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09/21/2006: New Halloween Candy For 2006 — Part 2!

Continuing on from yesterday’s article, here’s Part 2 of 2006’s Greatest Halloween Candy, which admittedly isn’t as “greatest” as the stuff in Part 1, but without tricolor Twistables, how could it be?

I’m trying to think of a Halloween-themed survey that we haven’t already done to death in previous years. Hmm. Okay, got one. “Mischief Night Memories.”

I know the term differs from state to state to a degree, but for me, “Mischief Night” took place on the eve of Halloween. Our costumes weren’t on yet and our sacks weren’t full yet, but we were covered in egg, covered in shaving cream and covered with conviction to make everything around us just as covered with those things. Despite the inherent immaturity involved with squirting shaving cream on someone’s car, I always felt five years older than I was on Mischief Night. My friends and I always ended up running with the bad seeds in town, because if you didn’t swear allegiance to them, they’d peg you in the belly with eggs. And they wouldn’t even crack them first. Those things felt like god damned golf balls coming from the right arm. Though Mischief Night’s heydays are over in my town, the local grocers still ban sales of eggs and shaving cream to minors around Halloween. It’s so awesome to get carded when I go to the supermarket for eggs in October. Discuss your Mischief Night memories in the comments.


Posted by Matt. E-mail me!

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Discussion Thread: 107 comments

Yes! I hate Whoppers too, but I love them. I see the carton and think “That’s for white trash.” But I would have no problem pouring it straight in my mouth. Very strange.

Ghosted by Bryan @ 09/21/2006 12:33 AM EDT

I can’t say that I have ever tasted Whoppers before or, you know, have heard of them before. I assume they exist here in Canada, I just have never, ever, heard of them before, what do they taste like, anybody?

Ghosted by Tyler @ 09/21/2006 12:51 AM EDT

Whoppers=WOOF!
I’m going to see Nightmare on Elm Street on the big screen tonight…todays my birthday…YAY!!!

Ghosted by Kevin @ 09/21/2006 12:52 AM EDT

To quote T-Bird “Here’s to devils Night, My new favorite Holiday!”

We used to take entire cans of shaving cream, put them in the freezer over night. The next day we would head out, armed with a sackful of frozen cans of shaving cream and a can opener. Target a house, use the can opener to open the bottom of the cans and slide out a frozen cylinder of Gillette. Stick it in a mailbox and walk away, as the shaving cream thawed, it would start expanding and voila! insta mess!

I tried this same stunt last year and nearly lost a finger. So be careful Childens! It’s a wonder my friends and myself are still alive!

Ghosted by Jester @ 09/21/2006 12:52 AM EDT

Pretty good mix! Candy aside, one of my favorite Halloween-season-only foods is Kettle Corn. Reminds me of all the old Texas school carnivals and Fall festivals of my youth. I’m still totally jealous that you got to have it in Salem, Matt :(

Mischief Night was never that big in my neighborhood and the idea of smashing pumpkins before Halloween pretty much makes me want to cry. Usually we’d all just trick or treat until about 10pm and then tear around town eating our candy beneath the bridge or on the playground, ding dong ditching, and /then/ smashing pumpkins as a way of sending off our dearly departed Halloween.. Once we got to middle/high school, Halloween night meant trolling for girls more than anything else, so we’d either go to parties or commercial haunted houses and stand around looking stupid and drenched in fake blood. Man.. now I’m all nostalgic :/ “Brown-leafed vertigo, where skeletal life is known, I remember Halloween!”

Ghosted by Eddie Lightning Frog @ 09/21/2006 12:59 AM EDT

Kraft caramels aren’t anything new. Mom used to get them all the time, with sticks and all.

Those cats – wow, I sooooo wish they were vegan! :cry: It’s not everyday you get to eat a black cat.

