Southwest Airlines just made a controversial decision and passengers can't decide how to feel

The tweet from Southwest Airlines stopped me in my tracks, and I found myself caught between two reactions:

The fun, happy, and yes-it-was-a-good-idea response that the Southwest Airlines passengers in the photo Southwest tweeted seemed to get. The shocked, surprised, not-no-but-heck-no reaction that a lot of people get on Twitter - some of them Southwest passengers, I guess (I mean, who Among Us Doesn't Fly Southwest Sometimes?) -- voiced.

Here's the background: Southwest passengers on a flight from Long Beach, Calif., to Honolulu got a surprise when they boarded the plane this week, in that Southwest had partnered to Guitar Center to give each passenger a ukulele, along with a 20-minute aerial lesson on how to play it.

I don't know if this reveal was more like "what color is that dress?" level of controversy, but it elicited intense and varied responses. For example, check out this title on the Flight Attendant website, Paddle Your Own Kanoo:

The stuff of nightmares: Southwest Airlines gave every passenger on a flight to Hawaii a ukulele and had them take lessons

Other sample answers:

"Do you think they could give me a parachute and open the door instead?" » "That would be my nightmare situation. Add to the list of reasons why I don't fly [S]southwest." "I'm a huge Southwest fan, but that could have made me murderous." "I literally can't think of anything worse my god."

In fact, I loved a one-word response to that last tweet about not being able to think of anything worse: "Recorders". (Yes, I agree. That would be worse.)

Anyway, I'm here to laugh a little at Southwest's expense and learn a lesson or two, but not to bury it. And, I think we can point to three simple reasons why it was a good idea, all things considered.

First, remember that this was a flight on a low cost carrier traveling from California to Hawaii. It was almost certainly full of vacationers or people living in Hawaii returning home from a trip to the mainland. In other words, it would be a very different scenario trying to do it on, say, a flight from Chicago to New York. Second is the southwest. I've written several times before about how Southwest Airlines took great advantage of its irreverent attitude, including blackmailing flight attendants and cracking jokes. Again, the waterfall simply matches the feel of a southwestern flight; you wouldn't do this in a business class cabin on another airline, even when traveling on a similar route. Third, consider the news we've seen regarding passenger behavior on other flights recently: for example, the American Airlines passenger who was seen on video assaulting a flight attendant this week (and s is found facing federal charges that theoretically carry a maximum of 20 years in prison. Juxtapose this last point with the story of the Southwest Airlines ukulele, and you can see good reasons for wanting to lighten the mood in air travel. plane these days.

I think even Southwest Airlines recognizes how this could have gone wrong; for example, just look at the fact that the airline tweeted its story about the ukulele giveaway at 2 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, but then rushed to clarify that passengers were asked to put away their ukuleles after the 20-minute lesson.

Which raises further questions:

Did they comply? Was it nonetheless the longest 20 minutes some passengers had ever endured? Can you actually learn to play that quickly, anyway, and if so, why didn't we all do it in elementary school instead of playing the aforementioned recorders? ...