RELATED: Jimmy Kimmel Will Host 2012 White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Kimmel, you see, had challenged his viewers to play a prank on their kids by pretending to have gobbled up all their candy. The host figured the kids would be momentarily upset, learn a valuable lesson (Your parents will lie and trick you in order to have something halfway amusing to upload onto YouTube), and we’d all have a nice laugh at the expense of children. What he hadn’t bargained for, however, is just how attached children become to sugary treats. There were tears, people. Tears that tasted of juvenile diabetes.

Have a look, via ABC:

h/t BuzzFeed

According to The Washington Post, while people were dressing up as Sarah Palin in 2008 or Christine O’Donnell last year, this year, a year when the American political climate grew more divisive, less people want to be reminded of politics this Halloween season and just go as their favorite pop culture icon.

In this grim year, satirical minds recoil at all the touchy subjects. “A few people asked for Arnold Schwarzenegger masks,” said [DC emporium manager Sandra] Duraes, wanly, since the Governator’s travails summon thoughts of his wife’s heartache. Charlie Sheen’s excesses have been drained of their mirth, like a hangover…

Scanning the world headlines is hardly fruitful. Anything related to Japan’s cascading catastrophes is as funny as cesium-induced organ failure. Dictators had a bad year, but could anyone draw laughs as Hosni Mubarak, wheeled around in a bed-cage? Duraes has seen a run on black curly wigs and mustaches, in service to Moammar Gaddafi get-ups, but the Libyan despot was hard to look at in his last cruel hours, and Duraes said that customers have amended the look to make it more pop-culty: “They’re doing zombie Gaddafi.”

Too soon, perhaps?

RELATED: Ohio University Group Speaks Out Against Racially Offensive Halloween Costumes On CNN

The WaPo article also contains some advice for those who do want to go as political figures, specifically the GOP candidates, even old favorite Richard Nixon, because his iconic face mask is “always a seller for some reason.”

h/t WaPo

As is often the case, Maher brought up the drug in the context of Halloween, pointing out that acid is probably healthier than most of the candy kids eat anyway, and called for parents to “put drugs in the Halloween candy!”

Maher acknowledged that this would obviously be a controversial notion, but when you factor in all the drugs parents have their children taking (including Monster energy drinks) and the sugary snacks they consume on a regular basis, Maher argued that kids are on drugs, all right, just the wrong ones.

RELATED: South Park Creators Admitting To Dropping Acid Before Cross-Dressing At The Oscars

He criticized parents who use prescription medications to “control their kids,” suggesting actual parenting as a more effective method. Then Maher brought the subject to Steve Jobs, who was very open about his past drug use, and reminded us that some of the most creative people in the last few decades were heavy drug users.

Maybe there’s not a connection between LSD and genius, but it’s something no great American ever said about a Kit-Kat bar. If it weren’t for acid, you might not have an iPod, and you definitely wouldn’t have some of the best music in your iPod.

Maher went through a whole list of people who made great accomplishments while on acid: Francis Crick, the Beatles, and himself (during the filming of D.C. Cab). He pointed to a Johns Hopkins study that found positive psychological effects of “magic mushrooms,” and recommended the Republican candidates relax and take a few shrooms themselves.

Watch the video below, courtesy of HBO:

The group’s posters display various people of color holding up photos of racist costumes such as one with a white Dallas Cowboys cheerleader dressed up as Lil’ Wayne in blackface:

Kaye noted there were some who argued the group was being too sensitive. “Most of the people who do think that we are being too sensitive are people that probably haven’t been discriminated against and haven’t felt the hate and the anger that is being attached to these costumes,” Bush countered. “So we just want people to know that we are not trying to take the fun out of Halloween. we go to a university and halloween is a big deal here. it’s not that we are being too sensitive. we simply want to let people know that this does offend people and although you may not be offended, you may not be aware of that.”

Watch the group discuss its campaign against racist costumes on CNN below:

Fulfilling the lifelong and afterlifelong dreams of many, Marciano dressed in some (pretty impressive) zombie makeup in order to scare the living daylight out of hapless tourists. It made for a fun holiday segment while offering viewers a behind-the-scenes look at increasingly popular and elaborate haunted house attractions. You know, the kind where people jump out at you from dark corners. I’ll never visit one, personally, because 1) I’m chicken and 2) I ride the subway in New York, so I get my fill of the ghoulish and garish for a little less than $2.50 a ride.

What are you all dressing as for Halloween? Any media or politics-inspired costumes this year?

Have a look at Marciano’s spoooOoOoOoooky segment, courtesy of CNN:

Guest Jamie Weinstein argued that if schools had a good excuse for banning costumes (i.e. it interrupted school work) he would be okay with such “Halloween bans”, but explained they were giving asinine excuses like “student exclusion”. Weinstein also blasted bans on candy. “I have never once encountered during my years going treat-or-treating someone who overdosed on candy because of one day of enjoying it!”