God, I’ve never seen such lame ass candy as the “bits” with the straws. Craminy, they could’ve tried a tad bit harder. lol

I’ve never egged, TP’ed or smashed pumpkins, nor used shave cream, or whatnot, in a bad way. I have absolutely no Mischief Night memories… then again, I didn’t realize it existed until about 7 minutes ago. :D

Ghosted by Ryane @ 09/21/2006 1:00 AM EDT

Tyler: If you’ve never tasted malted milk powder, there’s really no good point of reference, so it’s hard to describe, but I’ll try– Imagine the texture of a dense, crispy, sponge that tastes like vanilla, coated in chocolate.

Ghosted by Bryan @ 09/21/2006 1:01 AM EDT

Btw Matt, I’m not a big fan of the malted candies everytime I bite into one, it makes my teeth feel like they do when I chew on Tinfoil.

Also my mom hates the word Malt, it makes her physically shudder whenever she hears it. Wait till I call her and tell her the review I read today:)

Ghosted by Jester @ 09/21/2006 1:28 AM EDT

I hate Whoppers because when I was about 8 and I was visiting my grandparents’ dairy farm, my cousin and I accidentally spilled our bag of Malteasers (English version of Whoppers) in the cow pasture. Whenever I think of them I still remember watching them fall and splat, one by one, into a fresh cowpat. No five second rule that time.

Mischief Night mostly involved me and some other invisible-nerd girls walking around the neighborhood hoping to see guys we knew. Lame.

Maybe the candy gravel that comes with the straws is meant to be eaten *through* the straws?

Ghosted by Welsh Rabbit @ 09/21/2006 1:28 AM EDT

You’re thinking too logically.

The candy gravel is there because Albert wanted me to include “Spooky Straws” in an all-candy review.

Ghosted by Matt @ 09/21/2006 1:30 AM EDT

I have the same relationship with Whoppers, except if I happen to eat some, I can only eat like one or two.

Did I mention that I finally (FINALLY) found the Cocoa Cats? I’ve been looking for the hot chocolate Peeps since the Cocoa Bats on the Countdown ages ago. Found ‘em at Jo-Ann Fabrics (and Crafts) of all places. So delicious!

I have no Devil’s Night memories. Around here there was a big curfew or something, I don’t really remember. I don’t know if they ever enforced it. I wouldn’t have been participating anyway, though. I guess I’m just a Halloweenie. What I’m really surprised about is that no one ever did anything to us on Devil’s Night. I guess we got it bad enough the rest of the year. (I say this now, and watch- it’s totally going to happen.)

Ghosted by Rainbowfeet @ 09/21/2006 1:36 AM EDT

Your Smarties are LIES. LIES I say. Silly Americaland.

Ghosted by Evin @ 09/21/2006 1:42 AM EDT

Whoppers suck, end of story.

Also, I saw “It’s a Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” fruit snacks at the store today. I didn’t buy any because it was $5 a box (although it was big). There seemed to be cutouts on the back.

Ghosted by JLAJRC @ 09/21/2006 1:49 AM EDT

Man there’s a lot of hatred for Whoppers going on – I think Maltesers (and therefore I’d assume Whoppers) are pretty awesome. Does that make me trashy?

Mischief night AND Halloween? Man you guys get ALL the fun.

Ghosted by Mazoo @ 09/21/2006 1:52 AM EDT

When I think about mischief night I think about that rainy night in the barn where Winnie Cooper and I nestled together in the hay… wait a second, that wasn’t me, that was Kevin Arnold on the two-part finale of The Wonder Years. Dang.

Ghosted by Review the World @ 09/21/2006 2:10 AM EDT

Whoopers make me feel like I’m chewing on tinfoil too. The taste isn’t that great either.

Mischeif Night has never ever been a big thing over here, so I don’t have any memories except maybe like one egg got thrown at our garage once.

Ghosted by lin @ 09/21/2006 2:28 AM EDT

I once toilet papered my own house on Mischeif Night. Why you ask? My mom thought it would be fun. I personally never had any inclination to go out and do so.

Also, I just want to say thank you Matt for the countdown. When I come home from work dead at 2:30 am or later, having something to do when no one is awake to talk to makes me hate my job slightly less.

