POLITICAL PRANKS: TH E PERFOR MANCE OF RADICAL HUMOR by AUDREY L. V AN DERFORD A THESIS Presented to the I nterdisciplinary Studies Program: Folklore Program and the Graduate School of the U niversity of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts December 2000 "Political Pranks: T he Performance of Radical Humor," a thesis prepared by Audrey L. Vanderford in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program: Folklore Program. This thesis has been approved and accepted by: Dr. Daniel N. Wojcik, Chair of the Exa ining Committee ' Date Committee in charge: Accepted by: Dr. Daniel N. Wojcik, Chair Dr. Suzanne Clark Dr. Carol Silverman Dean of the Graduate School ii PJOJJ9pUO/\ 'l AeJpn'f OQQC; @ !!! I I I ----· ---·------ - - An Abstract of the Thesis of iv Audrey L. Vanderford for the degree Master of Arts in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program: Folklore Program to be taken December 2000 Title: POLITICAL PRANKS: THE PERFORMANCE OF RADICAL HUMOR Ap�oved: · '-· ·--�-- �aniel N. Wojcik This thesis examines the performance of political pranks by contemporary radical activists and anarchists. Pranks, used symbolically to subvert authority and collapse hierarchy, have become important tools for grassroots political movements. Activists utilize �anks as a form of "culture jamming" to undermine, humiliate, and educate. This thesis documents political prqnks pulled by Earth First!. the Yippies, the Biotic Baking Brigade, and the Eugene Anarchists for Torrey (EAT) Campaign to show how pranks are performed and narrated within anarchist subcultures. Drawing on cultural and performance studies, as well as on anarchist theories, this thesis demonstrates how pranks can become performances of resistance and criticism that disrupt the status quo. CURRICULUM VITA N A M E OF AUTH OR: Audrey L. Vanderford GRADUATE A N D UN DERGRADUATE SCH OOLS ATTEN DED: University of Oregon University of Wyoming The Johns Hopkins University DEGREES AWARD E D : Master o f Arts in Folklore, 2000, University o f Oregon Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies, 2000, University of Oregon Bachelor of Science (Honors) in Social Science, with Minor in Women's Studies, 1 996, University of Wyoming AREAS OF SPECIAL I NTEREST: Cultural Studies, Feminist Theory, Performance Studies PROFESSIONAL EXPERI ENCE : PUBLICATI ONS: Graduate Teaching Fellow, conference assistant, Center for the Study of Women in Society, University of Oregon, Eugene, Winter - Fal l 2000 Faci litator, "Introduction to Women's Studies, " University of Oregon, Eugene, Fall 2000 Graduate Teaching Fellow, archivist, Randall V . Mi lls Fol klore Archives, University of Oregon, Eugene, Winter - Spring 2000 G raduate Teac hing Fellow, teaching assista nt, "Introduction to Folklore, " University of Oregon, Eugene, Fall 1 999 Conference Coordinator, Conference Services, University of Oregon, Eugene, 1 997-1999 Vanderford, Audrey L. "Women and the Bible: Nineteenth Century Perspectives." Challenge. 1 .9 (1 995) : 38-41 . v vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The daughter and the granddaughter of unapologetic pranksters, early and repeated exposure to my father's tales of smoke-bombs and my grandfather's collection of hand-buzzers has obviously tainted both my intellect and my sense of humor. (Thanks Dad and Grandpa!) Although George W. Hayduke's Getting Even: The Complete Book of Dirty Tricks sat on the bookshelf in the house I grew up in, it wasn't until much later that I understood the literary significance of the author's name. Thanks to my little brother, whose activism and whose red nose were the Initial Inspiration for this project. The deepest, warmest thanks to my favorite pranksters-- Anthony and Isaiah-- who not only endured my journey through graduate school (motif J2346, "The Fools Errand"), but continue to have a good sense of humor about the whole academy. I would also like to express my appreciation for Professors Dan Wojcik, Carol Silverman, Suzanne Clark, and Dianne Dugaw for their encouragement Input, and guidance throughout this project. And of course, I must acknowledge my "informants"­ Agent Apple, Kooky, and Rotten- for without their words and actions, this thesis would be very dull indeed. DE DICATIO N Dedicated t o a l l of u s with a subversive sense o f h umor: Let 's hope that everyone finally gets "the joke," and the system crumbles beneath our cacophonous, riotous, revolutionary laughter. vii ..-._----------------- - -----···------ """-- - - viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION .................................. ,.,. , .. , ................................... , ..... . Notes .................................................... ,,.................................... 5 II. TOWARDS A (DISCIPLINED) THEORY OF PRANKS....................................... 6 Literature Review .......................................................... ,,............... 7 Incongruity and Aggression: Theories of Humor. ........................... ,.... 9 Rituals and Rites of Passage: A Structural Analysis of Pranks............... 