“The Yes Men” came to Choi Auditorium Oct. 2, screening their 2009 film “The Yes Men Fix the World.” The pair consists of Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, also known as Jacques and Igor — good friends with a goofy sense of humor and a love of political activism.
The film, which screened for students, faculty and off-campus guests, follows the pair as they engage in elaborate schemes and pranks to expose malpractices in large corporations or the national government. The event concluded with a Q&A session moderated by Professor of Media Arts & Culture Allison de Fren.
Some of the pranks in the film included Bichlbaum posing as a spokesperson for Dow on the BBC, attending conferences on gas and oil to pitch ideas and creating fake versions of The New York Times, passing them around New York City.
In an interview with The Occidental, Bichlbaum and Bonanno said they always had a history of a good gag.
“I was a math major; therefore, I eventually got pretty good at computers,” Bichlbaum said. “I put groups of guys in bathing suits kissing each other into a video game just before the store shelved them. It became a story. And I was like, ‘That was fun.’ I really enjoyed the attention.”
Bichlbaum said later in the Q&A that this video game was the first iteration of The Sims.
“I started doing mischievous things in high school with friends, sort of pushing back against the conformity and uniformity,” Bonanno said. “At a certain point, you realize, ‘Oh, this isn’t just fun. This is meaningful. I’m going to take it seriously, and it’s going to be my life.’”
Beyond these antics, the pair also said they reflect on how their pranks have an impact on the world around them throughout the film. When they realize that some unconventional ideas do not phase employees of big oil companies, it leads them to question the systems in place that allow this kind of thinking to occur, the pair said in the film. Bonanno said the reactions of the people they are protesting against often help expose the issues the most.
“They’re joining your cast,” Bonanno said. “If you’re protesting something, you might want the police to show up in their uniforms with their batons, because otherwise it’s not as dramatic. You need the Stormtroopers to make the rebels look good.”
Besides making films and planning their next big prank, Bonanno and Bichlbaum said they enjoy visiting colleges and taking advantage of speaking opportunities. Bonanno also said he teaches at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in addition to his work with the Yes Men. The pair is currently working with Professor de Fren’s class in Remix Media and Culture Jamming, they said.
“It’s all still in the works,” Bichlbaum said. “Our particular techniques are a little hard to figure out, what to do right now with them, but we might have actually gotten a little hint of that yesterday with a group we’re working with here. It felt like this actually makes sense for the first time in a long time, like this is something that could make a difference.”
“I first heard of the Yes Men when their first documentary, The Yes Men, came out in theaters in 2003,” de Fren said. “I had many friends who were involved in the 1999 ‘Battle of Seattle’ protests against the World Trade Organization, and I was really inspired by the Yes Men’s satiric and performative approach to anti-globalization activism.”
De Fren said her Remix Media and Culture Jamming course takes a critical look at the history and practice of remix, primarily how it’s used to speak back to and subvert dominant cultural narratives.
According to de Fren, “culture jamming” is a term invented by Mark Dery ’82 in a 1990 New York Times article that he later expanded into his self-published pamphlet, “Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing, and Sniping in the Empire of the Signs.”
“Culture jamming has roots right here at Oxy, and my course unfolds in dialogue with Dery’s ideas about humor, hoaxes, and pranks as tools to hijack corporate or political messaging and turn it back on itself,” de Fren said. “Since my students study the Yes Men’s campaigns and develop jamming projects of their own, and because the Yes Men frequently collaborate with college groups, it felt like a natural fit to bring them to campus.”
Bonanno said there is power in comedy when pursuing activism.
“I think there is this basic, disarming quality to [comedy], where people are more open to seeing another perspective,” Bonanno said. “If you’re facing somebody or something more powerful that’s trying to oppress you, it’s an important emotion to have to bring joy to struggle.”
De Fren said she wanted to bring the Yes Men to Occidental because she believes they are great role models for students. De Fren said their campaigns combine skills like creativity, filmmaking, design and promotion, which is a rare combination.
“What I especially admire is that they could have easily directed their efforts toward any number of lucrative careers, but instead they’ve chosen to use their many talents to, in their own words, ‘fix the world,'”de Fren said. “Their work embodies both creativity and conscience, exactly what we hope to inspire in students at Oxy.”
Contact Eliana Joftus at joftus@oxy.edu
