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Adding a document to what I’ll call my Gross! WHY?! file, an airline passenger put his bare feet on the TV screen at his seat. Unfortunately for him (and for us, too, maybe?) one of the other passengers was comedian Andy Richter, whom you might know as Conan O’Brian’s sidekick. He decided to tweet about it:
Break basic airplane etiquette around comedian Andy Richter at your peril. [He] used Twitter to publicly shame a fellow passenger who repeatedly placed his bare feet on the seatback TV screen in front of him.
Richter explained in a series of tweets how he first “snitched this f-cker out to the flight attendant.” He then asked the man to put his feet down. “When he just put them back up I decided f-ck it, I’m tweeting,” he explained.
The man ended up leaving “dirty toe smudges” on the screen,” Richter wrote.
You can read Andy’s first (NSFW) tweet here, but here are two of the later ones:
The flight attendant came back right before we got off and asked him to take them down again. Guy did and asked “is that like a just-when-taxiing thing?” Attendant: “no, it’s a basic airplane courtesy thing.” Guy seemed surprised to hear that
— Andy Richter (@AndyRichter) August 19, 2019
The flight attendant came back right before we got off and asked him to take them down again. Guy did and asked “is that like a just-when-taxiing thing?” Attendant: “no, it’s a basic airplane courtesy thing.” Guy seemed surprised to hear that
— Andy Richter (@AndyRichter) August 19, 2019
Mark Hamill and Wajahat Ali were among those who praised Andy:
Keep fighting the good fight, Andy! 👍
— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) August 19, 2019
Andy, you're the hero America needs but doesn't deserve.
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) August 19, 2019
HuffPo notes that in addition to accolades, Andy was the recipient of people’s similar stories of outrageous breaches of etiquette and common sense:
That's my favorite, people being shocked that the socially unacceptable thing they're doing is unacceptable. I was at a show last week and this dude was filming EVERY song with his phone. Politely asked him to put it down, he seemed surprised I said so…
— Dylan Lee (@DylanChristopha) August 19, 2019
I’ve been a flight attendant for 31 years. If you find this behavior revolting, you cannot imagine how much worse people can get. @AndyRichter, if you ever want to write comedy based on commercial flights, please, please let me be a consultant on your project. I’ve got stories.
— Bertfa (@BertTraveler) August 19, 2019
Meanwhile up in first… pic.twitter.com/8bP62ESWlf
— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) August 19, 2019
Ugh. One of the most stunning parts of this is the man’s response to the flight attendant, confused that this behavior is a problem. When has he ever heard anybody say anything involving the position of passengers’ feet while taxiing? Maybe he’s never flown before? (I’m serious, because I’m trying to understand why he’d think this would be OK.) I understand needing and wanting to stretch, but you’re supposed to get up and walk around! If you’re not on the aisle, politely ask whomever to let you by and then walk up and down the aisle a couple of times. And…I doubt those screens are wiped down regularly, if at all. Who knows what germs are on them?! Why would you want the screen to come into contact with your bare feet in the first place? With all the flying I’ve done, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything that out-of-line etiquette-wise. I thought that the strangest story I’d read about an airplane this summer was the one about the flight attendant who hid in an overhead bin. I was wrong.
Here’s the image and you can see the tweet here.
He’s so beautiful and funny. J’adore!
Dude is GROSS. Ugh.
I was flying to Vietnam in June, and my God, long flights are the worst. The worst part was not even the kids! People treat planes like a bedroom. The smell and the feet I saw, I will never unsee/unsmell.
On a flight from Chicago to London, I was seated next to a man that reeked of raw onions mixed with strong body odor. It was disgusting. I asked for a seat change, but they wouldn’t let me. In my opinion, he shouldn’t have been allowed to fly smelling like that. I gagged all the way to London.
Sounds terrible! How can people afford such flights but not basic hygiene? Mind blowing
This happens far more often than you would like.
Tom Nichols, a pundit who is on twitter, hates people who are barefoot on planes, which means people send him pictures of barefoot offenders on a regular basis. The WORST ones are when people put their bare feet up on the arm rest of the people IN FRONT OF THEM. A couple of days ago, he posted a pic of some guy’s foot up on the headrest in front of him. EEEW! I’m amazed that people are ever allowed in public.
(Side note: Tom is a conservative, but he HATES Trump with a passion, so his thread is generally filled with diatribes against Trump, sprinkled with disgusting pictures of airplane feet every few days.)
It amazes me the amount of people that wear flip flops to the airport, which means they go through security barefoot. And then they get into their beds later on with dirty feet (I’m assuming people that do that aren’t in a rush to shower after arriving, either). Gross!!!!!
I’m always grossed out by that too. You KNOW there’s a good chance you have to remove your shoes, wear something with socks! (Also maybe don’t wear a belt, suspenders, four watches, ten rings of keys, and carry a pile of change in your pocket if you know you have to go through security).
Wearing flip flops on a plane is extremely stupid. If you have to quickly exit the plane during an emergency those flip flops could cause you to trip and fall. You should always wear socks and sneakers on a plane. But then again, the flight attendants don’t and that has always baffled me.
