Why does Time Warner hate America?

Honestly, the folks at Adult Swim themselves, as random and surreal as their programming can be, could never have cooked up the furor that their little viral campaign touting the upcoming “Aqua Teen Hunger Force� movie has inspired.

Of the li’l Lite Brite signs depicting a Mooninite flipping the bird – they were surreptitiously put up all across 10 cities a couple of weeks ago, but only Boston authorities mistook them for bombs and shut down half the city yesterday – Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said, “It had a very sinister appearance. It had a battery behind it, and wires.�

A Wonkette.com commenter (link below) noted with a gasp, “My alarm clock has a battery in the back and wires.� Another wondered, “Does the whole city grind to a halt when someone whips out an iPod?�

At ABC News.com, a commenter observed, “Anyone who has seen the show would have immediately recognized the character in the ‘device.’ It appears that the Boston P.D. spends most of their time watching ‘24.’"

How soon before David E. Kelley incorporates this into an episode of “Boston Legal?�

The two stoners arrested for putting the things up around Beantown gave a press conference today, and all they would discuss were hairstyles.

Protesters supporting the two created a stirring, inspirational and utterly hilarious sign of their own.

The Boston Globe was not amused:

“One wouldn't expect the promoters of the TV program "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" to score high on a maturity index. But anyone older than 8 or 9 should be able to understand the dangers of staging such a stunt in the post-Sept. 11 world. Homeland Security experts will need to review the response of local law enforcement. Public safety personnel may have overreacted; local bloggers apparently identified the guerrilla advertising campaign early on. … Potential criminal prosecution is only one consideration. The tricksters at Turner, a unit of Time Warner Inc., should pay the bill for the consequences of a lame marketing gimmick.�

Adult Swim tried to act chagrined with an on-air apology.

Mainly, though, people found the whole kerfuffle, as Courtney Love might call it, wildly amusing. Wonkette noted:

“Assistant Attorney General John Grossman called the light boards ‘bomblike’ devices and said that if they had been explosive they could have damaged infrastructure and transportation in the city. Yes, and if prosecutors were actually barrels of sh!t wrapped in dynamite, courthouses around the country could be severely damaged and extremely unhygienic.�

Here’s a sane/amusing reaction to the incident.

And you can be a part of history! Get your own Adult Swim Improvised (non-)Explosive Device on eBay.

For the uninitiated, here are the Mooninites in action on “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.