Ghosted by Gadget @ 09/21/2006 2:40 AM EDT

You’re not alone in your hatred for whoppers, yet I still eat them when my boyfriend leaves them by my end of the couch.

Ghosted by Leslie @ 09/21/2006 2:43 AM EDT

Like Mr T?

Listen to his message kids!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_rBidCkJxo

I figured this would be the right crowd to appreciate this.

Ghosted by Jester @ 09/21/2006 4:07 AM EDT

“Treat her right! Treat your mother right!”
I love that video no matter how much I watch it. The backup dancers (mothers probably)look like every teacher I had in elementary school.

Oh yeah, I had the Mountain Dew Pitch Black Icee at Target yesterday.. grapey goodness.

Ghosted by Dj lisas @ 09/21/2006 4:21 AM EDT

okay i feel really uncool right now because i actually LIKE whoppers especially the kind they have at easter…shaped like eggs and covered in a candy coating…thats pretty much the best part of that holiday.

oh and, Youre thinking too logically…hahaha that just made my night…

Ghosted by katella @ 09/21/2006 4:29 AM EDT

Matt, my friend brought up a great point the other day: You claim to hate grape-flavored sodas with a wild fervor, so forwhythenwho do you enjoy Pitch Black Mt. Dew?

Ghosted by Bryan @ 09/21/2006 5:35 AM EDT

Cocoa Bats. Cocoa Bats! My KINGDOM for Cocoa Bats!!!

Ghosted by big lounging @ 09/21/2006 6:02 AM EDT

Yuf. Did I miss anything? (You go away for a few months…)

Oh, and I never did mischief. I was a good, boring little boy.

Ghosted by Rhino @ 09/21/2006 6:55 AM EDT

I love Whoppers of all kinds, especially when they try to tell me they’re Robins Eggs. I actually prefer the Reese’s shapes to the cups, they’re all smooshy and full of much more peanut butter goodness than the Big Cups. One year I swear I bought upwards of 10 packs of Reese’s Eggs during the Easter season.

Never did anything particularly mischevious on fright night, except once my friends and I stayed out slightly past elotted Trick-or-Treat time and scored all the leftovers.

Ghosted by Mystie @ 09/21/2006 7:37 AM EDT

There was no Mischeif Night anyplace I have ever lived. However, once you got to old to trick or treat you’d go out in regular clothes with eggs and TP. But it was tough to get anyone, seeing as they all were at there door handing out candy. It ended up being mostly just egg fights among your friends.

However, when I lived in the suburbsand were in jr high, TPing and egging seemed to be every weekend events in the fall. We’d get teachers, boys we liked/hated etc. And all stores would have a one dozen limit per group of kids. When it was cold here, people would leave the egg on their houses until it was above freezing, so it didn’t peel the paint off their house. We also would “fork” lawns. That’s just taking a bag of plastic forks and stabbing them into the ground. Taking them out was annoying, I think that was the point of it all.

Oh, when I saw thosee whoppers, I thought of my mother and how she always wanted to have holiday color themed candy in a dish on the coffee table and how we were never allowed to eat it cause at some point “company” might stop by and want to eat the dusty old candy.

Ghosted by kb @ 09/21/2006 7:46 AM EDT

Oddly enough I feel the same way about those damned things…

Ghosted by Bryan (Mukasa) @ 09/21/2006 8:26 AM EDT

I feel EXACTLY the same way about whoopers as you do… Whenever I see them, I think I hate them. But, when put in a situation where they’re my last resort, I can’t find anything to complain about.

Ghosted by Thomas @ 09/21/2006 8:44 AM EDT

Funny, I grew up on S.I. too, and I did all my shaving cream/ eggs stuff on Halloween itself (we called it “Bombing”). But the best memory I have is stealing a bunch of pumpkins and decorations, climbing in through the window of my best friends class room at Our Lady Star of the Sea (which he purposely unlocked earlier in the day) and smashing said pumpkins and decorations all over the room- eggs in the text books and all. Not the smartest move in the world, but when you’re 14 you’re not really thinking about breaking and entering and vandalism charges.

