There is a problem here, and it has nothing to do with airport security….


by RJ White

Recently, a 30-year old man was detained at London’s Heathrow airport, apparently for wearing a t-shirt featuring a robot from the Transformers film holding a large gun. (Also- the fellow’s profession? IT Consultant. Anyone shocked? No? Very good, then, moving along…)

Mr Jayakody said the first guard started joking with him about the Transformers character depicted on his French Connection T-shirt.

‘”Then he explains that since Megatron is holding a gun, I’m not allowed to fly,’ he said.

‘It’s a 40ft tall cartoon robot with a gun as an arm. There is no way this shirt is offensive in any way, and what I’m going to use the shirt to pretend I have a gun?

He was cooperative with the supervisor and took off the the ‘offensive’ T-shirt, replacing it with another shirt in his carry on luggage.

A spokesman for Heathrow operator BAA said: ‘If a T-shirt had a rude word or a bomb on it, for example, a passenger may be asked to remove it.

Well, to be fair, the film was quite a critical bomb, so it sort of fits, but we’ll leave that aside for the moment.

Now- one would think that the commenters on this story would leap upon it like a pack of rabid steampunk watch-wearing BoingBoing readers, full of indignant rage, shocked to the core that an airport security person had overstepped their bounds, for the first time in the history of anything, anywhere. But no! Instead, we get some editorializing about the gentleman’s sartorial choices-

I m more interested in why a 30 year old man is wearing a transformer t-shirt to begin with?

I can’t believe he made it past the fashion police.

If I were the cop, I would pull him aside and let him in on the secret of push ups and sit ups in the morning…

A 30 year old wearing a “Transformers” t-shirt? I reckon that’s offensive enough to prevent someone boarding. Grow up man, act your age.

And being from French Connection doesn’t make it any more acceptable.

Ermm… the bloke is 30. He’s wearing a t-shirt on a business trip. It depicts a child’s toy.

There is a problem here, and it has nothing to do with airport security….

He’s a grown man wearing a ‘Transformers’ Tee Shirt!

One wonders which cartoon character he has on his duvet and pyjamas.

Mr. Jaykody may not even know that, himself-

He keeps saying Megatron when it is Optimus Prime. Does he even know what shirt he is wearing?

Now, before we go- can we get just one Godwin? For the road?

Pity he caved in so easily to the Nazi Stormtroopers.

Ahhh… thank you.



it took her this long to file a lawsuit for this airfreshiner lawsuit probably would not have happend if transformers sucked at the boxoffice but with the popularity the film has made she decides to sue since the movie made that much money in the first place.


by Kevin Church

Alia Madden designed an air freshener in 2002 that featured a bee. A remarkably similar design showed up in 2007′s Transformers film. Madden, doing the logical thing, decided that she didn’t like her work being stolen and used in a commercial vehicle without credit or compensation and sued the production team. Of course, this means that the sharp legal minds in Transformers fandom had to have their say.

Once the first round of bitching about the prevalence of lawsuits is finished, Nemesis_Apoc decides it’s time for the Misogyny Train to come through the station:

bitch

He’s pretty much ignored so that reasonable heads can speak their mind, such as Bombus distinguendus, who must have taken a break from reviewing a legal brief to hammer this out:

this will settel out of court with prob a written apology. 850k isnt alot for dreamworks…thats like pocket change, i feel bad for her cuz if this is true her reputation has since suffered cuz ppl think she copyed from the movie and no one belives her that she didnt. that would irritate me enough to sue oh well. the story gave me a good laugh.

PrimulArchangel, however, is having none of this, and hammered out a response that would make Atticus Finch quake in his boots:

She’s just trying to cash in.. If the movie was a flop she would have never done this , Typical .. Got to love america we can sue for anything we want ,, WTF she think dreamworks was going to use them for ?? Got to be a dumb ass to have a movie studio buy stuff from you and not know it will be used in a movie.. What did she think they woud be handed out to actors to keep there trailers smelling nice ? LOL .. She knew exactly what was up and then someone probably put the idea into her head that ” hey ya know , you can sue them and say you didnt give permission cause nothing was in writing !!!”
You got to be completely stupid to be upset about being part of a movie like this, she’s making a nice chunk of change because of this .

Then, maddingly, there’s four or five reasonable responses to the matter, stating that there was most likely some miscommunication, but there should be some sort of compensation, especially if there were licensed air fresheners that used her design. Thankfully, BlackOut2K8 is there to provide a double dose of…something.

It took her this long to notice something this small? People today are always looking for something to sue over, it ain’t like Dreamworks is making replicas of the freaken air freshener and selling them under their own name. The case mat be thrown out due to lack of evidence towards damages or she may get way less because Dreamworks aren’t claiming its their design. In any case it’s something stupid and how the legal system is having all these loopholes people are suing for all types of stupid $h!t for @$$ loads of money and in the end they don’t even get 1/3 of the so called damages. Someone please swat this b!tch upside her fat head. :HEADHURTS: :BOOM:

Oh, that’s right, idiocy and more misogyny. And an apparent fear of actually cursing, the fuckbag.

dragons has two cents and he’s not afraid to throw it in:

how sad poeple are idiotic they will do anything to try to get free money even lower them shelves as something stupid lawsuits like this one to try and get money poeple are sue happy i read somewhere some guy is suing mtv for the rights of the jacka$$ name stating the mtv used his name which is jacka$$ for the title of the show and the movies without his permission you need to be called a jacka$$ for suing something dumb like that.

it took her this long to file a lawsuit for this airfreshiner lawsuit probably would not have happend if transformers sucked at the boxoffice but with the popularity the film has made she decides to sue since the movie made that much money in the first place.

This goes on and on and on until somebody called Sherad who’s spending his time arguing over a legal matter he has no connection to on a Transformers blog breaks out this bon mot that pretty much heralds the end of Western Civilization:

Anyhow, my point stands.
It’s an air freshener.
And you all say “but it’s her propperty…”, so here’s what I think. If I was desinging air fresheners to start, I should:
1. Rethink my life plans.
2. Hope I’m working for a larger company who exports to smaller companies or just happens to be the biggest Air Freshener company in the world.
3. There’s a slight chance that I’d be happy with my job, taking what I get.

These are just some of the highlights. If you feel like putting on your waders and going into the deep end yourself, have at it.

Thanks to Derooftrouser for the tip. I think.