[Idiom] "to get a rise out of" & "to touch your junk"

[Olympian]

Hello,

In the news article "More TSA horror stories emerge while agency ponders what to do" it says:

In the meantime, air-traveler horror stories continue to mount, with some widely spread tales proving to be a fabrications -- or efforts to deliberately get a rise out of airport security agents.

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What is the meaning of "to get a rise out of airport security agents"? Does it mean "to provoke them"? Because later it says:

Libertarian activists have taken to provoking run-ins with the TSAin airports and then sharing their stories and videos on the Web.
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Later it says:

If you opt out of the scan, you'll get a pat-down instead. You'll trade a fast, invisible, intangible, privacy-protected machine inspection for an unpleasant, extended grope. In effect, you'll be telling TSA to touch your junk.

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Does "junk" refer to "privates" here or stuff that you are carrying with you?


Looks like quite a mess. Feel sorry for the passengers as well as the agents. :-(

Thank you

 

[Ouisch]

Yes, "get a rise out of" means to aggravate or provoke the TSA agents, to get a reaction from them.

"Junk" in this instance refers to the male genitalia.

And I agree, it is very much a mess and, in my opinion, an uncessary one. It is called security "theater" for a reason - it simply gives passengers the illusion that the FAA is doing all this to ensure safer flights. In the US, at least, the TSA employees are not selected from a pool of highly trained security professionals. Sadly, many have credentials that would barely make them employable at any given fast food restaurant. This is why we now have stories of TSA agents keeping and ciruclating the full-body scans of passengers among themselves for sophomoric titillating purposes. :roll: Something the traveling public was told would never happen.... :roll::roll:

 

[Olympian]

Yes, "get a rise out of" means to aggravate or provoke the TSA agents, to get a reaction from them.

"Junk" in this instance refers to the male genitalia.

And I agree, it is very much a mess and, in my opinion, an uncessary one. It is called security "theater" for a reason - it simply gives passengers the illusion that the FAA is doing all this to ensure safer flights. In the US, at least, the TSA employees are not selected from a pool of highly trained security professionals. Sadly, many have credentials that would barely make them employable at any given fast food restaurant. This is why we now have stories of TSA agents keeping and ciruclating the full-body scans of passengers among themselves for sophomoric titillating purposes. :roll: Something the traveling public was told would never happen.... :roll::roll:

Thank you Ouisch for your response.

After posting this question, i viewed the video embedded in the link I posted. In that video (38 sec), at about 22 seconds, what does the guy say? I can only understand - "<Something something> a kid? .. nice ..it's ridiculous" Could you please tell me what the person is saying just before "kid"?

After viewing that video, there was a list of several related videos and in this parody video (4m 57s), they are using 'don't touch my junk' many times. But the passenger saying that is a female. So, it is possible that "junk" does not refer only to male private parts, but "privates" in general? It is a bit strange that the cartoon video has the Bird's Nest from the Beijing Olympics in the background.

About the agents keeping the scans, there are videos on Youtube showing that they can be reversed to get the likeness of the person. So the privacy isn't really there. Shocking. :shock:

 

[SoothingDave]

I think girls have "junk" too. Just a little differently shaped. ;-)

 

[riquecohen]

Yes, "get a rise out of" means to aggravate or provoke the TSA agents, to get a reaction from them.

"Junk" in this instance refers to the male genitalia.

And I agree, it is very much a mess and, in my opinion, an uncessary one. It is called security "theater" for a reason - it simply gives passengers the illusion that the FAA is doing all this to ensure safer flights. In the US, at least, the TSA employees are not selected from a pool of highly trained security professionals. Sadly, many have credentials that would barely make them employable at any given fast food restaurant. This is why we now have stories of TSA agents keeping and ciruclating the full-body scans of passengers among themselves for sophomoric titillating purposes. :roll: Something the traveling public was told would never happen.... :roll::roll:

Candy Crowley, on CNN's "State of the Union," interviewed the TSA administrator this past Sunday. She showed three short film clips of these "extended gropes" and, after each one, asked if the agent hadn't "crossed the line." In each case he said that the agent was acting within agency guidelines and he didn't expect anything to change. This is a shameful example of goverment overreaction, decried by both liberals and conservatives.

 

[Ouisch]

Thank you Ouisch for your response.

After posting this question, i viewed the video embedded in the link I posted. In that video (38 sec), at about 22 seconds, what does the guy say? I can only understand - "<Something something> a kid? .. nice ..it's ridiculous" Could you please tell me what the person is saying just before "kid"?

"They're harrassing a kid?"
"Yeah."
"Nice."
"It's ridiculous."

(Although it's not unknown for unscrupulous people to smuggle drugs and other contraband using children. Years ago my uncle worked for the U.S. Customs/Immigration Dept. at the Windsor/Detroit tunnel and he caught parents smuggling drugs inside their baby's diapers more than once.)

In AmE, "junk" used as a slang term for genitalia always refers to the male bits. The voices in the parody video have definite un-American English accents, so I have a feeling it was made by someone outside of the US.

 

[Olympian]

Thank you Ouisch for answering both the questions. :up:

If I am not mistaken, the voice and accent are generated by software. There are many videos with similar characters and apparently anyone can make them by going to this site and downloading their software free or with 'Text-to-Movie'. It is good for teaching (maybe not English, because of accent as you mentioned).

Here is a pretty educational and humorous video with similar characters - Quantitative Easing Explained. The description says it is about "What the Federal Reserve is up to, and how we got here." (6 m 48 sec)

I came across - These TSA videos will make you laugh until you cry.
In the first parody video they show that the checks are being carried out by "Transport Canada - A Department of the US Homeland Security". This is just a part of the joke or perhaps the checks being done at Canadian airports also.