Well, as old as he is, maybe some personal hygiene, for one. Wearing that pumpkin on your head for as long as he has that pumpkin gonna smell a bit ripe, by now.
They didn’t use that gag to send transmissions from the plane to the ground. They used it to show the news outlets reporting the issue with the plane and what was happening onboard. They were showing different news agencies in their local language and they got to the guy drumming on the log and then someone handed them two new sticks and they started to drum on the log with those sticks and the drumming was at a higher pitch, like the drumming that he was doing was important.
You all realize that those wax lips are made out of paraffin wax? The same wax that they use when they make those Hostess mini chocolate donuts with?