Who could have foreseen even two years ago that the TV show with the most tightly held spoilers would be a Fox reality competition? The broadcast hit has given many a fan trouble when it comes to identifying the costumed celebs, and the celebs themselves apparently had troubles of their own due to those same costumes. The recently revealed Margaret Cho shared some particular thoughts about her Poodle costume.
I was claustrophobic the entire time. The worst part was that somebody, I don’t even know who it was, somebody was talking to me a lot in the mask, through the snout, and he had really bad breath which got stuck in the snout. So I would end up breathing recycled bad breath from somebody else for a long period of time. That was not something I signed up for.
Margaret Cho's first point is perfectly understandable. One doesn't have to be diagnosed with claustrophobia to feel more than a little weirded out inside such an elaborately crafted mask and costume.
The entire purpose behind each outfit, beyond being able to catch a potential viewer's eye from across a canyon, is to make the celebrity's identity as unascertainable as possible. Which obviously means everyone's entire bodies are covered from head to toe, which easily inspired a panicked need to be wearing anything other than tight, white fluff.
Now, claustrophobia is one thing, but having to deal with someone's incredibly foul breath is another unfortunate predicament altogether. And if the person in question was working with everyone else beyond Margaret Cho, then all the other celebs likely dealt with that same batch of recycled air.
Margaret Cho told EW that it was already impossible to see very well while wearing the mask, which also distorted her hearing abilities. So with her smell and touch receptors also getting bombarded in that respect, I guess it's good that the mask and costume designers didn't also figure out a way to change the contestants' sense of taste.
Though it wasn't fun to have to get into and out of the costume, Margaret Cho's issues with the costume weren't entirely physical. She was also affected by the lengths that were taken to make sure the secrecy elements remained intact. In her words:
It was hard because I had like this hood on, this Pulp Fiction-like hood. It was quite a struggle to get all of the pieces off. There was some amazingly intense secrecy. There is a little bit of a psychological trauma because you had to be masked and hidden all through rehearsals and the competition, which was actually quite a long process. Even though we weren’t on site at the studio and in places far away, we still had to be masked. You would have to put the mask on way before our destination. It was kind of Bird Box way early, way before we even saw the movie. So taking the mask off for the first time in front of people was quite a big deal.
It's strange to think that there are certain mega-celebrities out there who regularly have to deal with this kind of behavior just to go from their house to other locations without being stalked by fans, and all without there being a reality show involved. Maybe those paparazzi hounds will take after the Fox series and start wearing elaborate animal costumes in the future, though that might just complicate things further.
Margaret Cho, who personally chose the poodle costume over the alien one, was first attracted to The Masked Singer because it was based on a Korean TV show. The international sensation took a few years to make it here to the U.S., but it was apparently worth the wait, considering the ratings have been pretty steady ever since the show premiered. This may be the only piece of entertainment in history that could avoid disaster with a high-profile mystery that could be answered with "Terry Bradshaw."
The Masked Singer still has quite a few more weeks to keep its celebrity contestants claustrophobic and breathing in bad odors, and you can catch it on Fox every Wednesday night at 9:00 p.m. ET. To see what other new and returning shows are on the horizon, our midseason TV premiere schedule has all the latest and greatest dates.
