A documentary following the activities of two spoofers (Andy and Mike - as Dr. Andreas Bichlbauer, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno) parodying the World Trade Organisation at various events for the benefit of the media.

www.gatt.org, www.gwbush.com, www.theyesmen.org

"If your boss has invited someone to give a talk is it really to be expected that employees would react like those brilliant students in Plattsburgh, New York, did? Most corporate functions are too staged for a reaction like that. Ooops, oh I get it, that's the point. We are being controlled by the corporation!"

"Love the penis leisure suit."

"Liked the movie, although I don't think that I would like to go on holiday with any of them."

"These guys have 'unemployable layabouts' written all over them. Just imagine giving them a non-satirical job, they wouldn't be able to do it."

They don't get arrested for false impersonation. It's a bit of a damp squib of an ending as they were planning to speak at a major meeting in Australia and it was canceled so they persuaded someone to arrange a meeting and then they told everyone that the WTO is to close down. That made it to questions in the Canadian Parliament...

The problem that I have with these guys is that they manage to do what they do because the good guys are getting fooled. Take the person who arranged the replacement Australia conference at the end of the movie as an example. How could they embarrass that person who, it seems, only arranged this talk as a favour?

Although it's not in the movie, these were the guys who caught the BBC out - the BBC were doing an item on the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal. In the UK directors interview on the Yes Men DVD, they seem to say that it is a shame they caught the BBC out, but they still did the interview knowing they were fooling the BBC. This is a way of running out of friends and goodwill very quickly.

Yes, the WTO needs to be parodied and it is good they are parodying it, just it leaves a bad taste in the mouth when innocent little people are caught out during the parody. However, all that said, the speeches the Yes Men deliver are brilliant and the quiet reaction of the audiences in all but the Plattsburgh, New York, campus, who started to throw things, is jaw droppingly entertaining.

"OK ten minutes, they're here."

"The time is 9:30? Oh my God we're an hour off. We have to make a very important phone call right now."

"Maybe it's more fun to be satirical than it is to be serious."

"You can say the most atrocious things and nobody will really react. Nobody will really care."

5th August 2005