The Yes Men Fix the World

When Union Carbide presided over the Bhopal disaster they had no idea their company would be bought by Dow Chemical down the road. Corporate pranksters The Yes Men used the 20th anniversary of Bhopal to pull a scam that brought Dow's stock price to its knees. Since nobody questions a slick looking white dude in a suit the Yes Men were able to go on BBC news and apologize on behalf of Dow and announce unprecedented reparations to the victims. Perhaps not oddly, Dow never attempted to press charges or sue the Yes Men in a civil slander trial. Likewise they crash an energy convention and announce the creation of a new biofuel made from dead people. Their audience hardly bats an eyelash.
Welcome to the world of the Yes Men. What they do ranks with the stunts pulled on unaware victims by Sasha Baron Cohen as Borat or Bruno. Only their goal goes beyond social satire to a kind of interactive involvement with the very corporate climate they are trying to shake, rattle and roll. In any event they make people laugh with the shock of recognition even as the weight of the world's problems are profiled.
A previous film on the Yes Men was directed by Chris Smith, whereas Fix the World was helmed by the Yes Men Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno. The candid camera style in which they capture economic greed as practiced by everyday working men and women boggles the imagination. Surely some sense of guilt creeps into the conscious of those they are outing. As audacious as the pair are common sense dictates that they are actually the good guys.