Welcome to 2026's 31 Days of Heistoween, a daily dose of spooky icons, spine-tingling oddities, and — most harrowing of all — memes. Check back every day from now through October 31 for each daily entry!
While watching Trixie Mattel's new Halloween special, a combination telethon parody and slasher pastiche (with a few performances of songs from her new spooky EP) last night, I kept thinking about how much I love drag. Here's arguably one of the five most famous drag queens on Earth right now literally putting on a show in her living room (and kitchen and front gate). The behind-the-scenes names are all ones you recognize if you tune into Trixie's channel every Monday, and the celebrity guests (calls from Inde Navarrette, Orville Peck, and Jamie Lee Curtis) feel more like personal favors than anything an agent or manager or publicist arranged. There's a scrappiness to it. It's very, "be the Halloween special that you want to see in the world."
All that said, I couldn't help thinking about me while watching Trixie's Halloween Mattelathon. That's because when I'm not running Pop Heist and when I'm feeling mentally ill [positive], I like getting in drag and making videos too! And gosh darnit, two years ago I made a really good video and I'm still waiting for the views to roll in!
The premise was simple: I'm legitimately terrified of what I call "real aliens," the greys. This is something that goes back to the '90s, to The X-Files and all those weird syndicated supernatural "news programs" that would come on in the afternoon. So, I got in full drag and watched a bunch of videos deemed "real alien videos" by YouTube's search algorithm. All alone, in the dark (mostly).
I legit scared myself. And I think it's fun to watch! It deserves more than 120 views. Knowing how much work I put into the editing, oh my god, it deserves at least 3,000 views.
And if you want to use this as an opener for a real Halloween treat, a main course like Trixie's special, I would be honored.
Come knock on our door tomorrow for even more 31 Days of Heistoween treats.
If you haven't already, consider supporting worker-owned media by subscribing to Pop Heist's newsletter or leaving a tip. We are ad-free and operating outside the algorithm, so all dollars go directly to paying the staff members and writers who make articles like this one possible.
