Halloween was a little over a week ago. I saw a multitude of costumes; some were impressive, others got me pissed. After thinking about the costumes, I have come up with the Five Tiers of Halloween Costumes. Enjoy.

Tier 5 - Own Costume: Creative, Accurate, Good Effort

At the top, we have a costume that the wearer has put together on his own, putting in significant effort and creativity. The person or object portrayed is uncommon but easily recognizable. The costume is highly accurate showing an excellent level of attention to detail. The example shown is T.J. as the Brawny man: everyone knows who it is, but you'd never expect it. The clothes match the illustration and with the inclusion of the paper towel roll, this is a rock solid costume.

Tier 4 - Own Costume: Decent Effort

Just below the top, we have the costume that the wearer has created himself, but it's not quite as good. There may be inaccuracies and a lower level of overall effort. The examples shown are merely decent costumes. The one on the left is obviously me. I was The Shadow, but it was very last-minute; the coat is wrong and the hat isn't quite right either. And nobody horking knew who I was. The one on the right is Mike W.: he was "Mr. Chan". It was a nebulous concept, but he pulled it off pretty well by attempting to use Asian stereotypes all night.

Tier 3 - Store Bought Costume

Occupying the mid-range, we have store bought costumes. These look pretty good and are generally accurate and recognizable. However, they show little to no effort on the wearer's part and are uncreative. They are largely forgettable and are often overlooked as a result. The example is Mike W.'s costume from last year AND the year before (a total gaffe, but I digress). He definitely looks like a tiger. However, there's not much more to it than that.

Tier 2 - No Costume

Near the bottom is the person who does not wear a costume. Come on, man. It's Halloween. How hard is it to just think of something you like and find some clothes? Or just horking go to Wal-Mart and get a costume for $15. Even store bought junk is better than nothing.

Tier 1 - Own "Costume": Terrible

At the very bottom are people that try to call what the are wearing a costume. At the first party I was at, some dude wore some kind of robe or something he got from India. That is not a costume; that is a weird-looking article of clothing. A costume has much more to it than just looking weird - it is supposed to represent something. Just putting on some clothes and claiming it's a costume is even worse than no costume at all. It shows zero effort, but the person attempts to cover it up - an admission of guilt if I ever saw one. The example shown is Lavis. He's the one in the center with the weird glasses. You have no idea what he's going for because it doesn't look like anything. He was attempting to be Leeroy Jenkins. He started out with a strong idea, but... a Half-Life 2 shirt and pink glasses? That has absolutely nothing to do with Leeroy. It's not even the right game. This is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the worst costume I have ever seen.