out of the seventies, but it’s annoying when the costume is polyester from Party City. There are tons of ways to find actual vintage clothing, from buying secondhand to just asking to borrow clothes from your parents. Vintage costumes look best when they’re authentic!

Disney Princesses

One Cinderella, one Ariel and one Jasmine. There’s no issue with Disney princesses themselves, but the costumes are often interchangeable. If you’re planning on doing this, accessorize so people can at least tell which princess you are. And often overlooked Disney princesses —  Esmeralda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Megara from Hercules or Merida from Brave — all deserve more Halloween love.

Candy

Here’s the standard recipe for an M&M: A tutu, knee-high socks and a $4 T-shirt with a big white “M.” Change that “M” to an “S,” and you’re a Skittle. No matter what candy, what color or what year, the cherry on top is the beat-up pair of Air Forces that have been worn to death for the past year. Even though this costume is easy to organize and works for large groups, its repetition makes the entire look overdone and tiring.

Sports players 

This isn’t even a Halloween costume if you wear jerseys regularly. But please, if you do decide to wear them, at least decide on one team. It makes no sense for one person to wear a Yankees jersey and another a Red Sox one. Some people don’t even wear jerseys from the same sport. And for basketball costume wearers: Get your armpit hair out of my face, and keep those sweaty spaghetti arms covered.

Rappers

Saggy pants. No. 

White tank top. No. 

Plastic chains. No. No. No. 

What do these three things have in common? A dollar store rapper! From the bad posture to the $2 sunglasses, everything about this outfit screams tacky. These costumes can often look like they lacked planning — not to mention the frequent racial stereotyping. If you’re planning on dressing up as a rapper for Halloween, recreate an iconic outfit from your favorite rapper instead of dressing up as a rapper cliché.

Space cowboys

Whoever decided that neon green, holographic silver, pink and purple go together needs to get their eyes checked. Aliens and cowboys on their own are fine. But why mix the two? The holographic pattern only makes for an overwhelming group photo.

Inflatable Costumes 

These Amazon purchases are incredibly expensive and super inconvenient. Wearing these costumes to school makes just walking around and getting to your classes unnecessarily difficult. These costumes also tend to be low quality and break quickly; it’s hard to have fun when you’re constantly worrying that your suit is going to pop. This year, opt for a costume that doesn’t require a fan inside your clothes. After all, who wants to take a group photo with an inflated plastic sack?

Tourists 

Floral patterned button ups, sunglasses and puka shell necklaces are pretty boring. I’d love to see fanny packs, knee-high socks, a fake suntan and khakis. If the only thing that distinguishes you as a tourist is your Costco button-up, I can guarantee that there are dozens of people who are planning on doing it already. Don’t waste your Halloween costume on looking like a vacationing white dad.

Frat boys 

Nothing about dressing up as a college student with no personality besides partying makes any sense to us. What do you gain from dressing up as a 20-year-old on the verge of dropping out? Again, the beat-up Air Forces make another appearance in this costume, and what is that in their hand? It’s a red solo cup, the perfect accessory to top off the whole Chad outfit. As much as the 12-year-old girls who do this costume may hope, it’s not cute.  

Powerpuff girls

The same pink, blue and green costumes, whether in the form of a dress, tennis skirts or an oversized T-shirt,  are cute, but people who do this costume often put no effort into the costume or under-accessorize so that the only resemblance to the Powerpuff girls is the color. It’s often hard to tell what your costume is if you’re not standing with your friends, too.

With Halloween almost upon us, the time to start planning your costume is now. We’ve worn almost all of these 10 group costumes and regret some of them. This Halloween, you’ll stand out if your costume is truly individual, funny or meaningful.