TSA screening slowed to a crawl on Friday at the Las Vegas airport as agents took a break from their duties, and passengers and bags backed up, in order to break into song.
This wasn’t Steven Bochco’s short-lived Cop Rock where LA police officers would break into song and choreographed dance in between solving crimes around the city. This was a group of screeners just one audition away from America’s Got Pat-Down.
Bizarre scene Friday at Harry Reid Airport in Las Vegas as carry-on bags are backed up waiting to be scanned with one TSA agent working each lane while the other agents are performing in the TSA choir
They say “you’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching, love like you’ll never be hurt, sing like there’s nobody listening, and live like it’s heaven on earth.” That’s often misattributed to Mark Twain. And I guess I encourage each and every one of these TSA screeners to do that, just not maybe when they’re on duty?
Also, singing in the shower is great for those of us who aren’t very good at it. Passengers aren’t free to listen or not. They’re required to go through checkpoint screening as a condition of air travel. That shouldn’t take longer so they can be a forced audience for this, right?
Although I guess the quality of their singing is an allegory for the broader need to reform the agency to provide better security at lower cost.
(HT: Ryan C.)
Say what you will of TSA, for a government agency, it innovates quickly. We have a path to self-service security screening that requires zero human interaction – just maybe one Officer sitting nearby to make sure people aren’t skipping the process entirely. Like retail self-checkouts.
The worst type of TSA Officers aren’t the ones breaking out in song, even if it slows down security. Security can slow down for all kinds of reasons. I once waited 30 min at MIA because the baggage screening equipment malfunctioned. Did I still make my flight? Why, yes (granted, final boarding). How come? Because I budget time for exigences just like this.
No, the worst TSA Officers are the curmudgeon screamers yelling at you as if you’re stupid. I don’t take kindly to any derision of my intellect. Let’s see the data: exactly how many TSOs have a Harvard or MIT degree?
“America’s Got Pat-Down” Heh, heh, heh….. Nice.
Singing when there’s no line is great: God bless ’em.
Singing when people have flights to catch — flights that may involve significant personal issues, important business meetings, or connections that may be lost negatively impacting expensive vacation plans: Good way to show your job is really not that important.
Hopefully what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
Song? Anyone else remember Delta’s low-cost subsidiary in the 2000s?
It’s as if the Bob’s Burgers episode where there is a musical called “TSA The Musical” comes to life!
We can finally hear such hits as “If You See Something, Sing Something”!
“just not maybe when they’re on duty” — do you have some reason to think they were on screening duty?
While I haven’t seen any indication whether the TSA Choir (real thing!) gets paid or if it is strictly volunteer, my default assumption would be that it is unlikely this singing had any bearing on the staffing level of the checkpoint one way or another.
@1990 Of course, Delta launched Song in 2003 response to JetBlue and other “airline-within-an-airline” concepts….USAir had tried with “MetroJet” and Continental with “Continental Lite” in the 1990s. Delta never released a separate P&L for Song…assume it was a money-loser.
Still miss those nonstop $99 RT fares on MetroJet to catch a Red Sox game in Boston!
@Captain Freedom — Yessir! For me, it was FLL-LGA on those ‘green’ 757s. Also, United tried ‘Ted’ for a while. FLL-DEN; but, Frontier and Southwest were also offering cheap fares, so for ski season it was nice to have healthy competition on those routes.
I guess asking for additional screening help would have been a novelty not ever envisioned by the TSA.
It is abusive, to be physically trapped by, and then forced to experience a lengthy display of clumsy emotional expression, by someone with authority over you. I’m a recording engineer and record producer that works with incredibly gifted,.real professional artists. Having to experience security guards, flight attendants, pilots, police… do this talent show garbage, while I’m being held hostage by them, is not just embarrassing. It’s akin to torture. Why not hold the entire airport up, while I spend 10 minutes indulging myself in awkward pat-downs and hustling a gang of drug-sniffing dogs thru baggage claim, while all the TSA have to obediently stand in line, watching? And they better applause, or it’s time for a strip-search encore!
It’s all good. They were singing religious tunes. Smdh. Not only held captive but forced to endure their propaganda
Seriously? This offends people? There is no way they are on duty, maybe a luncheon hour mandated by their union at the worst. No way they would effect the line one way or another.
And its an airport, people. When they goof on the anticipated level of activity, is it ever adjusted in real time? From check-in personnel, baggage handlers, TSA and bringing in a spare plane when one goes mechanical, it just doesn’t happen.
Enjoy the music or put your iBuds back in, nothing to see here…
*McCarran
*dance like you’re selling nails
The TSA is a total outrage in every possible way. The fact that Americans permit this – and have permitted it for a quarter of a century – speaks very poorly of us and worse of our government.