Ghosted by Lou @ 09/21/2006 9:24 AM EDT

Whoppers. I’ve experienced the same feelings Matt. I can’t explain it either. I may not like them because they look so similar to Milk Duds, but they will never reach the level of goodness that is the Milk Dud. Another reason is that there are a lot of Whopper knock offs, especially around easter, that are left in bowls and baskets uneaten only be saved in the drawer with the Werthers hard candies until next year when they are brought out again. Also, I think the Whopper milk cartons are a bit too much. I picture overweight internet nerds pouring back a mouthful of milk carton Whoppers after every typed sentence. Mmmm, thats good Whoppers!

Ghosted by Barry @ 09/21/2006 9:39 AM EDT

That Mr. T clip comes from this after-school type special called “Be Somebody or Be Somebody’s Fool” and I have it on DVD. Not only is it an hour and a half long, but that segment is only the beginning of the absurdity. Everyone should have to watch it.

Girls (or guys) does anyone remember Beverly Hills Teens? It was on in the late 80s, and I’ve been wanting to get a copy for ages and I finally scored one – see here, I wrote about it and took pictures. Momentous. Can’t wait to watch it.

Whoppers have always made me gag. I only tried them once, and that was at some sort of missionary night we had at church when I was like seven. I was on a bus at the time, but the inside was supposed to look like a plane. I remember thinking bitterly that they would never serve Whoppers on a real plane.

Ghosted by Jessica Marie @ 09/21/2006 10:36 AM EDT

I love whoppers, and I offer no apologies. I think you people that don’t are the ones that should be ashamed. Malt is like the best thing ever. The only time they are gross is when they are in bridge mix and you pick out what you think is a malted milk ball, but it ends up being one of those nasty vanilla creme things inside. That’s a bummer.

And, Mystie, I also like my reeses better in the shapes, because the chocolate is thicker and there is more peanut butter inside. To me, that’s the point. The very best is the “reester bunny” they had out this year. Full sized chocolate rabbit full of peanut butter. That was pushing it, but it was soooo good.

Those kitty peeps are soooo cute! I have a black cat, and his name is Spooky. And he kicks ass.

I dont think I ever did naughty things around Halloween. My friends and I did go thru a tp phase, but it was just a general non-seasonal thing. We did the yard forking too. Such dorks.

Ghosted by MaryJane @ 09/21/2006 10:40 AM EDT

Nice Jester! The Crow….my favorite movie. I watch it every year on/around Halloween.

Growing up, egging and TPing were common events throughout the entire month of October. It wasn’t until I saw The Crow that I found out that there was a specific day for such madness, and that night was Devils’ Night. So we pretty much just egged or TP’d the nemesis flava of the week whenever it occurred to us.

…still in awe over that Mr. T vid…

Ghosted by bad karma @ 09/21/2006 10:53 AM EDT

I love Whoppers, though I don’t eat them nearly as much as I did in my candy eatin’ hey-day.

Went to A Nightmare On Elm Street Last Night. While it was good to see on the big screen, I do have a couple of complaints. First off, I live in Seattle, but did it play anywhere near Seattle? No. I had to drive 30 miles. No big deal. That much more of an event I guess. Then I get to the theater, which is this 17 screen mall-monstrosity. No problems. My friend and I settle into our seats aqnd prepare for the scares. The crowd is quite young. I’d be surprised if there were anyone over the age of 15 in it besides me and my friend. It was kind of weird watching a movie that I actually remember when it came out with a bunch of people that were still like 10 years from being born when it was released.

So the movie starts, but they forget we’re in the theater or something and don’t turn down the houselights. Someone finally had to go and tell them. After that, all was okay.

It was shown on a digital projector. A poor quality digital projector. There was this kind of faded blue oval around the center of the screen. Distracting at times. But I still dug it. And after the credits they show a special real of “Freddy’s Greatest Kills”, which is actually every Freddy kill from Nightmare 2 through Freddy vs. Jason. Good stuff. Though I was surprised that Freddy only had two real kills in F vs. J. But I guess Jason did do most of the killing in that one since Freddy was sort of non-corporeal for a bunch of it.

