A Year Without Spooktober: 2020's Latest Victim

Spooktober has not always been moonlight and strong bones. Although the event started off strong in recent years, the craze has begun to feel strained and meme creators have largely stopped putting energy into it.

Last year, Meme Insider detailed this phenomenon in an article titled “Spooktober Is Dead and We Killed It,” which explored how overusing spooky memes in September and early October burns out users before Halloween ever arrives.

Due to this burnout, mods and users on some of Reddit's biggest meme subs made a compromise and decided to ultimately quarantine the Spooktober memes in an effort to avoid this. Moderators from /r/dankmemes took action ahead of Spooktober season and created a sister subreddit, /r/spook_irl, to allow for skeleton-posting and dooting alike. Outside of Reddit, Instagram did little to expand the field, and Twitter latched onto a 12-Foot Tall Home Depot Skeleton. TikTokers this year briefly kicked off the spooky season with the Ghost Photoshoot trend, but after drawing criticism from certain users who claimed it was racist, it quickly died out.

Taking all of this into account, the question is, "Has Spooktober been successful overall, and how does 2020's event compare to previous years?" The answer may not surprise you as to where it's fallen flat since the peak in 2018.

In a sense of cosmic irony, the efforts from Reddit made to combat burnout have created the reverse, where there is simply little to no engagement in 2020. For starters, /r/spook_irl still only has around 19,000 subscribers, which is minuscule next to /r/dankmemes more than 4 million. Additionally, the subreddit /r/spooktober made three years ago has a similar problem with just 60,000 subscribers. Both of these subs have a general trend where their “hot” page looks like a larger meme subreddit's “new” page. Tossing formats at the wall isn’t inherently bad or good, as it can often bring out real creativity, however, the lack of users means this style of content hurts the subs in the end.

Detailing the quarantine rules showcases a fatal flaw in the overall concept. By isolating Spooktober memes, /r/dankmemes hoped to prevent them from oversaturating their sub, but /r/spook_irl has failed to draw users from /r/dankmemes, which suggests that the users who engage with the latter are also the bulk of users for /r/spook_irl. Thus, these Redditors often have little to gain in supporting the sister sub.

This is, in part, due to the rules /r/dankmemes established for its quarantining, as every Saturday /r/dankmemes hosts Spooktober memes for the month of October. In turn, this stops lurkers from engaging with /r/spook_irl during the height of the trend each year. If the average subscriber to /r/dankmemes sees Spooktober memes, it’s safe to say that they have no reason to jump to a new subreddit.

All of this points to the elephant in the room when it comes to Spooktober memes and Spooktober 2020 in a broader context. Users are reaching for formats, seeking new standout memes, but ultimately never grasping them. Although new content always floats to the top, like the 12-Foot Tall Home Depot Skeleton, most content is recycled or appears cynical. Browsing Instagram hashtags showcase a wider pool of Spooktober memes, but sadly, (similar to Reddit) none really stand out.

Spooktober memes this year have failed to find their mark. Even diving into the top posts for the month of October in /r/spooktober and /r/spook_irl show how uninspired they really are. Additionally, the fourth top post in /r/spook_irl references that the event is already dying. To give some credit to /r/spook_irl however, there is a small movement this past week to revitalize the event, so maybe this year can be saved as we enter the final week of the month.

Maybe it's as simple as users needing more than just spooky scary skeletons, or it might need a “celebrity” meme content creator to push it into overdrive. Until then, 2020 should act as a year of remembrance for the great Spooktobers that were. But more importantly, it should be a way to try to think outside the skeleton and find the way to really necro Spooktober.

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