NYC subway rider shuts down hateful ranter with the help of Willy Wonka

And now, presenting one New York City straphanger telling someone to put a sock in it — with song! Rob Maiale from Brooklyn objected to what he believes was a hateful speech on the M train. So he did what any karaoke all-star would do. He silenced the man with a childhood classic, “(I’ve Got a) Golden Ticket” from “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.”
 
Maiale spoke to Yahoo News about what made him spring into action. He said the man was asking a lesbian couple on the train how they would tell their children they were “living in sin and are going to go to hell?” Maiale said. “When he was just ranting, it was irksome, but I let it slide. When he began picking people out, and I saw how uncomfortable they were, I decided I wasn’t going to let him speak anymore.” And as for his choice of song, Maiale told us it was one of his favorite childhood songs, and that in the moment, it felt like the perfect antithesis to the messages the man was preaching. He said, “It’s a song about joy, about Grandpa Joe overcoming adversity, and of childhood innocence. Children, unless they’re taught otherwise, do not innately have hatred for others based on lifestyle, race, or religion.” As for Maiale’s newfound Internet fame, he says his cheeks hurt so much from smiling.