The audience at the “Textiles of the Future” conference in Tampere, Finland, listen intently as the man in the golden leotard talks them through his costume. The 3ft-long tool that extends from his crotch, he explains, is an “Employee Visualisation Appendage” — the screen on the end will enable managers to indulge in leisure activities and keep an eye on their staff, or control them using dubious methods, at the same time. The audience take in every word from a man they believe to be a spokesman for the World Trade Organisation. He isn’t.
The spokesman is, in fact, Andy Bichlbaum, one half of a pair of political satirists known as the Yes Men. Along with his partner, Mike Bonanno, he took advantage of invitations sent by those who mistook their parody website gatt.org (Gatt being the forerunner of the WTO) for the real WTO website. In their self-titled film, we also see them pose as WTO spokesmen to dupe a Europe-wide business TV channel, a group of students in Plattsburgh, New York State, and an agribusiness conference in Sydney. Surely they expected people to see through their ruses?
“In Tampere, it seemed to go right over their heads,” recalls Bichlbaum, thankfully dressed in a more conventional suit. “One woman did complain about the costume. She said she didn’t like the shape, as it implied that only men could be factory owners. She wasn’t bothered that workers could be given electric shocks through it.”
And what about the reaction of the organisers or the WTO?
“The more outrageous you are, the more embarrassing it is for your target to pursue you,” says Bichlbaum. “Besides, the WTO got burned too many times,” adds Bonanno with a mischievous grin: “Their threatening e-mails somehow found their way into the press.”
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While their purpose may be to undermine the WTO — according to Bichlbaum the organisation “serves no one but the elite and its whole attitude to the Third World is colonial” — it is done with a great deal of humour. “This is a documentary that is also funny — it should cross over to people who just want to see a comedy,” says Bonanno. And he’s not wrong. The silly stunts will make you laugh, but it is the way their victims take it all so seriously that clinches the deal. For some viewers, the approach will recall Chris Morris’s vicious deadpan in Brass Eye. Unsurprisingly, the duo are fans: “Morris does that brilliantly — I don’t know why no one has cracked on to him in America,” says Bonanno.
There is certainly a European sensibility to the Yes Men’s work. Both live in Europe — Bichlbaum in Paris, Bonanno in Dundee — and they feel the issues they address will be better understood on this side of the Atlantic. “Global trade means something in Europe,” Bichlbaum claims.
Despite receiving critical acclaim in America, the film suffered from being released in the run-up to the election last November. The Yes Men spent more time trying to get George Bush out of office than promoting their film. Going on the road in their battle bus, they persuaded Republican supporters to sign a “Patriot Pledge”, agreeing, among other things, to having nuclear waste dumped in their garden.
The Yes Men is on general release