Verne Troyer Facebooks Harrowing TSA Grope Pic

“Mini me” Verne Troyer had a run in with the TSA yesterday — but the actor was a good sport about the incident, sharing a funny image on Facebook of his “enhanced pat down.”

Troyer, who is perhaps most famous for his role as the clone of Mike Myers’ “Dr. Evil” in the Austin Powers films, posted the following pic to Facebook last night:

[fb link=”https://www.facebook.com/VerneJTroyer/photos/a.10151829657701647.1073741825.79013326646/10152276365761647/?type=1?][/fb]

The image sparked a lot of comments, in part due to Verne’s seemingly pained expression during the somewhat invasive search.

While TSA searches are common and often unwelcome, the moment snapped in the photo seems to have struck a chord.

One commenter on the official Verne Troyer page left a top “liked” remark, which read:

“They are profiling. I bet they searched every little person that came through today and that is wrong!!!!”

Another chided Troyer for making light of the TSA in his popular post, adding:

“Oh wow it’s nice to see how you guys don’t give a f*** about the security of the country. I’d check everything if I were a TSA officer, people are screwed up. Famous or not, handicap or not.”

Not everyone agreed, and a reply addressed the comment:

“If you were a TSA officer, just by having that job you’d be in direct violation of the United States Constitution. Would that make you proud?”

Troyer appears to have submitted a link to the image on Reddit, where it was “upvoted” more than 44,000 times by users of the site.

The Reddit thread that developed around the picture is heavily joke oriented, but one user who utilizes a wheelchair chimed in with a comment that added a bit of gravitas to the conversation — and for which the commenter was awarded “Reddit gold.”

In it, u/ryansaysthings explains that disabled passengers are often singled out for invasive TSA searches, and he explains:

“As I mentioned in my earlier reply, I use a manual wheelchair. Every time I fly, I am searched thoroughly. Most of the time it goes relatively quickly, and is done by people who understand how silly it is… When you’re instructed to go see ‘Serious Sam,’ however, who is going to milk the search for every ounce of self-importance he can ring out of it, things get pretty frustrating.”

The commenter continues:

“Remove your shoes. Lift your legs. Lift your arms. Lift yourself up off your seat so they can look under you. Be patted down. Be patted down again while lifting yourself up again. Sit with your hands on your lap as they inspect your chair. Get out of your chair so they can look it over without you in it… The search even includes swabbing your hands and chair for explosive residue(s), because as we all know, the anger which accompanies having weakened legs often leads to terroristic attacks.”

At the end, he adds:

“Also, take it from me: NEVER ask just what exactly the test is intended to detect. You become very suspicious at that point.”

You can see Verne Troyer’s TSA post on Reddit, or over on Facebook.