JetBlue Does Not Find Jokes About Its Cranky Flight Attendant Funny
On Monday, abused JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater stole two beers and left his grounded plane via the emergency slide. JetBlue has mostly kept mum—except to scold comedian Andy Borowitz for making bad jokes on Twitter.
Slater, who is the Chesley Sullenberger or Barack Obama or something of 2010, has been arrested and is now free on bail. JetBlue will only say that investigations are ongoing and Slater has been suspended. But that hasn't stopped them from playing joke police with Andy Borowitz.
Borowitz, who sometimes has a problem with quality control, spent most of Tuesday cracking Twitter jokes about the Slater story (Disgruntled postal workers! LeBron!). That evening, he Tweeted:
FUN GAME: Fly JetBlue and randomly call people "motherfucker," just to see what fireworks ensue.Wed Aug 11 01:33:39 via web
Which is a joke that, in classic Borowitz tradition, is vaguely funny, and mostly inoffensive. Inoffensive, if you are not the official JetBlue Twitter feed:
@BorowitzReport We'd highly recommend rethinking that game. Inappropriate even in jest.Wed Aug 11 01:46:46 via CoTweet
Uh, okay. Borowitz seemed to regret his Tweet at first (since Borowitz communicates only in topical jokes, it can be hard to tell what he thinks):
Time for me to escape via slide RT @JetBlue We'd highly recommend rethinking that game. Inappropriate even in jest.Wed Aug 11 01:48:51 via web
But then, emboldened, responded with a slightly funnier joke:
At @JetBlue you have to pay $5 extra for a sense of humor. Exact change, please.Wed Aug 11 02:46:41 via web
Alas! JetBlue's official Twitter didn't get back to him—instead, Morgan Johnston, whose Twitter bio calls him "voice of @JetBlue," Tweeted:
@BorowitzReport We love humor, but telling your followers to accost flight attendants isn't funny or responsible.Wed Aug 11 03:01:51 via CoTweet
The JetBlue Twitter feed has gone silent, while Johnston has explained that he found the "joke" offensive because thinks some people might take Borowtiz's "game" seriously. Look, JetBlue: No one is taking Andy Borowitz's game seriously. Really. Trust me on this one. You know what I think? I think everyone involved needs to steal a beer or two from the beverage cart and take a ride on the inflatable slide, and then have a beer summit. (Get it? Because that's what Steven Slater did, and also, Obama had a beer summit that was in the news?)
