Considering we’ve created an entire holiday for kids where they get to dress up in fun costumes for the purpose of getting free candy from strangers, it’s probably okay that we then get to have a little fun at their expense, even if it is slightly cruel. Or, in the case of the annual Jimmy Kimmel Live prank, in which parents tell their children they ate all of their Halloween candy while they were sleeping, very cruel.
For the sixth year in  a row, Kimmel asked his viewers to videotape themselves lying to their children about having eaten all of their kids’ trick-or-treating haul after they had gone to bed on Halloween. Once again, those wonderful, awful parents came through.
The reactions of the kids range from angry to stunned to depressed toâand this is always the secret best partâtotal forgiveness. Because while there is a lot of sobbing, collapsing, violence, and even one kid who must be a fan of Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, a couple of totally sweet youngsters told their parents that while it isn’t okay that they ate all their candy, they still love them and they’ll just get more. Considering that no adult in the world loves anything as much as a kid loves candy, it’s genuinely heartwarming to see the children who manage to not totally lose their mind over such treachery.
One new wrinkle this year is that Kimmel has his own daughter to try and pull this prank off on, but she was being so grumpy anyway it didn’t even faze her.
Of course, this prank is old enough and so well-known now, that one kid wasn’t fooled at all. Well played, young man, but we like it better when we can still trick you after you get your treats.
What was your favorite reaction? Tell us in the comments below.
Images: ABC
Watch our latest episode of “One Good Scare,” in which we take on Halloween