Lots of Idiots Shot Fireworks at Their Drones This Independence Day

Besides being a soggy mess on the East Coast and an excuse for most of the country to day drink, this year's Fourth of July was the drone's coming out party. A video of drone footage taken in the midst of a fireworks show went viral last week and inspired dozens of idiots to recreate the experience.

We saw it all around the country—in Austin, Texas; in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; in Daytona Beach, Florida; in Atlanta, Georgia. From sea to shining sea, people were dumb, dumb, dumb. They flew their somewhat fragile hunks of spinning plastic through, around, and near explosives both amateur and more professional in nature. At least two groups of geniuses decided to strap fireworks directly to their drones, which, while imaginative and kind of badass, is probably not within the general guidelines of "safe flight."

Not everyone is completely unsafe—some keep a distance from the fireworks show (though these videos are less popular and seemingly less common than ones in which drones fly directly through a fireworks show). A particularly popular thing to do is to fly a drone in your backyard and then have your buddy shoot fireworks at it. Another popular thing to do is to post your drone fireworks video on YouTube with a soundtrack of either that Team America song or "Proud to be American."

So, without further ado, here is a far from comprehensive list of people who filmed fireworks with their drones. This list was up over 40 videos before I stopped and decided that you probably wouldn't want to see them all, so I've cut it down to showcase just the highlights.

 Perhaps unsurprisingly, none of the videos I surveyed come close to being as awesome as that first video (which was also quite unsafe), and which you can see here:

Drones strapped with fireworks:

“NO. I did NOT choose to fly my drone into a fiery inferno of anti-aircraft charges … but the results are still pretty spectacular! Just a little less explodey”:

“Shooting Fireworks at the Drone”:

“Drone in fireworks”:

Fireworks shake drone in Cleveland, Ohio:

Drone flies through fireworks:

“$10k Octocopter flies in Fireworks show!”:

Lansing, Michigan—the fireworks here actually shake the drone:

These guys shoot fireworks directly at their drone: