Irwin Halloween costumes split Americans

Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin in 2002. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

LOS ANGELES - Bad taste Steve Irwin costumes, which include a bloody stingray barb attached to a khaki shirt, are among the top Halloween costumes in the US this year.

The macabre outfits have split Americans, with some condemning the costumes while others find them amusing.

At least one US celebrity, comedian Bill Maher, has donned the Crocodile Hunter outfit.

Photos of Maher at a Halloween party in Los Angeles on the weekend dressed in khaki shorts and shirt with a bloody barb hanging out of his chest are circulating the internet.

The comedian, who has a weekly talk show on the HBO TV network, has outraged some of his fans.

"I suppose he thought it was funny, but it was seriously lacking taste, decorum and respect for Steve's family," a Maher fan wrote on a blog on the comedian's official website.

Another fan wrote: "I am kind of torn on it - I have good sense of humour but this one is just kind of tacky".

The San Francisco Bay Guardian newspaper recently published an article entitled Great Bad Ideas for Halloween Costumes, with the number one suggestion a Crocodile Hunter outfit.

The article came with an illustration of Irwin with a stingray on his chest.

"Kids and grown-ups alike will stare you down with white-hot horror when you strut around in your khaki ensemble with a pissed off sea creature piercing your chest," the article's authors, Cheryl Eddy and Kimberly Chun, wrote.

"Too soon? Hell, no.

"If Irwin's eight-year-old can get her own Discovery Kids television show, you can certainly make sport of her nature-loving pop's freaky demise.

"Group costume idea: bring along Roy Horn and Montecore, and Timothy Treadwell and the Big Red Machine, and you've got your very own When Animals Attack all-star team!"

Mike Flint, the owner of Mallatt Pharmacy, a US leader in Halloween costumes based in Wisconsin, said bad taste outfits were always popular at Halloween.

Flint said he had had customers this year who had khaki style Crocodile Hunter outfits, but were seeking barbs to put in their chests.

"You would not believe some of the things people ask us to do," Flint said.

"When the movie Titanic came out what was popular that year was frozen victims of that disaster.

"Siegfried and Roy costumes were popular the year they had the accident with one of their lions."

Flint said that adding to the popularity of the Crocodile Hunter outfit was it was cheap and easy to put together.

"With the khaki clothes, it is an easy costume," Flint said.

- AAP