👉 Boston.com article

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On the morning of January 31, 2007, the Boston Police Department and the Boston Fire Department mistakenly identified battery-powered LED placards depicting the Mooninites, characters from the Adult Swim animated television series Aqua Teen Hunger Force, as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), leading to a massive panic.

  • mo_ztt ✅English
    34•10 months ago

    The best part:

    As members of the media attempted to ask them how they felt about causing a panic, the pair refused to answer any questions not related to “haircuts of the ’70s.”

    And as I remember, someone asked them more or less, what type of haircuts do you think you guys will be getting in prison? And whoever was going to answer the question genuinely hesitated and looked worried.

    Jajajaja

  • pitninjaEnglish
    28•10 months ago

    If the Boston marathon bombing had happened within a year prior to this I might understand, but come on…

    • @[email protected]English
      18•10 months ago

      The Iraq war was still in full swing and cities were getting Homeland Security bulletins about possible revenge attacks.

      • norbert
        20•10 months ago

        That was a very dark time for the country, we’ve definitely not recovered from it and it allowed a lot of Christian nationalism and budding-fascism to metastasize into the danger it is today.

    • @[email protected]English
      5•10 months ago

      I remember when Adult Swim aired the entire movie for free… At 1/32 the size in a corner of the screen

      • @[email protected]English
        2•10 months ago

        I remember how excited I was at the beginning, until they shrunk it down. I tried making sense of what was happening by standing real close to the Tv. But like most ATHF content, it was as nonsense without sound as it was with. The Neal Peart solo was pretty cool though!

  • Flying SquidEnglish
    8•10 months ago

    I remember that. I never watched that show so I had no idea what the reference was, but if I had seen it in person, I would have just thought it was viral marketing. What’s so scary about it?

    • @[email protected]English
      8•10 months ago

      I did see it and knew what it referenced. There was nothing scary at all about it, it was clearly an LED sign. I couldn’t believe how massive an over reaction there was to it by the police. Terrorists tend not to put bright LEDs on their weapons as an advertisement.

      • @[email protected]English
        3•10 months ago

        People were still pretty 9/11 crazy in those days and I remember thinking the reaction was way more entertaining than even the marketing.

        As a huge ATHF fan (I have a Master Shake tattoo on my ass), it just really spoke to me. Felt like an alignment in the cosmos.

      • pelrun
        1•10 months ago

        Boston PD were(are) out of their minds. They also blew up an ordinary traffic counting device deployed by the city.

    • @[email protected]English
      11•10 months ago

      I remember it happening in Boston and it WAS a big deal. Not sure why you think your anecdote is particularly relevant?

      • FartsWithAnAccentEnglish
        3•10 months ago

        It was a big deal in the media, but I think their point was maybe that it wasn’t a big deal to the locals and the city was definitely not “turned upside down”?