Kevin Malone’s Halloween Costumes From ‘The Office’: Brian Baumgartner Shares His Favorites [Exclusive]
Throughout The Office‘s run, the characters sported some unique Halloween costumes. In honor of Halloween weekend, The Office actor Brian Baumgartner shared his favorite costumes Kevin Malone wore in the NBC comedy series. Find out which of Kevin’s costumes was Baumgartner’s favorite, plus the other two costumes the actor considers runners up.
Kevin Malone’s Halloween costumes never disappointed in ‘The Office’
Several seasons of The Office featured an episode where the Dunder Mifflin employees came in wearing their Halloween costumes. In season 2, Kevin came dressed as Mr. Incredible from Disney’s The Incredibles. Later, in season 5, Kevin dressed as Heath Ledger’s Joker from The Dark Knight — but so did Creed (Creed Bratton) and Dwight (Rainn Wilson).
Throughout the show’s run, Kevin also came to the office in the following Halloween costumes:
- Paul Blart from Paul Blart: Mall Cop (Season 6)
- Michael Moore (Season 7)
- Dwyane Wade, despite his desire to be a gorilla from Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Season 8)
- Charlie Brown (Season 9)
Heath Ledger’s Joker is Brian Baumgartner’s favorite Halloween costume from ‘The Office’
When we caught up with Baumgartner via Zoom and asked about his favorite Halloween moments from The Office, he had this to say: “For me personally, I guess it would be, ‘Dammit, Creed, I’ve been up since four.'” Of course, he’s talking about the season 5 moment when Kevin came dressed as the Joker.
In the season 5 episode “Employee Transfer,” all three Jokers appear in the cold open. When Creed arrives at the office, he delivers one of Ledger’s iconic lines to Oscar: “Let’s put a smile on that face.” Upon recognizing his competition, Kevin stands up at his desk and delivers the hilarious line.
Kevin’s Joker was ‘supposed to be lame’ in ‘The Office’ Season 5
According to Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey‘s podcast Offices Ladies, costume designer Alicia Raycraft, who took over for Carey Bennett in season 5, was instructed to make each of the character’s Jokers distinct based on who was sporting the costume.
“She said that with this episode, she had to really ride the line of designing wardrobe, but also making sure that the costumes look like things that we could have put together ourselves,” Fischer explained on the podcast. “The script said that Creed’s Joker was supposed to be the best version of the Joker. Kevin’s was supposed to be lame.”
Kevin and Creed’s costumes were nods the Ledger’s Joker. On the other hand, Dwight’s costume was a nod to Jack Nicholson’s Joker.
‘The Office’ actor has always loved villains
Throughout his acting career, Baumgartner has rarely played the villain (though it has happened). Ironically, the actor was always drawn to villains growing up.
“That character [Joker] is probably my favorite villain,” Baumgartner informed us. “You didn’t ask this, but I’ll share this with you. I haven’t I don’t think I’ve talked about this very much, but … as a kid, my favorite characters were the villains.”
Baumgartner has always been drawn to the Joker, calling him “the most interesting” of the villains. It was a treat for the actor to get to play the character in some capacity during his time on The Office.
Paul Blart and Michael Moore are Brian Baumgartner’s other favorite ‘Office’ Halloween costumes
Kevin’s Joker costume might be Baumgartner’s all-time favorite, but the actor has two runners up for his favorite Halloween costumes from The Office. “Getting to be Paul Blart Mall Cop [was entertaining],” he added during our chat. “Because I got to ride the scooter and no one else was allowed to do it.”
The year Kevin dressed up as Michael Moore is another favorite for Baumgartner. “I got a Twitter message from Michael Moore after that,” the actor shared. “[It was] very positive, very nice. And I thought that was super cool.”
Watch your favorite Halloween episodes of The Office on Peacock.
