--- title: Distracted Boyfriend Halloween Meme Costume: Internet Reacts description: Many trios reenacted a popular meme for Halloween featuring a guy checking out a girl, to the delight of the online world. canonical: https://time.com/5002264/meme-costume-halloween/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-30T15:28:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:48:21.152Z og:title: The Internet Loves This Very Meta Halloween Meme Costume og:description: Pretty hilarious og:url: https://time.com/5002264/meme-costume-halloween/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt033a4ec2f9ab3dd6/6988dba6096a946aa469f5b0/170829_boyfriend-meme.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1280 og:image:height: 720 og:image:alt: 170829_boyfriend meme og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Internet Loves This Very Meta Halloween Meme Costume twitter:description: Pretty hilarious twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt033a4ec2f9ab3dd6/6988dba6096a946aa469f5b0/170829_boyfriend-meme.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Someone Miraculously Turned Your Favorite Meme Into the Funniest Halloween Costume > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=ce378533-8acc-4114-81aa-e5bc1c7fd1f1&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 30, 2017 3:28 PM UTC  AntonioGuillem/iStockPhoto  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 30, 2017 3:28 PM UTC For Halloween, some turn to the classics for costume inspiration: timeless superheroes, traditionally scary villains, easily recognizable characters from parts of our collective cultural canon. [Others turn to the zeitgeist. ](http://time.com/4988184/meme-halloween-costumes-2017/) That was certainly the case for Twitter user Chase Mitchell, who — along with two partners in costumed crime — decided to dress up as one of the year’s [most viral meme sensations](http://time.com/money/4918422/the-photographer-behind-the-distracted-boyfriend-meme-isnt-making-any-money-off-its-popularity/). The meme of a “distracted boyfriend” was originally a stock photo of a man checking out another woman. Online, many co-opted the image to represent other forms of seeking out a different option, with jokes abounding. This Halloween trio took it a step further, going exceptionally meta with their approach. “Meme costumes age well, right,” Mitchell captioned wryly. > [](https://twitter.com/ChaseMit/status/924495615958040578) Impressive as it is, there is an issue with this particular costume, as one Twitter commenter noted. > [](https://twitter.com/batchout/status/924526794086199296) These three were not alone in their choice of holiday finery, however. One woman went as far as to wear the picture all night — making it a solo costume. > [](https://twitter.com/gabebc/status/924687617404407808) While others replicated the three-person situation. > [](https://twitter.com/jbzelek/status/924657636376592384) > [](https://twitter.com/juandelzappa/status/924677979531247616) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5002264/meme-costume-halloween/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5002264/meme-costume-halloween/"},"headline":"Someone Miraculously Turned Your Favorite Meme Into the Funniest Halloween Costume","datePublished":"2017-10-30T15:28:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:48:21.152Z","description":"Many trios reenacted a popular meme for Halloween featuring a guy checking out a girl, to the delight of the online world.","url":"https://time.com/5002264/meme-costume-halloween/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Meme","halloween"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt033a4ec2f9ab3dd6/6988dba6096a946aa469f5b0/170829_boyfriend-meme.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt033a4ec2f9ab3dd6/6988dba6096a946aa469f5b0/170829_boyfriend-meme.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"170829_boyfriend meme","caption":"","creditText":"AntonioGuillem/iStockPhoto","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5002264/meme-costume-halloween/","name":"Someone Miraculously Turned Your Favorite Meme Into the Funniest Halloween Costume"}}]}] ```