'Dress for secession': Meet 2022's most tasteless Halloween costumes

Retailers predict the most popular Halloween costumes this year will be Elvis, Barbie, Top Gun and Stranger Things characters, Marvel heroes, Bridgerton heroines and various versions of former president Donald Trump.

Whether the partygoer regards the ex-president as a traitor or a triumph may depend on how skillfully face bronzer is applied and whether one’s bald scalp peeps through the wig.

Another popular — and crude — DIY costume this year requires a buttpad and glittery gown to become a Kardashian.

However, there are quite a few tasteless costumes that seem less like fantasy escapes and more like proof that we're trapped in a hellbound handbasket. What follows are some of the most offensive 2022 Halloween costumes we found.

1. It was inevitable. Johnny Depp's most provocative testimony was sure to spawn an Amber Heard costume. After Depp accused Heard of pooping in his bed, social media embraced Heard as a Halloween inspiration.

During their trial in May, a blonde Depp fan wore a poop emoji hat and a brown tutu as a 2022 Halloween muse. Instagrammers wondered whether to affix a miniature bed to the costume or just a brown painted sheet.

2. This bag full of Karen contains a blonde wig, big sunglasses and a cell phone. All that's needed is a white woman to wear them. Funny or depressing? Check your Black friends' reactions before buying.

3. Squid Game uniforms are fine for adults. But for children? Halloween lovers argue on social media over whether teaching a preteen that the workplace is a ruthless, cruel, treacherous bloodsport is a lesson that can drain a lot of fun out of getting free candy.

4. An even creepier suggestion emerged in Reddit's “Beyond the Bump” community, where a parent decided to dress their two kids as upside-down pineapples — the symbol used by swinging couples to reveal they are ready for sex.

"We just thought that it would be so hilarious if someone comes up to us and makes a comment" the parent posted.

First, gross. Second, it would not be hilarious. Gazing into a prop crystal ball, one can see visits from Children's Services and a therapist's couch in the kids' futures.

5. This seller touts matching Confederate soldier adult and son costumes for battlefield reenactments and history class plays — and they might be a valid learning tool used that way. But the text describing their use as a Halloween costume makes a reader wonder if the seller never heard of the Jan. 6 attempted coup or the current fear that a violent civil war is brewing.

"Dress for secession. The rebel southern army fought the Union forces to protect their way of life. Feel the passion of these plantation-era gentlemen. Relive the Antebellum dream of wooing that special southern belle and sipping mint juleps out on the veranda. Months unshaven, grimy with dust and sweat, the anti-federalist soldiers remained steadfast on the battlefield against President Lincoln. Keep the memories of home and hearth close to heart as a southern veteran."

Another major nationwide supplier of costumes, Party City, took Confederate uniforms off Halloween shelves two years ago after Black shoppers explained that using the costumes for a festive holiday felt painful and divisive.

Currently, some YouTube Halloween tutorials suggest a way to repurpose the uniforms in a way that is meant to honor civil rights protests. For example, Some show how to use gray body and face paint to make oneself look carved from marble or granite. Use black paint on cracks, fractures and crushed eyes or noses. Put on the uniform. Add a chain around the waist. If you need to explain to friends that you are a toppled and partially pulverized Confederate statue, the costume doesn’t work.

6. This costume is branded as a preteen girl's ensemble: gray-green beret, dark blue dress with a sturdy ID tag attached, and brown suitcase on a strap. It's the Anne Frank costume. After shoppers complained that a Holocaust victim wasn't a sensitive choice for trick-or-treaters, many stores renamed it as “WWII evacuee.”

7. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was made three years ago, but its influence lingered — spawning lots of “Manson Girl” Halloween costumes. Comb long, stick-straight hair parted in the middle. Wear a flowy peasant dress. The bloody knife prop is optional.

Unsurprisingly, the Jan. 6 Capitol riot will continue to pollute Halloween this year. Costume makers online are trading tips on creating Viking-helmeted shamans, Oath Keepers and white-wigged Pences with nooses dangling from their necks. Bullet-riddled zombies with nametags inscribed "Lying Lib" or "Good Lib=Dead Lib" are suggested. But, the latter was criticized as too subtle.