Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno are the “Yes Men.”  Together, they attempt to take on the rather arduous task of “fix[ing] the world” by performing heinous acts of fraud, dubbed playfully as “hijinks.” Described by the media as “sick, twisted, cruel” and as “world-renowned trouble-makers,” the Yes Men “pass [them]selves off as big corporations [they] don’t like,” such as Dow Chemical, Halliburton, and “the deputy assistant secretary of the assistant of Alfonso Jackson.” Their hoaxes range from the “scary,” where they use a golden skeleton and a smoke bomb to satirize Dow Chemical’s response to the Bhopal tragedy, the “gross,” with their invention of “vivoleum,” a fuel that is composed of the human victims of Global Warming, and, my personal favorite, the “ridiculous:” the “Survivaball,” designed for the apocalyptic conditions that may result from climate change (At this point in the film, the audience’s hooting and hysterical laughter threatened to drown out the ensuing dialogue).

Though these “hijinks” may only appear to be pranks, they do, in fact, have a purpose and, at least from my perspective, make a difference.  Each of Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno’s hoaxes show the companies they target what they should be doing, but aren’t. In addition, they remind the victims of these morally eschewed corporations what they deserve.  Did the big corporations change their ways as a result of “The Yes Men?”  Unfortunately, no.  However, the “Yes Men” have sparked a larger movement: “Business as usual is unacceptable… and we are not going to play the subservient role.” As Andy Bichlbaum states: “We elected Obama. Great.  Now we have to force him to be the president we elected him to be. Change doesn’t happen without public pressure.  It isn’t our leaders who need to be better—we need to be better.”