Reddit Crowns The Most Inappropriate Celebrity Halloween Moment Ever: 'Deeply Disturbing'

Thanks to celebrities' penchants for losing sight of normalcy, we'd like to think we've grown pretty thick skin. Sure, we were disappointed when Prince Harry dressed like a Nazi, a little grossed out by Halle Bailey's inappropriate "Lilo & Switch" Halloween costume, and thrown off beat with "Dancing with the Stars" host Julianne Hough's Halloween blackface. But one actor's Halloween moment still sends shivers down our spines more than a decade later — and Reddit agrees.

In 2011, Neil Patrick Harris, a beloved star best known for playing Barney in "How I Met Your Mother," transcended the realm of offensiveness and stepped into something much more sinister. Halloween that year came just three months after singer Amy Winehouse passed away from an overdose, which devastated fans across the globe. Now, you're probably thinking, "How bad can it be?" Harris, after all, wouldn't be the first to mock a dead person with his Halloween outfit (ahem, Chloë Sevigny and her distasteful dead Princess Diana costume). However, Harris' inappropriate moment is so much worse than you likely think it is.

Just months after the death of Amy Winehouse, Neil Patrick Harris made a decomposed cake version of her face & body, yet this man continues to work in Hollywood, truly sick and disgusting. pic.twitter.com/htMKRyMiHb

— Dainty Darling (@cawksuckah) April 21, 2024

That year, he hosted a Halloween party and served a platter carved to look like a rotting cadaver, which was labeled "The Corpse of Amy Winehouse." Beyond how disturbing this sounds, the actual image is worse than anything you could imagine. It's grotesque, disgusting, and "deeply disturbing," as one Redditor put it in a discussion about celebrities' worst Halloween moments. Naturally, Harris' moment received the most upvotes, leaving everyone almost speechless. Another Redditor wrote, "OMG... Doesn't even look like meat at all, is so horrifying graphically real. ... It is so disgustingly over the top."

On the surface, Neil Patrick Harris' meat platter is disgusting, but when you dive deeper, it leaves you with a sickening feeling in your chest for multiple reasons. As one Reddit user shared, "[It's] even more appalling when you consider it was a charcuterie (ie: largely pork-based platter), and Amy was a Jewish woman." This wasn't simply meant to poke fun; it was meant to demean and humiliate a deceased person. But it gets worse. Every overdose is a tragedy, but Amy Winehouse's was especially so because it played out in the public eye, and she was mocked for it.

During her final performance in Serbia, an intoxicated Winehouse forgot the lyrics to her songs, and an unsympathetic crowd booed her. There are pictures of her crying and hugging herself on the stage, looking scared and abandoned. Weeks later, she was dead. The fact that Harris had access to this information and felt no pity is simply perplexing. It makes us question if he's just one of those people who lack empathy or if he's a dark empath. Either way, he's forever tainted in our eyes. One Redditor put it this way: "There's edgy, there's dark, and there's legitimate pure sadism. Will never look at that guy without disgust."

But of course, we can't discuss a heinous moment without considering the motive. Was Harris a good guy whose history of playing villainous characters eventually caught up with him, or is this truly who he is? Obviously, no one can say for certain, but it does make you wonder. 

Thankfully, most of the other entries on Reddit's "worst celebrity Halloween costumes of all time" list are nothing compared to the Amy Winehouse platter. In fact, we'd argue that some are expected. Chris Brown, for example, dressed up as a "terrorist" in 2012 with a turban, kaftan, and actual guns, and while there was outrage, it wasn't exactly surprising when you consider his problematic history. It's similar to Vanessa Trump's inappropriate Halloween Playboy costume. We were put off, but not in the least bit surprised.

A more shocking mention was Gwen Stefani, who dressed as "Hurricane Sandy" in 2012, just one week after the storm began claiming so many lives. Stefani has made questionable decisions throughout her career, but poking fun at the hurricane was a new low for her. Then again, it's not entirely shocking that a millionaire saw a tragedy and immediately thought, "Boom! That's a Halloween costume right there." One Redditor put it this way: "This is the problem, people have a funny idea and then get so wrapped up in how good the pun is that they forget the bigger picture and how offensive and hurtful the costume will actually be."

That certainly seemed to be the case with Billie Eilish's 2022 matching costume with her boyfriend, Jesse Rutherford. For whatever reason, the couple chose to joke about their age gap, with Eilish dressing up as a literal baby, bibs and all, and Rutherford dressing up as an old man. I obviously don't need to explain why this was nauseating. The entire Reddit poll was a pretty decent collection of reasons why celebrities aren't to be worshipped. However, one entry that we totally don't agree with was Kyle MacLachlan's 2016 costume as kale. Yes, you read that right, the vegetable. It was a dad joke and an awful outfit, but MacLachlan's a sweetheart who even apologizes to furniture when he bumps into it, so put away those pitchforks, Reddit!