To be fair, the rudeness is often a two-way street, and throwing a bottle of cologne at anyone is never acceptable behavior under any circumstances. It's far better IMHO to keep a cool head in the face of unwarranted rudeness, rather than escalate things...makes the rude person look like that much more of an asshat in the process

I've only ever been through security at ORD once, and it was a wholly unremarkable experience (well, except for my usual eye-rolling about the liquids ban), so I can't comment too much on the local TSA there. Perhaps the producers were worried that a local TSO would be recognized afterward by out-of-town audience members at the airport?

--Sam