"Disguise Night" Is The Funniest Way To Meet Up With Friends

While it’s always fun to meet up with friends at a bar, you can easily take it to the next level by introducing a theme. Throw on a colorful wig, for example, and you instantly have yourself a party.

Right now on TikTok, “disguise night” is the latest iteration of themed get-togethers, with several videos going viral. The idea is to dress in a completely different way — think fake glasses, a wig, different clothes than you’d normally wear, etc. — and go to a bar where you try to find your friends in the crowd. The last one to be discovered wins.

On March 22, creator @care.ahh was part of a disguise night with five friends, and the video now has over 860,000 views. To change her look, she wore college basketball gear, thick glasses, and clip-in bangs while one of her friends, creator @julzbabe30, showed up in a black wig with her arms covered in fake tattoos. When you see the group’s before-and-after pictures, you can tell it would be nearly impossible to spot them in a crowd.

Of course, the comments under the video were top tier. One person said, “I would take this too far and end up with a bowl cut and a terrible dye job from a box.” Another wrote, “Why am I thinking about how I’d get prosthetics and a beard, as if I’m invited.” Someone else said, “Me dressed as a cabinet by the bathroom.” There were also a lot of questions about how to play. Here’s what to know.

Choosing Your Costume

While it would be fun enough to dress differently than you normally do for a night out with friends, the real excitement comes from gamifying the evening. It all starts with strategically choosing your outfit.

The idea is to dress like a real person, just not like you. The winner in this friend group was @julzbabe30 who went from being a dark blonde with no tattoos to someone with short, raven black hair, lots of tats, and a septum piercing — all fake, of course. You obviously don’t have to cut your hair or get a piercing unless you really want to. (Just throwing that out as a disclaimer.)

In her comments, people offered advice for being even more incognito, like swapping your phone case, since it’s something a BFF would instantly recognize, or hiding an identifying feature, like long hair. Other creators have also chimed in to share ideas, like @datelikegoblins, who said you should think about how you carry yourself, too.

Since a close friend will immediately spot your gait and silhouette, you should change how you walk or add things like shoulder pads or heels to alter your height and shape. The ways to change how you look are endless — and the more you think about the little details, the more likely you are to win.

In a follow-up video posted by @julzbabe30, where the original friends gathered to answer disguise night FAQs, they also pointed out strategies like blending in with other friend groups and sitting down to hide. You can take it really seriously and invent a whole new character for yourself.

Disguise Night Rules

Want to have a disguise night? Plan ahead with your friends so that everyone arrives at the location at different times. That way, you won’t bump into each other at the door and make direct eye contact. You can stagger it like 7:00, 7:05, 7:10, etc., or all agree to arrive separately within a specific hour, like between 8 p.m. and 8:30. The idea is to get inside seamlessly and start blending in.

At a specific agreed-upon time, you’ll all start looking around for each other. If you think you spot a friend, pull out your phone and text them to confirm. “Are you standing at the bar in a black shirt and a baseball hat?” or “Are you in a pink dress dancing by the stage?” Once you get a text from everyone in your group, you’ve been discovered and are out. You’ll then text your group chat and admit defeat.

Another tip? Go somewhere big, busy, or with multiple rooms so you can spread out. If you’re all circled around a tiny dive bar, the game won’t last very long. They also chose their arrival times at random, so no one had an automatic, unfair advantage.

As for the winner, there can be two types. This particular group awarded the title of “disguise night champion” to the person who was found last, as well as the person who had the best outfit. This allows you to win based on your look and your strategy. Try it this weekend and see how it goes!