T.S.A. — Take Scissors Away
Key & Peele explore the expensive and inefficient nature of TSA
It was mid-flight that James Petrovic realized his carry-on backpack contained more than just his laptop. Somehow, despite passing through TSA security, Petrovic had forgot his loaded revolver in his bag and the screening he had gone through did little to remind him. When Petrovic landed, he reported the gun to the TSA and was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor. On the other hand, Jordan Peele’s bad intentions and plan to take down a plane with 5-inch scissors was foiled because of the TSA’s policy requiring scissors to be less than 4 inches. While the former scenario is true, the latter simply took place in a Key and Peele comedy sketch that highlights the issues the TSA faces.
Through the use of comedy in the “Al-Qaeda Meeting” sketch, Key and Peele are able to represent the threat of terrorism in a humorous way — allowing the audience to laugh sarcastically at the rules the TSA enforces. In this sketch, Key, Peele, and other comedians are dressed and act as Al-Qaeda members planning a terrorist attack on the United States. However, all their ideas to hijack planes are foiled by the restrictions of the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA. These restrictions are the seemingly pointless rules that travelers must follow. Throughout the sketch, these arbitrary rules are played up and made fun of. The “game” of the sketch, the comedic scenario in other words, is the fact that the TSA’s rules constantly ruin the plans of the terrorists. The “beats” of the sketch, or the escalations of the comedic premise, consist of the new hijacking ideas that are subsequently dismissed. This sketch is humorous because it exposes a lot of true absurdities regarding the organization.
The Transportation Security Administration was born from tragedy, as it was created shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11th. The TSA was established as the primary security at all national airports with the goal of preventing a terrorist attack on airplanes in the future. The increasing discussion of terrorism in recent years has made the presence of the TSA more and more obvious and obtrusive. This is most prominently seen with the increased security measures that passengers must take before boarding a flight. With security seemingly the number one priority of the TSA, security clearance times have skyrocketed to as high as 90 minutes at some airports, frustrating many Americans.
The frustration that Americans feel with the current state of the TSA is expressed in Key and Peele’s comedy sketch. While Key and Peele describe the appearance of TSA workers as listless and overweight, the main frustration expressed in the skit is the plethora of seemingly pointless restrictions the TSA has put in place.
The first restriction that Key and Peele bring up is that scissors must be less than 4 inches long to be allowed on airplanes by the TSA. Specifically, the TSA states that “if packed in carry-on, they must be less than 4 inches from the pivot point.” Key and Peele’s parody highlights the clear idiocy of this rule — why are 4-inch scissors just “a child’s play thing” yet 5-inch scissors not allowed? This absurdity is further made obvious with another seemingly pointless rule that does not allow liquids exceeding 3.4 ounces to be stored in carry-on luggage and the requirement that laptops be removed from cases before going through the X-ray machine. The sketch makes it clear that such arbitrary rule designation is confusing and useless. As the sketch progresses and the rules become more and more ridiculous, the sketch becomes closer and closer to reality.
Key and Peele’s terrorists claim that the TSA is always one step ahead of them, shedding light to the exact opposite truth. In fact, the TSA is consistently one step behind the threat and simply follows a lethargic and reflexive process. The heightened liquid restrictions mentioned were enacted after terrorists attempted to smuggle liquid explosives onto a plane in 2006, yet creating rules after they have already been broken is a losing battle. Instead of simply reacting to the past attempts of terrorists, the TSA must take a proactive approach to continually regulate truly potential threats.
Despite these flaws, the measurement of the success of the TSA can shed light on its effectiveness. The first way to measure the success of the TSA is by the fact that since it was established in 2001, no airplanes have been successfully hijacked or bombed, a matter the disgruntled terrorists in the sketch desperately loathe. This fact is quite remarkable considering the number of international and domestic terrorist threats the United States faces.
Terrorism is broadly defined as using violence to instill fear in a group.
Through the establishment of the TSA immediately following terrorist attacks, the image of security was created, easing fear and thus reducing the effect of terrorism. The lack of plane related terrorism has further instilled the idea of security and maybe even deterred terrorism. However, despite this relative success, the effectiveness of the TSA has been called into question considering the enormous resources it requires and delays it has become infamous for.
In like manner to how the TSA “strikes fear” into the heart of Key and Peele’s terrorists, the TSA’s propensity for causing passengers to miss flights furthers the public's distaste for it. Countless vacations and family trips have been ruined by the TSA’s random bomb screenings on innocent children that cause families to be late to their flights. In addition, the TSA’s long process of security has caused the waiting associated with flying to reach all-time highs and the experience of flying to be more grueling than ever. These common anecdotes would be forgivable if not for the other issues that plague the TSA.
One main area the TSA is criticized in is its passenger screening efficiency. A stunning internal report in 2015 revealed that in a test by Homeland Security, mock explosives and guns were allowed past security 95 percent of the time! When the success of the TSA is measured in such a quantitative manner, it seems to point to not only inefficiency but complete failure. Much of the failure Key and Peele’s terrorists experience in the sketch is mimicked in the TSA, as the TSA’s screening procedures have significant limitations that pose a stark danger. TSA insiders have even described the scanners as ineffective and easily manipulated. These results seem to highlight a common complaint that describes the TSA screening as “theatre” made to create the illusion of safety. This can be seen with the procedure requiring passengers to remove their shoes with little security purpose. While the TSA states that security is “both seen and unseen, including: intelligence gathering and analysis, cross-checking passenger manifests against watchlists, screening at checkpoints, random canine team screening at airports, reinforced cockpit doors, Federal Air Marshals, armed pilots and a vigilant public”, these facts speak a different story.
It is certainly obvious that the TSA’s security measures have escalated at an unsustainable rate, with airports across the nation boasting expensive arsenals of full-body scanners and x-ray machines. While these implementations are certainly intimidating, they also foot a hefty price tag. The TSA will be receiving $7.2 Billion in funding in 2018 after cuts to its budget made by President Trump. With an increasing deficit and multiplying threat facing the US, changes must be made. One leading solution to the TSA is the privatization of airport security. While this solution may sound extreme, it is already in place at 22 airports across the nation that have been allowed to contract their security. Private contractors have been found to be more efficient at screening passengers and finding security threats. In addition, the implementation of private security nationwide would yield massive savings. Such a solution would allow for competition between companies and bring out the best security possible, allowing for pleased passengers and safer day-to-day security operations.
Interestingly enough, “The Al-Qaeda Meeting” sketch is not the only time the TSA is brought up in Jordan Peele’s work. In his recent hit horror film, “Get Out”, a TSA agent named Rod Williams acts as both a comedic relief and as a hero to the plot. The brave actions Rod Williams undertakes and the skills he says he has learned with the TSA stand as a gold standard for where the organization could be. Unfortunately, the current state of the TSA is far from William’s claims of knowing more than detectives.
While the TSA has been efficient enough to stop threats in the past, the evolving nature of terrorism poses a severe danger to the United States. The multitude of problems that face the TSA stem from its security theatre and its inefficiency and expensive nature must adapt to keep the bad intentions of characters like Parvez Peele from materializing.
