Michael Myers tops Google Halloween search trends in a surprising way
We already know this to be true, but Google search trends prove it: Halloween-franchise villain Michael Myers and Jell-O shots will never die.
A recent report from the search giant revealed 2022's top Halloween trends, which includes boringly obvious costume searches for things like witch and cowboy. But there were a couple of eye-opening standouts like a surprising amount of people wanting to know how tall Michael Myers is because... they're worried he might come after them? Also, it seems like a lot (and we mean A LOT) of people prefer to take their Jell-O shots via syringe because apparently that's spookier?
According to the annual "Frightgeist" report, queries for "How tall is Michael Myers" have doubled this year and those for "How to make jello shots in syringes" went up by 350 percent.
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Contrary to the now-classic Disney song, it appears we do indeed need to talk about Bruno because Encanto was one of the top breakout costume searches this year. Other top breakouts indicate our love of wholesome heroes — Ted Lasso and Moon Knight — and the superhero/lawyer crossover show we didn't know we needed in She-Hulk.
But when it comes to top costume searches overall, the classics still dominate the Halloween scene. The top ten costumes include witch, Spider-Man, dinosaur, fairy, pirate, cheerleader, and cowboy. Stranger Things also cracked the top ten ranking at number four because pink dress Eleven and sailor boy Steve will never go out of style.
If you're thinking this list isn't sexy enough, you're not wrong. Playboy Bunny was all the way down at number 82. But gamers were fairly well-represented. Fortnite (#48), Minecraft (#67), Among Us (#103), and Roblox (#118) all made the list.
If you'd like, you can browse the top 853 searched costumes on Google's Frightgeist microsite and nerd-out on all the costume search data according to categories like spookiness, classic vs. modern, and uniqueness with the "Costume Wizard" feature.
In the meantime, we'll spare you the Google search and just tell you that Michael Myers is currently depicted as 6'9". So maybe keep those Jell-O shot syringes at the ready if a tall silhouette darkens your door this October. Muahaha.
Cecily is a tech reporter at Mashable who covers AI, Apple, and emerging tech trends. Before getting her master's degree at Columbia Journalism School, she spent several years working with startups and social impact businesses for Unreasonable Group and B Lab. Before that, she co-founded a startup consulting business for emerging entrepreneurial hubs in South America, Europe, and Asia. You can find her on X at @cecily_mauran.
