Snooki, Lady Gaga top Halloween costume queries
Experian Hitwise's annual tally of the top costume searches of the season indicates that over-the-top reality show and pop stars are still the most common routes for adult Halloween apparel.
No surprise here: Eccentric pop star Lady Gaga and "Jersey Shore" star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi are the top Halloween costume searches this year, according to Experian Hitwise. Also big this year are Katy Perry, Michael Jackson, and tween sensation Justin Bieber--though in Bieber's case, people are specifically searching for wigs.
Other Halloween costumes that have been popular searches this year are "queen of hearts," "mad hatter" (those two perhaps in reference to Tim Burton's summer hit flick "Alice in Wonderland"), "catwoman," "gypsy," and "tinkerbell." Searches that tossed in the word "homemade" were topped by Lady Gaga, "pirate," "mummy," and "scarecrow."
Hitwise figured out its top costume rankings by tabulating searches that had "costume" attached to them, like "lady gaga costume" and "snooki costume," over the course of the four weeks ended October 24.
Completely absent from this year's list was one of last year's bizarre favorites, "adult care bear costume," which thoroughly creeped me out, until a reader kindly e-mailed me photos of himself and his fraternity brothers dressed up as Care Bears, and I was forced to acknowledge that it was kind of hilarious.
As for the tykes, this year, Hitwise found that the top searches for babies' costumes included "vampire," "tinkerbell," and "peter pan." Toddler costume searches were topped by "cow," "strawberry shortcake," and "pink poodle," all of which sound like recipes for blackmail-worthy photos in about a decade or so.