Kevin Smith’s most famous role is a guy who rarely speaks. But he’s got a lot to say – much of it profane – after being kicked off a Southwest Air flight because he didn’t fit comfortably into the seat. “You [messed] with the wrong sedentary processed-foods eater!” Smith, whose next film, Cop Out, comes out Feb. 26, posted on Twitter.
Smith, 39, originally purchased two tickets “as he’s been known to do when traveling Southwest,” the airline noted, but when he decided to fly standby on an earlier flight, only one seat remained. Although he had been seated, he was asked to leave. Smith, who played Silent Bob in his Clerks movies and who has battled his weight for years – “I know I’m fat,” he confesses – was given a $100 voucher and arrived in Burbank on a later flight. But he was in no mood to accept an apology.
“I broke no regulation, offered no ‘safety risk’ (what, was I gonna roll on a fellow passenger?)” he Tweeted. “I saw someone bigger than me on THAT flight! But I wasn’t about to throw a fellow Fatty under the plane as I’m being profiled. But he & I made eye contact, & he was like ‘Please don’t tell…’” Smith added that while the ordeal was embarrassing, his “Jersey Girl training” (the 2004 flop starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez) was helping him cope.
Well, at least he didn’t pull the “don’t you know who I am” routine. And please…no “Silent Blob” jokes.
Last I saw recent pictures of him he didn’t look THAT fat. I know he is over-weight, but I always assumed they only kicked out the really big people.
Kevin Smith is a cool guy who makes great movies. He is also a gigantic fat tub of lard and I would be very pissed off if he was sitting next to me on a flight.
You see, when fat people sit next to you, they take 100% of their seat as well as about 10-20% ofyour seat.
So, nothing against Mr. Smith or other fat people but I just don’t have any seat real estate I’m willing to give away.
#1 He’s not THAT fat, it’s that the seats are made for Japanese woman from the 1930′s. I’m 6’1″ and 175lbs. Most folks call me thin or skinny and MY shoulders can not fit “inside” one Southwest seat, I stick into one side or the other unless you kinda sit sideways a little. It’s a RIDICULOUS joke. True Americans and bigger (fatter) now than in the past, but it works the other way as well, the seats smaller (used to be 34″+ inches wide in coach, now 31″ or smaller).
I am much bigger than Kevin Smith. I fly regularly and have never bought (or been asked to buy) a second seat. I think there is way more to this story than we are seeing here.
@Glass Half Full… I know exactly what you mean… I’m 6′ 7″ and around 240 lbs. I’m certainly not obese but as a “big” buy there’s absolutely no way my shoulders fit within the confines of a single coach seat. Whenever I fly SWA I buy 2 seats just to be safe. If the flight isn’t oversold they’ll give you a refund on the 2nd seat.
Obviously he is big enough because he routinely buys two seats. But then again, we always knew he was a foul mouth hot head. He is the one coming off looking like the douche bag here.
Maybe the flight attendants didn’t much care for his movies.
Or even more likely, they mistook him for Michael Moore.
The real tragedy is that they let Michael Moore fly at all.
Why is he flying coach?
Is this really a story? The guy obviously knows he needs two seats but tried to fit in only one, anyway.
The best flight I ever had was when I sat next to a 90 pound japanese girl. I had plenty of arm and legroom.
Check out the SouthWest blog. He usually buys two seats but was trying to get on an earlier flight on standby where only one seat was available.
No Kevin is NOT the douchebag here. The problem is that the airlines are giving NO quarter for this seating problem. No extra seats, no reservations for customers wanting propietary seating (wider seats reserved for special customers), no planes for special customers, no nothing. Every flight has at least 1 person with a seating problem on it (certainly every flight I’m on because I’m the guy). They can’t reserve ONE LOUSY FUCKING SEAT on each plane? What do they lose with the larger seat? 8%? Charge 10% more for it, I’LL PAY FOR IT!!!! But no, that would represent an administrative problem or a management problem or a minor engineering problem. All of which costs money so it’s left out of the plans. Meanwhile all the airlines are losing money, as opposed to the old days when customers were given basic amenities, and the airlines charged properly for the seats, and made money. GAH! America isn’t going down the tubes because so many of us weigh more than we should; we’re going down because there isn’t a brain between each person in charge of such things; particularly the elected ones in Washington. ALL the problems have solutions; we merely need to apply them. THAT’s the shame of it all.
there is ONLY COACH on Southwest, and often the stews are a surly lot, (pms often?)
He doesn’t look that big. I’d WAGER that Southwest didn’t want to lose the $$$ on that second seat. “Oh wait, he’ll just start buying ONE ticket, if we let him fly on just a single seat.”
BTW, doesn’t mean he’s that FAT, means that when the prices are LOW (meaning a sale) that he, along with multitudes of others, buy two tickets for more comfort. Nice to have no- one next to you….especially on the no frills southwest flight. Worst ever..having a guy with a salami sandwich next to me….and kept leaning towards the window (I was in the middle seat) so he could see where we were. Yuck. Wished I’d bought two tickets….
#10 Did you even read the article at all?
The elites seem worked up about ego lately. Maybe he has a big fat ego.
The Ego acts according to the reality principle; i.e. it seeks to please the id’s drive in realistic ways that will benefit in the long term rather than bringing grief.
Airlines are grief factories. Busted pensions, lousy stock performance and high costs. Explore the fat fraud called OPEC and use your ego.
What was the line from the original Hairspray flick?
“Fatty fatty two-by-four,
Can’t get through the dressing room door?!”
If you can’t pass through the airliner door, THEN you should be denied a seat, not otherwise. (And the airliners should install fatty seats too.)
#13, they airlines want you to buy 2 seats, or better yet get you to pay for a business class seat. Its all about money. Coach is little more then the equivalent of a cattle car. I imagine seats will completely disappear from some flights in favor of some type of standing option.
http://www.stopbuyingcrap.com/customer-service/standing-seats-in-airplane/
I’m all for the armrest test, and I’m glad Southwest has taken an interest in seat encroachment, as I really have no interest in sharing my seat with another passenger. In this case, Smith says he was seated and the armrests were down, so that should have been the end of the story. Probably a blown judgment call, tainted by the fact that he usually buys two seats. Or maybe he really doesn’t fit a into a single seat. Short of being on a plane with him, who knows.
Silent Bob needs Jay to roll a fat chronic blunt and start another movie adventure. I can imagine Jay rappin’ f_ck the airlines (as opposed to NWA’s f_ck da police). Suddenly they’re surrounded by TSA agents and, they’re tazering the two of them till they crap themselves.
My take on it, or first class, or business class. If you want to go cheap, expect to be piled up like cord wood.