"I hope you can see this, because I am doing it as hard as I can."

February 1, 2020 3:16 PM

Eleven years ago, Aqua Teen Hunger Force characters invaded Boston and the city was shut down (YouTube, 4 minutes) in the 2007 Boston Mooninite panic (Wikipedia). If the whole thing is a blur, here's a 14 minute video (Vimeo), capturing the media mania, and the subsequent press conference on haircuts in the 70s (YT, 6 minute Fox News clip), and looking back, 10 years later (YT, 10 minutes), with more context to the events.
posted by filthy light thief (35 comments total)

Previously, on MetaFilter
posted by Huffy Puffy at 3:28 PM on February 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

Has this post spent the past two years in Preview??

Oh right, it's 2020. Hrmm.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:31 PM on February 1, 2020 [21 favorites]

And a few weeks later a student that clearly was too busy studying to watch the news built a breadboard LED device and wore it to the airport.
posted by sammyo at 4:32 PM on February 1, 2020 [6 favorites]

Let's not forget the sequel: MIT student arrested for entering Boston airport with "fake bomb"

Same as Sammyo's event, but with a lot more background.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:35 PM on February 1, 2020 [4 favorites]

It really pissed me off how many people seemed willing to justify fucking over the people who placed these (and then Star Simpson) with defenses like, "They should have known it would cause panic." No, it's really not anyone's responsibility to predict what arbitrary objects someone might fear because they became personally obsessed with the concepts of terrorism and bombs.
posted by value of information at 4:52 PM on February 1, 2020 [20 favorites]

People are afraid of a few LEDs and wires, because of course bombs have those and not, e.g., merely every piece of electronics in your house. Maddening.
posted by 1adam12 at 5:04 PM on February 1, 2020 [3 favorites]

Or one can simultaneously think the level of fuss over it was ridiculous, and also think it doesn't take an MIT level intelligence to realize that a hand wired circuit board isn't the cleverest thing to wear into an airport.
posted by tavella at 5:10 PM on February 1, 2020 [4 favorites]

Or one can simultaneously think the level of fuss over it was ridiculous, and also think it doesn't take an MIT level intelligence to realize that a hand wired circuit board isn't the cleverest thing to wear into an airport.

Value judgments aside, I was a 20-year-old American in 2007, and at the time I noticed that I definitely would have had no idea that people would be frightened if someone wore a circuit board on their shirt at an airport. (I actually currently have no idea if people would still be frightened, or if it "wore off.") So I think this is a really culture-specific thing to know.
posted by value of information at 5:17 PM on February 1, 2020 [5 favorites]

Number one in the hood, G.
posted by lon_star at 5:33 PM on February 1, 2020 [30 favorites]

Somebody put one of the ATHF character things on the El underpass at Sheridan in Chicago, but it wasn't mentioned and disappeared right after this! I think about it all the time when I look up going North on Sheridan at the stop.
posted by Tchad at 5:36 PM on February 1, 2020

Or one can simultaneously think the level of fuss over it was ridiculous, and also think it doesn't take an MIT level intelligence to realize that a hand wired circuit board isn't the cleverest thing to wear into an airport.

No, you can’t have this both ways. Either you’re genuflecting to the unfounded panics your security apparatus is fostering to continue justifying its own insanely expensive existence, or you’re not.
posted by mhoye at 5:43 PM on February 1, 2020 [8 favorites]

Now I am going to have that theme song going through my head for the rest of the night (this is from memory and probably wrong, but I've heard the way to get rid of one of these is to go all the way through so here goes..)

My name is Shake-zula
The mic ruler
The old schooler
you wanna trip, I'll bring it to ya
This is Frylock
and I'll rock you like a cop (???)
You're up next Meatwad with your knock-knock
Meatwad makin' money, see
Meatwad gettin' honeys, G
Drivin' in my car, livin' like a star
Ice on my fingers and my toes and I'm a Taurus

We are the Aqua Teens
Make the homies say ho and the girlies wanna scream
We are the Aqua Teens
Make the homies say ho and the girlies wanna scream

Aqua Teen Hunger Force
number one in the hood, G.
posted by lon_star at 5:45 PM on February 1, 2020 [11 favorites]

No, you can’t have this both ways. Either you’re genuflecting to the unfounded panics

In the case of the TV promotion the Boston police clearly overreacted, but the MIT student must have lived through airport security overreactions and made a poor judgement call (it was clear (to me at least:) from the first report at the time it was not some protest or attempt to trigger security). I remember pulling in to let an elderly relative out of the car that an over intense state patrol seemed ready to arrest me for just that, wacky times. Poor judgement from both sides is a thing.
posted by sammyo at 6:17 PM on February 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

I can't find it now, but when this happened someone put together a short film with Jack Bauer from 24 dealing with the mooninite threat. It was frickin awesome.
posted by vrakatar at 6:34 PM on February 1, 2020 [5 favorites]

As long as we're mentioning ATHF, can I take a moment to assert that they should show the ATHF intro before every movie?
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 6:45 PM on February 1, 2020 [7 favorites]

A wonderful dive bar called TC's Lounge off mass ave in the back bay had one of the mooninites proudly displayed on the wall until sadly the entire bar was destroyed in a fire. RIP
posted by Riptor at 7:46 PM on February 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

The local news in Boston breathlessly reported that the devices “lacked only an explosive component to be a bomb.” Pretty scary until you realize that description would cover a cell phone, flash light, CD player...
posted by skullhead at 8:06 PM on February 1, 2020 [12 favorites]

This imaginary stick of dynamite lacks only the explosive component to be a bomb.
posted by Ickster at 8:18 PM on February 1, 2020 [6 favorites]

Watching the local news was even better than that: Even as Channel 4 was reporting authorities had blown up the device, they were broadcating an image of it, which showed the outline of a cartoon character with an extended middle finger, and to people who knew, it was obvious what it was and Twitter and the local Reddit exploded with disbelieving posts about the Olds.

