Halloween Is Today! Here Are Some Last-Minute Bay Area Costume Ideas

Halloween is here and it is increasingly demanding clever, referential costumes — which can be anxiety-inducing if you take the holiday too seriously (like me). This is especially the case if you are an enormous procrastinator.

KQED staffers rounded up some Northern California costume ideas that you can pull together in an afternoon before you head out tonight — whether for a block party or to follow your kids doing the rounds trick-or-treating.

In the news

The Santa Cruz sea otter stealing surfboards

It’s the ultimate California story: a five-year-old sea otter demonstrated “unusual behavior” in Steamer Lane by confronting kayakers and surfers and cajoling them off their boards. Sometimes, the sea otter got on the surfboard while onlookers watched in awe. Good for her.

Read more: This Otter Is Hassling Santa Cruz Surfers — and Stealing Their Boards

You can honor the otter by wearing a brown or gray shirt and pants, drawing on whiskers and carrying a surfboard.

The broken X on top of the headquarters formerly known as Twitter

This summer, downtown San Francisco was terrorized by a flashing ‘X’ logo as part of Elon Musk’s rebrand of the former Twitter headquarters.

The sign — with seemingly glitchy lights flashing on and off day and night — received 24 complaints from its neighbors in just three days. The complaints cited safety concerns with how the sign was installed.

Try donning a cardboard ‘X’ and flickering a flashlight on and off by your side. Just don’t repeat Musk’s mistake: be careful not to point it into someone’s eyes.

Read more: San Francisco Takes Down Elon Musk’s Giant Flashing ‘X’ Sign After Just 3 Days

A self-driving Cruise car with a traffic cone on top of it

The debate over whether or not the self-driving Cruise vehicles should be allowed in San Francisco reached a momentary end as Cruise — owned by General Motors — suspended its driverless operations nationwide due to public safety concerns. That decision came days after the California Department of Motor Vehicles revoked the company’s license. Cruise vehicles have been part of several crashes, and have occasionally behaved erratically in traffic.

A Cruise costume would require dressing in the company’s orange and white colors, but absolutely needs a cone on the head as a nod to the protesters immobilizing the cars by putting traffic cones on their hoods.

Some more ideas:

• A $1.7 million San Francisco public toilet.
• A zombie Oakland A’s player, a reference to the team’s possible move to Las Vegas.
• “Go get it out of the ocean” was possibly the baseball quote of the year. This costume could be a twofer: Dodgers’ infielder Max Muncy with a baseball bat and Giants’ pitcher Madison Bumgarner with a fishing rod.
• Vanessa Carlton (but as a puppet singing throughout San Francisco). I am not sure how you can make this in an afternoon, but I would like to see it.

Throwbacks and Icons

Princess Mia

San Francisco princess Mia Thermopolis from The Princess Diaries is a TikTok favorite this year. The movie was filmed in the city in 2000, with Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews starring. You just need a white dress, black sunglasses, headphones and a tiara to mimic the movie’s poster.

@malu_panico So ready for princess diary 3 #miathermopolis #princessdiaries ♬ Princesses – Riyah

Teen psychic Raven from Disney Channel’s That’s So Raven — set in San Francisco in the early 2000s — was an aspiring fashion designer, so there are plenty of fits to choose from. The most eye-catching is the show’s opening look: neon blue pants with a long orange coat. Or really anything with fur lining and flared pants (remember, it’s the early 2000s). You should also pretend to get a vision once in a while.

Grimes Poznikov

Local deep cuts can also make for excellent costumes. Grimes Poznikov was known as the Automatic Human Jukebox of San Francisco in the 70s and 80s, playing tunes for residents in a makeshift “jukebox” made from a refrigerator box.

Here’s what Poznikov’s box looked like in the day:

Karl the Fog

A classic — you can go as the anthropomorphized fog that hangs over San Francisco and has its own social media presence. Balloons, gray tissue or fabric can help signify the clouds.

Tommy Wiseau from ‘The Room’

In a film that will forever be synonymous with San Francisco (for better or for worse), you can go as Tommy Wiseau’s character Johnny from the cult classic The Room. All you need is an oversized suit and a wiry shoulder-length black wig. Sunglasses would be helpful.

Some more ideas:

• The current SF Bushman on Fisherman’s Wharf is following in the footsteps of past Bushmen, buskers David Johnson and Gregory Jacobs, who scared tourists for nearly four decades.
• Lady Bird is a classic Northern California text for girls who fight with their mom. From Barbie director Greta Gerwig’s coming-of-age debut, the Sacramento teen played by Saoirse Ronan can be recreated with a Catholic school uniform, red hair, and something to wrap around your arm to mimic her pink cast.
• Huell Howser is a public television legend in California; his look can be accomplished with a button-up yellow shirt, a microphone and sunglasses. Also, gray hair.
• For any duos, MythBusters was filmed in San Francisco!

Carly Severn, Adrienne Lee, Marisol Medina-Cadena, Sebastian Miño-Bucheli, Annie Fruit, Sydney Johnson contributed to this article.