Here Are The Best Spirit Halloween Costume Memes, Ranked

Memes have a shorter shelf life than milk left out in the summer sun. With the level of saturation a meme format can have in 24 hours, by the time you think of your own clever contribution the concept has been exhausted. So, even now as the expiration date on the Spirit Halloween costume meme looms closer and closer, let’s take the time to appreciate some of the truly entertaining entries in the format. It's basically the "starter pack" meme with a spooky little twist.

While most of the memes are niche for particular interests (so many about sports team coaches), there are quite a few that are made for the general public. Below is my personal ranking of this year's Halloween meme format based entirely on the highly scientific measure of how much I chuckled at seeing each one.

10. This is simply accurate, and suggests a really nice evening at home. It's not funny, it's not not funny. It just is.

9. Real Housewife of Beverly Hills Lisa Rinna may not exactly be the most well-known woman on Earth, but she might be the meanest. I appreciate the succinct breakdown of the costume, though I would have liked a little list breaking down what’s included. Does it come with the wig and the ice cold heart? Or is it just the jumpsuit?

8. I swear this is not just a ranking of mean women. It just so happens that Dance Moms icon Abby Lee Miller is another iconically mean reality television matriarch known for striking fear into the hearts of those around her. She ranks slightly higher on the meme list for me because she terrorizes children, which is really the true Spirit of Halloween.

7. Grad school was the scariest experience of my life. Put me up against Freddy, Jason, or Michael Myers any day. Nothing is scarier than furthering my education and the debt associated with the experience. It's extra appreciated that there was a list of what the costume doesn't include; unfortunately they are all things that money can't buy.

6. If you've ever been stuck at a bar with a middle-aged man who is unable to gracefully accept the passage of time and human evolution, you know how scary an Old Hater DJ can be. If you're looking to bring this character to life this year, I suggest adopting some catch phrases like “Were you even born when ____ album was released?” and “I bet you don't know about [insert incredibly popular artist]'s [insert most popular work]?”

5. As a mean woman myself, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I didn’t include at least one of these that didn’t make a little bit of fun of Harry Styles. Again, this is really not even too biting of commentary. Mr. Watermelon Sugar really does look like the pilgrims' town jester. I appreciate that one of the included accessories is "Goofy Juice" even if I have concerns about exactly what that is.

4. Spirit Halloween has a good sense of humor, especially since some of these costume memes have led to angry calls to its customer service department. I don't think it's too meta, Spirit Halloween, I love you.

3. This one gets bonus points for being particularly geared toward what we most love here at Thrillist. I also appreciate the jab that the Washington State Department of Natural Resources is taking here. As a chronically underprepared hiker, I don't have any excuses for cotton t-shirts and lack of proper hydration.

2. Obviously this one gets an automatic top spot on my list because it is a pet costume. I think that it is a societal good when pet owners force their animals to don little silly clothes so that they can look like very serious professionals.

1. While the bottom of this list was filled with mean ladies, it seemed important to put the hard working, salt of the Earth sitcom darling at the top spot. I love Reba, this song is an earworm, and the absolute devolution of both format and editing here really capture the essence of any great meme cycle. This is multiple eras of digital tomfoolery packed into a single image, presented without comment and understood by nearly everyone. This is what memes are made of.

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