Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - He Terrorized an Entire City - The Mooninites Boston Panic Story

Episode Date: January 8, 2026

In January 2007, a guerrilla marketing campaign for the Adult Swim show Aqua Teen Hunger Force triggered a widespread public panic in and around Boston when LED light boards depicting the show’s Mooninite characters were mistaken for explosive devices.

Do you remember when that cartoon marketing campaign sent an entire city into panic mode because people thought terrorists were placing bombs everywhere? Now this story starts with this guy, his name Zebler. And Zeppler is 27 during this time and he's living in Boston and he works as a freelance artist. But one day, around 2006, 2007, he gets a message from this guy, John. And John works for a marketing company in New York that has been hired to promote a movie. The movie he's going to promote is based on a TV show titled Aquatine Hunger Force. You know, that cartoon about a box of fries, a milkshake, and a talking meatball.

I get it. I don't like it, but I get it. Now, it's John and his company's job to come up with a promotional campaign for this movie. And instead of running a bunch of normal ads on TV or whatever, John and his company, they want to try something different. They want to do something a little offbeat and confusing, something that can create. a lot of buzz. So they come up with this idea to make LED boxes of one of the show's characters called the Muna Nites. Here's one of them here flipping the middle finger. Once they make these LED boxes, their plan is to place the signs in random places within major

cities across the country. And that is exactly what they do. They start placing them in nine different cities, including Los Angeles and Chicago. But then it's time to place them in Boston. So John tells Zebler that he has about 40 of these blinking Muna night signs and he wants him to install them in certain spots around the city. And for this gig, he offers to pay Zebler $300. And Zeppeler's like, sweet. I guess he needs the money. But he figures that he can't hang 40 signs all by himself, so he asks his friend to help him. His friend is this guy, Sean. And so Sean hears this idea and he's also like sweet so Zebler and Sean they go and pick up the signs and together they set the whole thing up and they put in all the batteries and they wire the LED boxes properly and

whatnot once they're done they head out and they start placing the 40 LED boxes all across Boston they put them on the subway on bridges on highways basically they put them anywhere where a lot of people will pass so that a lot of people will see them so after how long they end up finishing the job and they're done. And several days go by. And it's hard to say if their ad campaign is working because, you know, there's no news, there's no buzz around these light boxes. It's almost like no one really notices them. So these guys are starting to think that maybe the whole ad campaign failed. But then things start to get out of control. Because at one point a random pedestrian is at a local subway station and he sees one of the boxes. And this guy is thinking, what the hell is that? I mean, he doesn't know what it means. I guess he's never seen the show. But he sees that there are batteries and some electrical wiring connected to this thing.

And he immediately becomes suspicious. Why is there an 8-bit character hanging on the wall? Why is he flipping the middle finger? Why is there wires connected to it? Is this some sort of bomb? So this dude starts freaking out a little, and he alerts the police at the local police station. And soon an officer arrives and he sees it and he doesn't know what the hell it is either.

He's thinking it could possibly be a bomb. So this officer calls the bomb squad and he tells them that they need to come check this thing out because it might be an explosive or something. And so the bomb squad hears this and they take it seriously. And pretty quickly the bomb squad unit is on their way. And once they arrive, they start looking at this Munaite light and they also don't know what the hell it is. But when they see all the batteries and the electrical wiring, they conclude that it's an IED or an improvised explosive device.

So they begin treating it like an actual bomb. So as a precaution, they start evacuating people out of the area, just in case this alleged bomb goes off. Then they start trying to secure this device. And eventually, they use some sort of water cannon to break it apart. I guess that's how they break apart bombs, just water cannon. after that, they're able to determine that this Munaite light box is not actually an explosive device and is in fact safe, but they still can't figure out exactly what it is. Now, here's where things start to escalate.

Around this time, more citizens spot these light boxes in different areas around the city. Because remember, there are 40 of them. And these things are on highways and in subways and on overpasses and all kinds of places. So a lot of people see them and call them into the police as well. So the police dispatch more bomb squad units to those locations too. And by now, word has spread to the local news and the local news is covering this and reporting that there's a possible bomb threat in Boston. So the city starts shutting down. They shut down several roads and a highway and part of a local river is shut down for passing boats.

Because a lot of people are legitimately worried. Meanwhile, Zebler, he's in his apartment, and he hears about all this on the news. And he's like, a bomb? I gotta go check it out. So he takes his camera and he decides to go film whatever's going on. And when he gets to the scene of one of those alleged bombs, he realizes that they aren't actually bombs. They're the Munaite LED boxes that he himself put up. So he rushes back to his apartment and he calls John. John, the guy who's actually in charge of the ad campaign.

And he tells him, you know, people think your light boxes are actually bombs. And John's like, okay, don't say anything. We'll take care of it. Here's the thing, though. John and his company, they don't actually take care of it. They don't say anything immediately. I'm not sure why they didn't speak up right away. It would have helped a lot.

And hours go by. And still, the police and the city are in full panic mode. And still, the officers involved can't identify the devices or who even put them there. And it's starting to feel like Boston is under some kind of coordinated terrorist attack. Until... Until... Until a younger police officer working at one of the scenes,

seized the signs, and he's like, wait, is this from Aquitaine Hunger Force? And he figures out that all of this is just a marketing stunt gone wrong. And he tells the rest of the department, and so the entire emergency mobilization gets called. off. Later, Turner Broadcasting, the parent company of Cartoon Network that hired the advertising company, releases a statement apologizing for the confusion. However, at this point, it's too late. The Boston police and the city government are really pissed off. Like, really pissed off. In a post-9-11 world, who puts cartoon characters attached to batteries on bridges around Boston,

some sort of moron? And so, police tracked down Zebler and Sean, and bam, they arrest them both. And they are both charged with placing hoax devices in a way that caused public panic, along with one count of disorderly conduct. And they both end up pleading not guilty. And by the way, these two guys, they don't seem to be taking this whole thing seriously at all. Like they figure, since the city wants to overreact and treat them like terrorists, that they're just going to treat the whole situation like it's one big joke. So during a press conference, after a court session when reporters ask them about the incident, they completely dodged the question. And instead, they start talking about their hair and like haircuts. What we really want to talk about today,

it's kind of important to some people. It's, uh, haircuts in the 70s. These guys are not taking a seat. Yeah, I really, I really feel like we're not getting the feedback that we. Now, eventually, both these guys, they take plea deals and they are both sentenced to community service. And later, the advertising company and Turner Brum, Broadcasting agree to pay the city of Boston $2 million to avoid civil and criminal charges. But not long after that, the CEO of Cartoon Network has to take responsibility for the incident, and he actually has to resign. Like the dude resigned over this stupid thing.