Yes Men Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno have made a name for themselves across the world through their wild stunts highlighting corporate wrongdoing. Part Michael Moore, part Borat with a dash of the United Nations, the Yes Men have attacked Dow Chemical on the BBC and published a fake New York Times heralding the end of the war in Iraq. Tina Siadak spoke with Bonanno about the Yes Men and their upcoming visit to Duke for a screening of the documentary about their work.
How did you and Andy originally get involved in anti-globalization activism?
We were both originally activists working on a variety of corporate accountability issues. We kept noticing all these instances of injustices that were a result of the policies of the World Trade Organization and felt motivated to address that problem more and more, so we became invested in that issue.
How is The Yes Men Fix the World different from the original film about your work, 2003’s The Yes Men?
It builds a lot on what we did in the previous film, but it’s also very different. We look at the effects of the entire system we live in, and we go meet the victims of these tragedies. The Yes Men is more of an observational documentary, while in The Yes Men Fix the World we are more the authors of the film. It’s more playful.
How have your lives changed since the release of the original film?
We’re a lot busier now. But beyond that, a lot is the same. Nobody recognizes us. We’re not celebrities. We definitely haven’t shifted in our economic class.
Who would you say is your intended audience with your pranks?
I would say we have three different groups of audiences. One is the audience present at the scene of our pranks. The other is those people that read our interviews and articles about us. And the third is people who have seen our films. Each audience has their own experience.
What is your favorite forum for performing a prank?
The most interesting is a live news program because we are able to announce a reality, rather than just perform a dark satire. Since it’s live, there’s this immediate reaction that is really exciting. And then this forces the companies to actually have to come out to the public and deny whatever we’ve said.
Have you noticed a shift in American consumer attitudes since the economic crisis?
It’s interesting because I have noticed a shift in attitudes, but not in the way that I would have expected. I would think people would be clamoring for regulations right now, but they’re not. Instead these CEOs are getting huge bonuses, and they’re just playing us. We’re being robbed blind. Unfortunately, the people’s frustration is being turned on the federal government, but not to protest for corporate accountability.
They’re not asking the right questions. It seems the people are just protesting the federal government simply to protest. But maybe they just want to see the whole system thrown out, which would mean we have more in common than I thought.
The Yes Men Fix the World will screen in Griffith Film Theater Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. Yes Men Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno and Jennifer Jenkins, director of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke Law, will discuss the film and their work following the conclusion of the film.
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