Scenes from Halloween 2008

Things started innocently enough at the apartment with some pre-Halloween Carnivale beer pong. Spotted here are L-Jarms and Reid, dressed as Kim Kardashian and Michael Phelps, respectively.

J-Unit, Sawgee, and brilliantmistake as Richard Simmons, Johnny from Karate Kid, and Sookie from True Blood. Be thankful you're not viewing the higher resolution version of this pic.

Costume? Check. Beer? Check. Good times? Double check!

IndianJones impresses all with his homemade Michelangelo costume. Notice the fine detail in the chest plate. Thumbs up indeed!

Katie from TVgasm and her boyfriend Walter arrive ready to turn some heads.

And we're off!

Oh snap! It's IndianJones!

Ready to dominate the Carnivale.

As we approach the masses, Reid begins his transformation into Michael Phelps. Jash, meanwhile, dazzles all as a spelling bee (note the attached letters). He's not just any spelling bee though. He's a glittery spelling bee, and three days later, there's still glitter ALL OVER MY APARTMENT.

Unsurprisingly, Michael Phelps was a very popular costume. This was the first of about twenty MPs we saw.

We ran into Lynn and Alex from The Amazing Race and LA Rag Mag. Here they are mugging for the camera.

One of a handful of Richard Simmonses. Unfortunately, J-Unit zipped off as soon as we got to the parade; so we didn't get a group Sweatin' To The Oldies picture."

One of the more disturbing costumes of the night. There's actually no nudity here. Just a fleshy overhang and a suggestively placed piece of fabric.

Jash unintentionally pokes his head into this regrettable scene. Note the stretch marks and underwear label...

Every year, the event attracts upwards of 500,000 people. Since it was on a Friday, however, it felt more crowded than ever. It took us two hours to walk a third of a mile at one point.

Yay drunken group photo!

Tikis! I loved these costumes.

Jash and I pose with a Wiimote and a Nunchuk. BEST EVER. It should be noted that Jash is trying to emulate the experience of playing Wii, which is why his hand seems to be on the Wiimote's crotch.

Another Richard Simmons!

I now feel it very important to stop this post and head directly to the gym.

I kind of don't remember taking this picture. I think this was a group of Mormons on a mission. Or something like that. They were very well coordinated.

And then there was the VIP tent... So there's this VIP tent, which my friends and I have gone to every time we've come to the Carnivale. This year, however, we encountered some friction at the door. Namely, they wouldn't let us in.

But here's what made it so egregious. We told them we were on the list, but they said they couldn't let us in because they were allegedly at capacity. Ahem, look at the photo above.

Oh, MY bad. There's like three people inside. I guess it really was full!

104.3 My FM was running the door; so I say shame on them for being rude and awful. I guess they just didn't like our very multi-cultural group of people. Yeah, that's right. I'm pulling the Jewish, Indian, Black, gay, Native-American, Cape Verdian, Asian card. Don't listen to their station! Booo!!!!

Tryin' my hand at Blue Steel. I think, however, it came off more like Indigo Paper Maîché.

How exciting: a bee AND a beekeeper in the same frame!

There's nothing more jarring than turning around and seeing a naked tranny standing RIGHT THERE.

Speaks for itself.

Battle of the Johnnies. It was a surprisingly popular costume.

I fortuitously came upon two drag queens dressed as Barker's Beauties. They even had a little game of Plinko with them. It was awesome.

General chaos.

Jash encounters another bee, also a popular costume. This bee, however, did not spell. Nor did she leave a trail of glitter EVERY DAMN PLACE SHE WALKED.

At one point, a woman gasped and said, "Is that B-Side?" This in turn caused me to gasp and say "Did someone recognize me?" Turns out this was Genevieve, one of the very, very first commenters on TVgasm back in 2004. She and Leah3t were the godmothers of our commenting base. This was a very momentous occasion.

Warning: the next photo is VERY disturbing.

I warned you.

Random Hank Williams Jr. costume.

Our friend Dan dressed up like Obama. It was shocking how many people flocked to him. That's when we got an idea...

We decided that whenever we found a crowd of people, we'd start yelling "OBAMA! OBAMA!" Sure enough, people went nuts. It was like they thought he really WAS Obama. In this picture, note the reaching hand of IndianJones as he grasps for hope.

It's Obama and the Ring girl!

Obama and Flavor Flav!

Obama and a random girl!

Obama and more fans!

Obama and Dick Cheney. OH SNAP! Political commentary!

This was when Dan started to get really annoyed with us. And of course, it just made us do it more.

The inevitable Obama, McCain, Palin shot.

Here's Obama with a random bodybuilder dude wearing mesh and a mask.

One of the more bizarre groupings of Obama fans: an old Flintstones drag queen (clearly engaged in an important conversation with Wilma), some sort of cave creature, and a risqué genie whose lamp features many sexual overtures. Dan wanted to punch us.

Obama and Jimi Hendrix!

In protest, Dan sat on the street, refusing to take any more photos. Unfortunately for him, another reveler yelled out to him, "You can't sit down now, Obama! You've got to see it through to the end!!!" And thus Dan was guilted back into action. Here's a shot of him getting up, but honestly, it looks like he's merely taking a crap on Santa Monica Boulevard.

Here's the guy who motivated Dan to stand up. His costume was Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Rain (he had a water gun which he happily squirted to represent light precipitation).

Obama with Snap, Crackle, and Pop. Also in the pic is Jenny, who's been with us the entire time, but seeing that she's been on photo duty also, you haven't seen much of her.

Obama with a police officer. Probably the most detailed costume of the night. Oh wait. He was a real cop.

Obama with Castro!

My favorite of the bunch: Obama with a towering old guy in drag.

Seriously, people would not stop flocking.

Here's Obama excitedly talking about all the people who keep coming up to him.

Obama and Jenny discuss how the economic downturn has affected worldwide Smurfberry production.

A Kenyan!

Obama with a slutty ladyboy cop. (Not to mention a very pleasant-looking woman who appears to be having just a LOVELY time)

Full circle.

Obama wasn't the only one getting attention. Towards the end of the night, we ran into a rash of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Here's IndianJones with Leonardo and April O'Neil.

'Tis hard work being Obama.