So yesterday was Thanksgiving. Fantastic. You know what else yesterday was?
The 20th anniversary of the Max Headroom TV Signal Pirate Incident. Can I get a sound effect?
*Dum dum dum*
I was alive and mostly well in 1987, and I know I watched Max Headroom, but I have absolutely no recollection of this whatsoever. Probably because I didn’t live in Chicago or watch the news back then. Thanks(giving!) to a message board post however I’ve been educated, and the following video is either going to bring back some memories or freak you the hell out. Let me give you a quick history lesson first.
We all can probably recognize Max Headroom, even if you weren’t around in those days. I couldn’t tell you what the TV show was about however because my memory of those days is in fact quite brittle. It lasted around eleven episodes and I think had something to do with cyberpunks and such, with Max as some kind of artificial intelligence on a computer monitor. Anyway, one night back on November 22nd in 1987 in Chicago during channel WGN-TV’s News at Nine, some Chicago Bear highlights were being shown. Suddenly, the picture cuts to a Max Headroom imposter in front of some kind of swirling foil background speaking some garbled words. 20 seconds later the picture cuts back to the news after they switched signals to the John Hancock Center. Dan Roan, the news station’s sports reporter, commented “Well, If you’re wondering what happened, so am I.”
It wasn’t over yet though. During an episode of Doctor Who around 11:15 PM, the signal switched again to the Max Headroom imposter except this time you could make out the words he was saying, albeit they were distorted. He makes fun of Chuck Swirsky, a Chicago radio broadcaster at the time. Then he goes on to make a reference to Pepsi (Headroom was a “spokesman” at the time). It just gets weirder as the guy rambles about a glove and WGN before the picture cuts to him with his pants down getting spanked with a fly swatter by someone and he yells “There’s coming to get me! Come get me bitch!”. The signal returns to Doctor Who some 90 seconds after the rogue video started.
If it weren’t for the fact that the guy acts like a buffoon, this would be one of the creepiest things I’ve ever seen. Seriously, imagine sitting in the dark 45 minutes to midnight watching TV by yourself when suddenly this guy in a Max Headroom mask cuts into your TV with a distorted voice rambling about stuff you can’t quite make out. The perpetrators were never found, and no similar incidents of this level have happened since in the US. I’m glad that whoever uploaded this to YouTube left a good half a minute of Dr Who on the video below before the signal cuts just so that you can understand the shock people must’ve had when this happened. I’d probably throw my remote at the TV thinking some dude like appeared in the box. Seriously.
Wiki - Max Headroom Imposter Takes Over Signal
This could possibly be NSFW due to the spanking so consider yourself forewarned.
