Halloween prank lands Medford boys on 'Kimmel'

Sweet revenge.

Two Medford boys' startled but serious reaction to their mother's Halloween prank turned them into YouTube sensations and won them an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

By yesterday afternoon, the reactions of C.J. and Jake Booth -- part of a compilation of clips featuring other children on the ABC television show's official YouTube site -- passed 20 million hits.

After returning from their trip to Los Angeles, C.J., 7, and Jake, 3, yesterday relished the candy their mother had pretended to steal.

In hindsight, C.J. said, he really was skeptical of his mother's claim to have eaten all of their candy.

"It's impossible to eat two bags of candy. How could she do that?" he said.

Kimmel on Oct. 31 encouraged parents nationwide to submit video reactions to his "I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy" challenge.

Most of the clips in the video showed children crying, screaming or throwing themselves on the floor in tantrums.

Not C.J. and Jake.

After the initial surprise, the boys calmly challenge their mother, Shawn Booth.

"Did you see how much I had?," C.J. asks indignantly in the video, stretched back with his hands behind his head. "I went to a lot of houses."

When Booth, 30, tells them she even ate all the Reese's Peanut Butter cups -- their favorite candy -- Jake pops his left thumb out of his mouth and gasps, saying "You sneaky mom!"

C.J. goes on to scold his mother and tells her she should have asked for permission, that he would have shared his candy had she asked. He rolls his eyes at her questions and sighs at her explanations during the nearly 7-minute video.

Booth said she was surprised by how they repeated back to her words she often said to them about asking permission.

"They reasoned it all out," said the boys' grandmother, Lisa Welch of Medford. "They were really cute. We were really surprised they got all that attention."

The adultlike reaction caught the attention of Kimmel's producers. The boys took the stage Thursday with a wave. They hopped onto Kimmel's couch as if they were at home, answering his questions and staring in awe at the go-karts the talk show host gave them.

"I don't think they really understand what happened," Shawn Booth said. "Although C.J. told me, after he found out [about the YouTube hits], 'finally, I have fans.' "

On Friday the Kimmel show sent the family to Disneyland. They returned to Long Island late Saturday night.

"I'm so proud of them, I couldn't ask for anything more," Booth said.

"You better be proud of us," C.J. retorted while digging into a box of Strawberry Nerds leftover from trick or treating.

"Yeah, be proud of us," echoed Jake.

Booth attends Long Island University at night, working toward a master's degree in mental health counseling. Her husband, Christopher Booth, 36, said the trip to California and the gifts the boys received, including a basket of peanut butter cups, gave the family a much-needed vacation.

"Shawn is in school, I work in the Bronx. Taking my family to Disneyland would've taken an act of Congress," he said. "They definitely gave my family a blessing."