For the fourth year in a row, Jimmy Kimmel has enlisted parents to play a Halloween prank: telling their kids “I ate all your Halloween candy” and filming their dismayed reaction for network TV immortality. That little girl at the end, albeit coached to say that, is my favorite.
Maybe I’m the wrong person to be writing about this, because I loathe parents who think it’s normal to goad a kid into having a tantrum, film it, then send it to ABC. It’s relatively minor as far as pranks go — and pranks can be harmless and fun when done well — but taping your kid being upset and putting it on the internet and airing it on national television? What the hell, parents? Are you trying to get them beat up at school for the next ten years?
Perhaps stranger than the parents are the commenters who flood Youtube and Facebook every time to say the kids should get an ass-whoopin’ for throwing a tantrum. Are five year olds not supposed get upset and react like five year olds when their stuff is stolen? At least this prank serves as a reminder, shortly before Thanksgiving, that we should be thankful we aren’t the people commenting on Facebook about how we’d disown/beat a five year old for getting mad about their candy being stolen. (“My parents beat me, and I turned out just fine!” a Facebook commenter types angrily at no one in particular, apropos of nothing, in the comments on an article about floral arrangements.)
Happy Halloween, everyone. If you need me, I’ll be drinking pumpkin spice rum behind the couch.
