A FAMILIAR MEME. A NEW CONTEXT.
A picture in the “Stonks” format: a man in a black suit with a carved pumpkin instead of a head, against stock market boards, with an arrow pointing up and the caption “spooks.” The meme jokes that a “scary” October looks like a rise in interest in Halloween.
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In the center stands a man with arms folded across his chest, in a dark business suit, white shirt and gray tie. Instead of a head he has an orange carved pumpkin with triangular eyes, a nose and a wide toothy grin. The background consists of stock boards with numbers, triangular indicators and percentages, and on the right a large orange arrow rises upward. At the bottom, “spooks” is written in white outline.
All of this is made as an open parody of business graphics: the numbers signify growth, and fear and Halloween atmosphere serve as the “currency.”
The basis of the joke is a template in which a man in a suit stands against a growth chart. Its first version, with the head of Meme Man and the distorted word “stonks,” was published on June 5, 2017 by an author known as Special meme fresh, and it quickly spread across Reddit.
Later the template began to be changed for any topic: each time a new caption announces that something is “rising in price.” The Halloween version replaces the face with a pumpkin and the word “stonks” with “spooks.”
For the internet, October is convenient as a season with a clear set of symbols: pumpkins, skeletons, candles, bats. Any one of them is enough to place on a picture so the audience immediately understands what it is about. That is why such jokes are easily assembled from ready-made parts, and templates like this one repeat from year to year.
A pumpkin instead of a head also removes the question of identity: the viewer faces a faceless figure that personifies everyone waiting for the holiday. This makes the picture pleasant and harmless, without tying it to real people.
The word “Spooktober” is made from the English “spooky,” meaning “creepy,” and “October.” Its exact origin is unknown. The earliest mentions found date to 2012 on Twitter, where October programming on Disney Channel was called that; in 2013 the word reached YouTube, and in 2016–2018 it was actively used on Reddit.
The Russian version, Spuktyabr, is a calque of the English word. The date when this particular picture appeared and its author are unknown.
The caption “spooks” turns the frightening into an “asset” that gets more expensive in a specific month. A pumpkin in a strict suit looks like a smug investor, and the arrow confirms it: the “scary” season has arrived. The contrast between business attire and festive content creates the effect.
The meme is seasonal: it takes off at the start of October and fades after the holiday, when the decorations come down. This is what sets it apart from universal reactions that fit any time of year.
“October 1st: my playlist of ‘scary’ songs” — the picture illustrates a sharp rise in interest.
“The store where the pumpkins ran out in two days” — the upward arrow confirms incredible demand.
“The number of skeletons in my feed after the first of the month” — the caption uses charts as statistics.
“My mood this week: more autumn, less sleep” — a personal variant where the spooky means cozy.
It is best to post the picture at the start of October and just before the holiday itself: then it is perceived as a seasonal greeting. Captions with numbers and “statistics” strengthen the parody of stock market reports.
In other months the image loses its meaning, so it is convenient to keep it in a collection of seasonal templates.
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