Comedian Guy Branum is known for his regular appearances on Chelsea Lately, the 2011 movie No Strings Attached, and as a guest contestant on Jeopardy! Branum had an air travel nightmare when facing a disgruntled passenger on a Delta Airlines flight from New York to Los Angeles over the weekend.
Posting an explanation and a video of the encounter on his Instagram, Branum claims the male passenger sitting next to him elbowed him before takeoff for being overweight.
Branum told TMZ that he had paid for a comfort plus seat in business class and was seated in the middle seat. The aisle seat passenger was “immediately pissed off” and began arguing over having no space. When Branum said he could not move over to make more space, the passenger elbowed him hard in his side.
They continued to have a tense conversation about the armrest, with the passenger saying he was a member of Weight Watchers, before Branum brought the issue to the attention of a flight attendant.
The comedian claims the passenger complained he was “fat,” with the flight attendant and other staff coming to “observe to see if I was too fat.” After seeing that Branum was fine, a flight attendant moved the passenger aside to speak to him and later asked a woman in the aisle across to switch seats with him, to which she agreed.
Branum also refused to delete the video he recorded after the flight attendant asked him to, with other passengers claiming the disgruntled passenger had been difficult before.
“On Sunday, a guy hit me on a plane, and @delta didn’t throw him off the flight or have him arrested because they were too busy determining if I was too fat or not. (The flight crew was amazing and supportive, but the @delta redcoat treated me like an object),” wrote Branum in his post.
Due to Branum’s post, Delta issued a statement to TMZ saying, “Delta sincerely appreciates the actions of our crew and customers for deescalating this situation. We apologize to our customers for the delay and thank them for their understanding. Delta’s Customer Care team is reaching out to speak directly with our customer as we look into his claims.”
