Garfield is My Co-Pilot
Today I had a prescription filled by Harry Potter and a 200+ pound Lady Bug bagged my groceries. I saw the Unibomber flagging down a city bus and a hooker hopping into a pick-up truck with tinted windows.
I’m not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the way Halloween stopped being about kids trick-or-treating and became about adults dressing like idiots at work. (Granted the chick with frizzy hair and meth mouth probably was a real hooker, but the others I’m betting were costumes.)
I can accept an adult wearing a costume to a costume party. But, when you’re 43 and you show up at your job as Dorothy Gale or the Pope, you just need to stop.
I know some jobs have a relaxed, fun atmosphere. But if it’s a job where you are dealing with anyone other than your co-workers (Mickey Mouse, Napoleon Dynamite, and the Ninja Turtles) you really ought to consider what it’s doing to your professional image to spend the day as Mr. Peanut.
I’m looking at it from the other side of the costume. If I’m paying somebody to do something or provide a service, I want it to be done by someone who is taking the job seriously. Not somebody with an eye patch and a plastic sword.
How would you like Garfield flying your plane, or your taxes prepared by Frankenberry, or your blood pressure taken by Elvira?
Speaking of which, I’ve noticed that for a lot of women it’s not enough to be dressed as, say…a nurse? No, she’s got to jack her tits up, wiggle into some thigh-high boots and be a sexy nurse. Or a sexy Strawberry Shortcake, showing off her pink ruffled hotcakes. Or a sexy Red Riding Hood, out to prove that the carpet matches the cape.
Apparently October 31 is the sexual harassment equivalent of a tax holiday.
To be fair, I’m sure there’s some guys out there doing the same thing. No doubt some stock boy is out there somewhere up on a ladder with his ass hanging out the back of his little Peter Pan outfit.
Thankfully I have a boss who would not allow playing dress up. (He won’t even let us work outdoors shirtless in hot weather). That way I don’t have to spend the day working side-by-side with a handful of Larry The Cable Guys, the odd rebel soldier or two, or the guy who expects us to get that he’s Peyton Manning because he’s wearing wearing a blue football jersey with an “18″ on it.
And I don’t have to feel compelled to tart it up and go as a rhinoceros.
November 1st, 2007 at 4:21 am
Well, you do have a legitimate point that adults in costume at work can get out of hand, but a few of us wore (tasteful) costumes today and helped our long term patients dress up as well. They loved it. It sort of broke up the monotony of living an institutionalized life. As you say, it’s only appropriate in context. The ER nurses wore their uniforms.
By the way, I went as the shirtless Indian in tight chaps from the Village People – kidding!
November 1st, 2007 at 5:18 am
Preach it, bro!
November 1st, 2007 at 9:12 am
Oh dear. I actually quite enjoy seeing all the adults at their various jobs playing hooky from the tedium of their ordinary days. It’s a big splashing of play which makes me smile more often than not …
True, some of them do look silly … or rediculous … or just plain goofy … but still, it makes me grin … 
November 1st, 2007 at 10:46 am
I usually always agree with the posts here. but we dressed up at my job at the library and the customers thought it was great. yea you have to be appropriate like you say wearing a shirt with your girls popping out isn’t the best thing at work. But I don’t see why grown ups can’t find the kid in them sometimes.
November 1st, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Spoil sport. Being the stuffed shirt that I am I never dress in costume for work. But I enjoy the spirit that moves someone to do so. Even the women who dress like a witch, if she were a whore; or the women who dress like a nurse, if she were a whore; or the women who dress like Brittany Spears, if she… etc.
November 1st, 2007 at 6:38 pm
I’ve been with my job for 14 years, and this is the first year they actually encouraged it with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize (200 dollar gift card for 1, #’s 2 and 3 got 150). It was all spurred on by one department, and no one in any other department (except Annie in accounting who went as a doctor [I did her name tag for her], partook. The only reason it was a drag was because it was the same department spurring this on that spurs everything on, and frankly they’re only liked within their own department. We’re talking 8 people out of 111. The company wide disgust had more to do with our fellow employees than it did with the dressing up. To you they probably sound like fun, but trust me their enthusiasm for the ridiculous has more to do with kissing ass than anything else.
November 1st, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Rhinoceros? Please! It’s not that long. Also, you have to look up on theonion.com about what 20 year old women are being for Halloween. They were all normal things, but had “sexy” before it. “Sexy waitress, sexy maid, sexy prostitute, sexy nurse, etc.”
November 2nd, 2007 at 7:04 am
on the radio two days ago the DJ’s were talking to kids calling in to describe their costumes. One caller was 12 and said she was dressing as a “sexy ladybug”. It shocked me. What happened to dressing up like a Disney princess when you are 12 (regardless of gender)? The DJ’s drew her out a bit, and it was revealed her MOM helped her design the short polka dot skirt and the thigh high hose with flower garters. She had a friend going as a “sexy butterfly” too. Just when i was getting really disgusted and disillusioned, she mentioned she had a third friend going with the group’s theme by being a “sexy wasp.” That made me laugh (did she mean a Protestant with entitlement issues?), but i still felt weird.
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:38 am
PS is that some kind of British picture illustrating this blog entry? because also weirding me out is that spelling of “gynaecologist”. Is that a vajayjay doctor or not?
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:39 am
hey Jay, Tony’s identification with the rhino is not about size. It’s about horniness.
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:04 pm
We had a costume contest and potluck on halloween. It was a good excuse for me to go crazy with my camera. And it didn’t break.
I wore a bright red ralph lauren tie that i found at a yard sale a few days earlier.