The Westboro Baptist Church has established a reputation as being a place known for its hate speech. It seems like any event that has any pro LGBT stance in or around the Kansas area will bring them out with protesting signs, the most famous and infamous was the funeral for Matthew Sherpard. The group was ready to protest a recent concert from the Foo Fighters, probably due to their viral video from 2011 that was homo-erotic in nature. The Foo Fighters decided that they were going to protest the Westboro Baptist Church with a rickroll.
According to CNN, the Foo Fighters took to the streets outside the Westboro Baptist church, as lead singer Dave Grohl and company showed up in a pick up truck and "rickrolled" them. If you are not familiar with "rickrolling", it is an Internet meme that is a bait and switch, where you click on something only to be given a video of Rick Astley's video from 1987 of "Never Gonna Give You Up".
The Foo Fighters actions are a response to a recent Foo Fighters concert in Kansas City, Missouri after the Westboro Baptist Church set up a protest with the usual inflammatory signs and chants. In addition to the "rickrolling", the Foo Fighters also had signs saying "keep it clean". Of course, the video of them doing this has been made very popular online, with many applauding the group for essentially protesting against the infamous protestors.
Apparently, the Foo Fighters have counter protested the church before, as Dave Grohl apparently serenaded them in 2011 outside the same venue. The Foo Fighters essentially made a fake gay porn video back in 2011, which was done as a viral marketing campaign to promote their North American tour. The video is the band naked in a truck stop shower, and I would imagine that is part of the anger roused against them from the Westboro Baptist Church.
Considering that the Westboro Baptist Church has a reputation of hate, most of the world was probably glad to see the Foo Fighters give a protest that is non-violent. It is pretty ironic that the Foo Fighters are telling the Westboro Baptist Church to "keep it clean". A lot of what the Westboro Baptist Church talks about is often downright deplorable, and one of their sites is called GodHatesFags.com.
As fun as it is to see the Westboro Baptist Church and the Foo Fighters clash like this, there are some serious issues that spectators should be thinking about. Personally, it could be seen as a clash of extremes. It is clear that the Westboro Baptist Church is taking very severe interpretations of Bible verses, and applying them in a way that is just plain bad taste. Much of what I know about Foo Fighters is that they are a rock band, and they usually have a reputation of having very libertine morals as well as other expected character flaws.
The issue is I don't think that Foo Fighters are the opposite extreme of the Westboro Baptist Church, but hopefully those who have heard of this feud between these two parties will evaluate their own views.
