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2007 Boston Mooninite panic (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 3 months ago by nocturne@slrpnk.net to c/wikipedia@lemmy.world

10 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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. Placed throughout Boston, Massachusetts, and the surrounding cities of Cambridge and Somerville by Peter "Zebbler" Berdovsky and Sean Stevens, these devices were part of a nationwide guerrilla marketing advertising campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters.

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[–] Lawnman23@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

No one can defeat the quad-laser!

[–] babyfarmer@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

Jumping is useless!

[–] human@slrpnk.net 13 points 3 months ago (2 children)

The article males a big deal about officials not being able to identify the mooninites, but I'm much more concerned that they weren't able to identify an explosive device.

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 5 points 3 months ago

The fact that they didn't look at it and see a cartoon character is the best part! They literally didn't have anyone around them who were competent enough to see this and think 'hey, that looks like a cartoon character, maybe we should look into that instead of starting a panic'.

[–] nocturne@slrpnk.net 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Edit: replied to the wrong comment, in the wrong thread, in the wrong community.

[–] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 6 points 3 months ago

Context worth remembering is that this was the tail end of the post 9/11 period where over reacting to literally anything was official policy for the entire country.

We found mysterious white powder left in common areas of the hospital I worked at about twenty times. We only called the bomb squad / hazmat folks the first five.

[–] Plum@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

I worked on Mass Ave when that all went down. It was vaguely hilarious for a couple of days while the cops and feds got mad about a Lite Brite.

[–] 4am@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 months ago

I saw Zebbler-Ecanti Experience last year (Zebbler’s DJ/VJ act), their show is just as weird and crazy as ever. Highly recommend.

[–] night_petal@piefed.social 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They weren't just in Boston. They were in many major cities. I remember a fairly prominent display in Atlanta.

[–] nocturne@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 months ago

But, from what I recall, the panic was in Boston. As mentioned in the article, there were also hoax pipe bombs found the same day.