Is Kevin Smith too Fat for the Sky?

That’s the question I asked myself when I heard what had happened to him over the weekend. Kevin Smith, director of such classics as Clerks, Mallrats, Dogma and Clerks 2, was ejected from his Southwest flight in California because he was a “hazard”. He wished to know why he was considered a hazard and the flight attendant skirted around the answer giving such excuses as “The pilot requested it”. After a few minutes of asking it became obvious it was because of his weight.

After being escorted off his plane he started to tell his ordeal though Twitter. While he was slamming Southwest for their “customer service” he was giving a ticket for another flight and a $100 voucher. Meanwhile the “twitter-sphere” exploded with anger over Kevin’s situation. Many told their own horror stories, while some promised never to fly on that airline.

It was at this time that someone with Southwest found out about his twittering and the manager of the Southwest airline in that airport came running over to him apologizing like crazy. “We’re so sorry. They shouldn’t have treated you like that on the flight. We’ll allow you to board first.” Because unbeknownst to Southwest, Kevin Smith has over 1.6 million followers on Twitter, quite a soapbox.

Kevin Smith now was on this second flight when to his left a large woman set across from him in the isle. Before the plane took off, one of the flight attendants came over to her and asks to speak to her in private. After their discussion Kevin asked what they told her. Her response was “She told me to buy a second seat next to mine for future flights.” Again because of her weight.

Kevin just about exploded and continued to tweet his story. Because of his devoted followers, Southwest’s blog, nutsaboutsouthwest.com, was overwhelmed with complaints and the site eventually crashed.

To hear the entire story, I highly recommend you listen to Kevin Smith’s most recent podcast at www.smodcast.com. It is here that he delves into all the details and his feeling and opinions on the situation. This is NSFW so only listen in your homes or with earphones.

"Look how fat I am on your plane! Quick! Throw me off!"

(Credit: Twitter/@thatkevinsmith)

This just goes to show that there is much power with the Internet. I believe that this is just an example of what we are headed towards. Not just a single voice against a company but an entire legion of people united under one banner. Now granted, if this wasn’t Kevin Smith complaining, no one would listen. But as we progress to a more unified and connected civilization, moments like this will be exposed more frequently and with similar results.