Improv Everywhere Strikes Again!

[JonFromMaplewood]

http://improveverywhere.com/2009/03/18/subway-art-gallery-opening/

Is it a subway platform or an art gallery? My mind is totally blown!

[yesno]

[JustSheaNo]

Tom talked about this on a show once, where he's annoyed with the Improv Everywhere people who went to Best Buy and they all had blue shirts on, confusing the customers and making things more difficult for the employees. I agree with Tom. Do you (Improv Everywhere) really want to make the life of the person who works at Best Buy any harder? The kid that stocks the DVDs? The poor sap who has to drill together the security fixture so you can't steal the demo Wii-mote?

I don't know what to think of this. On the one hand, subtle reminders of the art in ordinary things is really great.  

On the other hand, to pull this crap during weeknight rush hour when all I want to do is go home to my family and other responsibilities... I'd be pissed if as a result I was late picking up the kid, and out $20 or $30 bucks for the privilege to boot.

Sounds like I do know what I think. I think its no good.

[Regular Joe]

How much more disgusting could this possibly get. I don't know subways from shinola, but I'm offended on behalf of those who do. Right off the bat without doing anything else, they are taking up the limited space of anyone just trying to ride the train. Then on top of that, they mock every aspect of normal person culture with those snobby little placards 'transforming the mundane into high art'. Jaw droppingly smug, from concept to execution. They should change their name from 'Improv Everywhere' to 'Failed Actors Making You Late For Work'.

What more proof does one need of what a horrible idea this was, than these faces:

Agent Mirka:

"I also thought it was funny when the MTA staff person was trying to get into the women’s bathroom, the door of which we had blocked with our coat rack."

Agent Goldman:

I would have killed to be inside the station-guard-booth when the station manager called. He kept looking over at the “exhibit” so puzzled. He was throwing his hands and I could see him saying “I don’t know! I don’t know!”

[oilcantim]

Take that, convention!  En garde, status quo!

[Trembling Eagle]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6NU5K3k8Xo&feature=player_embedded


cool
with a little more edge they could be Project Mayhem

[A.M. Thomas]

I hate it.

There has to be some way to interrupt Improv Everywhere's operations.  It could be part of The Best Show on WFMU World Domination Scheme, Phase One.

I think we should create fake e-mail contacts, then place an open call for Improv Everywhere volunteers to meet in a park before riding the subway without pants.  Then a group of us jump out from behind some bushes and beat them with our lunch pails.

[DoodleJump!]

I think that it is a nice concept that doesn't quite work in "real life".

[JonFromMaplewood]

Or a bunch of FOT could sign up for the next Improv Everywhere stunt, go along with it for a while, and then screw it up at the moment of truth. For example, no matter what the next stunt is, when it starts, we hit all the other volunteers with pies.

Trick the tricksters.

...they mock every aspect of normal person culture with those snobby little placards 'transforming the mundane into high art'. Jaw droppingly smug, from concept to execution.

Indeed, RegularJoe. This picture summed it up for me. I agree with her expression 100%.

[senorcorazon]

How 'bout next time they "blow my mind" by cleaning up a subway platform or volunteering at a soup kitchen? Making fun of art jackasses = FISH IN A BARREL INSIDE A BARREL OF FISH. Inside another barrel of fish.

The worst part of it is that two weeks from now I can expect a pile of emails from relatives outside of the city asking "did you see this wacky thing?~! IT SURE IS WACKY!"

[jbissell]

What you all have failed to realize is the amount of joy they have brought to these poor working stiffs.  It's clearly illustrated in every one of those photos.  Sure, on the outside they might look puzzled or upset, but that's only because they are scared to release all that happiness in public.

[Jack from Arkansas]

I've always liked the Improv Everywhere stunt where people continually  board the subway without pants until the final stop when someone boards selling pants.  Do you guys not like pranks period or is it that Improv Everywhere's stunts are poorly designed?

[JustSheaNo]

I've always liked the Improv Everywhere stunt where people continually  board the subway without pants until the final stop when someone boards selling pants.  Do you guys not like pranks period or is it that Improv Everywhere's stunts are poorly designed?

I'm split on pranks. I thought this was great. But the Improv Everywhere stuff is just smug by design,  disruptive and condescending to all us regular people just going about their business.  See also Whirlmart. I'm not about to shop there, but some people have to work there. Don't be a dick.

[scratchbomb]

I've always liked the Improv Everywhere stunt where people continually  board the subway without pants until the final stop when someone boards selling pants.  Do you guys not like pranks period or is it that Improv Everywhere's stunts are poorly designed?

Can't speak for everyone, but for me it's because their pranks inevitably hassle people who don't deserve to be hassled. This subway prank is a prime example. It's kind of a neat idea--except that they're doing it at rush hour, when everyone's just trying to get home, and they're forcing subway employees to have to deal with them. To me, only a hyper-privileged art school kid would think MTA employees deserve this, or not even think about what impact it has on them to begin with.

Felt the same way about the Best Buy prank. It's a clever idea, except they're not fucking with the CEO of Best Buy--they're fucking with some poor working schlub who's barely scraping by. So not only does this guy have to deal with IMPROV EVERYWHERE!; he's gotta deal with the customers who are bugged and freaked out by IMPROV EVERYWHERE! And he's also probably gotta deal with some corporate douche who wants to know why he didn't keep IMPROV EVERYWHERE! out of his store.

[Martin]

I used to be 100% PRO Improv Everywhere, but in the last couple of years I've turned on them ever so slightly. I still think some of their pranks are clever, rather innocent and funny - like the one with the guy at the baseball stadium who couldn't find his seat, or the recent one with high-fives on the escalator, or some of the more sketch-oriented ones like the one with the "suicide jumper". But I have issues with stuff like the subway art gallery or the Best Buy thing - totally agree with scratchbomb. They should think more about in which direction they point their prank gun.