Top 3 Political Pranks of 2009 A comedy article
by Johnny Plankton | 12/26/2009 04:58 AM | 993 views
What's funnier than political pranks? To be honest, it's usually
enemas, hip fractures and certain forms of cancer, but every year a
couple of pranks involving politics provide us with a few chuckles (or
at least a stodgy "Well played, Sir!").
As usual, political pranks tend to be played on -- SURPRISE! --
conservatives, who, as science tells us, are born minus a funny gene.
Although there were no Hall of Famers this year, like the prank phone call
perpetrated by the Masked Avengers (two DJs from Montreal radio station
CKOI) on guffaw-magnet Sarah Palin last year, there were a few
noteworthy achievements. Here are our Top 3 Political Pranks of 2009.
1. The Yes Men Prank the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Sometimes I ask myself: Why can't I do pranks like this? The answer: I
don't have balls the size of Jupiter. Premier political pranksters The
Yes Men teamed with activists The Avaaz Action Factory to stage a fake
U.S. Chamber of Commerce press conference, announcing that the Chamber
had reversed its stance on climate change to support the Kerry-Boxer
Senate bill. The prank duped CNBC, Reuters, The New York Times, and the Washington Post, among others.
At one point, a spokesperson for the real Chamber of Commerce storms
the room and announces: "This is fraudulent!" and begins accusing Yes
Man Andy Bichlbaum of being an imposter. It gets really absurd when he
attempts to prove that he is with the "real" Chamber by producing
business cards. Gee, I never thought of that identity confirmation
deal-sealer.
2. The "Billionaires for Wealthcare" Singing Prank
The American Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) have been playing one of the
longest running pranks on Americans for some time now. Known as the
"Die in Debt Prank," unsuspecting American families are driven into
bankruptcy at the rate of one every ninety seconds, as the insurance
companies surprise silly victims by telling them their policy doesn't
cover THAT illness. Hilarity ensues; death follows!
In response, a prank group calling themselves "Billionaires for
Wealthcare" infiltrated the closing keynote address of the AHIP
convention, and burst into this song:
3. The URL Shortener Redirection Prank
This year the Republican National Committee decided to go Web 2.0, launching a redesigned GOP.com, as well as GOP.AM,
a bit.ly-like URL shortening service that's designed to let
conservatives share links across Twitter and other social media sites.
"GOP.AM provides an excellent tool for Republican activists to
demonstrate brand loyalty," proclaimed Political Media, the developers
of the URL shortening Web site, at the site's launch.
Immediately after this statement, the site was pounded by liberal
pranksters, who used the free service to create thousands of prank
links, spreading them across the Web like herpes. Imagine clicking a
link with a GOP.AM address, and instead being redirected to the site
for NAMBLA, or ALT.com (a bondage Web site), or STORMFRONT (a neo-Nazi
white power website).
Or maybe those were actual links created by GOP members. Hard to tell.
According to a Wired story, Political Media said they knew
the service would be used for pranking. "We were well aware that this
was going to happen," they said. Sounds a lot like Pee Wee Herman when
he dumped his bike in front of the other kids in Pee Wee's Big Adventure: "I meant to do that."
How
was the ACORN prank not #1? I'd never heard of any of these. The ACORN
prank made national news for multiple cycles. Plus, it involved a
(fake) pimp and his ho', tax invasion, hidden cameras, and more. How
much better could it have been?
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