The commentators appeared to be basing their whole report on an editorial by Todd Starnes who cited one quote (!) to make a sweeping declaration that schools across the country were becoming over-sensitized to the concerns of immigrants. One random quote!

The sensationalism over these alleged wars on holidays is really starting to run its course — don’t we have more pressing matters like ocean acidification or melting ice caps to worry about?

Watch the Fox and Friends fight the good fight against Halloween haters below via Fox News:

PS Please do send truckloads of candy corn to Gretchen Carlson, she says she loves it:
Gretchen Carlson
Fox News
1211 Avenue of the Americas
18th Floor
New York, NY 10036
(h/t MM)

Let it all hang out this holiday season while treat-or-treating with the kids:

(h/t Ricky’s)

The dolls just went on sale today, so when we contacted Herobuilders owner Emil Vicale, he was shocked to learn that his creation had already been featured in The New York Daily News. While he didn’t have any sales figures yet, he did give us some indications of the doll’s possible success.

“I don’t have any sales figures yet,” Vicale said, “but one woman is buying a hundred of them if she’s in a red dress, so we’re putting her in a red dress now. I think she’s going to be a fantastic seller.”

Vicale surmises that the red dress order is from a supporter, but the market for the witch doll is more likely to be “a gag gift to send their Republican friends and family.”

Not everyone is thrilled with the idea. Vicale says he’s already gotten one strongly-worded email. “Some guy in a college said I was interfering with a political race. I think he left his sense of humor at the college he works at. It’s all in good fun.”

Herobuilders is a bipartisan enterprise, offering a variety of figures for political junkies on both sides of the aisle, including a selection of Sarah Palin dolls, an “anatomically correct” Scott Brown figure, and even a Joe “You Lie” Wilson doll to go with your Barack Obama action figure.

The O’Donnell doll is also a patriotic purchase. Vicale says the figure’s witch costumes are hand-made in the USA, which is why they cost slightly more than the “Executive” version that’s clad in a stock outfit.

So, will there be other O’Donnell figures, perhaps a Hare Krishna version? Vicale says there are more O’Donnell dolls in the works, but wouldn’t get specific. If his first big customer is any indication, however, it looks like he’s open to suggestion.

SLIDESHOW: Vampires & Zombies!…including this hormone-and-blood-drenched slideshow featuring bloodsucking studs, nubile young vampiresses and strapping zombie sidekicks in all their hot, flesh-decaying undead glory.

OMG OMG Robert Pattinson Is So Hot: Well, he is — as this poll of “The Best Twilight Magazine Cover E-vah” conclusively proves. BTW if you need more Robert Pattinson and Twilight coverage, our pals at Gossip Cop have that beat pretty thoroughly covered.

Harry Potter and the Media Muggles: This was an early Mediaite multi-post (as you can tell by the fact that we have all this content spread across just three pages — what were we thinking?) — but it remains one of my faves. For anyone who loves Harry Potter (as I ferociously do) and delights in the old “separated at birth” game, this is ridiculous fun (Graydon Carter as Lucius Malfoy! Malcolm Gladwell as Professor Trelawney! It still cracks me up). If you missed it the first time it’s definitely worth a look now. The pictures are uncannily good.

Eyeborg: “The Age of the Post-Human is Coming Soon” Rob Spence is our Cyborg Columnist. I’ll say it again: We have a Cyborg Columnist. For Hallowe’en, if he wants to dress up as a CYBORG, he just wears what he wants. Why? BECAUSE HE’S A CYBORG! Read his adventures in cyborg-dom here, at his EYEBORG tag page. Badass. p.s. We could very well also have a Cylon columnist, because according to SyFy president Dave Howe apparently you can’t tell the difference between them and humans. Oh well THAT should help. Thanks a lot, Dave Howe.

To Bloodcopy and Back: Remember the whole Gawker Bloodcopy hoo-ha? Wow that seems like ages ago.

Dr. Horrible: Here at Mediaite we LOVE Dr. Horrible. With our freeze-rays we would stop the world, if we could, so everyone could be in their Michael Jackson and Billy Mays and Slutty Everything costumes forever and ever. But we can’t, so tomorrow when you’re sad it’s all over and feeling vaguely ill from eating so much candy corn, check out our Dr. Horrible tag page to watch clips (or the whole thing here) and swoon over Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion. Also please patronize our “The Hammer Is My Penis” tag. It’s the little things.