Definitely worth checking out.

Ghosted by Chris Martin @ 09/21/2006 11:03 AM EDT

I don’t think I’ve ever done anything for Mischief night. In fact, my years of trick or treating weren’t all that grand. Halloween only got really good when me and Colonel Catsup started chaperoning his younger cousins.

Talking smack about everybody and their mothers was never as good as on those nights. We talk smack everyday of the year, but it just felt soooo right on Halloween.

The most particularly strong memory was playing FFVII right before going out. So that must have been 97. Snowboarding and halloween DO mix. If you’re avoiding moogles in the process.

Ghosted by Knegative @ 09/21/2006 11:23 AM EDT

I’m from Detroit. Here it’s called Devil’s Night. And buildings burn.

Ghosted by Kris @ 09/21/2006 11:32 AM EDT

Damn. Hate to back-to-back post, but my morning net surfing has yielded this bit of info:

Fangoria writes:

Expanding on yesterday’s announcement that SCREAM actor Jamie Kennedy has been tapped to host the first televised fuse FANGORIA CHAINSAW AWARDS (which will take place in Los Angeles on October 15), presenters now slated to appear on the show include Rob Zombie and his actress wife Sheri Moon Zombie, as well as Korn’s Jonathan Davis, rap artist Chingy and rock acts The Used, Slipknot, Fall Out Boy, Gym Class Heroes and Cobra Starship.

The Awards will air on fuse on Sunday, October 22 at 10 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. PT (with a “Black Carpet” pre-show kicking off at 9:30 p.m. ET, 6:30 p.m. PT). Make sure to get in your votes here (polls are open until October 13), and for more info on the event, go here.

Ghosted by Chris Martin @ 09/21/2006 11:35 AM EDT

Man, whoppers (Malted milk balls) are the shiz. When I was a yout, going to K-Mart and just getting to look at the toys was a huge treat. When my dad went, though, he’s usually get one of those milk cartons of Whoppers and we savored every one. (Except that one that was an empty shell and had no malted milk filler). The only two food things I ever remember seeing at Kmart were Whoppers and canned ham.

Now I do hate squirrels for no reason at all.

Ghosted by klatubaradanitko @ 09/21/2006 12:08 PM EDT

I love Whoppers! I usually get them with cheese and as part of a value meal with Coke. Did I miss something? Also, kudos to Eddie Lightning Frog for the Misfits lyrics! This song is still a must at any Halloween party I attend.

Ghosted by Bludge @ 09/21/2006 12:15 PM EDT

We really don’t have a prank-night kind of thing here. Probably because if someone did that, this is such a small-time, one-horse, two-bit, cam-jammin’, old-fashioned, lip-smackin’, hip-crackin’, moon-shinin’, teeny-tiny, red-neckin’, fudruckin’, truck-drivin’, egg-suckin’, pimple-poppin’, pepper-belly, pencil-neck geek of a hick town, that everyone will know who did it by the next day.

But I might do the frozen shaving cream thing with a Jack O’Lantern on Hallowe’en day, so it starts to vomit right around Trick Or Treat time. Be sure it’s shaving Cream, and not the gel.

Ghosted by kingklash @ 09/21/2006 12:26 PM EDT

So many neo-logisms. Your post is a wonder of the world, Kingklash

Ghosted by Heidegger @ 09/21/2006 12:41 PM EDT

I seem to have the same phenomenon with Whoppers: I love them, but I always forget that I love them. Maybe it’s because I confuse them with Milk Duds, which I don’t like.

We don’t have Mischief Night where I grew up :(

Ghosted by jazzy @ 09/21/2006 12:55 PM EDT

No, no, no. We cannot have it. That award show shant go on. Those bands are going to corrupt the youth of England, not sure why I care–seeing as I’m from Vegas–but they will. I’d like to beat them to bloody death, if I could actually engage in physical activity more strenuous than hitting a few keys on my keyboard, and writing same-y, waif-like lyrics.

