(Strip Number 1362, Original Publication Date, 31 October 1988)
Panel 1: Having returned from trickertreating, Mike complains to Elly about his being subjected to yet another embarrassment by his parents. Reason: all the other normal parents who love their children and who do not wake up every morning asking themselves "How can I destroy the reputation of this child I only brought into this world to torment because I hate laughter and smiles and fun TODAY?" hand out good and happy things like gum, potato chips and chocolate.
Panel 2: They also give out nice things of making the world bright and cheery like jelly beans, licorice whips, Milk Duds and whole bags of caramel corn.
Panel 3: How do his parents torment and oppress him because they live to see him in pain? By ruining Halloween for EVERYONE EVER by handing out toothbrushes! He asks her what kind of child wants to see a toothbrush on a day for smiles and candy and not pain and dental floss.
Panel 4: Elly isn't sure. After they handed out one hundred and six of them, she and John lost count. The idea that most kids assume that a dentist is going to hand out promotional supplies is so alien to Mike's thinking, HE is the gobsmacked one.
Summary: We can expect to be told that unlike a certain greedy child, most people liked the free dental kits Rod handed out as a sort of counter-programming thing to candycandycandy.