Hannity channels The Onion? Claims "liberal" Halloween "teach[es] kids to knock on other people's doors and ask for a handout"

On the October 31 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, co-host Sean Hannity claimed that "Halloween is a liberal holiday" and "is teaching our kids to be liberals." Hannity explained that "we're teaching kids to knock on other people's doors and ask for a handout." Co-host Alan Colmes responded by asking if that meant that Christmas is a "liberal holiday." Colmes asserted that Halloween represents "the act of giving," and asked: "Isn't that a Christian thing, to give, to share with your community?" Hannity replied: "Not to teach your kids to beg for a handout."

An October 22 "editorial cartoon" in The Onion, a satirical newspaper, asks, "Halloween: What is it teaching our kids?" The cartoon depicts a costumed child receiving candy under the words: "Everyone deserves hand-outs!" The child carries a sack with the words "something for nothing" printed on it, while a depiction of the cartoonist declares: "Scariest night of the year."

From the October 31 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:

HANNITY: You know what? I totally agree. I've got two young kids, and I am the food police. And I'm constantly monitoring what they eat.

GERALDO RIVERA (Fox News host): And but for your involvement, wouldn't they eat the worst stuff?

HANNITY: Chicken nuggets, pizza, cake, cupcakes, junk food --

RIVERA: Of course. There's not -- there's not a night where I'm out where they have the choice of what they order out that they ordered something that's bad for them. Always.

HANNITY: By the way, Halloween is a liberal holiday, because we're teaching our children --

COLMES: Oh, come on. Please.

HANNITY: -- to beg for something for free.

[laughter]

RIVERA: Do you notice I wore my costume? I wore my mustache tonight.

HANNITY: Hey, by the way, I heard Mike [Jerrick] on [the Fox-syndicated The Morning Show with] Mike & Juliet dressed as you.

COLMES: By the way, I'm going this Halloween as a Republican. I'm taking candy away from people.

[laughter]

[...]

HANNITY: And coming up, things got pretty scary when Rosie O'Donnell made a Halloween appearance on the Martha Stewart show, and I'll tell you why Halloween is really a liberal day, next.

[...]

HANNITY: That is frightening. Rosie O'Donnell making a rare TV appearance on the Martha Stewart show, and she makes a pretty frightening Queen Elizabeth. The interview proved far from interesting. Martha certainly didn't take Rosie to task; it was purely Halloween hoopla. All right, now here --

[sound effect of witch laughing]

COLMES: What's wrong with Halloween hoopla? Are you anti-Halloween?

HANNITY: No. Can I tell you something? Halloween --

COLMES: Yeah.

HANNITY: -- is teaching our kids to be liberals.

COLMES: What are you going as this year?

HANNITY: No, I'm not, uh, Hillary Clinton. Frightening.

COLMES: That's a cheap shot. Come on.

HANNITY: Well, it's the number one -- it's the number one most frightening mask out there. Go look at those new papers out there.

COLMES: You know, you're scared that she's going to be president of the United States.

HANNITY: No, can I tell you something?

COLMES: Yeah.

HANNITY: But I'll tell you why. Because we're teaching kids to knock on other people's doors and ask for a handout. That's how we turn --

COLMES: Is Christmas a liberal holiday, then? When people give things away?

HANNITY: No, but you offer gifts. You give on Christmas. I give gifts on Christmas?

COLMES: Well, what you give on Halloween?

HANNITY: No, you don't give. The kids [knocks on table] -- "Please, can I have some more?"

[sound effect of witch laughing]

COLMES: It's the act of giving around -- that's our producer, laughing. But it's the act of giving. It's a wonderful thing. Isn't that a Christian thing, to give, to share with your community?

HANNITY: Not to teach your kids to beg --

COLMES: It's not begging --

HANNITY: -- for a handout.

COLMES: -- because you do it, too. You do it at their homes.

HANNITY: You're teaching your kids to beg for a handout.

COLMES: So you're anti-Halloween. That is, unfortunately, all the time we have left this evening. We toss it to Greta van Susteren, here to go on the record. Good evening, Greta.

—S.S.M.