Lady Creates Moo Deng Halloween Costume, Transforms Into Viral Child Pygmy Hippo

A girl paid tribute to one of many 12 months’s most pleasant popular culture moments by reworking herself into Moo Deng for Halloween.

Kirbie Johnson, who co-hosts the wonder podcast Gloss Angeles, dressed because the viral child pygmy hippopotamus for her annual Halloween celebration, dubbed KIRBOWEEN. With assist from particular results make-up artist Ally McGillicuddy, she usual the animal’s head utilizing a prosthetic, pairing it with grey pores and skin to match.

“I knew the world’s most beloved pygmy hippo needed to be my costume this 12 months,” Johnson tells PEOPLE of the inspiration for her Halloween look.

She mentioned she and McGillicuddy needed to get inventive, as there have been no ready-made Moo Deng costumes out there. “It got here collectively in every week — and it proved troublesome as a result of there are not any Moo Deng costumes on the market or child hippo prosthetics, so we obtained as shut as we may,” she explains, including, “Ally is a genius and spent 4 hours on this transformation.”

In an Instagram Reel displaying off her unbelievable Halloween look, Johnson defined extra concerning the technique of “turning into Moo Deng” — and among the logistical challenges she skilled within the costume at her celebration.

“I introduced a Stanley cup straw from my own residence as a way to have a cocktail. I couldn’t eat all night time. I lastly shoved some charcuterie down my snout on the finish of the night time,” she mentioned of the cumbersome face prosthetic, joking that she took a Waymo [self-driving car] “so there was no driver to harass” her over her uncommon look.

She mentioned she was in a position to discuss, however her voice sounded “muffled” because of her hippo mouth, which she defined was “a two-piece prosthetic.”

“I had it rush-shipped from Canada. I paid a small fortune, nevertheless it was nice,” Johnson shared in her video. “You may see I’ve a bit round my jawline and my chin after which there is a piece that goes over my nostril and round my eyes. I used to be having to breathe out of my mouth the entire night time.”

Johnson mentioned McGillicuddy used paints that “are usually water-activated and combined them with alcohol or some type of non-movable paint so it would not rub off.”

The make-up artist then “went in with an airbrush” and added touches of pink to imitate Moo Deng’s distinctive coloring and a particular spray to provide the hippo head a shiny look.

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Johnson joked that whereas she loves how her costume turned out, it could not have been the only option for her “official ‘I am single’ announcement.”

“Watching this again, I actually am like, ‘What’s unsuitable with you, woman? You are single and that is the way you’re dressing up for Halloween,’ ” she mentioned.

However for Johnson, it is all a part of the enjoyable, as she likes to go all out for the vacation. “I like Halloween and I at all times go for an enormous transformation yearly,” she tells PEOPLE. “My mother and father have enjoyable dressing up, in order that they instilled a love of the vacation in me. I aspire to get to Heidi Klum-level at some point!”

Moo Deng, who lives in Thailand’s Khao Kheow Open Zoo, took the web by storm when she made her debut on Instagram on Sept. 6, weeks after her July 10 delivery. Nearly instantly, the zoo noticed its day by day customer numbers greater than double as individuals clamored to see the infant animal in particular person. A 24/7 dwell stream was later launched, permitting followers to tune in and see what Moo Deng is as much as at any hour of the day or night time.

Zookeeper Atthapon Nundee informed the Related Press that Moo Deng’s world recognition has been “past expectation.”