He’s talking about an entirely different actor.
What else might he have asked?
“Do you like hanging out at the YMCA?”
“Do you like wrestling with your friends?”
“Do you like to go skinny dipping?”
Apparently too subtle for some, it would seem.
Oh I don’t know. I mean in Airport '75 nun Helen Reddy cheered up Linda Blair with that “Dopey fucked a penguin” joke, so…
Wait, maybe I just dreamed that part.
Do you eat snalis?
Isn’t the good Captain perusing a copy of Modern Sperm before boarding the plane?
And don’t call me Surely.
:::hijack::: I never understood the difference between snails and oysters in that context. Unless of course the clam is a geoduck.
Hey, don’t be dissing my college mascot.
Surely he’s talking about an entirely different actor?
I’ve always assumed that Airplane!, which came out in the early 80’s, was referencing the ugly but then-common meme about regular homosexuals grooming young boys to become future homosexuals. The type of questions Capt. Oveur asks (Turkish prisons, hanging out at the gymnasium, etc.) make it sound that way, at least. I’ve never met any pedophiles in real life (at least, none that I know about…) but presumably, a genuine pedophile would ask different questions, such as asking Joey’s if he’s a fan of Spongebob Squarepants or something like that.
Also, the joke’s not funny because Peter Graves is portraying a creepy pedophile. It’s funny because he’s portraying a fucking AIRLINE PILOT, one of the most respected professions in the world, who happens to be a creepy pedophile. It’s completely unexpected, and that’s what makes it so hilarious. If he were a schoolteacher or a soccer coach, the joke would be far too disturbing to work.
He is but that’s not important right now. 
I don’t think the joke was supposed to be that Oveur was sounding out Joey. The joke was supposed to be that Oveur was making what he thought was normal conversation and we, as the audience, could see he was sexually obsessed with men. The joke was that Oveur wasn’t aware of the subtext of what he was saying.
Yeah but it didn’t take long for 300 to turn it back into gleaming, sweaty be-sandaled hunks loved by both gay men and old housewives.
Agreed, I don’t think there’s a paedo vibe at all - it’s just that the super-macho pilot’s awkward small talk tended towards mentioning the manly soaping scene in Spartacus and his recent viewing of Midnight Express.
I have to agree. I never thought the humour was in Oveur being creepy, but that he’s just really bad a small talk. Except for the content of his questions, there is nothing that indicates any pedophilic interest in Joey: No eye contact, no nervous glances, no tongue kissing…
I disagree, he’s clearly hitting on the little kid. There’s a scene where the stewardess is trying to get him back to his seat and the pilot is trying to get him up on his lap while saying “oh, he’s fine up here.”
I don’t think the captain was trying to get the boy on his lap – the boy just stood next to the captain throughout the whole conversation.
Do not psychoanalyze the funny!
Judge for yourself:
Basically, the ambiguity with regard to the captain’s questions (Is he trying to come onto the boy? Is he just incredibly awkward or uncomfortable?) is precisely what makes it funny. Had the question been the completely inappropriate one from the DVD commentary, it wouldn’t have been at all funny; it would have just disgusted the audience.