If Michael Moore and “Punk’d” had a hilarious love child, that child would be The Yes Men.
The Yes Men are a group of “culture jammers,” or people who specialize in messing with the corporate world America is infatuated with. In particular, The Yes Men use their pranks to further a liberal agenda, but only some of their ingenious attempts at disruption are featured in the movie “The Yes Men Fix the World.”
The film chronicles a roughly five-year period in which two faces of The Yes Men go about and muddle things up for businesses everywhere. They seem to have one defining creed: the downfall of free market economy by any means necessary.
Jacque Servin and Igor Vamos are the pseudonyms for actors Andy Bichlbaum (“Mullets and Bars”) and Mike Bonnano (“The Yes Men”) respectively, two pranksters who have the stunning ability — not unlike Stephen Colbert — to make any person (no matter how important) look like a complete and utter fool. Bichlbaum and Bonnano are veterans of hoax, and in their careers have utilized tactics ranging from switching electronic voice boxes from Barbies to G.I. Joes, to adding risqu? coding into SimCopter well before their work with The Yes Men.
The premise of the movie is brilliant in its simplicity. The grand scheme begins when the duo create fake websites and then wait until other organizations contact them for TV spots or speeches at company functions. For instance, by masquerading as gas behemoth Dow Chemical, The Yes Men were able to reach over 300 million viewers on BBC News. Without giving the punch lines of their deceptions away, it’s stunning to know that their cons operate on a scale that has probably never been seen before — or will be seen again.
These two men bait and switch, swindle and plagiarize, all in pursuit of their goal to essentially transform the United States economy into a socialist enterprise. This is where “The Yes Men Fix the World” gets a bit shaky. Many viewers will absolutely love the anti-free market message they are trying to convey, especially because they espouse it in such an amusing way. They manipulate the big business leaders we love to hate, and get them to say ridiculous things including this gem: “There are benefits to global warming; cold-related debts will actually decease considerably.” However, the viewer is not presented in any way with an opposing viewpoint.
Obviously The Yes Men are trying to make a point about our world, and specifically the actions of the United States government. However, because of their clearly partisan stance, people should take their information with a few grains of salt. Any number of editing and video tricks could be employed to convey completely different messages than those portrayed on screen. One cannot really blame The Yes Men for this bias, but it should be taken into account.
No matter what one’s political leanings may be, it is pretty clear many of the ideas presented seriously (such as better tenement housing in New Orleans) are much more complex in actuality than in the film. However, The Yes Men are incredibly adept as swaying public opinion. The “real” people in the documentary seem quite responsive to the messages of The Yes Men, yet this may be a deliberate choice on behalf of Bichlbaum and Bonnano in order to enhance the persuasive effect on screen.
Unfortunately, The Yes Men also play on the feelings and hopes of the people involved in the trickery. For instance, while making a statement at a press conference saying that housing in New Orleans would be improved, the hopes of former residents of those houses were dashed into the ground when it was all revealed as a hoax. While the people The Yes Men interviewed all said it was “worth it,” it would be interesting to get the point of view of a person who didn’t feel exactly the same way.
The budget of “The Yes Men Fix the World” was probably pretty small, and this also contributes to certain problems. Namely, the movie comes across as dreadfully cheesy early on. At one point, Bichlbaum and Bonnano put on fake beards to show the passage of time — something that pushed the film off the edge of cheesy. As the movie goes on, however, the viewer becomes more and more enamored with this hilarious duo, and so overall this is only a cosmetic hitch.
“The Yes Men Fix the World” is a compelling gamble that uses irony and practical jokes to try and drastically change the United State’s economic landscape. Political stance aside, the film is completely amusing, and functions as a sort of Moore movie without the preaching. Other than the few problems, “The Yes Men Fix the World” is a politically charged “Borat” — and one that can make anyone take a good look at their country.
Four stars out of five.
