Monday, July 06, 2009

Now Ryanair Wants Passengers to STAND UP During Flights


The Mrs. Grace L. Ferguson Airline & Stormdoor Company LIVES!

From today's Daily Mail Online:

"Ryanair wants passengers to stand during its flights so the budget airline can squeeze more people onboard."


As you probably know, in 1960 The Button Down Mind Strikes Back comedy album, Bob Newhart had a stand up routine titled "The Mrs. Grace L. Ferguson Airline & Stormdoor Company," where a navigator came out of the cockpit and gave a little preflight speech to the passengers ... and that, explains Bob in the monologue, is why he doesn't fly any more.

The Airline was eliminating so-called "frills and extras" like, oh, maintenance and, uh, radar. From the Bob Newhart monologue:

"Incidentally, I want to apologize for you having to stand all the way. If I can give you a little tip there: every, oh, half hour or so, you want to alternate your arms through those straps above your head. You folks flying tourist, you don't have any straps. So don't bother looking for 'em."

Rhapsody has the 9 minute routine for free here. Just click on Mrs. Grace L. Ferguson Airline & Stormdoor Company.

2 comments:

Evan4sh said...

Wow! I flew Ryan Air last summer ( boy are my arms tired). It was nice and cheap. That was the only nice thing about it. Dynamite link between them and Newhart! Thanks Mike.

Anne Hambrock said...

I have that record - I LOVE that routine.