Look, I know we all have bad days and Will Smith has apologized for his outburst at the Oscars last night that included slapping Chris Rock in the face…but his behavior (and the audience’s reaction) should be a concern to flight attendants.
Flight Attendants Would Be Wise To Fear Will Smith
Although Will Smith and his wife are estimated to have a net worth over $320 million, the couple does not own a private jet. While Smith has certainly chartered his fair share of private jets, but has also been sighted over the years in premium cabins of commercial airlines.
In 2011, Smith refused to board an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin (DUB) to Manchester (MAN) because it only had economy class seats. He chartered a jet instead (he’d hate “business class” within Europe…).
Last night at the Oscars, Smith slapped emcee Chris Rock after the comedian made a joke about the “GI Jane” haircut of Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Call it what you want, but Smith’s behavior was wildly inappropriate and demonstrates either an incredible sense of entitlement, a lack of self control, or both.
And in this era of heightened tensions onboard aircraft and numerous instances of flight attendant abuse, I have to posit that his behavior should concern flights attendants. First, for Smith himself. Tempers are much more likely to flare inside closed metal tubes in which passengers are in close proximity to one another. If Smith cannot control himself with the entire world watching, what’s to stop him from getting upset on a flight?
But second, flight attendants should be concerned over the audience reaction to Smith. Don’t overlook that he was showered with a standing ovation minutes after the incident. Again, to err is human and he apologized for his conduct. It doesn’t change what we all saw.
Kudos to his wife Jada for simply rolling her eyes. Smith initially laughed before becoming visibly upset and yelling out an obscenity directed toward Rock.
Goodness, I’ve flown with my fair share of celebrities but am not sure I’d want to fly with Smith if a bad joke results in being cursed out and then slapped.
Imagine a flight attendant who doesn’t have the drink or meal he wants? That could turn ugly, couldn’t it?
CONCLUSION
I don’t watch award programs, but the whole world watched that slap (or a replay of it) last night. Smith’s conduct was bad and I’d be quite fearful, if I were a flight attendant, to serve him on a flight…
image: Dick Thomas Johnson
Matt, was the purpose of this post for search engine optimization by using a topic that is trending?
I mean, actual relevant topics are boring, right? Like how Denmark and Sweden will be completely covid restriction free this week? Boring stuff. Let’s see what’s trending on the mainstream media instead!
Agreed.
I would be more afraid to serve proud boys or most of the “peaceful protestors” (read – rioters) at the Capitol on 1/6/21 then Smith. But that doesn’t warrant writing an inflammatory blog post about how a profession of people should be afraid of someone…. This post draws illogical conclusions and quite frankly is racist – IMO. Smith has no history of attacking FAs or threatening them.
I agree he actions were beyond inappropriate and quite frankly criminal – but that doesn’t mean that FAs should be afraid of him.
Racist? You have got to be kidding me…
These far left lunatics just keep proving me right everyday with their comments. Everything is “racist” to them and they ruined the word with their lack of understanding what real racism is. And it’s certainly not something to be thrown around like they do.
I have to say Matt, you are attracting a bunch of liberal elites out of touch with the world around them. I guess thinking they are elite while flying in First Class has made them think they are special. Maybe they are the ones that need a light slap in the face to wake up and see how the rest of the country feels about it’s current direction.
LMAO! Nobody is proving you right about anything. You latch onto a comment here or there and think it “proves” anything about a large swath of the country, liberals or otherwise? Laughable. You’re obsessed with a need to be seen as “right.” News flash: Literally nobody cares. It’s a personal travel blog where individual comments are not representative of ANYTHING, let alone the comments as a whole. Go back to your pathetic echo chamber. You’re just trying too damn hard here.
@ainthepnw:
First, anyone who thinks the capitol rioters had the slightest chance in hell of ‘overthrowing’ the government is completely delusional. Make no mistake, those people were nuts and I in no way support what they did. That aside, more afraid of the capitol rioters? They spent a few hours attacking a strictly government target that was well protected and were a relatively very small group. What about the “peaceful” BLM rioters? days of violent protests all across the country attacking civilian targets indiscriminately, looting (not stealing bread to feed their families), hurting struggling businesses with no regard to the owners who may have even been on their side, actually putting the entire country on edge and in fear. Look at violent crime stats the past two years – black on black, black on white and white on black…the numbers speak for themselves. Blacks are killing each other and they are killing whites. Oh right, a convicted black violent felon in the act of committing another felony was killed by 3 cops of different races (what a great martyr!). In fact, in major blue cities, blacks are killing each other in the hundreds every year, while white civilians are not killing blacks. Right, we should all be afraid of the Capitol group that fizzled out after a few hours, and as far as I know killed no blacks.
