Earnest: Mike and Andy enjoy playing the fool.

Yes Men

Yes Men

Yes Men

Convincing act from hoaxers
Yes Men
Mike Bonanno, Andy Bichlbaum

Rating: 4/5

SOMETIMES it can be difficult to be taken seriously doing your job. It would be even harder to be convincing if your character was created and you were representing a multi-national company.

That’s what Mike and Andy do for a living. They started moonlighting as other people with a shadow George Bush web site – similar URL and similar in style. They’re also the ones responsible for exchanging talking-Barbies’ and GI Joes’ voice boxes.

They thought they might take things a step further by setting up a shadow World Trade Organisation web site. The content of the site was what you’d expect to find on the WTO’s web site and it was so convincing the guys started to receive speaking invitations for conferences around the world. They could have said no, or instead, take the opportunity to right what they considered was a corporate wrong.

Andy, in character as Andreas Bichlbauer, WTO, speaks at a conference on international trade law in Salzburg. On his agenda was suggestions about standardising trade hours – no more siestas in Italy.

He then appeared on CNBC’s Marketwrap Europe program as Granwyth Hulatberi, before heading off to Finland. Donning a gold costume, Andy had conference delegates convinced he is with the WTO, despite his outfit.

This movie was documentary-style, covering a few years and antics of two men wanting to change the world from the bottom up.

If you want a laugh and a bit of light-hearted entertainment, get out and see Yes Men.

- Lieutenant Simone Heyer