ABSTRACT
Many things about the 1980 movie Airplane seem dated today: afros, feathered hair, leisure suits, parodies of jive talk, and jokes about pedophilia. There is one recurring scene, however, that captures the atmosphere of the 1970s particularly well. As each character enters the airport, a member of the Religious Consciousness Church gives him or her a flower and asks for a donation. The second time this happens to Ted Striker, the disillusioned former military pilot, he punches the cult member in the face. In the movie theater, audiences cheered.1 Today, however, this scene elicits awkward silence; the joke does not resonate because the scenario that it mocks is so unfamiliar. Instead of religious groups in the airport there are cell phone kiosks, fast food outlets, duty-free shops, and designer boutiques.
