Boston To Be Annexed By Moon

David Weigel | April 11, 2007

In February, reeling from the Aqua Teen Hunger Force kerfuffle, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said/mumbled this:

I’m not saying we are banning the [Aqua Teen Hunger Force] movie, because I can’t ban it, but out of respect to the people of Boston, I am going to ask local movie theater executives in the city not to show it. They are not deserving of our respect, or to make one penny from their movie here.

Well, the movie's opening on Friday in Boston, just like it's opening in the cities that lacked Brave Sir Robin-like leadership during the movie's promotional campaign.

The two men who posted the boards still face felony hoax charges; Cartoon Network’s parent company, Turner Broadcasting, and its marketing firm agreed to pay $2 million in restitution to city and state agencies that responded to the terror alert.

With the movie opening looming, the official response from those agencies - including the Massachusetts State Police, Boston Police Department and the attorney general’s office - was “no comment.”

Menino's probably lucky that he doesn't have to follow regulations on the Moon, where nerds get their pants pulled down and are spanked with Moon rocks.

I called bull on the mayor after the scandal happened.

Comments

|4.11.07 @ 1:26PM|#

Menino '08: Get the hell off my lawn!



He's a good mayor in a lot of ways, but his response to this episode is...well...exactly what a "viral marketing" agent dreams about.

ATHF's marketing agents should work clips of him into the teevee spots.

|4.11.07 @ 1:26PM|#

morono-fascism

|4.11.07 @ 1:31PM|#

Amen!

stephen the goldberger|4.11.07 @ 1:32PM|#

wow what a jackass

|4.11.07 @ 1:41PM|#

I am going to ask local movie theater executives in the city not to show it.

And of course, if they do, the Health Department will probably be making a visit...

|4.11.07 @ 1:43PM|#

Putting small electronic signs around the city is a sign of love and trust...

|4.11.07 @ 1:46PM|#

It's always better to avoid the movie than to actually see what all the hubbub was about.

|4.11.07 @ 1:51PM|#

I thought "Banned in Boston" referred to obscenity.

|4.11.07 @ 1:51PM|#

There's armed robberies on the street during daylight hours in my Boston neighborhood and this F*&%er is worried about this! In addition, why would he want to bring this up in the press again? I guess he wanted to make sure everyone remembered how stupid he and his cops are.

|4.11.07 @ 1:53PM|#

I'd forgotten about this. It's nice the mayor reminded me of it so I could have another laugh at Boston's expense.

|4.11.07 @ 2:07PM|#

In addition, why would he want to bring this up in the press again?

Who said he did? As the post stated, the referenced article is from February (2/2 actually).

|4.11.07 @ 2:34PM|#

I think if you replaced Menino with some geeky kid making decisions with D&D dice, we in the Boston metropolitan area would be better off.

Sorry, I get cranky around April 19th.

M|4.11.07 @ 3:12PM|#

Yet again: I don't enjoy popular culture, but the government's actions in this case make me want to embrace it a bit. However, I won't, because then the terrorists will have won.

|4.11.07 @ 3:14PM|#

tarran,

I take it as a given, that geeky polyhedron packing kids would be an improvement over all public officials.

Hell, I'd rather have those two, 70's hair style aficionado, pseudoterrorists in charge. I hope they get a walk. Better still, I hope they get to make a movie.

B|4.11.07 @ 3:28PM|#

Hey Menino! I hope you can see this, because I'm doing it as hard as I can.

|4.11.07 @ 3:46PM|#

The ultimate in viral marketing would be to get one of those two elected mayor of Boston. Double bonus points if they are convicted and then elected.

Pete Guither|4.11.07 @ 4:04PM|#

Boston seems to have a history of stupidity in Mayors. Back in the 80's, I was working for a theatrical producer, and we were putting together a production of Christopher Durang's "Sister Mary Ignatius..." (a play lampooning past idiosyncrasies of the Catholic Church) for a run in Boston. We were worried about getting enough audience/length of run to pay off the production costs. Mayor Raymond Flynn tried to have the show banned, which was sufficient to give us an 8 month hugely successful run that paid off handsomely.

lunchstealer|4.11.07 @ 4:50PM|#

The ultimate in viral marketing would be to get one of those two elected mayor of Boston. Double bonus points if they are convicted and then elected.

Triple word score if they get elected while serving their sentence.

thoreau|4.11.07 @ 4:57PM|#

The ultimate in viral marketing would be to get one of those two elected mayor of Boston.

I can only imagine what the campaign advertising would be like...

|4.11.07 @ 5:25PM|#

The Boston PD should blow up all the prints of the movie when they are delivered to the theaters; just to be on the safe side.

Quiet Desperation|4.12.07 @ 1:43AM|#

>>> The Boston PD should blow up all the prints of the movie
>>> when they are delivered to the theaters; just to be on the
>>> safe side.

Not good enough. I say we take off and nuke the entire city from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

|4.12.07 @ 3:23AM|#

For some reason, this reminds me of the part in Space Balls where Lord Helmet is watching the video of himself crashing in to dashboard when they pull the emergency brake. Except that instead of "Never show this part again", Menino keeps showing it over and over.