Humour in Safety Demonstrations

[Gone U/S]

Hi all

So this is my first discussion post ... any thoughts welcomed. (and criticism as well :=)

I am used to travelling on airlines such as Qantas and other such "frills airlines" where the safety demonstration is stressed to passengers and had my first experience of travelling on Germanwings recently where they used humour in the safety demonstration.

Just curious if you think this actually is a good idea or does it downgrade the severity of the safety demonstration. I know for example for cabin crew it can be a good indicator to see who is paying attention and therefore who can be of use in an emergency type situation but at the same time, i thought it undervalued the message that a safety demonstration should put across.

After all, the primary reason for cabin crew is for the safety of the passengers and therefore it is important that a humourous safety demonstration does not undermine the roles they play in the cabin.

For example phrases such as "there may me several ways to leave your partner but there are only 4/6 (depending on aircraft type) to leave this aircraft." :cool: I agree that comments like this can be humourous and good ways to get the pax's attention but in the end of the day do you think they hinder or help in the definition of the role of cabin crew and the message that the safety demonstration is putting across.

Your thoughts on this subject ....
:ok:

[SquawkModeA]

Not easy. Humour might help draw attention to the demo, but on the other hand it probably also degrades the quality of said demonstration.

Personally I think that the best attention-getter would be along the lines of "in case of an in-flight decompression of the cabin, oxygen masks will be released from the ceiling. We would advise you to /quickly/ pull down and use them, because at 35,000 feet, unconsciuosness from hypoxia will follow within ten seconds..." and so on.

Not likely to happen, though.

[flapsforty]

I use a mix of humour and statistically sound scare mongering during the introduction speech.
The appeal to their "smarts" gives many pax a good excuse to watch. It becomes "cool" instead of silly to pay attention.
Then I do the actual demo totally straightlaced.
With 90% of them looking.

Works for me anyway.......... ;)

[MarcAir]

Being a F/a and EP Trainer, humour is a funny way to get them to pay attention, but what you have to think about is what did they actually take in? The F/a on this side was very funny but this one on my side is real serious! Virgin Blue was doing a lot of silly actions with their Demo and eventually became more serious with it so people would respect them as crew in the case of a emergency. I prefer my crews to look professional but still look relaxed with a smile so as to not scare the F*#k out of them when doing it!
My thought! :O

[pinni]

I think the demo should be done seriously. Plently of time in the flight to be nice, funny, have a laugh etc. with pax.

I personally do the demo with a straight face - and it gets peoples attention. After all I dont care if it is scare mongering - it is very serious! As soon as finished demo the smile is on my face whilst I do cabin secure. Trivialising the nature of the safety demo is an unecessary way to try and make the airline popular.;)
Just my opinion

[Departures Beckham]

One flag carrier i've travelled with many times has used the same safety video for years. The entire video is a cartoon with the Pink Panther (not flapsforty), and covers all areas you would expect plus a couple of added humour moments. I will always watch the cabin crew during their safety demonstration, but this video in particular seems to get more attention than most. I also think seeing a situation acted out rather than just shown (i.e. seeing the Panther crawling along the cabin floor as there is thick smoke above him rather than just being shown the emergency lighting) gives a better understanding and prepares people better.



Oh yeah, which airline do you think uses the Pink Panther?



I bet you wont guess....



Anyone?



It's EL-AL.

I told you that you wouldn't guess!

[ezygalleyboy]

My airline actually welcome crew to use their sense of humour if they are comfortable doing so (i.e. if you're funny, be funny, but if you aint, then don't!) However, we are absolutley forbidden to use any humour in the safety demo. In our manuals, this PA is highlighted as a "read word for word" demo by being boxed.

The way I get my pax looking and listening is my using a bit of humour in the welcome onboard PA when introducing the crew and going over the flight time etc. Then when you go into the demo you have most of them looking, and because they can see you are now being serious again, they do pay a lot of attention.

However, I do miss some of the PA's I have heard being used...

"If we do crash land in a disco, you have a light and a whistle for attracting the attention of people you fancy"

ezygalleyboy xx