If you haven’t heard by now Clerks and Cop Out director Kevin Smith was asked to leave a Southwest Airlines flight last weekend. The reason, he was deemed a “safety risk”, or in Smith’s words, “too fat to fly.” That’s right, Southwest Airlines tossed “Silent Bob” off a flight. What has the world come to?
Smith has come out and said he wasn’t drinking, acting out-of-the-ordinary, or too fat to fit in the seat:
“Dear @SouthwestAir, I flew out in one seat, but right after issuing me a standby ticket, Oakland Southwest attendant Suzanne (wouldn’t give last name) told me Captain Leysath deemed me a “safety risk”. Again: I’m way fat… But I’m not THERE just yet. But if I am, why wait til my bag is up, and I’m seated WITH ARM RESTS DOWN. In front of a packed plane with a bunch of folks who’d already I.d.ed me as ‘Silent Bob.’”
Armrests securely down, he was all prepared to leave (with his bag stowed no less) when the Captain asked that he be removed. Granted, anything could have happened on that flight, but the fact Southwest Airlines tried to issue him a $100 voucher in response (which he refused) doesn’t help their case.
All that said, a number of people have come to Smith’s defense, including Marvel’s own Stan Lee. Speaking via Twitter, Lee made a few remarks in support of Smith’s case:
@smilinstanlee: The only way Kevin could look really fat would be if he packed his pockets with cards bearing the names of each of his 1,600,000 followers!
@smilinstanlee: Maybe us thin guys who don’t take up the whole seat on a plane should ask for a discount! It ought’a work both ways!
While humorous, Lee’s remarks note one very important thing; Smith has over a million followers on Twitter. Sure, there could be a lot of spam accounts in there but let’s assume even half (I’m sure there are more than that) are real people. 500,000 or so individuals following, listening and generally waiting for Smith to say something.
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