10 Performing the Political/Political Performances: Theories of Performance ................................................... .................... 11 Telling Jokes, Constructing Identities: Narrative Theories.................... 15 Making Meaning, Resisting Hegemony: (Sub)Cultural Studies............ 16 Notes........................................................................................... 20 Ill. ANARCHY AND THE TRANSGRESSIVE POLITICS OF PRANKS......................... 23 Anarchism: A Brief Overview........................................................... 23 "Propaganda by the Deed" and Other Anarchist Tactics.................. 25 Detournement: Towards Revolutionary Diversions............................. 27 Culture Jamming: "Semiological Guerilla Warfare".......................... 36 Poetic Terrorism and Temporary Autonomous Zones......................... 39 Theory and Praxis.......................................................................... 40 Notes ................................. ................................... ,...................... 42 IV. "MIND BOMBS" AND MONKEYWRENCHING: PRANKS AND THE MEDIA........ 44 "The Whole World is Watching" Publicity and Pranks....................... 44 "Revolution for the Hell of It"- The Yippies .......................... ,.... ... . .... 46 Monkeywrenching and Other Earth First! Pranks............................... 47 Irrational Performances, Unreasonable Politics................................. 50 Notes........................................................................................... 5 2 V. "SPEAKING PIE TO POWER": NARRATIVES FROM THE GLOBAL PASTRY UPRISING...................................................................................... 54 "The Pie is Cast"- A History of Pie Throwing..................................... 55 "If at First You Don't Succeed, Pie and Pie Again"- Post-Prank Discourse........................................................................... 60 Notes........................................................................................... 65 VI. SUBVERTING SPECTACULAR POLITICS: THE EUGENE ANARCHISTS FOR TORREY (EAT) CAMPAIGN............................................................... 66 ix Page Background: The "Eugene Anarchists" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 The Pra nk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Getting the Joke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 VI I . CONCLUSIO N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Anarc hists, Pran ksters, Tricksters, and Clowns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Some Thoughts on the Efficacy of Pra nks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 The Last Laugh: An Endorsement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 APPE NDIX A. M ETH ODOLOGICAL CONSIDE RATIO NS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 B. PRANK ART . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 BIBLIOGRAPH Y. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Figure 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. l 0. 11. 12. X LIST OF FIGURES Page Detourned Cartoon......................................................................... 31 Image from Paris 1968...................................................................... 31 "Joe Chemo," from Adbusters.......................................................... 37 "Obsession for Women," from Adbusters............................................ 37 "Liberated" Billboard....................................................................... 38 Anti-Feminist Phyllis Schaffly Receives Her "Just Desserts"........................ 56 EAT Flyer, circa December 1999......................................................... 74 Calvin Klein Advertisement from the Issue SPIN Magazine (March 2000) that Featured an Article on the "Eugene Anarchists"..................... 79 EAT flyer, Detourned SPIN Image....................................................... 80 Barbie Liberation Organization Instructions....................................... 98 Detourned Parking Ticket................................................................ 99 Stickers.......................................................................................... 1 00 69 ""'"'""'" '"" "S9�00 PUD 'UO!j.DOOl 'S9WDN-S.f-95101 "IDO!.t!l-9!d " .j.U909CJ 'l e5Dd 91QD1 S318'Vl �0 !Sil !X CHAPTE R 1 INTRO DUCTION .. In Corvallis, Oregon, 1985, the Forest Service had reserved a high school a uditorium for a huge Smokey the Bear birthday party for elementary school chi ldren . There were going to be 300 kids present. plus parents. We printed up a leaflet (written in big letters so a child could u nderstand) saying that the chances of Smokey's favorite forest bei ng destroyed by logging was 10 times greater than being burned down in a forest fire. Actually logging accounts for most of the fires. Campers account for a small percentage; l ightning accounts for the widest variety of fires, but they' re small and they usually put themselves out because of accom­ panying thunderstorms. Children hardly cause any fires! Yet the Forest Service