Also, in the security line, having to take your shoes off and walk barefoot is f*cking gross. So make sure you are wearing socks ! What’s also gross is the bins you put your shoes and other belongings in. The bins for shoes should be a different color so ONLY shoes go in those bins…but nope…your purse, shoes, wallet, jewelry, back pack all go in bins that have had millions of dirty shoes in them ! Talk about spreading germs !
I always shower before going to bed after flying. Plane Scum is the worst.
I keep clean socks in my purse to put on when I get to security just for this reason if I’m wearing shoes without socks for my flight. I cannot stand the idea of walking through security in bare feet! Whenever I see people doing it I shudder.
I have flown quite a bit but nothing that terrible. I try to be respectful of those around me because we are all cramped (I alas fly coach). The worst was when I was flying over seas with my baby and he was in the seat next me strapped to his car seat. The man seated in front of my baby brought his chair down to inches in front of my child’s face. After a few hours, I let the kicking begin.
I don’t understand why those seats are allowed to recline so much? They shouldn’t even have that as an option. I never recline mine as I know it will bother the person behind me but I have had many people recline their seats in front of me and it’s the worst.
So the man paid for his seat and then was using it in the manner in which it was meant to be used by reclining it the three inches we’re allowed to recline, and you allowed your kid to kick his chair? You know that everyone is entitled to recline their seat, yes? Doing it during meal times is rude, and you obviously cannot do it during take off or landing, but any other time during the flight, it is a perfectly reasonable and expected thing for passengers to do.
My best friend is a flight attendant and you would quite literally not believe the stories she has. If I didn’t know her, I would have a hard time believing them. People can be truly astonishing.
I don’t do the full Naomi Campbell (although I will start… just need to get a few giant scarves), but I wipe down the seat, the armrests, the tray table, all of the back of the seat in front of me, behind the tray table. I use a bunch of wipes. I don’t know how much it helps but it makes me feel better, so sure. I feel so gross on a plane as it is! I don’t know how people do beauty treatments on a plane, I just feel like I’m massaging bacteria into my face when I do that
I also wipe everything down. Those food trays have been used as places where people change diapers ! I also NEVER put my hand in the pocket of the seat in front of me. People put snotty tissues, etc in there and those never get cleaned.
I did this too. Usually before whoever next to me arrives because it is a bit cray cray, I know. But it gives me comfort even temporarily.
Have renewed appreciation for Naomi Campbell’s sanitizing process before sitting in her plane seat, and need to add “buy sanitizing wipes” on my packing list for my next flight. Gross!
I used to think it was a small sad loss that in the changes of the sixties that we lost niceties and rituals and basic manners when racism and sexism were vanquished. The baby out with the bathwater, so to speak.
Turns out we kept the racism and sexism and lost the niceties and now I’m doubly annoyed.
Like button.🤙🏻
I too remember back in the 60s and 70s…even the 80s….when flying was an EVENT! You wore your finest…and it was SO GLAMOROUS!!!
I miss that…..
Cause the way my mouth is setup…If I get on a plane and someone take their shoes off…
WHEW…..
I remember being a teen in the nineties even,and we dressed up,like church attire,it was even big then.
Last time I flew, the guy next to me was hogging the armrest and he was man-spreading so that his legs touched mine. (It wasn’t a sexual thing, just a totally oblivious thing.) I was getting SO MAD and I spoke up and said something like “Excuse me, I need more space.” and I am SO GLAD I did. He was a kind guy. Just oblivious.
That foot thing, UGH. I’d probably weenie out and ask a flight attendant to say something…
That dog’s side eye represents the rest of us! He’s even like, “Bruh… no.”
😂😂😂😂
Even the dog in that photo is looking at his dirty feet like “wtf, dude?”
I can’t stop laughing the poster above said same thing,like you are really dirty if a dog is grossed out by your behavior.
I don’t travel very often, but by chance I had to wipe my screen with an alcohol wipe I conveniently had on hand. I now keep a little bag with me that has certain essentials (like one of those fancy bags that people get in business and first class) except it is customized to what I will probably need. This includes alcohol swabs, disinfecting wipes, lens cleaning wipes, ear plugs, ear buds, ear bud adapter (for iPhone to airplane audio plugs), sleeping mask, moisture spray, trial sachet of eye cream, and a pen. I subscribe to the Allure subscription box, and the see-through bags that come every month are perfect for my travel pack.
Andy or someone else so needs to take up that flight attendant’s tv idea. My Aunt has been a fight attendant for almost 2 decades and some of the stories she has are unreal.
Regarding the cleanliest/health aspect of planes, plane seats particularly in coach (some first and business classes use a different material that’s still gross but a lot better) are worse than most toilets. The seat material they use soaks up germs and is nearly impossible to properly clean. They should be made out of a less absorbent material like faux leather or a similar something similar.
I guess it’s time to print out do’s and don’ts, or quickly run through them after you point out the exits, for all the stoopid azzholes incapable of thinking about others.
Pet peeve of mine is dirty bare feet.🤢We see so many people wearing flip flops and they have the ugliest dirtiest feet and are oblivious to the fact that there are shoes available that cover ones feet.
