Dude breaks up fight on NYC subway with bag of chips

[Video Link] SNACKMAN! (thanks, Sean Bonner)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: fights • Funny • subway • video • Weird

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http://twitter.com/slarkpope brian braiker

SUBLIMINAL snack man!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RORTZSJHWWFSAOR3SBPRSHWBTI B.

No food or drink on the subway please!
http://www.facebook.com/stevewhiteproductions Steve White

If we ban chips, then only criminals will have chips.
http://profile.yahoo.com/46AOBP72XH2J7ZKY5AW4B6ISZY GEOFFREY WHITMAN

This is the modern-day snack-based version of the fun cliche of the kung-fu monk-type fellow (usually deep into his dotage) who evades the attacks of a much younger, brasher Kung-fu-oso by simply eating a bowl of rice and not being where the fists are.
- hymenopterid
  
  Snacking Buddha technique.
  - BombBlastLightingWaltz
    
    He is obviously 7th dan potatoes chip level.
Guest

it’s like life at the edge of the mosh pit. Best view, occasional violent assault.
franko

BEHOLD, THE POWER OF CHEESE.
Marco Antonio Morales

Kudos to the guy! I’m not a big guy myself, and when there’s fights breaking out I find that walking backwards into the ‘tension center’ usually diffuses it. You are not being confrontational, but you’re blocking the way… and their biff is not with you, so they don’t hurt you. They’re usually too busy with each other (or too drunk) to notice that you’re doing it on purpose, and by the time they do, other people have come between them and it escalates down from there. Works every time! :D
- Donald Petersen
  
  Ah, if only Romeo had walked backwards, then maybe Tybalt and Mercutio would still be with us, and for that matter so would Romeo and Juliet.
  - http://deansli.st/ Dean Putney
    
    Shame they didn’t have potato chips in that time.
    - Donald Petersen
      
      T: “I am for you.” (Draws sword)
      R: “Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up.”
      M: “Come, sir, your passado.”
      (They fight)
      R: “Benvolio, my ridgèd Ruffles!”
      (munch munch)
      R: “Gentlemen, for shame! (munch munch) Forbear this (munch) outrage.”
      T: “What salty temptation is this? Will you not share?”
      R: “Aye, a bag for both our houses!”
      M: “I’ll wager thou art powerless to consume no more than one!”
      T: “Pax?”
      M: “Pax!”
      - teapot
        
        No I will bite my chip at them?
taj1f

I’ve used this exact tactic on the subway to disrupt uncivil behavior. It works best if I’ve got my headphones in. Then I just drift like “Captain Clueless” between the warring parties. As seen above, the diversion works wonders.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

If all it took was a bag of chips to prevent crime I’d be Superman.
http://twitter.com/weeshuggy Wee Shuggy

One of the few scenarios where I wish I had a bigger physical frame. At 5’6″/150, that crazy would plow right through the protective aura provided by Salty Crisps of Disaffectation +3.
- joeposts
  
  Don’t sell yourself short (LOL). When smaller people Step Up it’s because they are serious ass-kickers, obviously, or they wouldn’t put themselves in danger. I think the real trick is to have your cool face on.
  - blueelm
    
    Honestly, if it works for my tiny aged mother it can work for a slender, lighter, man. Also, most of us automatically think shorter men are making up for it somehow with skills and give ya’ll a little space just in case. lol!
    - penguinchris
      
      To be fair, I think your ‘tiny aged mother’ is much less likely to get shoved out of the way if she intervenes in a fight than an adult-but-not-elderly male of any size.
John Radi

Can you imagine what that dude could accomplish if he had salsa or cheese wiz?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4FUD4VOOO53VZJ7HLWAL3MMTIQ Joe F

Good thing he didn’t have Chex Mix. Otherwise a bigger fight would have broke out.
http://celesteagnes.blogspot.com/ Sekino

It’s more ‘Dude with bag of chips breaks up fight on NYC subway’

I was expecting some sweet (or salty) martial arts moves using the bag of chips itself.
- http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios
  
  How about “Dude eating bag of chips steps into the area where 2 other people were fighting”?
  
  From the headline I was expecting him to be offering the chips to the combatants.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    The subtlest fu is the strongest fu.
    - Shibi_SF
      
      I want this sentence on a t-shirt!
      - Hobozombie
        
        With a picture of a chip
      - Hobozombie
        
        Arg.
  - allium
    
    If TV isn’t lying to me, that only works with Mentos.
    - Guest
      
      wish this was facebook.
      
      Ayyyyyyyy.
  - D Wyatt
    
    I thought the exact same thing, man offers chips to angry hungry people, but alas it was really a man using his size to block another man from an attack of pathetic proportions.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Hung/100002536908419 Richard Hung

It wouldn’t surprise me if he did this for a living – like, say, a police officer or an upscale bar bouncer – or maybe a former MP/soldier/marine.

It’s pretty clear this guy knew what he was doing, and he USED his power of size for good, without abusing it. Actually, it was masterful – it looks like he gave up his seat just to do this.
- Lexicat
  
  I might have thought that if he had killed a few people just standing around just after spooging 10′-effective pepper spray directly down their throats, before water-boarding their corpses while his buddies made thumbs up signs on them for a photo op.
  - http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo
    
    Cognitive dissonance isn’t all bad.
    
