When the story first broke that Boston had a city-wide, large-scale bomb threat, it was understandably very serious. Then the update comes that it's a hoax, but most of the city is shut down as the hoax devices are being tracked down and removed. And you're like, jesus shit, why would somebody do that. Ah well, people are stupid all over.

Then it comes out that Cartoon Network was behind the hoax, that it's a marketing stunt. And you're like, holy crap, why would they make bombs and drop them around the city to promote the Aqua Teen movie?

Except they weren't bombs, were they? They're Lite Brites.

That's the missing bit that nobody talked about until it was too late to save Boston from a crippling scarefest and the rest of us from yet another terrorism false alarm. Remember those six minutes when we thought Al Qaeda was behind the NYC blackout?

After seeing Adult Swim apologize in tonight's bump (take that, "third party"!), I had to see what these stupid things looked like. And FOX Boston's TEAM COVERAGE did not disappoint. Here's some great screenshots if you'd rather not give them the web traffic.

This is fantastic. Mooninites! I love that some graphic artist in Boston had to make this for the evening news. Want to bet the artist is solidly inside the [as] demographic and smirking the entire time? Tell you what though, at this point it is inaccurate to call this a hoax. This was not intended to look like a bomb.

From Ignignot, To Boston, With Love.

Here's the "marketing" shlub getting arrested over the stunt. Poor sap. I can't wait to hear his company waggle between an apology and an explanation that it was just a bunch of advertising billboards.

Fun footage of the uber-dangerous Mooninite art sculpture being safely removed from the premises. This is so absurd. Somebody with huge balls should make these a hidden collectible in the next GTA game.

And what kind of town has signs for a 6 mph speed limit?

They actually blew one of them up! This whole situation is out of control and could have been avoided if anyone in the police department had spoken to any college student anywhere.

It's a Lite Bright, folks! And even a pixelized middle finger needs to be blurred. Thank you, FCC.

The Turner apology, slide 1.

Hey, wait up. These are in other cities? And have been for weeks now? I hope some forward-thinking kids in other locales went on a scavenger hunt immediately, because these babies will be pure gold on eBay.

Another great moment from a city that allowed 9/11 terrorists to board a plane. The whole thing sounds like Survivor's Guilt to me.

The real question is, if you walked past a light sculpture of a cartoon character stuck to a bridge in a major city where sillyass graffiti and starving artists have weird crap posted all over the damn place, would you assume it to be a freaking bomb? If Disney had done this with Mickey Mouse to promote whatever, would this have happened? The so-called investigation into this "hoax" should focus less on Adult Swim and more on the first moron to see a light up Mooninite and touch off a metropolitan panic.

This will certainly put the kibosh on any company's out-of-the-box advertising for a while. It's back to boring radio spots for you lot!

UPDATE: Lost Remote suggests that our nation's communal fear of witnessing a middle finger on television may have made the problem worse. Apparently images of the "bombs" were broadcast on local TV as early as noon, but stations blurred out the entire image due to the offensive gesture. Had the full Mooninite image been displayed, perhaps some 18-35 year old male (or even an entire fraternity) may have made the connection to Aqua Teen Hunger Force and placed a call before full chaos erupted.

Ah, who are we kidding. Males age 18-35 don't watch local news, and certainly not at noon.