The 'creepiest TV hacking in history' still remains unsolved
Topics: Film and TV, US News
Anish Vij
Featured Image Credit: WGN-TV
Topics: Film and TV, US News
The 'creepiest TV hacking in history' took place in 1987 and it still remains unsolved.
WGN-TV and WTTW are two Chicago TV stations which had their broadcast signals hijacked by an unknown person wearing a Max Headroom mask and sunglasses.
The bizarre incident took place twice within just three hours.
Watch below:
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On November 22 1987, the TV pirate hacked into WGN-TV of Chicago, Illinois, to interrupt the broadcast.
Their words made pretty much no sense and the first broadcast lasted just 30 seconds before engineers reportedly managed to cut the frequency.
However, the hacker switched onto the WTTW channel two hours later, and this time spent 90 seconds chatting utter waffle.
There were apparently no engineers managing the station at this time and the TV channel was left helpless for nearly two minutes.
The bizarre transcript reads: "Because he's a fricking nerd. Yeah, I think I'm better than Chuck Swirsky. Fricking liberal. Oh, Jesus.
"Catch the wave! Your love is fading.
"I still see the X. My piles.
"Oh, I just made a giant masterpiece for all the Greatest World. Newspaper nerds.
"My brother is wearing the other one, but it's dirty.
"Oh, no, they're coming to get me."
This is when it gets even weirder.
The masked person then shows his bare bottom to the camera, and a random woman then enters the fold and slaps his bum with a fly swatter.
She tells Max Headroom to 'Bend over, b**ch!'
Max says: "Ahh! Oh, make it stop!" before the broadcast cuts off and returns to Doctor Who.
At the time, many people, including the FCC, thought the hijackers could have been be an ex employee with a grudge against the station.
But because they hacked a second broadcast on a separate TV channel - that idea might not follow up.
Perhaps the hijackers didn't have a choice to switch channels, which might explain why they turned their attention to WTTW.
Despite the various theories floating around the internet, the perpetrators were never found.
Commenting on the infamous footage, one person thought: "I like that the dude just hijacked one of the biggest television stations, said the most random s**t, and just dipped never to be seen again. What a legend!"
A second person commented: "He could have pretended the world was going to end or that we were being invaded by aliens but no. Instead he showed us his bare ass being slapped by someone with a fly swatter. What a legend."
Another added: "Watched it live, it was a defining memory in my childhood. Probably the funniest most random thing I ever saw come across my TV."