Culture Jamming - The Art of the Prank

May 2, 2010December 15, 2023

No Fun with Franco and Eva Mattes

From Franco & Eva Mattes, aka 0100101110101101.ORG, May 1, 2010:

Artist Commits Suicide Online as a Work of Art (well, sort of)

Thousand of people watched powerless while a person was hanging from the ceiling, slowly swinging, for hours and hours. It happened yesterday, in the popular website Chatroulette, where people from all over the world can anonymously and randomly see each other through their webcams and chat with perfect strangers.

The hanging man was in fact Brooklyn based artist Franco Mattes, and the whole scene a set up. The artist recorded all the performance and than posted it online. In the video, titled “No Fun”, one can see all possible reactions, from the most predictable to the most unthinkable: some laugh, believing it’s a joke, some seem to be completely unmoved, some insult the supposed-corpse and some, more cynical, take pictures with their phones. Apparently, out of several thousand people, only one called the police. Watching the video can be a strange experience, at times exhilarating as well as disturbing.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=11467722&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

No Fun – Eva and Franco Mattes from Franco Mattes on Vimeo.

Continue reading “No Fun with Franco and Eva Mattes”

April 29, 2010December 15, 2023

Costco Prank

Internet prankster takes on Costco
By QMI Agency
Toronto Sun
April 28, 2010

If you’re shopping at Costco and you come across a price tag for “Goat Balls,” “Human infant skull replicas,” or “The Gift of the Magi,” your eyes aren’t deceiving you.

They’re the handiwork of Rob Cockerham, a tech support worker in Sacramento, Calif., who has a website and a propensity for pranking.

“I am a Costco member, specializing in purchases of bananas and milk. On a recent visit in search of a quality, yet low-priced tequila, I realized that their on-shelf price tags are rather generic,” wrote Cockerham on his website, Cockeyed.com.

“They are printed without decoration, black on white paper measuring four by seven inches, with a straightforward layout using common fonts. And if I can make it, I can prank it.” So he made a list of all the products he thinks Costco should have, such as a “Vinyl dungeon restraint system,” “Canine/feline pacemaker kits,” and “Bottled vodka in water bottles.” He then set about making and printing the fake price tags, laminating them, and affixing them with magnetic strips. Continue reading “Costco Prank”

April 19, 2010December 15, 2023

The Yes Men: Dow Throws a Party, Mainly Zombies Show Up

From The Yes Men, April 19, 2010:

Dow Throws a Dismal Party, Few Attend

On Sunday April 18th, 2010, Dow Chemical sponsored the “Dow Run For Water” in cities around the globe. The event was shut down in London and Stockholm due to protests, but not in New York, where protesters were faced by an army of Yes Men posing as Dow Chemical public relations spokespeople.

http://www.babelgum.com/embed/5002385

More information and images here and here.

April 3, 2010December 15, 2023

Billboards We’d Like to See

Lot’s more! Continue reading “Billboards We’d Like to See”

January 28, 2010December 15, 2023

Subway Humor

From Huffington Post, January 27, 2010:

Funny Subway Vandalism

To start off, we in no way condone vandalism; it’s not our idea of a good time. That said, the ads presented in this collection have already been modified, and thus there’s nothing we can do about it except enjoy the jokes that have already been made. And we can all agree that these ads have been changed for the better.

To see more and/or to submit your own examples, click here.