Assuming GnomeSlice wasn’t referring to himself in the third person as the ‘friend’ who did all this:
A more direct (but boring) question would be, how do you safely remove TNT?
Answer
As of Beta 1.7, TNT can only be detonated by fire or redstone, meaning it is now possible to remove placed TNT like any other block.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Nick T , Answer Author : Jason Plank