Aqua Teen Hunger Farce

Turner is coughing up $2M to pay for all the silliness.

Allow me to give a little post-mortem on the events.

• Was it worth it? For Aqua Teen Hunger Force, yes. For TBS, no. This little niche show will get a big boost. Turner takes a momentary hit but comes out looking better for $2M.
• Was it intentional? No. If it had Turner would have been a lot better prepared to respond.
• Did the Boston cops do anything wrong? Not really. As laughable as it may seem to others, the police got a report from a reliable source of an unidentified electronic object on the side of a bridge. It was 9 AM and the thing wasn’t lit up so they had to treat it as a bomb. Or did you want to be the person who had to go take it down without knowing what it was? That first report was followed by reports of other unknown items, which made it look worse not better.
• Was it funny? As things turned out, yes. Up until Mrs. Collateral Damage sent me an email identifying the Mooninite, though, it wasn’t. She works two blocks from where one of first devices was found, so I was a little nervous until she clued me in.
• Was it stupid placement? OH YES. I am no fan of false alarms and this was the biggest one this city has ever seen. The city was truly at risk when all those emergency workers had to be diverted to what some are calling a hoax. It wasn’t a hoax. That involved knowingly trying to decieve. They didn’t do that.
• Are the hair guys insensitive idiots? I don’t know about that. Their arrest was a case of the officials wanting a scalp. It was an absurd moment and I understand their reacting to it as such. Was that exactly the wrong thing to do from a PR standpoint? OH YES. From a comedy POV it was pretty good, though. Kudos to whichever reporter thought to phrase a question in a form of a ’70s Hair Styles issue.
• What was the dumbest quote? The Globe had some civilian saying that he/she saw it, thought it could be a bomb but didn’t report it to anyone. Thanks for caring.
• Will we remember it three weeks from now? No.
• Did I enjoy my three-minutes on the edge of the media whirl-wind? Yep. I was guilty of not laughing nearly enough when I answered questions, though.
  Here’s me on CNN:

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Cartoon Network is early nominee for worst marketing idea of 2007 awards

BOSTON – At least nine electronic devices, planted at bridges and other parts of Boston as part of a marketing campaign for a late-night cartoon, threw a scare into the city Wednesday.

I believe we will name these awards The Judies, in honor of Judith Regan.

UPDATE: The ever-watchful authorities have nabbed a perp in this one. Generally I would include the word alleged but the gentleman’s website does a really good job of documenting the placement of weapons of mass distraction. (PS: my actual news coverage of the “event” can be read here.)

Weird moments in censorship

Cartoon Network is re-running episodes of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. They’re being shown after 11 as part of their “Adult Swim” package of cartoons for grown-ups. Pee Wee’s Playhouse was originally a Saturday morning show. What’s changed since when it first ran and now? Paul Reuben’s getting busted for “enjoying himself” in a movie theater. Not quite sure how that changes the content of the show though.

Even odder than that: Watching an episode of Dr. 90210, the “reality” show about plastic surgery, when they show a transsexual’s change from male to female. Now the show usually blurs out a woman’s nipples when they show, men’s nipples are allowed to be seen sans blur. So halfway through the operation, as the doctor slips the saline pouches into the patients breasts they start blurring out the nipples we had previously been allowed to view. Who made that call? How many meetings were held to determine exactly at what moment the nipple goes from viewable to Janet Jackson?