Famed Star Wars actor Peter Mayhew, who played the Wookie “Chewbacca” in the original Star Wars films, found himself in a bit of trouble last week in Denver when he was preparing to fly back home to Dallas. You see, the 7 foot 3 inch actor has a walking stick, that he needs to, you know, walk, and it’s large (because he’s large). And to add to the fun, the cane looks like a light saber. The TSA was having none of it.
They took Chewbacca’s light saber.
TSA agents haggle over what to do about Wookie’s light saber.
Apparently, Mayhew was having no luck trying to explain that a 7 foot 3 inch man needs an extraordinarily large walking stick.
So Mayhew took to Twitter, posted a photo of him waiting in a wheel chair, while TSA held his walking stick and debated what to do you know, suddenly TSA relented.
Here’s a series of Tweets Mayhew posted after the incident was resolved, and the photo that helped to force the resolution:
Star Wars actor Peter “Chewbacca” Mayhew waiting for TSA to relinquish his walking stick/light saber.
I do have to say that this was perhaps my favorite tweet about the episode:
And a new TSA warning sign that a fan created, gets an honorable mention:
So we can now add “traveling while Wookie” to our ever-growing list of things banned by the TSA:
- Dangerous cupcake icing. Boo!
- Cream cheese, on it’s own, of course – if it’s on a bagel, it’s okay (seriously).
- PB&J for kids. Scary!
- TSA to allow pocket-knives, but not “massive steel dildos“
- 84 year old grandmothers.
- Numerous cancer patients and survivors. It just happens over and over and over.
- Let’s not forget those dangerous 95 year olds who are dying either.
- What about the 95 year old retired Air Force major?
- Or the shifty 3 year old kids who are screaming about being touched.
- TSA agent accidentally pepper-sprays colleagues, 6 hospitalized
- TSA dog bites woman in stomach for no reason
- Then there is my favorite, the 3 year old girl that’s a clear threat to America in a wheelchair, and her suspicious stuffed animal “Lamby” that simply had to be confiscated as a terror threat.
- Who could forget about the 18 month old baby on the no-fly list?
- Though to be fair, giving a pat-down to Henry Kissinger did sound a lot more reasonable.
- TSA orders wheel-chair bound double-amputee Marine to “walk”
If the lightsaber were real, it could have produced a Lamb(y) Chop. Apologies to Shari Lewis.
more security theater, brought to you by the house of Kabuki theater. use of
The amount of randomness involved suggests incompetence rather than malevolence.
When little girls have Lambys, the terrorists have won.
http://aravosis.wpengine.com/2013/02/tsa-screens-3-year-old-girl-in-wheelchair-takes-her-stuffed-animal.html
whiner!
I can understand that they have regs to follow. “Do not allow large sticks onto the plane.” And that, sometimes there might be confusion if rules conflict. “Passengers may be permitted walking sticks.” But, instead of working it out with a supervisor at the airport, they gave in when the name of Twitter was invoked.
I wonder now if prospective terrorists might use the same tactic. “If you have a problem with TSA, threaten them with shouting out to the Twitterverse.”
“Stunned” as in perhaps they should have tasered Mayhew into submission? “Drop the lightsaber, or I’ll fry you, giant hairball!”
We can trust these people to listen in on all our phone calls!
Except for that problem of Stormtroopers being the worst marksmen ever.
The most they’ve ever managed has been to lightly wound someone*.
(* = Ewoks don’t count. The little vermin needed the culling anyway.)
HEY! Don’t be knocking the Imperial Stormtroopers! At least the stormtroopers are more highly trained and efficient than the incompetent, TSA imbeciles. Besides, the stormtroopers have Darth Vader as their boss, and Darth does not tolerate incompetence.
I’m stunned that they don’t already restrict the use of electronic devices in the security area.
Imbeciles. I’m not surprised that it was Denver. They put me trough hell and confiscated an old family Bible that had a strange clasp on it and tore a swath of the Victorian paper that covered it. Avoid Denver at all costs. The TSA agents there are selected from the ‘Hills have eyes’ inbred families that live on the front range.
Well, I think we all knew they’d gone over to the Dark Side. Maybe the Imperial March should be their theme song.
Amazing how quickly TSA caved when this got “Twittered.” They will now start confiscating all smartphones, tablets, laptops to prevent the same from happening in the future.
Frickin’ jackbooted morons.