The Max Headroom incident was a television hijacking that occurred on the night of November 22, 1987. That night, two TV signals of two stations in Chicago, Illinois were interrupted by a man cosplaying as Max Headroom, a fictional British character, complete with his moving backdrop. The first hijacking happened during a sports segment of WGN-TV's newscast, while the second hijacking happened on WTTW during an airing of Doctor Who. To this day, the person behind the pirate broadcast has not been identified.
Hijacking[]
We see a man wearing a Max Headroom mask while saying and doing things such as moving his head out of the camera, throwing a beverage can on the floor and grabbing/tossing a garden glove over a moving background that looks like a tin wall. At the end, we see him pulling a face to a lady. He then moves his head to reveal that he has some of his pants down. The lady then smacks his butt with a fly swatter 11 times and the man screams.
Music/Sounds[]
- WGN version: Distorted wave sounds with buzzing.
- WTTW version: A heavily distorted voice, which is very hard to describe what he's saying without the subtitles, along with accompanying sounds (such as the can thudding).
Scare Factor[]
- Medium to nightmare for the WTTW version, because of the overly strange stuff and the eerie sounds/voice and constant movements. Though some unaffected by it may even find it funny or be straight-up confused.
- Low to high for the WGN variant, as the sudden appearance of the man will unsettle some, but the absence of the man's voice, subject matter and sounds make it somewhat tamer.
Trivia[]
- This is another mysterious television hijacking, along with the Wyoming Incident. However, it actually did happen with proof, which can be seen below.