Sacha Baron Cohen may be the current king of satire but there's no doubt that he is always the star. His victims are stooges; peripheral, disposable, helpless.
The Yes Men's targets are anything but. Dynamic American duo Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno pick on people several million times their size, at least in terms of legal, financial and state-sanctioned might.
Going into battle with nothing but wit, intelligence and badly fitting suits, they crusade against the very cogs on which the world turns: petrochemical giants, big pharma, McDonald's, the US government.
Trouble is, multinationals and money-driven think tanks have no conscience. So when reasoned argument against unregulated capitalism, exploitation of the poor and the destruction of the environment fails, there's no alternative but to make them look very, very silly.
It's a bit like Brass Eye on a global scale as we meet the Yesters preparing to go after Union Carbide's owner company Dow Chemical on the 20th anniversary of the disaster in Bhopal. Swept under the carpet, the explosion at the still-extant plant is estimated to have caused upwards of 18,000 deaths since 1984.
Pretending to be a company spokesman, Andy goes on BBC World and announces that Dow are now taking full responsibility for the disaster and will make full reparations to the people of Bhopal.
Knowing that the only real way to hurt greedy conglomerates is in the pocket, they expect the prank to leave Dow with not much more than a red face and a few anxious shareholders. So even they are taken aback when their little stunt wipes out $2billion of Dow stock in only two hours.
But, accused of giving false hope to the victims, Andy and Mike head to Bhopal to gauge the public reaction. Popular opinion is that they are definitely popular.
For their next prank, they receive worrying praise after demonstrating a fake computer program which calculates the actual cost of human life.Then it's on to Canada to make Exxon and other oil giants look foolish at a big conference. The wheeze here is to hand out candles made of 'Vivoleum', a new fuel made from the bodies of toxic waste victims.
And so to New Orleans to rub up the redevelopment authorities the wrong way while rubbing shoulders with Mayor Roy Nagin. Seems the suits think the best way to rehouse the post-Katrina population is to either board up or pull down all the affordable housing. Huh?
And finally, they hit the streets of Manhattan with a 'dream edition' of The New York Times, full only of news that people want to hear ("Iraq War Is Over", "Bush indicted", etc). Of course, none of it is true. The point is that it should and, in a less selfish world, could be.
Some of the responses and attitudes the Yes Men encounter throughout their quest have to be seen to be believed. But it's comforting to know that the little guy can cause such a big nuisance.
Optimistic and constantly amusing, the Yes Men are a force for the good. That, plus the knowledge that many of those free marketeering goons will have been crushed in the credit crunch, makes this a guilt-edged pleasure.
- The Yes Men Fix the World
- Production year: 2009
- Countries: France, Rest of the world, USA
- Cert (UK): 12A
- Runtime: 90 mins
- Directors: Andy Bichlbaum, Kurt Engfehr, Mike Bonanno
- Cast: Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno