Wednesday, September 22, 2010

The Yes Men

Do you know about The Yes Men? I didn't, until my very trusty What People In Venice, CA Are Watching section of Netflix told me about them. They are merry pranksters who take on mostly corporations in elaborate hoaxes that make those corporations look both stupid and greedy, and let's throw awful in there, for good measure.


They have two documentaries so far, The Yes Men and The Yes Men Fix The World, which are kinda like Punk'd for the corporate world. They have some cheesy production gags that you have to overlook, but after watching both of them, I felt empowered, riled up, and honestly touched that there are still people who will go way out of their ways to try and right some global wrongs.

Just for one example, they go after Dow Chemicals, and get invited (as imposters) to speak on CNN (to 300 million viewers!) about about a horrible Union Carbide chemical accident that happened 20 years ago in Bhopal, India, with no payout to the victims. The Yes Man imposter says on the air that they're finally going to do right by the people and pay them 14 billion dollars, to set an example for other corporations to do the right thing. Dow's stock dropped immediately, and they lost 2 billion dollars in 20 minutes! How messed up is that, that stockholders PUNISHED the company for doing the righteous thing?! Profit, or Human life? Priorities, People, priorities.

They get into lots more admirable scenarios, and are kind of modern day Supermen, if you ask me. Check them out, get inspired, and maybe stir up a little not-into-the-status-quo mischief (that tries to HELP people!) yourselves.

Thanks, again, Venetians. You have really good taste.

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