I don't understand how hearing the same jokes over and over again is worse than hearing the same DVD/CD of the safety briefing...

I disagree. A good FA injecting some genuine levity or wit into the safety presentation does tend to wake people up...and since safety should be the primary concern, varying the usual script in order to have pax pay attention (especially the infrequent flyers) is something I appreciate. Song used to have some really funny safety spiels that I still remember with a chuckle. Once on a Comair flight I was up front with an FA that loved giving sotto voce asides to her safety presentation...she cracked me up and made my toy plane flight a joy.

There is nothing more boring than the usual stuff done by lifeless FAs...and nothing better than FAs showing some spark even in the routines and being personable with the pax. I much appreciate the latter!

Agreed 100%

And ALL of us have at LEAST 2 airlines' fleets' safety messages memorized...

Had a great WN crew yesterday who were in good spirits and super attentive despite a day full of mechanicals and delays for them.

Yesterday's variation: "Put your mask on first, then assist your child or others. If you have two children....decide which one has more potential." It got good crowd reaction on each segment.

I agree with this.

Most people on the plane don't fly once a week or more, ever week, week in and week out.

I was on a ComAir flight from BWI to BOS, there were two pax on the RJ, myself and the lady next to me, that was it. The FA smiles and said "have you both flown in the last year?" we both said "yes" , the FA smiled and said "Here's the speech, put your seat belt on, it's early, go to sleep, see you in Boston!"

I do hear the "funny" announcements once in a while. Though now that I think about it, they happen pretty much only on WN flights, in my experience.

I'm not a fan of them, but then again, I'm not a fan of WN, so I guess it all works out.

Although I never flew Valujet, a friend of mine did. She said the FA was telling jokes during the briefing and said something like, "In case of emergency, panic!" That gave me the chills because I keep imagining that sort of briefing before their infamous crash into the Everglades. I can't even imagine that sort of joke and then suddenly the panic is real...ugh! (Pass the Xanax.)

i'd probably enjoy an occassional joke in the short spiel; however i can't help but wonder: is it "legal"? i mean, does the airline "officially" allow it as a valid security briefing? if some passenger was to raise a stink w/the airline regarding the lack of a proper security briefing, or worse yet sued the airline on the grounds of having followed the (funny/sarcastic) security briefing and thereby incurring some moronic losses...... would that even be entertained by any legal body??

Buaah, all these sad littles frequent flyers in here who don't want to hear the same jokes over and over again and how unprofessional blabla.

As much as I understand this you should note that most pax on a plane fly quite seldom and are more then nervous. A joke once in a while lowers the tensions and get people to listen. Of course, too many jokes in one sentence is clearly too much or "bad" jokes, but why not add a funny line or two in the security announcement.

People relax and shows the FAs are in a good mood.

I've been flying Virgin blue lately and they handled these things very well. A FA was even singing a nice song over the speaker.
Infamous lines like "Cpt Kangaroo will bounce us now to the gate, plase reamin seated" or what I heard on such a flight "Do not smoke in lavatory, we installed smoke detectors and video cameras to observe activities in there" or just nice additions.

W

that was GREAT, I have forwarded to many of my friends, thanks

Wow .. I think those of you who are offended by a little joke in the safety briefing should cheer up a bit and have a better sense of humor of your own.

Life is too short to complaint about little things.

I (Liz) once got in to a load of trouble off a trainer for saying in the 'after take off PA'

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the toilets are located at the rear of the cabin and for the comfort and safety of all our passengers they are fitted with toilet rolls." She was not amused, but the pax loved it.

Julie here got a good laugh by getting me to pause during the briefing and she stopped her demo, went to two business men who were talking rudely and said she loudly

"Gentlemen, are your names Mr Manners and Mr Pleasant? No? Sorry! Your mistake!"

We have never properly messed on with the safety announcement though. It has to have brevity and can still be made engaging if said with sincerity, but with all the others why not have a little tease of the passengers. You must appreciate repeating the same endless groundhog PA's is dull and tiresome and we always get the impression no one listens.

Our favourite on short haul was before landing:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, right, wake-up now and smell the runway if you missed the coffee earlier. We will shortly be bumping down and the Captain requests that you put on your seat belt, the Crew request that you put on your shoes. PLEASE! The CAA request that you place your luggage away safely and good sense requires you to place your seat back and tray table in the upright position. Your reward for good behaviour and compliance will be a smile from us that carries you through your day. This is a once in a flight-time opportunity and not to be missed!"

Honestly we used to get applause. Oh we miss short haul! Oh yes, and our best response to a bad boner shaker landing was always

"On behalf of Captain Thumper and First Officer Bambi, broken concrete evidence that we've arrived at ******.

They loved that one too. The secret with all this as Crew is to make your own teases up, keep them appropriate, and judge the mood of the passengers. People think we are witty, but there is a lot of self amusement involved, it keeps us fresh and interested, and that can never be a bad thing. (But some of you are right on here, some of these pax chats have been floating around for ten years. BORING!) We wrote loads more in our book, if you really like them, and some of those are very cheeky and we don't know how we got away with them, but we did!

Love,

Liz & Julie x

I don't think it's unprofessional; it's at least funny and humor is a healthy thing.

As far as legality (with my limited legal education), I would imagine that as long as all the necessary safety information is successfully relayed without confusion, I think it's legal, or at least not illegal. I doubt any jokes the FA injects into the instructional could be misconstrued and followed by a passenger in an emergency, I would hope.

This is a very good thing that they are putting jokes in the safety part. It makes the trip more worthwhile and a bit fun for newbies of flying.