Threats in Canadian Airports: OK, As Long As They’re Funny

Via Reuters:

The Canadian Air Transport Safety Authority, trying to clamp down on screeners who alert police every time they hear alarming words, has issued a bulletin urging staff to show more discretion.

A person who announces “You better look through my suitcase carefully, because there’s a bomb in there”, “I am going to set fire to this airplane with this blowtorch” or “The man in seat 32F has a machine gun” will still be arrested.

But someone who remarks “Your hockey team is going to get bombed (badly beaten) tonight”, “Hi Jack!” or “You don’t need to frisk me, I’m not carrying a weapon” will first be warned about their behavior.

Like stand-up comedy, it’s really all about the delivery. It’s not necessarily what you say, but how you say it. So as long as you make it sound funny, they’ll likely let you off the hook. Let’s just hope the terrorist training camps don’t start passing out leaflets on how to improve one’s sense of comedic timing.