Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Hardly Humour

The Prime Minister has blasted a trio for what he calls an "irresponsible stunt from a bunch of clowns who should know better".
On Saturday police launched a manhunt after DJ Bryce Casey posed as a pilot and tried to access a restricted area at Auckland Airport. He, the TV3 show's star Ben Boyce, and producer Andrew Robinson have been charged with breaching the Civil Aviation Act.
Boyce says the prank was meant to be harmless: “He didn’t look like a pilot, unshaven, tattoos, no ID, he just went up and said ‘I’m flying the next plane out of here,’ and they'd pick holes through the story because he had no idea what flight he's on.” Oh. Ha-ha...I laughed til I stopped.
Ben Boyce in a show promo -
get a haircut an' get a real job!
Boyce apologised on social media, but if he thinks that gets him off the hook, he’s mistaken. If found guilty, the penalty's up to 12mths' prison or a possible $10K fine. The three were in court on Monday and will be back next month, but are not allowed near the airport.
Yesterday, police also arrested a cameraman, a sound recordist, and a production coordinator: TV3 claims it knew nothing about the skit beforehand.
The Airline Pilots' Association wants 'em jailed: "Incarceration for a short time of reflection would be appropriate," says aviation security co-ordinator Paul Lyons. "If they think security matters are to be treated in a frivolous and humorous fashion, we don't see that in a humorous way at all."
Ben Boyce : “We're sorry we caused alarm and we hope people don’t get full-cavity searched when they travel, thanks to us.” Hardly sincere, attempting to joke in mid-apology.
Can anyone tell me what was meant to be funny about this whole thing? The proximity to the anniversary of September 11 is piss poor timing! To me, it's just another example (a la Iain Stables, Paul Henry, Tony Veitch etc) where media people think they know better...

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