spends mill ions of dollars a year having Smokey tell kids not to play with matches. We had heard that the Forest Service didn' t have a Smokey the Bear costume- someone had washed it and the bottom had shrunk way down . Earth First! did, so I put on the bear costume and walked Into the party a nd the kids Immediately surrounded me because It was Smokey's birthday - I was moving through this sea of kids passin g out flyers. The Forest Service guys came over a nd said, " Look, can' t you just leave? We don' t mind you demonstrat ing outside, but we don' t want you Inside here." I said, "This is my birthday party; I ' m not going a nywhere."1 A successful prank is a nuanced a nd well-crafted event, executed with strategic planning and with a nticipated results. A prank disrupts. It u psets. It turns heads a nd raises eyebrows. Some people smile, and some people scoff. Although dismissed as " child's play, " pranks a re actually complex performances of power a nd powerlessness. Pran ks operate on, In, a nd through power dynamics, inverting structures of status, authority, and convention. W hen combined with elements of parody and polit ical wit, p ranks can offer an entertaining act of social criticism. Politica l pranks a re dramatic folk performances, subversive c omedies, radical street theater. Also known as "de§tournement" or "culture jamming," pol itical pranks draw on a long history of satire a nd parody in both performance and literature . As sociologists Hans Speier and Robert Jackall note, "along with persuasion and lies, advice and flattery, tokens of esteem and bribery, banishment and violence, obedience and treachery, the joke belongs to the ric h treasury of the i nstruments of politics. "2 J esters, fools, and clowns have long used humor to q uestion and ridicule authority; modern-day activists continue to fin d the practical joke a useful and amusin g tactic. The focus of t his thesis is the use of pranks by political activists as a creative and p ublic method to educate, entertain, and humiliate. Pranks a re dynamic performances of mischief and dissent. Used symbolically to subvert authority and collapse h ierarc hy, pranks have become important tools for grassroots politica l movements. I n th is t hesis, I examine how politica l pran ks function and explain why radical activists- from the Sltuationists to the Biotic Baking Brigade, from Earth First! to the " E ugene Anarchists" - utilize pranks. With a n emphasis on the activists' views of and goals for pranks, l explore the performance, philosophy, meaning, and repercussion of these political events. I argue that the performance of these "i rrational" tactics of h umor and play marks a critique of the conventional politics of " rationality" and " reasonH that have brought about the very socio-economic conditions these activists deplore. This thesis is divided I nto two parts. The first section, Chapters I I and IlL is theoretical and historical, providing an overview of the topic of pranks as political performances. Chapter I I reviews previous sc holarly literature on the subject of pranks 2 and practical jokes and examines several theories and a pproaches from which th is thesis draws; cultural, performance, and n arrative theories ore a pplied to pranks. Chapter I l l focuses on the theory and practices of anarchy and anarchism. Anarchism, I argue, has a particular relevance to the activists' political goals and philosophies, as well as to their conceptualization and enactment of cultural performances. This chapter examines how humor and performance a re util ized a nd theorized by radical activists t hemselves. The influence of the Situationist I nternational and the concept of "detournement" are a lso explored. I argue, as do many political pranksters, that the situationlst notions of "spectacle" and "detournement" are fundamental to understanding contemporary "revolutionary" performances. 3 The second part of the thesis- Chapters IV, V, and VI- contains "case studies" that examine specific pranks in literature and in enactments. Chapter IV discusses media and activism, analyzing how some activists conceive of pranks as "mind bombs," acts that "explode" to transform people's consciences. This chapter looks at the performances of Earth Flrstl and the Yip pies to show how radical activists utilize pranks to attract and subvert media attention. Chapter V examines the history and politics of pie­ throwing. It highlights activists who sling pies to punish certain public personalities and to deliver particular political messages. This chapter documents the highly crafted symbolism activists Instill in the performance of this type of prank as well as In the construction of subsequent communiques. Chapter VI focuses on the recent phenomenon of "Eugene Anarchists" and specifically on a parodic political campaign they ran. This section reveals how humor and pranks can be utilized to subvert the hegemonic discourse on anarchism by challenging stereotypes of "terrorism." Chapter VII concludes with commentary on the efficacy and future of this type of political activism. This thesis takes a multidisciplinary