Mark Ruffalo appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night. It was Kimmel’s first show since Halloween, which means that Kimmel did his now-annual request that parents prank their children by telling the kids that they (the parents) ate all of the kids’ Halloween candy. Kimmel has been doing this for a few years now and it’s honestly one of my favorite annual traditions. Ruffalo must enjoy it too, because he filmed his own version and brought it for Kimmel. First, here’s the JKL compilation of parents pranking their kids:
I friggin’ love all of this. And Mark Ruffalo’s video is great too. His kids attack him!!
Told the kids I ate all their Halloween candy. I think they took it well!
https://t.co/SJUQTAfkvL
— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) November 3, 2015
Super-cute. And I love that we get to creep on Ruffalo’s house a little bit!
Ruffalo also chatted with USA Today about his upcoming work with Marvel and how a stand-alone Hulk film probably isn’t in the cards, at least for right now. He confirmed that he’ll be doing Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War but not Captain America: Civil War. You can read that interview here.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Pacific Coast News.
Is it wrong to be jealous of kids because they get to pounce on Mark Ruffalo. On the reg.
lol, no. i’m jealous too…unf
We can’t all be wrong? I totally agree. Those lucky buggers!
I sort of hate myself for laughing so hard at that first video, but I did anyway. So mean.
I started laughing my ass off when I was watching, especially the last one where he tells his mom to get a job!! LOL! My bosses (both men) think I am terrible for thinking this is so hilarious.
You made me laugh all over again. What is wrong with us? I think it’s hilarious. I swear I’m a nice person ordinarily.
He looks better with age so handsome.
Cute. But he didn’t set them up, they knew. If he truly pranked them, there’d be disbelief before the screaming. I like him better for not truly messing with his kids though.
Agree with all. They knew.
Hide the knives from the kid @ 4:24 and sleep with one eye open.
Yeah, I may be in the minority but just don’t think making my kids cry is funny. I do it inadvertently often enough.
Thank you for saying this. I’m right there with you. I don’t think it’s funny at all. I find it just cruel.
I don’t think it’s funny at all… I think it’s creepy and gross. A bit sadistic, too. There’s something so cheesy about throwing your own kid under the trust bus just to hope for a few seconds of exposure on national TV.
And I usually have a very dark sense of humor.
I saw a video of a dad doing this to his son and watching the child respond was really sad. It was a genuine grief response. Why as a parent would you want to illicit that level of intense negative emotion from your child, and just for laughs?
What message are you sending the child? That his parent will violate him by taking something that belongs to him but wait, just kidding! How’s a little kid supposed to process that? Super confusing message for a child and manipulative.
I think parenting is about building trust with your child. I try to model positive behaviour, like empathy, while setting reasonable boundaries when I see unacceptable behaviour. To me, this joke undermines all of that.
@sanders: Well, that’s the thing, isn’t it? The outside world throws enough of this stupid, mean, witless semi-humor in your face – and you do, eventually, have to learn how to deal with it – but trust can be the bedrock you gift your child in a shifty world, if you do your parenting from strength and example.
Others will always yank away the football… like Lucy does to Charlie Brown. But empathy – as you say – is the true basis for a kid at least understanding & trusting that their parent is not Lucy. (It’s also, somewhat paradoxically, the solid base from which the kid’s humor can emerge later at such things.)
I understand laughing at & with kids… once they can join in and appreciate the joke from a distance of security and more maturity.
I’m with you. While I thougt some answer were hilarious ( Y’ou’re in trouble lady / that’s so rude) that kind of prank seems cruel to me. Why would one make one’s kid cry for 1 seconds on tv ?
Yes, I can’t make my kids cry on purpose. Too mean.
I feel like a grouch saying this, but I hate this prank. It seems so mean, to no purpose except to laugh at how upset your kids are.
I’m a grouch, too.
With you. It is unnecessarily mean. I don’t think that makes us grouches; just kind-hearted.
*joins the grouches*
I’m out of candy. Potato chips, anyone?
It’s so messed up in a way but it is really funny at the same time. The little boy who calmly said it was ok to his mom just melts your heart.
Agreed. I feel like, yeah, this is kind of mean, but it provides interesting insight into how these kids handle disappointment. I know they’re just kids, but I think even kids should be able to understand that a parent eating their candy isn’t the worst thing in the world. You know, a little perspective for the first world kids. On the other hand, kids have so little power or things that they can truly call “their own”…I’m on the fence. But, yeah, I think the kids who brush it off and forgive are going to do pretty well in life. Or the will be doormats!! Soooo, in summation, I’m completely on the fence.
The kids hitting the parents?….still shocks me to see it. I grew up with a southern momma. If that had happened in my house I would have hid under my bed for a week and she would have been waiting lol.
I agree, and I get what you’re saying. The kids who throw the massive tantrums need their butt spanked or some discipline, it’s not like the parent killed the kid’s dog. I love the kids who are so sweet about it. Shows they have been raised really well and will handle adversity a lot better than the tantrum kids. I don’t have any kids yet, but it would almost make me want to test them to see how they would react.
On a side note, interesting that you mention kids don’t really have much power over things, which I have never thought about. Maybe that’s why it is such a huge deal to kids. Nothing is as big of a deal to a child than toys and treats. Taking their candy is equivalent to someone stealing an adult’s money or smartphone.
When I was growing up, the Easter Bunny was the bad cop. He’d come by periodically, and always after Halloween, eat all the candy, and leave behind d healthy snacks.
My mother WOULD eat most of our Halloween candy.
I am that mother but I like to think of it as “helping” them with their candy.
I think it’s funny that kids make cookies for Santa to eat and get really ecstatic the next morning when they indeed see that Santa ate them with only crumbs left. But when it comes to candy, they are upset if their parents eat it. Some parent should try telling their kids (start when they are young, do it every year) that there is the “Halloween Man” who will eat their candy and leave the wrappers the next morning after his visit. See if the kids get excited. LOL
I think the Halloween prank is hilarious, it’s not cruel. Had my mom done it to me I might have cried and screamed a little but I would not have attacked my mother physically–those kids spell trouble. And it’s the kinsnod prank you can really only get away with once because the kids will remember for the next year. Kids shut up once they find their candy safe and sound, no harm done!
If parents pull pranks like this on the reg that might be a problem…. But once or twice will not cause everlasting psychological damage. Kids are resilient.
I legit ate my son’s candy. He just turned 2. He ate a couple of pieces the day of which did not sit well since he is not used to eating that and has since totally forgotten about it. He has no clue we still have some of it.