Here are two things we can all agree on: making money is extremely good, but paying licensing fees is a huge pain in the ass. Knock-off costume manufacturers are well aware of this. All year round (but especially at Halloween), cheap stores are packed to the gills with costumes that are clearly meant to be something from pop culture but that are labelled in such a way that they avoid being sued. You’ve got your Austin Powers costumes as ‘groovy man’. You’ve got your Prince costumes as ‘purple rock star’. You get the idea.
[jwplayer gvkTjsCy]
When writer Dana Schwartz put out a call on Twitter for people’s favourite knockoffs, one in particular took off:
https://twitter.com/the_doria/status/1054425766040080390
Obviously, people went nuts for this, because it’s ridiculous. Hermany Grinder! Chogborts! No licensing fees! It’s almost too good to be real! Well, that’s because it absolutely is not real. It turns out this Obvious Plant–branded costume is (at least in the eyes of its creator) an obvious plant.
Obvious Plant is the brainchild of a man called Jeff Wysaski, who makes very ridiculous things and places them in locations where they look like they juuust might belong. Here are some examples:
The Chogborts costume has been kicking around as a meme (read: funny image posted without credit) for a fair while now, but its resurgence on Twitter has seen it reposted in at least a few places as if it’s the real deal. This is not entirely surprising, given the insane and loving attention to detail that Wysaski goes to with his design work.
Unfortunately, you will not be able to find this cheap knock-off in stores, but you will be able to find any other number of Harry Potter knock-offs pretty much anywhere you look, and you can just tell people you’re a wizard at Chogborts.
