Many things come to mind when I hear the term “social justice film.” Among them: educational, thought provoking, inspiring, and perhaps images of the less erudite members of the audience drifting in and out of consciousness. Rarely do think of entertaining, let alone laughing-so-hard-that-I-am-getting-a-day’s-worth-of-cardiovascular-exercise funny. Yet “The Yes Men Fix The World” is as diverting as a blockbuster hit, while at the same time satisfying the more prudent spectators with it’s themes of anti-globalization and anti-corporate activism. More importantly, however, the film provides the audience with a resonant and tangible message: We—not the government or large corporations—are the architects of change.
Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno are the “Yes Men.” Together, they attempt to take on the rather arduous task of “fix[ing] the world” by performing heinous acts of fraud, dubbed playfully as “hijinks.” Described by the media as “sick, twisted, cruel” and as “world-renowned trouble-makers,” the Yes Men “pass [them]selves off as big corporations [they] don’t like,” such as Dow Chemical, Halliburton, and “the deputy assistant secretary of the assistant of Alfonso Jackson.” Their hoaxes range from the “scary,” where they use a golden skeleton and a smoke bomb to satirize Dow Chemical’s response to the Bhopal tragedy, the “gross,” with their invention of “vivoleum,” a fuel that is composed of the human victims of Global Warming, and, my personal favorite, the “ridiculous:” the “Survivaball,” designed for the apocalyptic conditions that may result from climate change (At this point in the film, the audience’s hooting and hysterical laughter threatened to drown out the ensuing dialogue).
Though these “hijinks” may only appear to be pranks, they do, in fact, have a purpose and, at least from my perspective, make a difference. Each of Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno’s hoaxes show the companies they target what they should be doing, but aren’t. In addition, they remind the victims of these morally eschewed corporations what they deserve. Did the big corporations change their ways as a result of “The Yes Men?” Unfortunately, no. However, the “Yes Men” have sparked a larger movement: “Business as usual is unacceptable… and we are not going to play the subservient role.” As Andy Bichlbaum states: “We elected Obama. Great. Now we have to force him to be the president we elected him to be. Change doesn’t happen without public pressure. It isn’t our leaders who need to be better—we need to be better.”
The 
As many of us meditate the possibilities, the impossibility, the complexities, simplicities and strategies that factor in to building a world without greed, without corruption, without shady, immoral and truth-dodging swindling . . . The Yes Men embark on a mission. Or rather, a series of missions. Under false names and distorted objectives, The Yes Men enter the conference room adorned with camera-embedded glasses and Gilda the Golden Skeleton. They prepare to address bankers with a ravishing display of ethics that have been flushed down the toilet. . . . As I may have sat in my current-events class, watching a PowerPoint on the endless perils of the world, The Yes Men were presenting PowerPoints designed to annihilate those perils. Through an appearance on BBC, bearing news from DOW Chemical that’s too good to be true, their method in finding a path to a better world is to simply concoct one: presenting what corporations “should do” and airing “truth-telling where normally there would only be lies” (words of co-director Andy Bichlbaum) — the world finds that it is not impossible to venture into the realm of Right. That corporations could, if willing to lose a bit of net worth, undertake the responsibility of correcting their (lethal) errors and help those affected on ground level. But do we know if that message has penetrated the hard skulls of CEOs?
This Saturday, the halls of the Contemporary Jewish Museum were filled with young musicians vying for the 500 dollar grand prize at the JCCSF’s third annual Battle of the Bands. The musical stylings of the various groups varied wildly. One band had only two instruments—a harmonica and a first generation Nintendo Game Boy. Another featured a full brass ensemble. Most were of the standard guitar, bass, drum variety.
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