Somewhere, Orson Welles is laughing his ass off

I don't really keep up on the news like I should. I admit that. It's a little bit embarrassing. After all, look at what I'm missing.

So this really happened yesterday? "Bomb scare" and "cartoon show" are actually being used in the same sentence throughout the news cycle?

Magnetic lights of a cartoon brat giving a middle finger shut down freeways and has city officials stating that the resources used in responding to this scare could cost $500,000?

Okay, that might a little bit embarrassing.

I really want to sit here with some indignance and say that this isn't funny. I know what happened is enough to make the Adult Swim front page get all serious. But nothing's funnier than cartoon characters flipping a middle finger. Nothing. And when you read news articles trying to explain Aqua Teen Hunger Force with sentences like, "The surreal series is about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball," you have to laugh, right?

Even the dudes who planted these things all over Boston were laughing in court today. (And the judge doesn't think there's much of a case.)

I've never even watched Aqua Teen Hunger Force, though I was frequently tempted to buy a discounted DVD set to get me through many of the boring weekends I spent in Iowa. (I also loved when Todd Field did interviews to promote Little Children, and had to answer questions about being the voice of Ol' Drippy.) But I'm pretty sure I'll now be looking for the movie when it comes out.

What have we become? And where the hell did our collective sense of humor go? This means the terrorists are winning, doesn't it?