approach to pranks and pranksters, drawing on theory and methods from history, literature, folklore, and cultural studies. Although the pranks and pranksters I discuss have been documented by a variety of mainstream media sources, I have chosen to concentrate on the activists' own representations of their actions. I have conducted fieldwork with several political pranksters, although the interviews remained loosely structured, informal discussions, rather than strict question­ and-answer sessions. I have also collected a variety of written material from pranksters- 4 flyers, stic kers, posters, and emails - that display and explain their political motives (see Appendix A for a more thorough discussion of my methodology) . This thesis combines ethnographies of personal narratives, political communiques, and protest literature in the hopes of remaining faithful to the aims and opinions of political pranksters -- their ideology as well as their sense of humor. 1 Mike Roselle, as quoted in V . Vale and Andrea Juno, ed. , Pranks! (San Francisco: RE/Search, 1 987) 1 26. 2 Hans Speier and Robert Jackall, "Wit and Politics: An Essay on Laughter and Power," The American Journal of Sociology 1 03.5 (1 998): 1 353. 5 6 CHAPTER I I TOWARDS A (DISCIPLIN E D) THEORY OF PRAN KS A prank is a practical joke, a mischievous act, a tric k, a hoax, a ruse. It is a humorous event, a form of play where only one of the two opposing sides realizes they are playing. Folklorist and anthropologist Richard Bauman defines pra n ks as enactments of playful deceit, in which one party or team (to be called tric kster) Intention ally manipulates features of a situation In such a way as to induce a nother person or persons (to be called victim or dupe) to have a false or misleading sense of what is going on and so to behave in a way that brings about discomfiture (confusion, embarrassment etc) In the victim.1 Learned orally or through example, pranks a re often repeated, yet they m ust continually defy expectation. Although the structure of the joke may remain the same, consta nt variation Is necessary to maintain the elements of surprise, c reativity, and humor. Pranks function th rough ritualized Inversion, subverting and sabotaging esta blished power relations. Pranks operate by "undermining or r idiculing authority or the organizationally sanctioned hierarchy. "2 It Is not surprising that pranks are most commonly associated with youth, as children's folklore experiments with power and powerlessness.3 Wh i le adults a re supposed to have matured beyond th is type of miscnievous behavior, pranks do continue past adolescence. According to journalists V . Vale a n d Andrea J uno, a prank connotes fun, laughter, jest, satire, lampooning, making a fool of someone -- all l ight-hearted activities. Thus do pra n ks camouflage the sting of deeper, more critical denotations, such as their d i rect c hal­ lenge to a ll verbal and behavioral routines, and their u ndermining of the sovereign authority of words, language, visual images, and social conven­ tions in general . Regardless of specific manifestation, a p ra n k is always a n evasion of rea lity. Pran ks a re the deadly enemy of reality. And " reality"-- Its description and limitation -- has always been the supreme control tr ick used by a society to subdue the l ust for freedom latent in its citizens.4 I ..._ The genre of pran ks inc ludes a range of humorous, sneaky, and destructive acts, from children's practical jokes to subterfuge on a more elaborate scale. This thesis focuses on the latter, arguing that polit ical activists utilize the pranks to c hallenge and disrupt power and prestige. This c ha pter examines scholarly literature on pranks a n d draws on performance and cultural studies t o explore t h e radical o r transgressive potential of polit ical pran ks. Literature Review Pranks are la rgely u nexamined and certainly u nder-theorized by scholars. Other than juvenile and mean-spirited " How To" manuals, there Is, to my knowledge, only one book devoted entirely to the aesthetics and artistry of pranks: Pranks! by V. Vale and Andrea J uno. Published i n 1 987 as part of the RE/Search series, this book contains interviews with many well-known pranksters and performance art ists, Including Ylppie Abbie Hoffman, Earth First! co-founder Mike Roselle, The Realist publisher Paul Krassner, and Dead Kennedys' lead singer Jello Biafra. In the book's i ntroduction, Vale and Juno begin to formulate the transformative power and revolutionary significance of pranks, stating that "the best pranks research and probe the boun daries of the occupied territory known as 'society' In an attempt to redirect that society toward a vision of l ife grounded not in dreadful necessity but rather continual poetic renewal ."5 Although the book is an excellent anthology of pranksters' recollections, the editors' journalistic style relies solely on conversation, sometimes at the expense of analysis. W hat it lacks In theory however, Pranks! makes up for in riotous storytell ing. There have been a handful of folkloric Investigations of pranks, a n d these