Last week, the Westboro Baptist Church (which is choosing increasingly random and bizarre protest targets, including a Swedish vacuum cleaner store) decided to picket a Foo Fighters concert in Kansas City, Missouri. As is their usual strategy, they were no doubt hoping to provoke police or counterprotesters into assaulting them or otherwise violating their constitutional rights, so that they can win a legal settlement to support their continued spreading of hate.
But instead, the WBC was on the receiving end of a hilarious counterprotest. The Foo Fighters themselves came out, dressed up in hillbilly costumes, and put on an impromptu concert on the back of a flatbed truck, singing the song “Hot Buns” (sample lyrics: “Think I’m in the mood for some hot man muffins”, which is inexplicably bleeped in the video). Watch it below:
If you watch the video, pay particular attention around 1:20. I think even some of the Westboro Baptist picketers couldn’t help cracking smiles!
Like many fundamentalist groups who hunger for persecution, the WBC thrives on being hated; they’ve come to expect it and feel validated when it occurs. That’s precisely why we shouldn’t give them what they want, and should instead treat them with laughter and mockery.
That’s a response that fundamentalists can’t easily tolerate, and the Foo Fighters did the exact right thing – which is one more reason to love them. I already listen to them all the time when I’m at the gym or running, and hearing them mock Fred Phelps is just the icing on the cake. Here’s one of my favorites from their latest album Wasting Light: