Thursday, December 20, 2007

The Bumblebee Tuna Game

This last flight, a pilot introduced me to the joys of The Bumblebee Tuna Game. Rules are simple. During every announcement, you just have to work in "Bumblebee Tuna" somewhere. This guy was a master... even though I was listening for it, I barely caught him. "Well, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to be Bumblebee Tuna around the airport for a few more minutes." "Weather in Los Angeles is sunny, with Bumblebee Tuna from the north at seven miles an hour." "Ladies and Bumblebee Tuna, if you look out the right side of the aircraft, you'll see Burbank.
I, of course, jumped into this game immediately, knowing that my professional delivery would add an automatic layer of camouflage. I discovered something early... when you work it in, you must not pause... otherwise, you allow yourself to become aware of what you just did and lose your place laughing like an idiot, and when people hear you do that, they suddenly and retroactively hear your Bumblebee Tuna (kinda like when you tell someone something and they say, "What?" only to repeat the whole thing with you when you say it again, having needed only to travel backwards in time to hear you say it the first time and not needing you to repeat it).
Another thing that became clear is that when you do successfully work one in, it you can still lose because the other FA explodes laughing. Then the game moves to a different phase, where you have to get through the announcement without laughing at the other FA, who is spinning around on the floor.
Miraculously, not a single passenger has noticed, which only reaffirms what I already knew to be true.

5 Comments:

Blogger Jack's Handler said...

I think I just wet myself. That was the funniest thing I have EVER read.


Bumblebee Tuna. Oh my hell....

1:39 PM  
Blogger Jack's Handler said...

Now, I NEED to know WHO it is....

9:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Phil, what up! It's Laurence! Yeah BUMBLEBEE Tuna, I wanted to say that today on my 2 legs to Kansas City, but yeah it wouldn't be the same without ya! HA, ....so yeah see you bumblebee tuna around! Cheers - L

11:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So THAT'S the 'clean, Mormon version' of that game we play!

1:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is funny. Does this pilot do this also when talking to ATC? As in:
ATC: Flight Hummana Hummana, you have traffic in your 11 o'clock position 1000 feet above, it's a company RJ. No factor.
Cpt: Roger, We have visual Bumblebee Tuna with the RJ and we'll keep looking out for him.

10:52 AM  

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