The Daily Show on the Chick-fil-A Drive-Thru Bully August 8, 2012

The Daily Show on the Chick-fil-A Drive-Thru Bully

By Hemant Mehta
August 8, 2012

Last night, The Daily Show talked about Adam Smith‘s video of himself driving through a Chick-fil-A drive-thru and berating the person taking his order for working there:

…

Rachel Elizabeth, the employee who showed incredible patience during his video, gave an interview to FOX News Channel and said she accepted Smith’s apology:



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  • HughInAz

    The Fox video caption says, “Rachel Elizabeth who was attacked at Chick-fil-A”. Give me a break! She was made to feel uncomfortable by some self-important jerk, but she wasn’t attacked!

  • No, she was attacked, because Christians are heavily persecuted in the U.S., and they’re having their freedom of speech suppressed on a daily basis by Obama and Muslims and the godless. And because no one is standing up for Christians, soon they’ll be attacking the Jews and the Blacks and Browns and next it’ll be you.

  • See, this is a great example of someone trying to do the right thing and then totally futzing it up because their gigantic ego gets in the way. *sigh*

    I’ve worked in positions like this lady has…I’ve put up with dozens of people (usually cranky old men) coming to me and saying “I’m really upset about ___! I know it’s not your fault…BUT I’M GOING TO GRIPE ABOUT IT TO YOU ANYWAY.” They don’t actually want to fix the problem, otherwise they’d go to a manager. What they actually want is someone to listen to them rant. To which I say: Awesome! We all need to vent occasionally. Life is stressful. But this is what blogs are for! Maybe instead of being a giant dick, you should go start one!

    But nobody ever listens to me. =P

  • Hmm. I think “attacked” is a little inflammatory, as Fox News likes to be. He did single her out, though. “I don’t know how you stand to work here”, etc. He tried to shame and belittle her when he knew she wasn’t in a position to fight back. So I think it was a little more serious than just being made to feel uncomfortable.

  • ReadsInTrees

     I can’t tell if this is a sarcastic comment or a troll…

  • ..

  • JMB

     It’s not an official Fox News video, so the “attacked” line was just added by whoever uploaded it…

  • A Reader

    I’m not getting what part of this guy’s brain went, “Hey! I’ll just go harass some innocent, minimum-wage worker and post video of it on the internet, so everybody can see me being a douche! What a great idea!” She handled it with a million times the class I would have.

  • Annie

    I think Rachel is right… she wasn’t a hero.  A hero implies that you went above and beyond, in the risk of danger to yourself in order to save another person.

    She handled the situation with grace and patience, and should be commended.  But hero?

  • Bruce_wright

    Being an hourly retail worker sucks.  This kind of stupid abusive stuff would happen WEEKLY when I worked at Blockbuster.  The world is FILLED with assholes who want to take out their aggression on people who can’t fight back.  It doesn’t matter what corporate policy people don’t like… they will treat the hourly employee like shit just to give someone shit.

  • Trickster Goddess

    I agree very much. The interviewer saying he probably would have been nasty back to the guy doesn’t understand the job. The are millions of service workers in the country and the ones who can’t hold their composure in the face of an upset customer don’t have their jobs very long.

    Having worked in that field, I quickly came to some realizations:

    1) Don’t take it personally. Most of the time it isn’t even you they are mad at, it is the company, so you don’t have to get defensive.

    2) The person has probably been having a bad day otherwise and whatever they are upset about is just one more thing.

    3) Usually they just want to vent their emotions and hear some sympathetic response, which makes them feel better and costs you nothing.

    4) If all else fails, “confide” in them about how lousy your management is (even if it actually isn’t) and how you get stuck dealing with all their upset customers. One time I did this and the guy instantly turned from red-faced screaming irate to sympathetic and saying how glad he was that he didn’t have my job.

  • Coyotenose

     There are some telltale signs that he(?) is being sarcastic. But when it’s too close to call, click on the picture and check the poster’s other activity on the site. I’ve had to do so a few times.

  • Coyotenose

    Silly human, if you want to be listened to, go rant at strangers who can’t talk back without risking their jobs 😛

  • Ken

    Interesting how the Atheist community has pretty much publicly disavowed Smith’s behavior.  It would be reassuring if similar conscientious objections to bad behavior were to appear publicly from the Christian quarters.   Too bad the Bible doesn’t tell them what to do in these embarrassing situations, like most of the times Pat Robertson opens his mouth.

  • Trickster Goddess

    Note to Canadians: you can see The Daily Show (full episodes) here:

    http://www.thecomedynetwork.ca/Shows/TheDailyShow

  • Piet

    I’m pretty sure he was being sarcastic.
    But remembering the trollness seen here lately, I totaly understand your comment.

  • Aaron Scoggin

    Let me guess – There was some spin about how the atheists are mean-mean-meanies..