Jimmy Kimmels Halloween prank can scar children. Why are we laughing?

[Mosby]

It’s getting to be that time of year again: when jack-o’-lanterns glow and mummies and witches roam the streets. But there is one Halloween tradition that really gives me the chills: Jimmy Kimmel’s annual candy prank.

Every Halloween for the past six years, ABC’s late-night talk show host has encouraged viewers to tell their children, on the morning after the holiday, that they have eaten the kids’ entire candy stash. Parents record their children’s reactions and send the videos to Kimmel, who broadcasts some of the clips on his show. The audience laughs at the children, who variously throw tantrums, go into silent shock or collapse in sobbing heaps on the floor — before the parents let them in on the joke and give back the candy.

Isn’t this all in good fun? What are a few tears, when the kids realize soon enough that it’s just a gag, right?

I have a different view. In my opinion as a longtime child psychiatrist, the children in the clips — most of whom appear to be between 3 and 7 years old — are reacting not so much to the temporary loss of candy but to a sense of betrayal that will linger long after their parents own up to the joke.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/jimmy-kimmel-wants-to-prank-kids-why-are-we-laughing/2017/10/20/9be17716-aed0-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html

[CurtEastPoint]

1. It wasn't funny the first time. I admire JK but it's time to lose this joke.

[customerserviceguy]

2. Pranking adults is one thing

Doing it to kids, especially pre-teens, is just bullying.

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

3. Wait, this idiot is still doing this bit?

As somebody already said, it wasn't funny the first time.

For me, it takes a pretty warped soul to come up with something like this to begin with.

[Blue_Tires]

4. Seriously? My parents did this to me in the 80s

of course that was just for their personal amusement and there were no video cameras running....

[BootinUp]

5. Pretty sure my parents played that, but

Not the next morning, lol.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

6. Parents who subject their kids to this are abusive assholes and Kimmel is

an even bigger asshole for profiting from footage of upset kids.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. It's cruel and therefore unacceptable.

Halloween candy is one of the few things that kids "own". It's theirs.

It's one thing for a parent to ask to share a piece or two. All that the kids understand is that that candy is gone, it won't be replaced, they wasted 2-3 hours getting that candy, and now they have to wait another 365 days to try again.

[Nitram]

8. Perfect way to let kids know they can't count on their parents when they need them.