‘I GET ALL THE REAL NEWS FROM SOUTH PARK AND
THE SIMPSONS'
The film flam man
Paul Dale gets hoodwinked by MIKE BONANNO, one half of comedy anti-corporate pranksters THE YES MEN.
'l'here‘s the audience that is immediately there
when we give a lecture or do a prank. 'l'hey‘re important for making things happen. but it's not really about reaclting those people. in fact. sometimes. those people ~ you can count on them being the most pissed off.‘ Mike Bonanno. half of the comedy anti-corporate actiyist team the Yes Men. is sitting in a cafe in Dundee (where he is yisitiitg his girlfriend). He is trying to define where the audience for his and fellow Yes Man Andy Bichlbaum's ‘stuff' really lies.
"l‘hen. there‘s a secondary audience that reads about it in the newspaper. you know. because we sometimes im‘ite journalists along to tell the story afterwards and docuntent it. They are the most important. and then there is this third audience who are the people who watch the moyie. 'l‘he moyie can go places that a lot of the news story can't.’ lissentially taking up the Sw'iftian shortfall between Michael Moore. Dom Joly and the more serious documentary films such as The ('orporoiion and Naomi Klein‘s forthcoming The filkr’. the Yes Men are the kind of anomaly that only the ['8 anti-globalisation protest moyement at its most satirical could throw up. They’re fresh from the controyersy of a hornswoggle announcement made on a fake BB(‘ news website through which they tried to remind the world of Dow (‘hemical's‘ refusal to take responsibility for Bhopal Disaster (the story was picked up by the world's media with all ineyitablc fallout). ‘lt's really simple thing we do and sometimes the news reports will make it sound very complicated. like in the case of this recent BB(‘ Bhopal thing. liyery'body was saying it was a yery
‘ I think. there's three audiences for what we do.
46 THE LIST " Form: Md.
elaborate ltoa\ when. in fact. it was only as elaborate as setting up a fake website. answering the mail and haying the gall.'
Handsome. slight. dark and easy mannered. Bonanno is in no doubt as to why and how he got from there to here. 'l’irst of all. both of us haye been politicised by the histories of our families. Both our parents are immigrants who went to the ['8 after the Second World War. both of us haye grandfathers who died in concentration camps. We grew up with a healthy questioning of authority and the Voices of authority. That
made a big difference for both of us and that just sort of
continued through our Iiy'es. lispecially now when you see certain kinds of similarities in the way that decisions are being ntade and power is being exercised around the world. It’s kind of easy to remain politicised in the ['8 anyway. I think lterc as w ell.‘
llaying tanked in the States Bonanno is hoping for a more sympathetic interest for the theatrical release of the film of the Yes Men's shenanigans at the World Trade ()rganisation's expense. l'ltimately Bonanno. a big fan of [)efoe and the early political pamphleteers. knows that the real audience may lie in the small screen. "I‘here‘s basically l-‘ronI/r'm' and Sixty .lliriimas that do interesting inyestigatiye reporting and the rest of teleyision is kind of lacking a I get my news from South Park. within two weeks you get your real news on Sour/i Park or if you're willing to wait a few months you get it on [Ii/1c SUN/HUI“!
The Yes Men is on selected release from Fri 18 Feb. See News, Around Town and review page 51.
Hit
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