Chopper Chicks in Zombietown: Far be it from me to extend the dominance of our REAL BIKER CHICKS post on our “Most Popular” list (it’s the Shamu of Mediaite!), but how could I possibly exclude Chopper Chicks in Zombietown? “They’re bad! They’re beautiful! They’re 8 broads on the rag!” WHAT IS NOT TO LOVE? We should also include She-Devils on Wheels in this round up, too, because they’ll mess you up pretty good.

Glenn Beck’s Powerful Vagina: This is Mediaite’s signature monster: VAGINA GLENNTATA. Honestly, this dress looks like a poster for a horror movie — even without Glenn Beck’s face! But actually, there’s a whole backstory to this, and it actually makes sense if only you read it (don’t worry, it’s all conveniently laid out for you under our “Powerful Vaginas” tag). The upshot is, it IS a scary monster, and as a matter of fact I was going to wear this for Hallowe’en this year until I remembered that the dress was $125. What-ever.

Geraldo vs. Stossel’s “Ultimate Mustache” Battle: Wait, those mustaches aren’t Hallowe’en costumes? Oops, my bad.

The Goth Women of the View, feat. Bill O’Reilly As A Vampire: You can’t make this shizz up. Check out the first few moments of the clip — at first I thought Baba Wawa was Cher…in the “If I Could Turn Back Time” video. Well done, Babs!

The Best of The Shining: What do you do on Hallowe’en when Lester Holt steals your Slutty Susan Boyle costume right out from under you? Do the next best thing: Spend a few hours collecting clips from The Shining and pretending that you’re not at all freaked out. Oh and that helps a lot when you’re alone in the deserted office on Hallowe’en Night. What am I, an idiot? I might as well be the babysitter going to take a shower. Sheesh.

Mediaite Presents: Hallowe’en Costumes Ripped From The Headlines: And now we come full circle, to the Mediaite Suggested Hallowe’en Costumes, which no doubt guided your festive choices, dear reader (we’re betting there will be photos of this eventually). I myself can’t wait to play Hallowe’en Bingo with Balloon Boy costumes (touché on this one).

Mediaite’s Glenn Beck Tag Page: Be afraid. Be very afraid.

That’s it! Have a happy Hallowe’en, everyone! Wait a second, how did that giant Megan Fox picture get in there? Ooops. See below.

ALSO:
Redrum Redrum Redrum
Heeeeere’s Johnny!
The Hallway Scene
The Hallway Scene – Family Guy
“Wendy, Give Me The Bat.”
All Work and No Play…
Room 237
The Simpsons Takes On The Shining
Heeeere’s Homer!
The Shining Trailer…Recut
Fun With Furries
Sometimes When We Touch (And Hack Each Other With An Ax)
Lego Shining
The Shining: Final Scene
R.I.P. Jack Torrance

An article on CBN.com that alleges, among other things, that “most of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches” has been removed by the site after becoming an object of mockery by The Huffington Post. (We linked a cached version.) The site ran a slideshow and poll of the most evil candy brands.

Why did CBN remove the post, which originally appeared at Charisma.com? Is HuffPo guilty of mocking Christianity, or are they justly targeting a fringe belief?

We’ve reached out to CBN to find out why they took the post down, and we await their response. There are several possibilities. It’s possible that CBN’s editors re-thought the content of the article, given the negative attention being paid to it. The piece also suggests the existence of an unholy trinity, and a laundry list of “behind-the-scenes” Halloween activities that includes:

* Sex with demons
* Orgies between animals and humans
* Animal and human sacrifices
* Sacrificing babies to shed innocent blood
* Rape and molestation of adults, children and babies
* Revel nights
* Conjuring of demons and casting of spells
* Release of “time-released” curses against the innocent and the ignorant.

It’s pretty sensational, out-there stuff that might have slipped through initially due to the writer’s credentials. On the other hand, CBN head Pat Robertson engages in fringe activities like prophecy, so this is a sliding scale.

Or, it’s possible the deluge of traffic from HuffPo might have caused server problems for them.

Many Christian conservatives are sensitive about mockery from the left, which they view as anti-Christian. I asked Dr.Thomas Howe, Dean of Apologetics and Professor of Biblical Studies at the Southern Evangelical Seminary and author of books like The Big Book of Bible Difficulties, if things like “time-release curses,” demon orgies, and demonic candy are part of mainstream Christian thought.

“None of (this is) considered main stream Christian beliefs. Beliefs in curses is occultic, not Christian. I am not aware of any evidence supporting any of these claims about Halloween, neither do I subscribe to the notion of a demonic trinity. This is not found anywhere in the Bible, and it is not a historic Christian doctrine.”

Dr. Howe is an ordained Southern Baptist minister.

It seems, then, that the Huffington Post is not running afoul of mainstream Christians in mocking this article. Although we don’t yet know why CBN took the article down, according to Dr. Howe, they made the right call. This  goes to show that just because an organization puts something online, it doesn’t mean they speak for an entire religion.