Inflatable grim reaper pick-me-up costume with skull face and skeleton-print hands carrying a fake blue-shirted body

The best prank costumes sell the illusion before you say a word: a shark making off with a lifeguard, a grim reaper carrying a guest out of the party, a wound on your chest that actually moves. We have been building them since 2013, when we teamed up with YouTube prankster Magic of Rahat on four illusion costumes, including the severed hand that people still search for today. The same thinking runs through every prank costume and piece of illusion fancy dress we make now: one strong visual gag, checked against 30+ measurements per design, working straight out of the box.

What was the Magic of Rahat severed hand costume?

Back in 2013 we partnered with Rahat Hossain, the prankster behind the Magic of Rahat YouTube channel, whose hidden-camera illusions have racked up billions of views. Together we designed four Halloween prank costumes: the Severed Hand, the Falling Head, Sliced in Half and the Alien Chestburster. Rahat then took each one out in public and filmed the reactions, and you can still watch the results on our Magic of Rahat illusion prank playlist on YouTube.

The Severed Hand was part costume, part magic trick: a latex glove and wrist rig that let you carry around a twitching, bloodied limb while your real hand stayed hidden. Here is the honest bit, because we would rather tell you straight: the original severed hand glove is discontinued and no longer part of our range. The odd unit still surfaces second-hand on marketplace sites, but we cannot vouch for the condition of a ten-year-old latex prop. What we can do is show you the illusion costumes we build today, which use the same tricks on a bigger scale.

What makes a prank costume actually work?

Every good costume prank runs on the same three mechanics, whether it is a magician's severed hand or a full-size ride-on illusion.

  • A false silhouette. Your brain reads the outline first, so the costume redraws it. A pick-me-up inflatable puts a whole second character around you; from across a room the shape says two people, not one.
  • Dummy limbs where your real ones should be. Stuffed fake legs dangle where the "carried" person's legs would hang, while your real legs walk the costume around. It is the same misdirection Rahat used with the severed hand, scaled up to a full body.
  • Movement that sells it. A static prop looks like a prop. A fan-inflated costume wobbles and breathes, and an animated Digital Dudz wound moves on its own, which is exactly what makes people look twice.

Build quality decides whether the gag survives the night. Thin no-brand fabric sags and kills the silhouette, and a dead fan is a dead illusion. Ours run on 125GSM+ fabric, every design is tested across 30+ measurements, and we run 500,000+ quality checks a year, so the joke still works at midnight.

The prank costumes we would buy right now

All of these live in our funny costumes range, with the carried-away styles in the dedicated piggyback and ride-on costumes collection.

Shark Piggyback Costume: the lifeguard who lost

The Shark Piggyback Costume dresses you as a lifeguard, complete with the printed lifeguard tee and red cap, being carried off by a plush blue shark with fake legs dangling either side. It is our favourite entrance-maker for a summer party or a stag do: one costume, a whole story, no assembly beyond stepping in. The wearer's legs become the shark's, so you can walk, dance and queue for the barbecue in character.

Sumo Pick Me Up Inflatable: carried out by a wrestler

The Sumo Pick Me Up Inflatable Costume inflates in seconds into a full-size sumo wrestler who appears to have scooped you up mid-bout, dummy legs swinging in front. The fan keeps the whole thing rigid, and because the fabric is light you can wear it for a full evening without cooking. Party-long comfort is one of the four promises we make on every costume, and it matters double inside an inflatable.

Grim Reaper Pick Me Up: the Halloween exit

The Grim Reaper Inflatable Pick Me Up is the Halloween version of the gag: a hooded, skull-faced reaper hauls you away while your fake-legged body hangs helplessly from its skeleton hands. It reads clearly across a dark room, which is exactly what you want from Halloween fancy dress, and it pairs brilliantly with the scarier end of our best Halloween costumes for men.

Digital Dudz Moving Eyeball Tee: the subtle one

Not every prank needs a two-metre silhouette. The Digital Dudz Frantically Moving Eyeball T Shirt is a black tee printed with a horror face whose eye socket holds your phone; the free app plays a frantically darting eyeball, so the shirt appears alive from a metre away. Slip it under a hoodie, unzip at the right moment, enjoy the double takes.

Digital Dudz iWound Zipper: gore that moves

The Digital Dudz iWound Zipper works with almost any outfit you already own: a chest piece with an animated wound powered by your phone, so the injury beats and oozes on demand. It is the closest modern relative of the severed hand, a small, portable illusion that turns any costume into a prank costume.

Digital Dudz: the prank shirts built by a NASA engineer

Digital Dudz is our own brand, and its origin story is a good one. Mark Rober, then a NASA engineer who had worked on the Curiosity rover, invented the first app-animated Halloween costume in 2011 by strapping two phones to his chest to fake a gaping hole. The idea took off, and in 2013 Digital Dudz joined the Morphsuits family, bringing its animated wounds, eyeballs and beating hearts with it. Rober went on to become one of YouTube's biggest creators, with more than 78 million subscribers as of June 2026 (Social Blade). We like to think the prank costumes were an early sign.

How to pull off a costume prank

A few things we have learned from a decade of illusion costumes, ours and Rahat's.

  • Pick your reveal. The gag lands hardest on first sight, so arrive in costume rather than changing at the party. An ordinary setting, a school run or a supermarket queue, beats a room already full of fancy dress.
  • Practise the walk. Ride-on and piggyback illusions look best when you move naturally; our piggyback costume guide covers getting in, adjusting the dummy legs and walking convincingly.
  • Check the fan and batteries. Inflatables need four AA batteries and about a minute to inflate; our inflatable costume guide has the full run-through, including how to re-pack it flat.
  • Keep it kind. The best pranks end in laughter, not tears. Rahat's videos work because the reveal is instant and everyone is in on the joke seconds later. Save the jump-scares for people who will love them.

Every costume above ships with everything shown in the photo, because a prank costume with a missing piece is not much of a prank. No costume fails, designs that flatter, party-long comfort, no unwanted surprises: that is the Morph Promise, and it applies to the silly stuff too. We make your best times better.

Frequently asked questions

What was the Magic of Rahat severed hand illusion costume?

It was one of four prank costumes we created with YouTube prankster Magic of Rahat in 2013: a latex glove and wrist rig that made a twitching severed hand look real, filmed on his channel alongside the Falling Head, Sliced in Half and Alien Chestburster illusions.

Can you still buy the severed hand illusion prank costume glove?

No, the original severed hand glove is discontinued and no longer in our range. Second-hand units occasionally appear on marketplace sites, but we cannot vouch for their condition. Our current illusion range covers piggyback, ride-on and pick-me-up costumes plus animated Digital Dudz shirts.

What is the best prank costume for Halloween?

For Halloween we would pick the Grim Reaper Inflatable Pick Me Up: a skull-faced reaper appears to carry you away, it inflates in about a minute, and the fan-filled shape reads clearly even in a dark room. For a subtler prank, the Digital Dudz iWound Zipper adds a moving wound to any outfit.

How do piggyback and pick-me-up prank costumes work?

Your legs power the carrying character while stuffed dummy legs hang where the carried person's legs would be. Piggyback versions are all fabric; pick-me-up versions add a small battery fan that inflates the costume in around a minute and keeps the illusion rigid all night.