Aqua Teen Hunger Force

OK, first of all I need to admit that as an old guy I had no idea what this was. I was aware of Adult Swim (though I’ve never watched it) but I’d never heard of ATHF (I love how one day we’ve never heard of it and the next day it’s an acronym).

I was home with bronchitis when all hell broke loose in Boston. When I’m sick I typically leave CNN on the TV, so I saw the story unfold. It is somewhat amazing how out of control this was for a bunch of lite-brite figures.

I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. Knowing how paranoid NYC has been about terrorism, I can understand the over-reaction somewhat. But damn those things look harmless. And it’s not like they had just been put up. This blogger posted an entry about them two weeks ago. And somehow they managed to not panic any other city (including New York).

I love the YouTube video showing them putting these things up. I actually think they look more harmless at night when they are lit up. And the actual item is going for over a grand on eBay.

The press conference was pretty comical. Instead of saying “no comment” as most people would (their lawyer told them to say nothing), they decided to mess with the reporters by saying they only wanted to discuss hair styles of the 70s. It might possibly be the funniest response ever to a reporters question:

I’m sorry, that’s not a hair question

Hey, guess what reporters, there’s no rule that says people can’t mess with you. Get over yourselves.

Some of the comments from the Boston authorities are just over the top. From the Boston DA:

It’s clear the intent was to get attention by causing fear and unrest that there was a bomb in that location

No, the exact opposite is clear.

Some people are viewing the artists as heroes in all of this. That’s not the case either. I think you can make a case that what they did was vandalism. The “public nuisance” charge could certainly stick. They played a prank that was designed to as a marketing ploy. This sort of thing has become common in marketing, especially for things that appeal to the college age crowd. It had a bad reaction that certainly wasn’t intended. And they are playing up the overreaction by being silly in a press conference.

Not heroes, but hardly criminals.

One final thought. These things had been up for weeks. Perhaps they hadn’t had enough effect. Is it possible that someone phoned in the warnings to the Boston police to increase the buzz? If that were to be proven, then you have a real crime. There’s a conspiracy theory that probably will never be proven…