Google ‘Frightgeist’ helps you avoid being 13th person dressed as Harley Quinn at a Halloween party

Come this Halloween, a goodly portion of America apparently plans to dress as Harley Quinn, the murderous, scantily clad sidekick to the Joker in the world of DC Comics’ Batman.

So, if you’re thinking about dressing up as HQ, well, don’t.

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Also, probably better to skip the Star Wars costumes. Because according to Google’s Frightgeist (a site from our favorite Alphabet subsidiary that is ranking the popularity of costumes based on searches), Star Wars is the second most popular. And thus, you have a “frighteningly high” chance of seeing another Star Wars character at a party.

Frightgeist is pulling in data from Google Trends to rank costume ideas. Alas, it’s only doing this for the U.S. Because I’d totally love to see what Canadians are going to wear this year.

Though Harley Quinn is expected to make her big-screen debut in the upcoming Deadpool movie, it’s still a little surprising to see this relatively obscure comic book character leading the pack. This no doubt reveals something disturbing about the current state of the American psyche, and we’re pretty sure it has something to do with Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy.

You can also zoom in for local rankings and discover, for instance, that Star Wars is actually the top costume idea for San Francisco. And Minnie Mouse ranks fourth in San Francisco, a ranking that, frankly, defies any rationale explanation.

Meanwhile, Tinker Bell appears to be the top costume idea in Twin Falls, Idaho. And I’m not even going to speculate on that one.

But hey, this is data. And data never lies. Or misleads us. Ever.

The good news is that Frightgeist has a “show something less popular” button. When I clicked on it, it told me to dress as the Energizer Bunny, which ranked only 453 in popularity.

Okay. No thanks.

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