Let’s face it, arguments about the capitol rioters being the scum of the US are meaningless without an honest comparison to the BLM riots and which Americans are really killing other Americans today.
Seriously? this is beyond click bait.
His sort of toxic reaction is what we’ve seen over and over onboard during the pandemic.
Thank you for bringing attention to this. Personally after January 6 2021 i consider all white Republicans men as terrorists. I get really nervous flying in the same plane with them. I wish airlines would make all white Republican males wear some distinct identifying mark, say the nazi symbol, so we can keep an eye on them in flight and take down the bloody terrorists if they make any moves.
White Republican men, go back to your shithole countries.
Anyway, will Smith needs to be in prison, or whole Hollywood is one joke. You let more blacks come and this is the mess they make. First kanye and then this. And then we had defund the police and then all the liberals can’t control their criminals. They only lecture from safety.
What about the people burning and looting peoples’ businesses during the summer of 2020 and killed more people than the folks on January 6th?
This is coming from a black and latino Berniecrat who voted for Joe and Hillary by the way. Point is, if you get to say racist statements such as “white Republicans men as terrorists” and “nazis”, then it’s only fair when other folks like me who are Ivy League alum get to bring up counterpoints. Stop making the rest of us liberals looks like complete dummies plagued with TDS on a travel site.
Do Ivy League schools no longer teach satire?
Yup, at least my alma mater teaches us the difference between what’s satire and what’s clear disrespect haha. If you would like, you can get a proper degree from one of the seven ivies and learn this as well, Jerry or Debit using a different name 🙂
I guess Debit’s Father must not count Cornell as an Ivy as the Ivy League technically comprises eight schools. Nice flex, as the kids say.
Ivy League schools don’t really teach anymore as much as they indoctrinate.
My hot take: This is all staged. Virtually no one would be talking about the Oscars if this schtick did not happen.
At the top of your head, do you even know who won Best Picture? Best Actress?
Exactly.
Grabbing my popcorn!! This thread will be epic. My wife turned the TV on the Oscar against my will. When the 3 actresses (which I have no idea who they are) said that the Academy hired 3 women as hosts because they are cheaper than hiring 1 man, I changed the channel and we had a great time as a family watching Netflix.
There was more violence at the Oscars than on Jan 6 (people protesting a fraudulent election and government tyranny).
Will Smith represents the moral failing of modern society as he was more upset about a joke than his wife sleeping with other men. Will Smith is literally a cuck. He doesn’t seem to understand free speech and impulse control. The Oscars push woke less White people more Black propaganda and this is what happens. It is very bad for the image of the Black community that is already plagued with the fact that 13% of the population commits 60% of the violent crime. Will Smith is another black man who despite being worth hundreds of millions of dollars and a huge movie star acts like a street hustler. Chris Rock handled himself exemplary and undid some of the damage done to the black community. First Jussie and now this. This is playing right into the stereotype which unfortunately is accurate most of the time.
The fact that this incident overshadows the entire Oscar ceremony and all the movies shows how more and more people care less about what Hollywood thinks. I haven’t seen one movie nominated.
@Amy: what a great response. Hollywood is just filthy. People call those celebrities because stupid people make them celebrities. It is all about woke culture, LGBT, black, etc… For them anyone that identifies themselves by the gender they were born, are white and work hard are not welcome. I simply ignore them but feel bad they are doing a disfavor to an entire generation. Also, they only preach but do not follow what they preach. They all say we have to save the planet but they are the ones flying private jets and riding on monster SUVs. Shame on them and shame on those who call them celebrities.
you must be trolling — although it’s not funny, so I worry that you are serious.
One person was shot and killed on January 6, several injured, including a bunch of cops. Breaching the capitol was totally illegal, no matter how you slice it. “Hang Mike Pence, Hang Mike Pence”
I’m sorry, how is that kind of behavior ok in any way? We need to lock them up and throw away the key.
This oscars thing, on the other hand, was a slap in the face. It’s up to Chris Rock whether he presses charges, but seeing as he didn’t suffer physical injuries, I doubt much would come of it.
I don’t really care either way. I regret clicking on this clickbait of an article.
The rest of your post is questionable too — calling Will Smith a cuck and all that. Maybe if you had been spanked more as a child, you wouldn’t post such filth.
Tha black community? So one black man represents all black people in the world? Here we go again. White people. When one white person does something they are held accountable. When one black person does something you guys want to hold a Whole Race accountable for that person’s actions. Ridiculous.
