Frozen Grand Central (via ImprovEverywhere)

I’ve been kind of thinking about these stunts or whatever and trying to analyze why they bother me and I think I’ve come to some conclusion:

They’re created and sort of have this undercurrent of hostility to them, both to other bystanders (as though: “you saps, you don’t get that we’re coordinating this”) and hostility to admittedly cheap and stupid tv “prank” shows like candid camera or whatever retarded MTV show embarrasses third parties.  The “Improv Everywhere” stunts have, if not an air of arrogance, at the very least an air of the belief that they’re doing something different than going for the cheap laugh.

But, really, are they?  They’re just forgoing the cheap laugh and going for cheap intellectualism.  For instance, this stunt is saying nothing that isn’t said or thought by your average person who has read a low-level Revolutionary Road type novel.  Yes, the grind is awful.  Yes, we are mindless drones.  We could pick that up from a Dave Matthews song.  Those not participating aren’t a part of the piece, they are simply forced spectators to a rather tired performance and statement.

The problem I have with the various “projects” is that they are neither mindless jackass stupid stunts (which at least lack ambivalence and are clearly guilty pleasures) and they are not intellectual heady exercises which forces the audience to think.  This isn’t Gilbert and George immersing themselves into the social fabric and subtly making you reconsider social stratification and political motivations.  This is a group of the over-privileged doing something annoying to get themselves on the local news and convincing their participants it’s anything more than that.

Indeed, the only truly remarkable feat about these various exercises is the sheer ability to coordinate so many participants into thinking they are taking part in anything but a banal exercise in self-validation.  That is really the only thing I find interesting or significant about these experiments.

Not that I don’t think these “tricks” have potential, it’s just that right now, it’s performance art for the stupid.

Also, I should note that during one of these “pantless” rides that the children of Wesleyan found so ground-breaking, their stunt made my subway car really crowded with the silent mass of self-satisfaction and made me have to stand in a crowded car in an otherwise nice weekend. And, yes, I’m still sore about having to be on a crowded train 2 years ago.