Fat People on Planes Entertain, Yet Again
Posted on 16. Feb, 2010 by Administrator in News
By Mark Cartier
Kevin Smith, noted film director, was recently kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to Burbank… for being too fat.
The resulting Twitter war has sucked me in just at a time when I had conspired to give up on Twitter as a conquered property of teenage jagoffs. Proving itself useful again, Mr. Smith’s back and forth with @SouthwestAir is the single reason I re-purchased the twitter app for my iPhone that so recently had been mothballed as a useless tool of children and out of touch politicians.
As interesting as the entire mishandled debacle is, I find my self increasingly amused by posts like this: “Kevin Smith got himself kicked off a plane because he’s too fat. That’s the funniest thing he’s done since… ever.”
It’s Tweets like this that have reminded me- Twitter gives the little man a voice… albeit a drowned-out and typically idiotic voice, but a voice non-the-less.
I have a special place in my heart for Kevin Smith, after all, he directed Zach and Miri Make a Porno. Which is brilliant. His ability to mine this otherwise dropped-at-annoying event is a tribute to his smarts… I see years of free flying in his future. I’ve also enjoyed the several tweets of recent challenging Southwest to bring the row of seats he was kicked out of to the set of The Daily Show so this giant mishandled FAIL can be settled once and for all. He’s even offered to pay $10K to the charity of Southwest’s choosing if he is in fact too fat.
To me, this is less a story about a completely justified Kevin Smith lashing out and challenging Southwest Airlines for its humorous policy of throwing fat people off airplanes (even after said fat people have seated and belted), so much as it’s a story about the near-forgotten usefulness of Twitter. “Forgotten!?” Yes. Forgotten. I challenge you to name a single peer you have who has read a single Tweet in the four months prior to Fat-gate. I can think of none. In fact, most of my friends who know the gritty details of Fat-gate got their information from other sources, all of which cite Twitter as a source of content. These sources have armies of Twitter reading interns or research assistants so that we no longer need to waste our time. It’s too bad there’s not a TwitterPro… a Twitter that has been edited down to display only interesting crap, instead of @douchecleveland’s rants about whatever the hell people in Cleveland rant about. TwitterPro could start with this article.
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11 Responses to “Fat People on Planes Entertain, Yet Again”
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David L
16. Feb, 2010
I am sorry…. didn’t he break a toilet he was so fat?
Why is being fat acceptable in the US. Fat people cost the rest of us money. Yes in passing along jet fuel costs and broken toilets but also in thousands of other areas.. Like health care, fat people have much worse health and we all pay for that. We could save alot of money trimming the fat. Lets start with the kids… Go Michelle Obama!
Borat
26. Oct, 2010
And Boo her bummy hubby for passing a bill that removes basically removes all the financial incentive to be a normal weight.
Charlie Gordon
16. Feb, 2010
Another whine-bag porker who got his fat feelings hurt because he couldn’t fit in a seat and wanted to plop his fat ass into somebody’s lap. I say toss his fat ass off the plane along with crying kids and people who don’t know how to bath. By the way, if he is such a hot shot Hollywood director, why was he flying standby? You get what you pay for and in this case he got a cheap fare and the heave-ho. Good, you fat tub of guts.
Lavid
16. Feb, 2010
Fat is the last thing it’s cool to express hate about. I think this is far deeper than it is funny. It clearly separates those with compassion from those who don’t, much like the political spectrum.
Bottom line, we vote with our pocketbooks in these situations. There are a lot of deeper issues than just the fat one. Smith brings up the disappearance of customer service, common decency and the rights of travellers disappearing in this post-9/11 world.
To get it you should hear Smodcast. Otherwise it’s heresay and you’re missing the point. As usual, the details are far more heartbreaking, meaningful and at the same time, hilarious than what get ratings for the base-level mainstream media.
Mark
16. Feb, 2010
I like this comment. Thank you.
janine
16. Feb, 2010
Considering that this blog post isn’t a referendum on fatness at all, I should have been surprised to read the first two comments. But sadly, as Mr. Cartier points out, these electronic forums give everyone a voice -even the sheep who glom onto any mainstream opinion just for the meager comfort it provides.
Smith is just a smart self-promoter, using twitter to make light of a stupid event orchestrated by a stupid company, and make a little profit for himself.
Linda
16. Feb, 2010
The average person would have walked away in humiliation!
At least Kevin Smith’s situation has put a spot light on this unfortunate AMERICAN problem of obesity.
mike
17. Feb, 2010
It must be nice to be famous and get a bunch of people to have your back when you have a customer service gripe. It’s like using the whole internet to push zero to speak to a representative. AT&T has screwed me over like 8 times…anyone wanna help me out with that?
Bilbo
17. Feb, 2010
So true. Twitter is uselessly useful. Or usefully useless? Either way.
janine
18. Feb, 2010
Hey Mike I’m with you. We need a fat celebrity to champion our cause!
Niko
18. Feb, 2010
I was really surprised that this actually happens on airlines (kicking people off for their weight). If weight is such an issue to airlines, why isn’t there a disclaimer or verification of weight before a ticket is booked? Maybe a charge for every excess of 50 pounds like they do with luggage. Wouldn’t that be pleasant addition to the multitude of humiliations the airlines put us through. It’s unfortunate that it had to happen to anyone, but for someone like Kevin Smith- I’m glad that he was able to use something like Twitter to express the ridiculousness of the situation.