Robert Hays Recounts Practical Joke Leslie Nielsen Pulled on Extras During Making of “Airplane!”

Virginia ChamleeFri, June 12, 2026 at 3:31 PM UTC

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Robert Hays (left), Leslie NielsenCredit: Paul Archuleta/Getty; Noel Vasquez/WireImage -

Airplane! cast member Robert Hays is remembering one of Leslie Nielsen's favorite practical jokes

Nielsen was known to use a fart machine on set

As Hays recounted, the joke worked on two female extras who came on set excited to meet the star

Airplane! cast member Robert Hays is recounting how star Leslie Nielsen would play practical jokes on the set of the 1980 film.

In a recent appearance on the Naked Lunch podcast, host Phil Rosenthal — an avid fan of Nielsen and the film— noted that Nielsen "would disarm people by hiding a fart machine in his hand."

"And you'd be meeting him for the first time and he'd say, 'It's very nice to meet you,'and keep it keep a totally straight face," Rosenthal (the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond and host of Netflix's Somebody Feed Phil) added.

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Julie Hagerty, Lorna Patterson, Leslie Nielsen, Peter Graves Airplane - 1980Credit: Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock

Podcast guest Robert Hays — who played traumatized former pilot Ted Striker in the film — then said he watched one such prank play out in real time.

One day while on set, Hays said, "I was just sitting, I was watching the people coming on stage and a bunch of extras were coming on for whatever it was we were shooting."

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"And there were two young women that I would guess were early- or mid-20s maybe, and they were real nice-looking gals and they were so excited to be there, and they came walking in, and they were walking past me and Leslie was over there," Hays said.

He continued: "And I saw [one of the women] say, 'There's Leslie Nielsen, I'm going to go say hello,' and she goes over there, just so excited, and a minute later she goes back like ... 'Do you know what he did?' "

Hays said he immediately "knew" what had happened, as the fart machine joke was oft-repeated by Nielsen when he met new people.

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The spoof comedy parodied 1970s disaster films and followed Hays' character, who must overcome his fear of flying to land a commercial jet when its crew and passengers become incapacitated by food poisoning. Nielsen played Dr. Rumack in the film, which helped launch his career as a comedy star.

Nielsen died in November 2010 at age 84.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”