Long ago I went
to China with a friend who was adopting a little girl. China was fantastic. The locals we met were talented, hard-working,
and friendly. We enjoyed seeing the
sights and checking out local cuisine.
We soon learned, however, that while the police were welcoming and helpful,
we needed to avoid Chinese soldiers. It seemed that they didn’t want us there.
On our last
day in China, our guide took us to the U.S. embassy to fill out some papers
before our flight. I was homesick and
was a little frazzled by that point. As
we got out of the car, I was concerned to see a group of Chinese soldiers
approaching us. The guide explained that
they had to search us before we went into the embassy.
Frustrated,
I whispered to my companion, “I hope they don’t find the revolver in my
purse.” Apparently Chinese soldiers have
acute hearing and speak English. As they
swarmed me and my purse, our guide panicked and repeatedly said, “NO
JOKING!!!” Finding nothing of interest
in the purse, the soldiers angrily sent us on our way. Other comedians have not been so lucky.
In 1986, Trygve
Bauge took his mother to the Denver airport where she was scheduled to fly to
Norway. When the agent saw two people
but only one ticket, she asked how many were traveling on the flight. Bauge answered that his mother was the
passenger and that he was only there to “hijack the plane.” The agent warned Bauge that it was dangerous
to make jokes in an airport, but he exclaimed, “This is a free county, and as a
member of the Libertarian political party” he believed in freedom of
speech.
When the
police arrived, Bauge refused to answer any questions without his lawyer being
present. He ordered the police to advise
him of his Miranda rights. Frustrated,
they arrested Bauge and threw him in a holding cell.
While locked
up, Bauge “penned a list of grievances against the police.” When they came to transport him to the local
jail, he insisted on reading this “legal notification” to them. They responded by confiscating Bauge’s pencil
and paper. They kept him under lock and
key for ten days. They also reported him to the FBI and the Immigration and
Naturalization Service. INS confined him
for another four days. A federal lawsuit
ensued.
Among other
arguments, Bauge reminded that court that in 1984, Ronald Reagan jokingly told
folks, “We have outlawed Russia forever.
We begin bombing in five minutes.”
How could the President get away with joking about a nuclear bomb while
Bauge ended up in jail for joking about a hijacking?
He also
pointed out that lots of folks know someone named “Jack.” He asked, “If you were to greet him with ‘Hi,
Jack’ would they call out the SWAT team?”
When these
arguments fell on deaf ears, Bauge claimed that he had received rough treatment
because he was Norwegian. The Court responded,
“I have never heard of, and – aside from a modest aversion to Greig or a bad
experience in the Winter Olympics – can conceive of no basis for, racially
based antipathy towards Norwegians. . . I find the idea that the Denver City
Police Department is seething with officers bearing a grudge against Norway,
fanciful in the extreme.” The Court
tossed Bauge’s claim. A few years later,
INS deported him to Norway.
Bauge is
one of many people who learned that joking in airports can be dangerous. In 2014, a physician made a comment about
carrying a bomb. The airport closed
down, a bomb squad came in, and the doctor was fined $90,000.
As for me,
I have learned that joking with authority figures can be dangerous. When I see my friend “Jack” in the airport,
I’m careful to say, “Hello, Jack.” I’ve
even warned my sons, whose last names are “Solberg,” to never listen to Greig or even ABBA when they are anywhere near Denver. After all, one can’t be too careful.
