Ed Sheeran dressing up like an AI monkey is giving me the ‘Cats’ PTSD I did not need today

It’s Halloween season and celebrities have tried to create the funniest, scariest, or the most remarkable costumes. Ed Sheeran, a known fan of the holiday, has entered the chat dressed up like an AI monkey, and it’s the stuff of nightmares.

Ed Sheeran has a history of dressing up for Halloween, and one of his most iconic ones happened in 2023, when he dressed up as Chucky, after many comparisons online. The actor wore stained overalls with a striped shirt and had several stitches on his face, and he pulled off the look thanks to his ginger hair.

This year, the four-time Grammy winner decided to bank on another costume people have already decided for him, and dressed up in a monkey costume that has since become a meme, but it’s summoning PTSD from a failed movie.

Ed Sheeran’s AI-generated costume gives Cats vibes in the worst way

Last year, an AI-generated image of him dressed up in a monkey costume laying on a desk went viral, with 3.1 million likes. The layered photo has since become a meme of the singer, and he heard all the attention and decided to make it happen this year.

For his Halloween costume, Sheeran donned a fluffy brown onesie with big ears, sitting similarly to the AI-generated photo. He also left little room to second guess his decision and held up his phone with the AI image, which also held an iPhone in an Apple Store. “Haters will say its AI,” Sheeran captioned the image, adding several hashtags reading, “#halloweenbruv #feltcutemightdeletelater.”

The AI generated image has a history, too. The Sheeran meme is based on a viral photo of a young boy who is dressed as a monkey at an Apple Store.

As accurate as it is to the original meme, we can’t help but notice just how low-budget Cats movie this looks. The 2019 adaptation of the popular Broadway show came with big expectations and failed miserably. While the set design and the songs were good, the cat CGI gave everyone nightmares and Sheeran’s outfit takes us right back to when we wish we didn’t make the poor decision to see the musical.

Sheeran seems to be up to date with memes, despite the fact that he admitted in an interview that he doesn’t have a phone. During a June appearance on an episode of the podcast Therapuss with Jake Shane, he admitted, “I haven’t had a phone since 2015.” He continued, “I have something to like video stuff that would then go up on social media, but it’s not like an active working phone.” On a previous occasion, he admitted he e-mails people and doesn’t like texting or spending too much time on his phone.

At the same time, having his team come up with ideas for his Halloween costume wouldn’t be too bad. The “Bad Habits” singer has a history of dressing up for Halloween and, besides his fun take on Chucky, which he did two times, he also tackled the gingerbread man, Austin Powers, Ron Weasley from Harry Potter, and other characters.

What they all have in common is that they’re usually references fans come up with when liking the singer to other pop culture moments, and he has always heard them and played along. Ed Sheeran has been in the spotlight for almost a decade and a half and criticism doesn’t hurt him anymore, and instead of being affected by comparisons with Chucky or the gingerbread man, he plays along in the best way, proving fame didn’t change him much, and we love to see that.