RIP Halloween.

In one of life's greatest ironies, an event that celebrates people coming back from the dead has now killed itself.

Its tragic passing was confirmed yesterday when Olympic snowboarder Shaun White made a grovelling public apology for his Halloween costume.

Or rather, he was bullied into making it.

White's crime was to dress up as Simple Jack, the goofy village idiot character depicted by Ben Stiller in 'Tropic Thunder'.

Shaun White (right) dressed as 'Simple Jack' from the film 'Tropic Thunder' at a recent Halloween party. he then had to make a grovelling public apology

Perhaps he was bullied into making it. Jack, right, was a deliberate parody of other movie characters played by Ben Stiller

Jack was a deliberate parody of other movie characters like Forrest Gump or Raymond from 'Rain Man'.

Stiller plays actor Tugg Speedman, who purposely takes on the role of gibbering farm hand Simple Jack in a cynical bid to win an Oscar.

I didn't find Jack - or the movie for that matter - particularly funny, but nor did I find him 'offensive'. The film makes a very good point about Hollywood's hypocrisy.

Yet White's decision to go as Simple Jack to a Halloween party, and then post the picture on Instagram, caused outrage.

Soeren Palumbo, co-founder of the Special Olympics' Spread the Word to End the Word campaign said in a statement: 'We are truly disappointed that Shaun White, an acclaimed Olympian, would choose this costume which is so offensive and causes to much pain. Disability is not a joke, nor should it be a punchline. We hope that Shaun White and others learn that this just continues stigma, stereotypes and discrimination.'

Wow.

That's quite a statement, isn't it?

Sportsman dresses up as a parody movie character for a party and is promptly demonised as the offensive, pain-inducing enemy of tolerance.

Really?

Of course, social media immediately frothed itself into 'faux outrage' mode and demanded various forms of punishment for White ranging from public apology to public stoning.

And equally inevitably, he bowed to the mob and deleted the photo.

'I owe everyone in the Special Olympics community an apology for my poor choice of Halloween costume the other night,' he said. 'It was a last minute decision. It was the wrong one. The Special Olympics are right to call me out on it, they do great work supporting many tremendous athletes and I am so sorry for being insensitive. Lesson learned.'

Jeez.

What lesson have you learned, Shaun? That nobody is allowed to dress up as an 'inappropriate' movie character on Halloween any more?

Isn't the whole bloody point of Halloween to be inappropriate?

Ben Stiller, who was similarly attacked when the movie came out 10 years ago, explained yesterday: 'It was always meant to make fun of actors trying to do anything to win awards.'

Well, of course it was!

As the film's writer Etan Cohen said at the time: 'Some people have taken this as making fun of handicapped people, but we're really trying to make fun of the actors who use this material as fodder for acclaim.'

Exactly.

Yet once people are instructed to believe something's 'offensive' these days, they quickly work themselves into a lather of fury.

We saw a similar outcry last week when Megyn Kelly pondered aloud on her now cancelled NBC show why it's considered so wrong for white people to blacken their faces on Halloween to portray famous black people.

'What is racist?' she asked. 'Because you do get into trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween, or a black person who puts on whiteface on Halloween. When I was a kid, that was okay as long as you were dressing up like a character.'

When Megyn Kelly pondered aloud why it's considered so wrong for white people to blacken their faces on Halloween to portray famous black people she was hounded from all quarters, knifed spectacularly in the back by her own co-workers on air, and fired in abject disgrace. But I fully understand that 'blackface' is unacceptable in modern society for all the well-articulated reasons African-Americans rightly feel it is

She was promptly hounded from all quarters, knifed spectacularly in the back by her own co-workers on air, and fired in abject disgrace.

NBC Nightly News, hosted by black anchor Lester Holt, devoted considerable airtime over several nights to the saga.

Yet a day after Kelly was fired, a photo emerged of the same Lester Holt dressed up as singer Susan Boyle for Halloween, including his face painted white.

Now, I fully understand and accept there is a difference between the two, and that 'blackface' is unacceptable in modern society for all the well-articulated reasons African-Americans rightly feel it is.

But just as I don't think black people should use the N-word, I don't think they should whiteface themselves on Halloween either.

If something is racist and wrong, then nobody should do it.

Lester Holt, devoted considerable airtime to Megyn. Yet the same Lester Holt dressed up as singer Susan Boyle once for Halloween

Just as I don't think black people should use the N-word, I don't think they should whiteface themselves on Halloween either. If something is racist and wrong, then nobody should do it

Not least, because it opens the door to people crying 'double standard'.

As Mike Huckabee tweeted: 'So Megyn Kelly is shown the door for TALKING about something Lester Holt DID?'

What the White and Kelly 'scandals' told me is that Halloween is now officially over.

The event that was supposed to be all about inappropriate, scary and offensive costumes has now been hijacked by the Politically Correct Police and rendered so anodyne that it's pointless.

Every single costume you think about wearing tonight is going to be deemed offensive by someone somewhere – however tame.

Want to go as Cinderella? Forget it – Kiera Knightley will abuse you for endorsing sexism.

Want to go as Caitlyn Jenner? Forget it – the transgender community will erupt with fury.

Want to go as Mother Teresa? Forget it – cultural appropriation.

Bill Maher addressed this Halloween PC nonsense on his Real Time show last week when he said; 'The Office of Scolding Justice Warriors has decreed no Indian chiefs, no hula girls, no Southern belles, no Daniel Boone, no geishas, no ninjas, no gypsies, no mobsters, no terrorists, no Cleopatra. Pirates offend one-eyed people, you can't dress as a hobo because it makes light of the homeless, you can't dress as Quasimodo because it offends hunchbacks, you can't dress as an escaped mental patient because… it offends Kanye.'

In short, you can't go as anyone.

Well, except Donald Trump because the PC rules on offensiveness don't apply to him.

Yet the people screaming about all this stuff are in fact a very small majority.

As Maher said, a recent poll revealed that 80% of Americans hate the new PC culture including most African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics and Native Americans.

So the perpetually whining and outraged 'woke' snowflakes are not speaking for the majority, and they're not even speaking for the people they assume are feeling victimised.

Despite this, their bullying and squealing works.

Last month, an innocuous 'Brave Red Maiden' Handmaid's Tale Halloween costume was pulled by online retailer Yandy after Twitter-led protests that it mocked rape.

Yandy was selling a this Handmaid's Tale costume, but pulled it after backlash

'It has become obvious that (the costume) is being seen as a symbol of women's oppression rather than an expression of women's empowerment,' Yandy said.

Obvious to whom, exactly?

Nobody was offended until they were told to be offended.

Sadly, we now live in an era where everyone is told to be offended about absolutely everything, all the time.

The grimly depressing result is that even Halloween, the very epitome of once gloriously unashamed inappropriate offensiveness, has now been hijacked by the 'woke' wastrels intent on sucking all the fun out of life.

It's pathetic.

RIP Halloween – I'll miss you.