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2007 Boston Mooninite panic (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 17 hours ago by nocturne@slrpnk.net to c/wikipedia@lemmy.world

11 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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[–] night_petal@piefed.social 2 points 5 hours ago

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

[–] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 7 points 12 hours 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.

[–] human@slrpnk.net 17 points 14 hours ago (3 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 13 hours 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 5 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

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

[–] drcobaltjedi@programming.dev 1 points 12 hours ago

This happened in other cities and they didn't panic, only Boston. Hell the article even states one police department wasn't going to do anything about their mooninite litebrights since they couldn't identify a crime

[–] Lawnman23@lemmy.world 18 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

No one can defeat the quad-laser!

[–] babyfarmer@lemmy.world 12 points 15 hours ago

Jumping is useless!

[–] Plum@lemmy.world 8 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours 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.

[–] BenderRodriguez@lemmy.world 6 points 15 hours ago

Put 'em on the glass!

The bullet is enormous.

[–] 4am@lemmy.zip 5 points 15 hours 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.