Voice Actor Shuts Down Subway 'Preacher' by Belting Willy Wonka Tune (VIDEO)

Listen to Rob Maiale sing down a street minister's homophobic rant

One way to shut down hate? Why, belting out a show tune of course.

That’s exactly what Brooklyn copywriter and voice actor Rob Maiale did Wednesday as he rode the subway in New York City.

As a street preacher railed loudly to commuters inside his subway car, Maiale opened up with his best version of “I’ve Got a Golden Ticket,” from the film and stage version of the Willy Wonka-inspired Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

“I was riding the M train on my way to work when this guy (who I’ve seen haranguing riders before) preaching to passengers. At first, he was going on about people having sex outside of wedlock, okay fine,” Maiale told Gothamist.

“Next he began denouncing same-sex relationships … unpopular opinion and a bit irritating, but again, First Amendment. I didn’t say anything. Once his ‘preaching’ shifted from an audience to an individual (a lesbian couple with a child) I decided that this guy wasn’t going to get to talk anymore,” Maiale added, calling his unusual song choice “equally absurd and joyful.”

Maiale capped off his impromptu performance by hoisting himself from the car’s pole and clicking his heels in the air to the delight of straphangers watching along.

It wasn’t the first time this subway preacher got called out for his homophobic conduct. In November, Orange is The New Black‘s Lea DeLaria shut down the same heckler with her own solid rant.

“This is not why America’s in trouble,” DeLaria, an openly gay stand-up comic, told him in an exchange caught on video. “Religious fanatics are the reason America’s in trouble. You are the reason America’s in trouble.”

She added as the man finally left her train: “Thank God and notice I thanked God.”