Ghosted by Brandon Flowers @ 09/21/2006 1:03 PM EDT

This article is awesome. I’m going to go eat candy until I die!

Ghosted by Pete @ 09/21/2006 2:33 PM EDT

Just curious, would that frozen shaving cream trick work with a can of foam insulation? If so, It’d be cool to try it with a can of Great Stuff and watch the poor homeowner try to get it all out of their mailbox. It’s possible that I might have to get a little mischevious this Halloween…. :)

There use to be a black cat that hung around my house that I dubbed Johnny Winter, after the famous 60’s rock guitarist. Ironically, the human Johnny Winter is an Albino, but he had a song called “Black Cat Bone”.

Ghosted by Deuce @ 09/21/2006 2:34 PM EDT

I used to do Mischief Night just about every year too. We had a “Crazy Guy” in our neighborhood, who believe it or not, was really Crazzzy! He did things like run around on his front lawn naked and pack tennis ball cans full of his tighty wighties and hide them in the woods behind his house. -
anyway, we would toilet paper the hell out of him every year. We thought we were being sooo badass by doing it. There would always be a small part of me that felt kinda bad about it, but looking back, its only toilet paper!

Ghosted by Joker @ 09/21/2006 3:06 PM EDT

We called it Devil’s Night, and the one that sticks in my memory most is the night all of the kids in my group (except me) got arrested. It all started when my friend Paul decided to take the normal tic-tac (what we called egging houses) routine a little too far. He started smashing peoples pumpkins on their porches. This warned me to keep my distance from the group. I still followed, of course, to see all the mischief first hand. Paul got the bright idea to start throwing huggies he stole from his house (they were to be passed out the next night for trick-or-treat) at peoples doors. They would hit the door and make an enormous sound, because for some reason, everyone in my neighborhood had giant metal screen doors. Well as he threw the infamous huggie bottle at the last house the door opened and an old lady took one in the face. Despite the fact that I knew it was sooo wrong, I laughed until I almost shit myself. I was standing about a block from the rest of the guys. They took off running. I was the only one smart enough to act as if I was completely innocent and just strolled off in the opposite direction at a normal pace. The next thing I see is like ten police cars zooming down the street. Each one with a few kids crammed in the back. I had escaped the horror of being grounded on Halloween. I was the ONLY one of our group allowed to trick-or-treat. That Halloween I WAS GOD.

This makes me wonder, are there HUGGIES brand juice bottles in other places? I swear I had like 30 of these in my bag EVERY YEAR. they are made by Daily’s Farms, and come in all sorts of colors and flavors. The have some of the most annoying foil covering the top of the containern and are shaped kinda like a beer keg. Just curious as it seems they are wildly popular trick-or-treat giveaways here in Pittsburgh.

Ghosted by Old E @ 09/21/2006 3:18 PM EDT

We would steal those big pumpkn yard bags that people filled with leaves and create a pyramid out of them in some farmers field along the school bus route so the next morning kids would see huge pumpkin pyramid on the way into town.

Ghosted by brett @ 09/21/2006 3:24 PM EDT

In my part of LI, there has been no Mischief Night. There was no need for it.

In my CVS, we gots candy, but just the minor stuff Matt said already, like the whoppers & the oreos, but we probably got the Twistables too.

also, click my name to see the MUSIC VIDEO for the Fat Boys’ “Are You Ready For Freddie?”!!

Ghosted by Invader Norbert @ 09/21/2006 3:29 PM EDT

Mara has finally caught up with the countdown! Not having internet at home is seriously limiting my XE time. Tis sad. But next week, the non-internet time will be over :D

I want all of the candies you wrote about, except the Whoppers. I have the opposite problem you do – They sound fine to me, but when I have them, they are nasty. It’s the texture. Ew. Like aerated chalk. Gag me.

Ghosted by Mara @ 09/21/2006 3:46 PM EDT

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