But to be slightly fair, not long after the authorities discovered the Mooninite LED thing atop the Sullivan Square subway stop, security officers at Tufts Medical Center in Chinatown found what turned out to be a simulated pipe bomb, left by a guy who went down the halls yelling "God is warning you that today is going to be a sad day!"

Lite Brite or Die Harder (at roughly 0:16, there's a clip of Brian Williams introducing a report about the whole thing showing a "photo" of Boston with an 80-story tower downtown; NBC somehow managed to use a rendering of a proposed skyscraper that was never built).
posted by adamg at 8:27 PM on February 1, 2020 [2 favorites]

it doesn't take an MIT level intelligence to realize that a hand wired circuit board isn't the cleverest thing to wear into an airport.

No, it takes an MIT level of intelligence, and enthusiasm, to not realize that other people do not share their passion or good sense.
posted by Bovine Love at 8:31 PM on February 1, 2020

Please read what Star wrote recently (a few years ago) about the experience, to get a something of her point of view.
posted by jjwiseman at 8:35 PM on February 1, 2020 [8 favorites]

This imaginary stick of dynamite lacks only the explosive component to be a bomb.

The bun is in your mind, qua meatwad.
posted by vrakatar at 9:17 PM on February 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

and then you can get tore up
and pass out in the hot sun
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:14 PM on February 1, 2020 [4 favorites]

A wonderful dive bar called TC's Lounge off mass ave in the back bay had one of the mooninites proudly displayed on the wall until sadly the entire bar was destroyed in a fire.

OMG! It was a destructive device!
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:24 AM on February 2, 2020 [8 favorites]

jjwiseman's link is great, valuable reading. Please read if you think she had bad judgement and was reckless. She was classed as a threatening man of color by the Boston police and treated horribly by MIT.

It also led me to read more about Star Simpson, and I learned that she was the person who came forward to the New York Times about being sexually harassed by Google executive Richard De Vaul. That article led to the harassment protests at Google and multiple resignations.
posted by medusa at 5:19 AM on February 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

Don't forget that both the ATHF and Star Simpson cases were vigorously pursued by Attorney General Martha Coakley, who later went on to run a sufficiently incompetent Senate campaign against Scott Brown to lose the supermajority when it was urgently needed.

I only know three things about Coakley, and those are the three things. She did an awful lot of damage out of what appears to be sheer stupidity.
posted by jackbishop at 6:11 AM on February 2, 2020 [10 favorites]

Those are the three things worth remembering about her. I'm sure she's kind to dogs and that her family loves her, but those are not qualifications for the offices she held or the ones she sought.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 6:16 AM on February 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

The theme song has changed a lot over the years, as has the title of the show.
posted by bendy at 2:49 PM on February 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

No, it takes an MIT level of intelligence, and enthusiasm, to not realize that other people do not share their passion or good sense.


There's plenty of things I have a passion for that I don't do in an airport, because I'm not a fucking dumbass. Airport security aren't engineers and they aren't bomb experts; they are going to look at someone with wiring and a battery on their chest and think potential bomb, because frankly it wouldn't be the least ludicrous thing someone has tried to do for terrorism. I.e. the shoe bomber.

Now, of course the security reaction was then even *more* dumbass; once someone with the necessary skills had looked at it, she should have gotten a lecture about not being an idiot, but they felt embarrassed and wanted to look tough.
posted by tavella at 5:44 PM on February 2, 2020

Did you read the article Star Simpson wrote? She wasn't taking a flight and she didn't go through security.
posted by medusa at 6:53 PM on February 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

Surprisingly enough, there are security officers in other places than the security checkpoint. "Yes! The one perfect spot for a freelance art exhibition of my wired up shirt is... the airport!" remains a truly impenetrable thought process.

Again, the security apparatus was even *more* dumbass, but it was a case of stupidities colliding.
posted by tavella at 7:38 PM on February 2, 2020

Airport security aren't engineers and they aren't bomb experts; they are going to look at someone with wiring and a battery on their chest and think potential bomb...

I really doubt that the average, reasonable if creative MIT student is going to spend much effort putting themselves in TSA's mind-space when going to the airport to pick up a friend. Nor do I want them to have to do that. Also, as I recall, it was a panicky ticket agent who sounded the alarm about OMG TERRORIST, and the cops were then obligated to do coply things.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:06 AM on February 3, 2020

MIT's administration was going through a deep and frustrating "hang them out to dry" phased (pace Aaron Schwartz) that infuriated a lot of the faculty. My lab was one of several that offered Star a job the next day and she worked for us for a while.

Sitting above my desk at work I still have the prototype template we made for protesting Coakley's DA re-election. We sandblasted acrylic so we could make dozens of edge-lit mooninites pretty quickly, that read:

[Mooninite]
"It had a very sinister appearance. It had a battery behind it, and wires."
-Martha Coakley

In retrospect it's tragic that more people didn't recognize her behavior in l'Affair Mooninite to be the sign of incompetence it was.
posted by range at 6:49 AM on February 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

Obligatory desktop photo.

I still have a small stash of these stickers that Bunnie make back then, now reserved as prizes for exceptional students.
posted by range at 9:01 AM on February 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

One more thought: being 19 in 2007 means you remember the Before Times, before the existence of TSA and before the ever-present security theater at airports became normal. The passage of time has completely altered people's perception of "normal" behavior and expectations but at least during the first few years I remember a palpable sense that maybe we'd recover from this irrational bullshit and come back to our senses someday. That day seems to have never come.
posted by range at 9:08 AM on February 3, 2020 [5 favorites]