Welcome to the Friday edition of Internet Insider, where we dissect the week online. Today:
- The problem with ‘Squid Game’ Halloween costumes
- What is ‘Twilightcore’?
- People love the ‘sweaty man’ on TikTok
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BREAK THE INTERNET
Get ready for all the ‘Squid Game’ Halloween costumes
When I watched Netflix’s hit South Korean series Squid Game in late September, I knew what we’d all have to witness in late October: Lots and lots of Squid Game Halloween costumes. It’s an easy, and obvious, choice for fans of the series. The characters are fresh in everyone’s minds, and they wear outfits that are not hard to replicate.
The 456 players in the dystopian setting—in which people who have debts to pay off compete for a huge cash prize—wear green tracksuits with their number printed on the front and back and a matching T-shirt. The masked guards who order the players around (and kill the people who don’t succeed in the games) wear red jumpsuits and a mask with different shapes on them to denote rank. So, if you have pieces for either of these costumes, it will take you only a few minutes to put it together.
The costumes are basic enough that you could easily make your own. But ready-made versions of the outfits have been popping up on online retail sites over the past month. (Physical pop-ups are also advertising the costumes.) And, well, there’s a slight problem with where some of them are being sold—namely Amazon, which is often seen as a symbol of capitalism. As Gita Jackson wrote this week in an article for Vice’s Motherboard, “Hwang Dong-hyuk, who first wrote the show 10 years ago, has confirmed that it is intentionally a critique of that economic system. This makes browsing through the many, many bootleg Squid Game costumes on Amazon and Walmart’s website bizarre.”
In other words, if you like Squid Game due to its commentary on society and capitalism, you might want to check out the practices behind the company of the costume you’re buying. Workers in South Korea, meanwhile, are using the costumes to protest poor working conditions.
—Tiffany Kelly, culture editor
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TIKTOK
‘Twilightcore’ is the latest popular aesthetic
Twilightcore refers, aesthetically, to the late-aughts vampire franchise Twilight, and it’s having a moment. But it’s really just a new name for an old style. Like so many TikTok trends, it’s always been here.
The Twilightcore hashtag has more than 18 million views on the app; the Twilightoutfits tag has more than 6 million. Exactly what constitutes Twilightcore is fairly open-ended. The look is often referred to as Bella Swan-inspired, referencing Kristen Stewart’s character, or Alice Cullen-inspired, referring to Ashley Greene’s.
Read the full story here.
—Audra Schroeder, senior writer
CELEBRITIES
People love the ‘sweaty man’ on TikTok who broke the news of a celebrity couple’s alleged split
A bald, sweaty, sick man broke the “news” to over a million people via TikTok that John Mulaney and Olivia Munn allegedly broke up after controversially coupling earlier this year. The rumor started on Deuxmoi.
The viral TikTok by Jonathan, or @jonathansaysyeet, has more than a 1.8 million views and got the rumor mill churning across social media. In a true mark of viral success Jonathan—whose sweat droplets glowed in the light of his sunset lamp—quickly became a memeable icon on Twitter.
Read the full story here.
—Stacy Fernández, contributing writer
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An Eternals promo video turned into a meme template.
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