Kevin Smith Declines TV Interview To Talk About Southwest Air Incident

Fans of Kevin Smith who were hoping to see him appear on Larry King or some other talk show to talk about his experience with being ejected from a Southwest Airline plane after their staff determined he was a “customer of size” (too big for one seat) probably won’t get to see a TV interview from Smith, at least not on this subject.

According to Smith, Larry King offered to bump Sean Penn and Celine Dion in order to make room for him on the show to talk about what happened to him on Southwest Airlines this past weekend. In the video clip below, which is the first of a series of videos Smith posted recently to speak about the issue, he talks about King approaching him as well as talking to Oprah’s people. From the sounds of it, he isn’t planning on making any TV appearances any time soon. Given the tweets, podcasts and these videos, it’s understandable that he might be burnt out on the subject or at the very least, getting there.



Going to editorialize a bit here because frankly, after hearing about the incident, it's impossible not to have an opinion on the situation. Before reading Smith’s tweets, his blog, listening to both podcasts and viewing the series of videos as well as Southwest Airs blog posts on the matter, I would’ve considered Snakes on a Plane and Brodie’s story about what his Uncle Walter did on an airplane to be the top two most ridiculous plane stories out there but Smith’s story outranks both of them, and his is real. Even with the numerous posts and updates Smith has done on his experience with public humiliation thanks to SWA’s stellar customer service, I still would’ve liked to have seen him on Larry King, Oprah, The Daily Show and any other talk show that might consider this a matter of interest. That said, if he's not up for it, he's certainly made the most of the accessible mediums he has and his candidness on this issue could, if nothing more, be seen as a cautionary tale for any overweight person considering flying Southwest Air in the future.

People can have their opinions on SWA’s policy, however from what Smith has said, he passed the “armrest test,” which is mentioned in SWA’s policy and therefore, had no reason to be required to purchase a second seat (or leave the plane because there was no second seat available). The policy is decades old and was shown in action on A&E’s reality series Airline. Below is a segment of an episode that features two guys being escorted onto a plane and subjected to the “armrest test.”



In Smith’s case, it sounds like they didn’t even give him the courtesy of a private demonstration of his ability to fit into a seat. As he was the last to board, the plane was full when he was told he was too big for his seat, so he had an audience of people to witness the incident.