Many lies get told on TikTok; also, many truths. One such truth came last weekend when a user with the handle @madallthatime explained that all the people looking for distinct Halloween costume ideas on social media were just being served the same videos by the algorithm—thus negating their uniqueness. Instead, this internet sage explained, they should be looking somewhere else: the #HearMeOut trend.
TikToks of the trend, also known as #HearMeOutCake, encompass a simple premise: A group of friends, or enemies, or coworkers, sets a cake on a table and then takes turns placing sticks in it. Upon each stick rests the image of a person—or fictional character, human or otherwise—on which the friend/enemy/coworker has an embarrassing crush. Sometimes it’s Mr. Burns, sometimes it’s Fidel Castro. Always, it’s uncomfortable. That’s the point.
What @madallthatime was suggesting, though, was that all the faces on those cakes represented a font of untapped Halloween costume potential—a series of obscure characters perfect for All Hallows’ Eve partying.
Every October the internet-savvy among us look for smart, creative outfits and decorations, and every year many of the best stem from bizarre memes. This is why that person who made a “Pink Boney Club” of skeletons in their yard in honor of Chappell Roan (er, Chappell Bone) has already been all over social feeds this fall. (Just me?) But meme-as-costume, as an idea, doesn’t trend the way it used to. If anything, it’s millennial cringe. When The Atlantic publishes “The Chronically Online Have Stolen Halloween,” it’s time to pack up your Target Lewis look and go home.
Which is where @madallthatime’s plan comes in. As algorithms, particularly TikTok’s, get more adept at serving viral-ready content, a homogeneity takes over. If everyone is going to be some version of Roan—or, perhaps, some green-clad Brat—then maybe the best costume is an obscure character from the C-plot of an animated series. Right now, the #HearMeOut trend is offering loads of them.
Four score and seven internets ago—OK, maybe more like a decade or so—celebrating what became known as HallowMeme was a cultural moment. People dressed up as “double rainbow” or Mitt Romney’s “binders full of women.” Unlike the “total slut” lore of Halloween costumes given by Mean Girls, HallowMeme outfits were mostly demure. Sometimes they were political. It was the Obama years, before the power of 4chan revealed itself as a true political force.
