The Top 3 Politically Motivated Pranks A comedy article
by Luke McKinney 11,088 110 02/28/2010 09:26 AM 2187 views
You might pull pranks on your friends or co-workers, but have you ever affected an entire company? Here are our Top 3 Politically Motivated Pranks which ended up having significant real world effects.
1. The Yes Men Confess (for someone else)
Any doubt that the Yes Men are utterly professional pranksters was put to rest in 2004, when they confessed full responsibility for the 1984 Bhopal chemical plant disaster -- on behalf of Dow Chemical.
This wasn't a bit of bloggery, an April Fool's Prank, or some stupid columnist responding without researching (which we'll see in a minute) -- this was one man conning the BBC. Andy Bichlbaum appeared as fictitious spokesman "Jude Finisterra," confessing full responsibility for the pesticide plant leak which killed thousands and exposed hundreds of thousands more.
The prank (and Dow's vehement denial that they intended to provide the medical care promised by Jude) propelled the story into the stratosphere and raised awareness of the incident fully twenty years after it happened. Twenty years during which Dow (through their subsidiary Union Carbide) had -- as they just reiterated -- done absolutely nothing. And in a frighteningly effective demonstration of why, even the joke that they might do something knocked two billion dollars off their share value.
2. Eminently Dominated
In the case of Kelo vs City of New London, the government ruled that it was A-OK to take a private citizen's property for government purposes. Especially when those "government purposes" were to give it to another private entity, the Pfizer corporation, because they'd pay more tax. Which probably isn't what they meant in the Fifth Amendment's when they said, "nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
When city officials not only won the case, but started charging back rent to the people who'd just been booted out of their own property -- Logan Clements took action.
He filed an eminent domain seizure petition for the home of Justice David Souter -- one of the 5-4 majority who'd approved Pfizer's seizure of the property. He argued that building the "Lost Liberty Hotel" would benefit the area, as the increased tax revenue would constitute exactly the same "public use" as in the previous case.
He collected enough signatures and got the bill passed, but not before city officials turned it into a far better example of their own legislative lunacy than Logan ever could. After it was submitted, they held a "deliberative session" to insert the word "not" as the seventh word, totally reversing the intent of the bill in a way even a preschooler would shout down as unfair and retarded.
3. Really Raising Awareness (By Doing Something)
"Raising Awareness" is the battle cry of the student -- so concerned about the state of the world, but not quite ready to do anything about it.
No such futility for Tim DeChristopher, who singlehandedly saved one hundred thousand acres of Utah from drilling. He walked into an auction of federal oil and gas leases, where it's apparently possible for an economics student to stroll in and rack up $1.8 million in bids before anyone stops him.
The resulting confusion delayed the sales ten days, which would have been pointless except this was a last minute "Let's grab what we can" sale before the Obama administration arrived -- and the rescheduled sale never happened.
"Just hangin' out, about to go to jail for a decade for more than you've ever done"
Unfortunately, the reason you can just walk into an auction is because they keep you around if you're not meant to be there -- Tim is facing a possible ten years in jail, but every second his case continues brings further attention to his cause. So think of that the next time someone tries to save the forests by papering a campus in even more dead trees.
Did we miss any politically-motivated pranks? Let us know in the comments below!
Store
11,088 
110 