    I’d wager many trained killers are quite decent people on the whole.
- stupocalypto
  
  Wouldn’t surprise, but I contend that your projection of a military based background may be naive… or irrelevant. Dude was just a dude.
  - http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo
    
    Says the guy with the Brock Samson avatar ; )
    - stupocalypto
      
      Haha, irony of the avatar is intended!
b4bad

You know what would be funny if this happens in LA… the dude with bag of chips will be fined $250 for eating in the subway…
- Brainspore
  
  If this was L.A. there wouldn’t be enough people riding the subway for this to occur in the first place.
  - adamnvillani
    
    I ride it every day in L.A., and it certainly gets pretty darn busy during rush hour.
    - Brainspore
      
      I know, I know—stereotypes. Sure didn’t get a lot of play when I was still living there though.
      - http://staresback.blogspot.in/ Scott Mercer
        
        Recent stats indicate that the Red Line in Los Angeles gets about 170,000 boardings a day. Seeing as LA has only 1 and 1/2 subway lines (plus four other light rail lines) that compares pretty well to any single subway line in NYC. Of course NYC has 22 lines in all, so the entire system handles way more people overall.
- Maria Pranzo
  
  Hahahahahahahahaha!!! A fine for eating on the subway…oh, that’s wonderful. You could eat a seven course meal on the subway in New York and nobody (including the cops) would blink. We also jaywalk without fear of repurcussions…unless you count the fear of getting run over by a cab going 70 mph.
  - http://staresback.blogspot.in/ Scott Mercer
    
    Nah, they only give out fines for eating on the LA subway once in a blue moon. They much more often give out tickets for riding without paying, because until recently, the LA Metrorail system had no barriers or turnstiles. Hard to believe, perhaps, but the honor system worked well. Every time I saw the cops giving out tickets, it was only to two people on a train out of a hundred, the other 98 people had paid the fare. And the people that didn’t pay were usually snotnosed teenagers. So, of course, they had to spend like $80 million to install turnstiles, a figure which will probably not be made up in increased revenues for decades. As a New Yorker, you know that people can (or used to be able to) just vault over the turnstiles and not pay. Those low barriers are the ones they installed here in LA. And I remember the “token suckers” in New York also. My point being that people are creative and can always find a way to cheat the system if they are broke and desperate enough.
travtastic

While I agree that dude is all dude, I would certainly change the headline to ‘Gentleman‘. Or ‘Dudely gentleman’.
- headcode
  
  Absolutely. He definitely did not have a chip on his shoulder. I checked.
Richard Harding

Reminds me of this story of Aikido by Terry Dobson.
http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC04/Dobson.htm
- geth
  
  The first thing I thought on seeing this was, “that’s some good aikido.”
- http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo
  
  Magnificent.
- BombBlastLightingWaltz
  
  a wonderful anecdote. Reminds me of a Taoist poem.
  
  (well the end of the poem, the rest you must find for yourself)
  
  Heavens ways is to sharpen without cutting
  As the sages way is to act without striving.
http://twitter.com/digitalArtform Joseph Francis

Wow! He really IS all that!
- rtresco
  
  I came to the comments specifically to see if it would be said. Well done!
  - http://twitter.com/digitalArtform Joseph Francis
    
    I came back to the comments to see if anyone had replied with ‘plus a bag of chips’ and you successfully resisted. Well done!
    
    :D
cbbb

I see the birth of a meme. Someone needs to mash this up with the pepper spray cop.
- charming.quark
  
  For pepper chips?
IronyElemental

My man needs to snack his way over to Gaza.
miasm

Thanks Tracy. This evening I’m here below street level investigating a strange new trend; a meme that has interjected upon subway riders everywhere.
Eating in the middle of; and thereby disrupting… fights.
Brainspore

Now I understand why Frito-Lay is sponsoring Kofi Annan’s diplomatic envoy to Syria.
- Guest
  
  Kofi certainly helps me move what can seem like intractable obstructions.
Snig

Internet says he was eating pringles, but the bag was gummi bears.
- mccrum
  
  Totally ‘shopped, I can tell by the pixels.
namnezia

I’m just impressed at how many chips are coming out of this little bag.
- senorglory
  
  ye of little faith.
- Guest
  
  Strange, because they seem to settle a lot.
Charlie B

Not much of a fight, but excellent passive blockage.
- http://twitter.com/palmbeachdude Jimbalaya
  
  In his arteries
noahantdragon

Original flava…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTDOLoDiOcg
keplers

he’s cute!
Guest

Awesome move. Courage and composure for the win!
friday

For Italian readers: l’eroe della patatina
D Wyatt

Why is there always fighting on transportation? People are stuck in these situations with the idiots, making it worse. I was expecting more from the chips than from the guy, was nice of him to intervene before someone got hurt.
D Wyatt

What I find most interesting is that he doesnt see the man as a threat so he turns his back to him, furthering my thought that the woman was in fact the aggressor and the threat. Boy did he get a heck of a kick in though, one that she repeatedly tried to match just after.
Guest

Truth in Advertising : Contents may settle during transport
omems

Might the other woman, who steps in toward the end, be considered a caped crusader?
aesteve212

Seems like the guy against the door was following the girl or something? The camera operator says as much too – I have a record of you following her. And then caped crusader comes in to sum it all up! Me thinks chip man is not the only hero here – maybe he and Lady Capelet are a crime-fighting duo!!
http://openid-provider.appspot.com/lordbyteme Lord Byte

You’re all wrong, he’s “Passive aggressive” man :)