Costume parties aren’t for everyone. Some people delight in a theme, others are like, no thank you.

Like in this story, when a friend is invited to a cosplay party but doesn’t quite understand the assignment… and just dresses like she’s from a sitcom in the 90’s.

Let’s get some laughs out of this one.

AITA for showing up to my friend’s cosplay themed 30th as Phoebe Buffay?

My friend Rachel’s 30th birthday was this past weekend. (Obviously not her real name, haha).

We’ve been friends since college and work in the same industry (a boring one, lol) so we’ve stayed close. I helped with some of the logistics but was not a host or anything.

Rachel has always been into fandom stuff, always has shows she’s watching, fanfiction she’s writing or reading, fan theories and fan projects.

Fun. But not everyone’s thing. I’m guessing maybe OP isn’t as much of a STAN?

I am not much of a fandom person. When I watch shows, I don’t get very invested or engage with fan theories. I also don’t tend to like shows where there’s a big fan following.

From what I can tell, it’s mostly stuff that’s like fantasy, science fiction, or paranormal that happens. Forums for shows I like tend to all be, “This character is over hater” or “X is a bad person.”

The closest I’ve come to anything like that is watching a few episodes of Star Trek with my dad as a kid.

Not exactly a Trekkie, then. But what does OP like?

I usually like real life dramas or fun light-hearted shows like *** and the City or Friends.

(I know the “cool” thing these days is to make a big show about how you don’t find Friends funny, and truthfully I haven’t seen an episode of it in years, it’s just an example.)

Cool, schmool. And everybody has their thing. So what will OP do for this themed party?

For her birthday she asked everyone to show up in cosplay from your favorite series. I will say most of our social group is similar to her in that they like this sort of thing.

I’m one of the few odd ducks out.

I tried to think of something I could dress up as, I saw some TikTok of a girl showing off her Phoebe Buffay inspired outfits, and I had a few similar things in my closet, so I went with that.

Easy peasy. Or maybe… too low effort? What will “Rachel” think?

When I showed up, Rachel greeted me and then asked me what I was dressed as because she didn’t recognize it. I told her.

She didn’t know the name, I explained, and she made a funny face and said, “I guess that kind of counts?”

I didn’t think about it again until later in the evening when Rachel was talking to everyone.

So Rachel (like the character) is a little judge-y about clothes. But so what?

She thanked them for coming and saying she’d had fun talking about the cosplay costumes with everyone and how everyone did such a good job, “Except Jessica… but it’s okay, you definitely might have tried!”

It’s not like everyone laughed or anything but it was so awkward.

I ended up leaving a little while later because it just felt… off.

Yeah, who cares, Rach? But it was her party, so she can cry if she wants to.

A couple of days later, Rachel and I were texting and she said, “Btw next time I’ll help you pick so you aren’t embarrassed.”

I feel like she’s implying that I SHOULD be embarrassed.

AITA?

This friend is definitely giving Rachel vibes.

What do the comments have to say about this costume disaster?

One person questions the effort…

Someone else says, cosplayers can be snobs too.

Another person says cosplay shouldn’t be exclusionary.

Another person has words of wisdom for next time.

This poster is like, sometimes people just don’t get it.

Smelly friend, smelly friend, why did you dress like that?

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.