Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Adult Swim's gleefully nonsensical cartoon about three anthropomorphic fast-food items — a milkshake, a box of fries, and a wad of meat — sharing a house in New Jersey. It made no sense on purpose, and it accidentally shut down Boston.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force premiered with a pilot in December 2000 and became part of Adult Swim's launch lineup in September 2001. Created by Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro, it followed the loudmouth Master Shake, the sensible floating Frylock, and the childlike Meatwad, whose plots dissolved into surreal non-sequiturs alongside their long-suffering human neighbor Carl.
In January 2007, a guerrilla-marketing campaign turned it into national news: LED signs depicting the show's Mooninite characters were planted around several cities, and in Boston authorities mistook them for explosive devices, triggering a bomb-squad response that shut down roads and bridges. Turner Broadcasting apologized and paid $2 million; a movie, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, followed that April.
The show became an Adult Swim cornerstone, running through several "final" seasons and revivals for well over a decade. Its anything-goes absurdism helped define the entire late-night Adult Swim sensibility.
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