She Likes to Watch

Two pranksters set their sights on big business in “The Yes Men Fix the World”

Who are the Yes Men?

Are they troublemakers? Rebels? Renegades? Or are they unsung heroes to the millions of oppressed people who lack a voice of their own?

Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno are the Yes Men, two merry pranksters who perpetrate practical jokes on a global scale.

They set up fake Web sites, masquerade as corporate spokesmen and appear at industry conferences with the sole goal of humiliating the companies whose unrestrained greed and disregard for human life have caused the suffering of millions — often duping mass media and the general public at the same time.

The anti-globalization activists first appeared in the 2003 documentary “The Yes Men,” impersonating members of the World Trade Organization.

In their latest adventure, “The Yes Men Fix the World,” the dynamic duo spread their net wider– posing as representatives as Dow Chemical, Exxon, Halliburton, even the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

As the documentary opens, the Yes Men are engaged in a truly ballsy stunt.

Andy, who’s masquerading as Dow spokesman Jude Finisterra, has agreed to go on BBC News to discuss the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster. He’s nervous, and it’s easy to see why.

In December 1984, the Union Carbide pesticide plant in the Indian city of Bhopal accidentally leaked methyl isocyanate gas, exposing more than 500,000 people to toxic chemicals.  Nearly 2,260 people died instantly. Ten of thousands more survived with serious injuries.

Dow now owns Union Carbide.

Andy, with a deer-in-the-headlights stare, tells a BBC anchor that Dow accepts full responsibility for the incident. The company has agreed to clean up the site, he says, and fully compensate the thousands of people harmed.

Dow’s share price falls 4.2 percent in 23 minutes. Dow loses $2 billion. And the Yes Men rejoice.

“The Yes Men Fix the World” has a lot of moments like that — moments in which the big guys take a hit and the little guys pull out the party hats. For every celebratory second, however, the movie piles on plenty of footage that just make you flinch.

There are interviews with free market economists whose sole concern is the bottom line, and news footage of punishing natural disasters. We visit boarded-up tenement houses in New Orleans, a hospital in Bhopal and an industrial trade show, allegedly aimed at rebuilding areas hit by Hurricane Katrina, dedicated solely to selling wartime military equipment.

And then there are the corporate conferences, each more ridiculous than the last. Who but the Yes Men would have the guts to peddle Vivoleum, a fake fuel manufactured from human flesh, to oil execs?

Yet, as bizarre as their stunts tend to be, the Yes Men’s audience remains disturbingly credulous.

One interested industrialist asks if the Survivaball, an inflatable survival suit that makes the wearer look a character from Super Mario Bros., could be sold as top-of-the-line protection from acts of terrorism. Another marvels at the duo’s “acceptable risk” algorithm — which weighs potential loss of human life against the potential for profit — and wonders how he, too, can turn the skeleton in his corporate closet into a “golden skeleton.”

Few of these willing marks care to check the Yes Men’s facts, much less their credentials. The media doesn’t fare much better.

A more polished, professional affair than its 2003 predecessor, “The Yes Men Fix the World” nevertheless stays true to its guerrilla filmmaking mission. Stunts are presented in their entirety — the setup, the execution and the aftermath — and filmed digitally in a choppy, uneven style that captures their urgency.

Although the stunts’ success is up to interpretation, at least one of the hoaxes portrayed in “The Yes Men Fix the World” is downright heartwarming.

Andy, Mike and a small army of volunteers distribute counterfeit copies of The New York Times to busy commuters at Union Square and Penn Station. With headlines that proclaim the end of the war in Iraq, the approval of a “maximum wage” law and the impeachment for former President George W. Bush, the faux newspapers read like a liberal dream come true.

Few people are fooled. No one is harmed. And the recipients of the sham Times, fully aware that they’re holding fakes, seem genuinely pleased to be receiving them.

“So it’s not true. So what?” the Yes Men seem to be saying. “What’s the harm in spreading a little hope?”