Halloween tends to lure out an assortment of masked characters at LSU. Horror icons like Ghostface, Pennywise and Jason Voorhees are known to loom in the shadows of campus. It only seems right that King Kong was added to the list this spooky season.
On Thursday, Sept. 25, Southern University freshman Trinity Sims, 19, posted a video of her and her friends giving LSU students a spook while wearing gorilla costumes.
The prank started when LSU freshman Laylah Johnson, 18, sent a TikTok to her friends of the same practical joke at another college. Finding the video entertaining, they thought it’d be funny to replicate it.
“We are the type of friends that enjoy spontaneous fun,” Sims said. “For us, this was just another fun side quest.”
Without too much planning beyond buying the costumes, the group spent around four hours exploring as much of the campus as they could manage.
The video uploaded to social media shows a handful of reactions from those who interacted with the group. From chasing people to posing for selfies, the quartet had an eventful night monkeying around campus.
“The funniest reaction was when a girl ran and tried to climb up a pole because she was scared,” Sims said.
The TikTok went viral, amassing nearly 50,000 views, over 12,000 likes and 2,000 shares. The comment section quickly fostered a unique community, with students sharing their experiences with the prank. Some social media users wrote about their confusion, fear and joy at seeing the group, while others dropped photos they snapped of them. Some students even commented their disappointment at not spotting the silverbacks.
“We were hoping people found our video so we can see everyone’s pictures they took,” Sims said. “We really loved that people found us entertaining and seeing everyone that was on campus interact with us and put the pictures they took of us and with us in the comment sections.”
Amusing antics like these are what create community in Baton Rouge, something that Sims agrees with.
“Even though I don’t attend Louisiana State University, I really love the university like my own and the student body feels like a family,” Sims said.
While Sims said there are no plans to put the viral costumes back on, keep your eyes peeled; there is a possibility that the group could make a “random and in the moment” comeback.
At a campus in the midst of midterms, it is the moments of levity that bring students together. Though the costumes may have been hung up for the time being, the playful prank is sure to live on in the memories and camera rolls of those who came into contact with the gregarious group.