My husband just had his first pedicure and I’m so glad.
I also want to hurl when I see people driving with their bare feet hanging out the window (yes I’ve seen this and no I can’t figure out how the heck they drive)!Or people who are passengers in a car and they hang their feet out the window or have them pressed to the window/windshield?WHY?!
Seeing feet on a dashboard really annoys me, too! Don’t they realize that their legs are gonna get blown off by the airbag, if they have an accident??
Yeah I believe this because I’ve seen people do all sorts of awful things on planes. On my flight to Greece last month, the older woman next to me (who was a “talker” and laughing raucously at the movie she watched) had the window seat (I had the aisle) so she was sleeping diagonally slumped against the plane wall/window with her legs invading my own space. I was so frustrated! I didn’t ask her to move them as she was sleeping, instead I pressed back against them with my own. It took her awhile to adjust her position but she tried it a few times before she realized I would not let her legs invade my precious foot space.
On the flight back a kid was putting his legs up on my seat and I felt it every single time he moved. This was before the flight even took off and I was out of my mind (my sister thought I was overreacting and I was like no I am not). The kid was old enough to have known it wasn’t correct behavior, he wasn’t a toddler. I turned around to his dad, who was sitting RIGHT next to him and was ignoring everything with head phones on and asked him to get his son to remove his feet off my seat (in a nice way). The father complied and the kid didn’t put them on for the rest of the flight but I couldn’t understand how he thought what his son was doing was appropriate. I shouldn’t have to parent your kid when I fly!
But the weirdest had to be the amputee who sat behind me (we both had window seats and he was also a talker and flirting with the girl next to him though he was married which I know because I had to listen to his entire life story) on a transatlantic flight who thought it was okay to stick his shortened limb between my arm rest and my window. His leg wasn’t on my arm rest, it was below wedged between my seat and the wall but fully in my view if I looked down at my arm rest. I was like your leg is ALREADY shorter to begin with, surely it doesn’t need more room? If it’s not okay with a full leg, it sure as heck isn’t okay for an amputated one! Unless it was more comfortable for it to be elevated?? I dunno, but he stopped doing it when he noticed me giving his leg weird looks through the gap. People really have no shame.
Ugh so freaking obnoxious! I truly don’t understand parents who act oblivious to their kids behavior. There is so little common curtesy left in this world. I absolutely hate when kids are behind you and put their feet on your seat, you can feel every single move they make, whether is be just pressing against it or full on kicking the seat. It can be anywhere too, a plane, church, a movie theatre. I never let my own kids do that, I would never do that so why in the world does it seem like everyone else thinks it’s no big deal?? Every thinks their own comfort is above everyone else’s.
Not only on planes but trains as well. I so want to say excuse me, would you mind if I walked over to your house and came inside and put my feet on your sofa? I’d say something if not in London and fear of getting stabbed. I try to give crazy eyes but they are blissfully unaware. I think some aren’t aware of others personal space.
Yeah the stuff you would like to say.My daughter complains about some boy in one of her classes who always sits behind her and puts his feet on the back of her chair.These are HS kids,he’s old enough to behave better.I told her to say hey I don’t walk on your clothes so keep your feet off mine.
Ugh so much is wrong here lol his feet, his tan line! I also am not okay with dogs just hanging out on the plane unless they are a service dog. I once had a woman sitting behind me with a dog who barked the ENTIRE flight and she refused to put him in his carrier, but when my daughter cried she threw a freaking fit. Everyone should watch the Sebastian Maniscalco comedy where he talks about how airplanes have become zoos.
Yeah the tan line is as questionable as his manners,almost-
Some former fight attendant runs an Instagram account, passengershaming , which documents some truly gross things. Bare feet is just the tip of the iceberg.
Note: it’s user submissions. I do t think she herself takes the photos as it seems she’s out of the airline industry
I thank Naomi Campbell for giving me the idea of wiping things down
I’m old enough to remember when flying was something special and people at least tried to behave themselves. Now ANYONE can fly and its hell. I was recently on a flight that had a school group on it and it was awful. People just don’t know how to act in public.
My brother is special needs and doesn’t lock the door when he goes to the bathroom on a plane. So I go with him and stand outside to make sure nobody walks in by mistake. I was chatting to flight attendant and told him what I was doing there. He laughed and told me that not locking the door is no big deal. A lot of people dont even close the door. We laughed about it. Someone came up to use the other bathroom and I moved out of the way. Sure enough, that person didn’t close the door. The attendant and I fell over laughing
I travel a lot for work and I can 100% confirm that people are GROSS. Planes are giant, flying tubes of farts, germs and a general breeding ground for human failings.
He was right to call him out. I used to be too shy to say anything in similar circumstances, but I’ve become more and more ruthless about it. I travel by train pretty often, and man, are people revolting. There is literally always at least one person with their feet/shoes on the seats. But that’s nothing compared to people who CLIP THEIR NAILS/CUT THEIR HAIR there and then, in the middle of the compartment. HOW is it possible to think that is OK?
I don’t understand how the dude is limber enough to cram his feet up there, lol.