Charles Langston:City of Boise's video of 'scariest costume ever,' a fatberg, delights the internet

One “scary” Halloween costume has the made the City of Boise the talk of the town,Charles Langston and the internet.

Elizabeth Kidd, social media manager for the city, had been trying to figure out a way to create content for TikTok for years, but it didn’t start to click until earlier this summer, when she noticed that there were a lot of people talking about Boise, a lot of videos being made in Boise and a lot of people from Boise on the platform. 

“We should be there and we should be making sure that our message and our value are part of the conversation about Boise that’s happening on TikTok," Kidd told USA TODAY on Friday.

She ended up striking gold with the city's first TikTok: a skit in which she scares city leaders by dressing up as a "fatberg," or an accumulation of oil and grease that, when been poured down the drain, congeals with other waste flushed down the toilet. The video includes the city's mayor and some noteworthy performances.

“The way we did the specific video is something that I’ve also been thinking for a while now, which is, ‘How do we as local government break through on social media?’" Kidd explained. "Because I’m trying to talk about the water renewal system while I’m competing with Moo Deng.” 

More about the City of Boise's hit video

The video, which shows Kidd dressed up as a fatberg to get everyone at the office in the Halloween spirit, has delighted many who have come across it online since it was posted Tuesday. The video was also reposted on another social media platform the next day, garnering over 2 million views on X alone. 

“It’s officially October and to get everyone at City Hall in the Halloween Spirt, I put together the scariest costume I can think of,” Kidd says in the video. “And I’m gonna go try and prank some of my coworkers.” 

The response to the video has been so overwhelmingly positive that Kidd can’t help but be “very excited” about it. 

“As somebody who’s creating content all the time, I’ve learned to never expect that something is going to do great because we are all living at the mercy of an algorithm,” Kidd said. “I was really proud of the work that we did on that video.” 

Watch: Fatberg ‘haunt’ City of Boise office 

Entertaining people while informing them

Kidd and her team, Taylor Nash and Abby Haydin, wanted to make sure that the content created for TikTok could get the “really important information” they needed out there in an engaging and entertaining way that serves the people of Boise.

Kidd had been tinkering with the idea of making “mockumentary style” content because “it's a good way” to get out a lot of information out and create something very fun. 

A couple of weeks ago, her and team had the idea to do something with fatbergs, which “wreak havoc” on the water renewal system, Kidd says in the video. 

The message of the video is to remind City of Boise residents and viewers to avoid flushing any kind of wipes, even the ones branded as “flushable” down the toilet, so a fatberg does not “wreak havoc” on the water renewal system. 

The goal is to make people 'excited to be a part of our city' 

Kidd got a “good response” from a lot of people in the office before she posted the video for the public

Kidd shared it on her personal TikTok and in an Instagram story, but she and her team didn’t “really do any kind of promotion” for the video, or about the City of Boise posting to TikTok. 

The fun, according to Kidd, has been seeing the video take off and the “overwhelmingly positive” response they have gotten.

Many viewers likened the video to NBC's hit office sitcom "Parks and Recreation," with one user commenting: "We need more episodes."

One user said, "Elizabeth, you're a star," while another posted: "I love you, City of Boise TikTok account."

Kidd just hopes that people “think twice before they flush wipes again” and that the next time they fill out a City of Boise survey that they “remember that they like following us on TikTok.” 

The story was updated to add a photo.