This kind of thing might be rare, but does it really cross over to “mean”? When my kids were young — probably the ages of the kids here — I was taking them around on Halloween and the scarecrow on one of the porches (actually the homeowner in disguise) came to life and shouted “Boo!” as the kids rang the doorbell.
Shrieks ensued.
(And this was a whole lot more startling that somebody already dressed as a skeleton removing his fake head)
But once regular heartbeats resumed, everybody thought it was awesome.
A commenter at the GoComics site wrote “there’d be more than one parent calling the police.”
Seriously?
Comics I Don't Understand 
I don’t think kids are this fragile.
I’m still trying to figure out how he did it (Baldo, not Jack Skellington).
Andréa, I imagine the black hood is covering his face, and the skull is a prop that rests in front of that.
It’s fun to give the kids a bit of a fright, but not when it scares them so much the evening is ruined for them. But call the police? For a Halloween scare? Is nothing sacred anymore?
Both hypersensitive parents and exaggerated reports of hypersensitive parents are very common these days. I imagine there are a few police reports that are ignored but there are probably a thousand times more people enjoying complaining about how parents would call police now.
It’s a tough call as *some* kids do get terrified and traumatized. Still it’s a bit of a stretch to think Baldo’s stint is in *any*way scary.
The one I remember was a house of people all dressed in muslin and utterly silent. Our “trick or treat” was merely received with a vague gesture to…. go into the house?? … where there were more still people in muslin two with violins. As we walked in the bows would scrape as though the arms were giving into gravity but only as we walked. If we paused they would be inert– not stopped like a jerk but just as though the violin bowing was only fueled by our momentum. A fifth figure in muslin lay on a table with a bowl of candy on her stomach. We had to reach in and grab the candy. When we did so the figure opened her eyes and the violinists *did* stop playing abruptly and turned to directly face us. Slowly and as we left the figures lumbered in pursuit very directly and jerkly yet some how slowly. I was 10 or 11 and… it was creepy. Not scary, but really, really, really creepy.
My favorite trick was many years ago. I’d hold two paper bags up high and tell the kids to pick one. I’d lower that bag, and they’d grab some candy. They’d always ask what was in the other bag. I’d answer “You’ll NEVER know now” and close the door with an evil laugh.
In truth both bags had the exact same candy. I liked the idea that the kids would be preoccupied by that mystery for a while.
My daughter went “trick or treating” last night (with mom) and held out for far longer than either of us expected. She said she had fun, except for one house where there was a “monster” (presumably an adult having fun by scaring kids). There was nothing scary at our house (unless you count a pair of pumpkins), but we still had four or five little kiddies who were extremely fearful climbing the steps. One girl made it to the top, but would not come to the door, so we handed the candy to her dad.
Halloween is obviously a much bigger thing in Berlin than it is out here in the sticks. We had all of three kids. Now I hang on to the candy until the 11th on the off chance we get kids for St. Martin’s day and then the rest is mine.
I do think this sends out a mixed message: “Don’t accept candy from strangers, or go into strange houses”, EXCEPT on this one night . . . I don’t think little kids can understand the concept of ‘exceptions to the rule’ for just one night.
I was thinking last night how glad I am that I was young when 1) EVERYone gave out candy (no “turn off your lights and sit in the dark if you aren’t giving out candy”); 2) EVERY kid dressed up special (I remember one year being allowed to wear my hair down and be a princess, the effect being somewhat ruined by having to wear a winter coat over my costume; and 3) NO ONE worried about tainted treats (so many churches, etc., now have festivals or ‘trunk and treat’ night, which is probably a big reason for fewer kids on the streets).
I think Tia (?) might be considering it “mean” because he scooped up all the candy that the kids lost in their panic.
Chuckers has it, although this one wasn’t really a CIDU.
P.S. @ DemetriosX – We aren’t actually “in” Berlin, but our suburban town seems to have more activity on Halloween than is usual in the area. Our street is mostly townhouses, so that even with only 1/4th to 1/2 of the houses participating, the average “take” per distance walked is pretty high. I didn’t count this year, but I would estimate that we had somewhere between 60 and 80 kids at our door. Our (counted) record was just under 100.
Years ago we had a set up that included lit torches. My husband was dressed as Blix (goblin from the movie “Legend”) and leaning against a tree to keep an eye on them, making sure no kids got close. A mom pushing a stroller came up and as she walked past he said, “Happy Halloween!” She screamed, dropped the baby’s little plastic pumpkin full of candy, and ran up the street–leaving the stroller and baby behind! (Yes, she came back. No, my husband didn’t *mean* to startle her. Yes, he did think it was hilarious and started deliberately jumping out at people. No lawsuits or police involved.)
What do the kids say in Berlin . . . adjacent?
@ Brian – The most common Halloween greeting in German is “Süßes oder Saures“, meaning “(give us) sweets, or (we will do something) sour”.
A few kids deliver more creative ditties, some of which are pretty funny, such as “We are little ghosts that like to eat paste. If you don’t give us something better, we will stick here forever.“
When talking about trick or treating with Robert apparently same was different where I lived. I was told (as were my friends) that we had to be home before dark. We went house to house of houses where we knew the people in the house. Generally there was a bag or something on the porch with a sign “Baby sleeping do not ring bell. Take ONE” and there would be small bags of candy in whatever was on the porch. No adults scaring us nothing jumping out and I never ate the candy until my mom checked it for me and I had to recite which house I had gotten each bag at while she checked the candy. I would eat candy – most of what I got I did not eat as I did not like it. No dinner as mom figured we would be stuffed from the candy. Leftover candy would be put away by me until I wanted it. Sometime in August my mom would tell me to clean my closet and I would find the bag with the rest of the candy shoved in it and toss it as it was old candy.
Scariness was rare then.