Airline Humor
Sunday, December 16th, 2007Need a giggle–if even of the rueful, “I’ve been there” sort? Delta has introduced a series of videos it calls “Planeguage,” which it describes as “the languge of traveling by plane.” Most of the videos–which are being shown aboard its flights–are themed to the rude and thoughtless things are fellow passengers do: the guy in the middle who takes over both armrests, the people who let their kids run wild, etc. They are definitely not mini-lectures; there’s no message as to what the proper behavior should be. I guess they hope that people will get the peer-pressure message.
There are 25 videos so far, I’m told, five of which can be seen on Delta’s blog. I found that they are faster and easier to view directly on the YouTube site here.
The five so far are Miracle on 34th Row, which is holiday-themed; the aforementioned Middleman and Kidtastrophe; Shady Lady, which is about people occupying window seats who open–or close –the window shades at inappropriate moments; and my favorite, Lav Dance. It opens in a disco, it seems, with a woman trying to make her way through a lively, gyrating crowd; as she emerges, you can see that she’s managed to extricate herself from the line waiting to use the airplane lav.
The funniest bits are at the very beginning, I think; over the opening titles, the captain is making an announcement or chatting to his co-pilot. “This is your captain speaking” becomes “This IS your CAP-tain SING-ing.” “Does anybody know what Japan looks like from the air?”
Oh, did I mention that they are animated? The animation is pretty good. Delta’s blog says the purpose of the videos is so that passengers will “find some humor in the experiences we’ve all shared.” They’re clever little ironic slices of life; check ‘em out!
–Mary Hunt, editor, eFlyer