I hope the Academy lands some serious punishment on him. There’s no way anyone should get away with displaying violence on live national television. That said, your article really stretches the limits of hypothetical situations. I really never thought about Will Smith sitting on a plane and I bet most flight attendants don’t think about him either. Pretty safe to say that almost nobody cares.
Matt, just admit that this click bait. You can do better than this article.
Competition with VFTW for the blogger’s Jerry Springer award? BTW, I couldn’t bring myself to read what was wrote here or look at the advertisements. Just commenting on the headline. Nothing to do with travel, just a race to the bottom.
Yes, Will Smith’s attitude is comtemporary and should be adressed. Everyone should ALWAYS remember never to use violence to make his point or as an answer in any ways.
Everyone who saw that attack should be fully aware that violence is never and will be an option in handling heated situations whether it is at the Oscar’s or in a plane!
People who behaved badly or become violent are subject to legal consequences. So therefore, with or without an apology, Will Smith has to face the full force of the law by hitting someone on purpose.
I used to genuinely enjoy reading this blog, but it’s become nothing more than fear mongering and clear attempts to top search results over the past couple of months. Such a disappointment. The only thing flight attendants should be worried about is bloggers who take things far too seriously and out of context and try to force them to apply to flying.
It’s pretty funny (sad) how many of the commentators mention race as a big factor here when as far as I can tell, race had nothing to do with the altercation. And it is interesting that people on a certain side of the political aisle (the right leaning side) seem to be bringing it up the most aggressively. I think the article is click-bait, but it also seems to confirm some of the increasing racial bias of commentators on this blog (to be clear, nothing about Matt’s post is racist at all).
Where exactly is his coverage that FAs should be afraid of other people? Obviously there are many people FAs should be afraid of. Smith has never attacked a FA… there is nothing to justify his conclusions that Smith is a threat to FAs – other than a possibly staged national event.
So, yes this is a racist post and honestly no one should read this blog anymore. It’s click bait and it appears that most of his followers are delusional folks who think everything is about being “woke.” Grow up, think before you publish, and stop starting culture wars – no one cares.
Everything is “racist” to you.
You want racism? The guy who said on Twitter that this was the first black on black fight ever that didn’t involve a knife or a gun. Now that’s racism!
So just throwing the word around clown shoes. And by the way F the Pacific Northwest. Destroyed by drug addicted hippies and other liberal garbage.
He should have is Academy Award provisionally revoked. Then he can apply to have it reinstated no sooner than a year. At that time, they can either give it to him, reject him, reject him on the pretext that it’s 2023 and his film doesn’t qualify. This way, the record books will have a blank or an asterisk to call attention to Smith’s aggression.
He should be committed to a mental hospital for evaluation. I would not be surprised if Smith beats his wife and r*pes her.
Very desperate article. Highly misplaced and misguided. You should better than this.
huh? I don’t get it. Because he had an outburst, he might attack flight attendants? That’s ridiculous. Clickbait!
Just don’t make fun of his wife’s medical condition. His anger is understandable. Also, I’m pretty sure nobody is that upset about it, considering how much it helped the (terrible) ratings.
I love that the Academy is fine with off color and insulting comedy from its host and then someone actually stands up to the bully and he’s at fault, just ridiculous. Good for Smith for standing up to the bully. Shame on Rock and the Academy for pointing all blame at Smith. I suppose he shouldn’t have got Rock but Rock’s sarcastic humor does no one any good and it got him slapped in the face. I don’t feel bad for Rock. Boorish behavior results in boorish behavior
I shed no tears for Rock, but his bad joke did not call for physical violence.
Smith should have his Oscar stripped from him for workplace violence. He could still work as an actor. In contrast, the California medical board has revoked a medical license from a shoplifter doctor likrly banning her from every practicing medicine anywhere in the US. The California medical board also revoked the medical license of a thief doctor that stole lots of computers and supplies so stripping the Oscar is a slap on the wrist.
Imagine the entitlement of someone charging a stage in front of literally every one of their peers, not to mention a global viewing audience of over 1 billion people, then returning to their privileged position seated in the front row to then repeatedly curse with the most vulgar language like a 12 year old. Smith would have been far better served just flipping off Rock and then humiliating him today with a press conference to outline everything wrong with what he said. Instead, he comandeered a huge event because he had a temper tantrum. The man is bringing Little D**k Energy to a new level. Violence is for the weak minded. What a dope.
This is a waste, this topic is completely useless and a waste of resources time and energy.
That was a stretch..
FAs everywhere must be shaking in their boots after reading this fear based blog post.
Thus article was a waste of time and energy. I don’t condone what he did. I can’t believe you are telling flight attendants they should be afraid of this man. Then the whole world should be afraid of him. That’s asinine.