Jiordan Castle

Director Kevin Smith was kicked off a flight on Southwest Airlines from Oakland to Burbank over the weekend because of his size. In response, Smith has posted dozens of livid tweets over the past couple of days condemning Southwest for their lack of tact and poor judgment in his case.

Apparently the plane’s captain had Smith removed from the plane after he was deemed a “safety risk.” As reported, he was already seated, had the armrests down, and was buckled up without an extender for the seatbelt. And as Smith later tweeted, this occurred in front of a packed plane full of people who had already identified him as “Silent Bob.” Ouch.

The airline offered him a $100 voucher as an apology – which he refused – and set him on another flight, but the damage was done. Soon after, he posted a picture of himself, cheeks puffed out, captioned: “Look how fat I am on your plane! Quick! Throw me off!”

Still, the director kept a sense of humor about the situation, tweeting, “The @SouthwestAir Diet. How it works: you’re publicly shamed into a slimmer figure. Crying the weight right off has never been easier!” Smith even joked with fans encouraging him to start his own airline. He wrote, “More room for everyone! If they build it, I’d certainly fly it. ‘Fly the Flabby Skies!’” It’s an honorable sentiment, to say the least.

Upon landing in Burbank, Smith wrote, “I’ve landed in Burbank. Don’t worry: wall of the plane was opened & I was airlifted out while Richard Simmons supervised.”

Southwest Airlines later apologized via Twitter and blogged a lengthy statement on Sunday. However, the apologetic tone was spoiled when they pointed out that Smith regularly purchases two seats when he flies. Smith then denied their claim, saying that he’d only starting doing so in the past couple of weeks or so.

Most recently, Kevin Smith has made an effort to put the matter to rest… on his blog. He wrote that Linda, a Southwest rep, called his house roughly 48 hours after the incident to apologize. He went on to explain that she acknowledged that the problem was not about his being Too Fat To Fly (his term), but about a series of errors that led to a poor decision to remove him unjustly.

At the end of the day, the very basic lack of common decency for a paying customer – famous or not – plays a major role in the airline’s shortcomings. It’s exactly as Kevin Smith himself says – “I know I’m fat. The point of all this? I’m not too fat for Southwest Air, yet someone deemed me so.”