Kudos to New York Times advertising columnist Stuart Elliott, who decoded the I’m-quitting saga of JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater in a pop-cultural context:

How many see the resemblance between Steven Slater of #jetblue and Stephen Stucker, who played the sassy Johnny character in “Airplane”?

Sure enough, the resemblance is uncanny. I would have run side-by-side headshots of Steven and Stephen, but I couldn’t find decent enough photos of them (not surprisingly for Stucker, who’s been dead for a quarter-century). But it’s there. The fact that they are/were both gay probably also contributes to the similarity.

It also doesn’t hurt that Slater’s real-life meltdown could have been scripted right out of Airplane!. And by the way, don’t call me Shirley.