The Writers’ Strike, Coming To A Halloween Costume Party Near You

For those uninspired by our previous Halloween costume suggestions (honestly, we didn’t really expect you to go around terrifying children in a Teri Hatcher mask), a thread developing on MetaFilter since yesterday could provide you with a more abstract, but no less timely, alternative that will make you the envy of every terrified, sporadically scribe writer at your local Halloween party:

I’m thinking of being the 2007 Writer’s Strike for Halloween (because, you know, November 1st will be pretty scary for us WGA members living paycheck to paycheck.) Now – how to make this snarky, intangible and in-joke-ridden costume idea a reality?

I live in LA and the majority of my friends are screenwriters, so there shouldn’t be too much of a problem with people ‘getting it.’ I just want it to be an awesome costume, with lots of funny little references. (A dartboard with Patrick Verrone’s face? A handful of bounced checks to hand out?)

You can read the MeFi users’ attempts at tackling the problem here; while our favourite from the thread was “a gigantic piece of paper that’s completely blank save for a page number and the words FADE IN,” we’d probably opt for an interpretation that more viscerally evokes the horror Hollywood could be facing on November 1st, suggesting that any strike-inspired costumes involve carrying a WGA picket sign and a two-months overdue unpaid mortgage bill (a screaming baby doll is optional) while wearing a pair of visibly soiled pants. We think the combination of those essential elements should be instantly recognisable to anyone who’s been obsessing over the labour negotiations the past few weeks.

• Boo! Now give me those internet residuals, dammit! [MetaFilter]