generally fall i nto three categories: chl ldren's/teenage folklore, occupational folklore, and hol iday/celebration customs. For example, J ulia Woodbridge Oxreider posits that 7 8 pranks played at girls' slumber parties a re quests for identity a n d peer relationships,6 As in most stu dies of logging culture, Barre Toelken considers practical jokes on the job as Initiation rites for newcomers or " greenhorns.''7 In Wobblies, Pile Butts, and Other Heroes: Labor/ore Explorations, Archie Green takes a historical and etymological approac h to workplace pranks, examining acts of sabotage as r ituals of resistance. Pranks are perhaps most often mentioned in relation to celebrations (weddings and birthdays, for example) and to holidays (such as Halloween and April Fool's Day) .8 I n a chapter from Folklore Matters entitled "April Fool and April Fish," Alan Dun des suggests pranks are played on "individuals who are placed in some kind of new situation or status," such as high school graduates, newlyweds, or newcomers at summer camp. 9 By and large, academic Investigations of pranks are few and far between: sometimes receiving only a cursory mention, most pranks are analyzed in journal- or chapter-length essays. Whi le this thesis moves towards a more in-depth analysis of the performance a n d meaning of pranks, I focus here exclusively on political pranks . Perhaps the lack of scholarly writ ing on pranks stems in part from the difficulty conducting a focused, contextual study on them. After aiL there are only a few occasions, such as Apri l Fool's Day, when "ritualized" pranks can be readily observed " in the field"; at other times, pranks are nearly impossible to predict or observe. Therefore ethnography must focus on the aftermath rat her than the event, relying on stories of pranks rather than on performances. Analysis of pranks can occur on a n umber of levels, however, and can concentrate on the humor or on the social criticism, on the enactment or on its hlstoricizing . Due to the complexity and c reativity of pra n ks, th is thesis d raws on several theoretical approaches and disciplines, including performance, narrative, and subcultura l studies. 9 I ncongruity and Aggression: Theories of H umor Although there is little written on pranks per se. the study of h umor more broadly has generated a substantial body of writing. One of the most Important books in the field Is Sigmund Freud's 1 905 Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious. Although Freud asserts that jokes provide an expression of the unconscious. u nlike in his more well-known work on dreams. he does not attempt to uncover the symbolism of jokes in this book. I nstead. he concentrates on the motives behind these expressive forms. F reud arg ues that there are two types of jokes: a bstract and tendentious. Abstract jokes have no particular purpose and are the minority of those told. Most jokes are tendentious: aggressive. hostile, blasphemous, obscene. According to folklorist E ll iot Oring, Freud's i nterpretation perceives jokes as "assaults against real individuals and groups I n the social world. They serve the emotions by al lowing the expression of aggression safely 'masked' as play." 10 In h is book Jokes and Their Relations. Orlng also cites sociologist Henri Bergson who saw "laughter as an unconscious form of r idicule designed to h umiliate and correct others." 1 1 D rawing on Bergson, Oring prefers to concentrate on the incongruity and Inappro priateness of jokes rather than on their aggressiveness. Oring detects incongruity in both the logic and l inguistics of a joke. That is. humor violates communication codes with unanticipated resolutions and intertextual meanings. A joke util izes ambiguous language, words and phrases that can mean different things depending on their context or combination. One laughs at the u nforeseen turns-of-phrase and u nexpected meanings. l would further argue that the performance as well as the text of a joke can be incongruous: targets of pranks can be unl ikely or unsuspecting, a n d the a bsurdity of that situation can be amusing. Jokes, bot h verbal and pract ical, always have a social dimension. Humor is t he creat ion of a subject ive and often spontaneous process. One's personal point of view determines one's i nterpretat ion. Despite t his open-endedness - t his risk of others not "gett ing the joke" - pran ks, l ike many types of jokes, can b ecome polit ical tact ics. Saul A! inksy, in his not able activist handbook Rules tor Radicals, claims that " ridicule is man's most potent weapon . It is almost impossible to counteratt ack ridicule. Also it i nfuriates t he opposit ion, who then react to your advantage. " 1 2 Even when outsiders don't "get it ," h umor can play a key role In activism, releasing tension and st rengt hening community . Rit uals and Rites of Passage: A St ruct u ra l Analysis of Pra n ks 1 0 In h is chapter "April Fool and April Fish," Alan Dundes ma kes one of t he only attempts to theorize pran ks at lengt h, a pplying Arnold Van Gennep's " rit es of passages" model to pranks. As stated earlier. Dundes sees pranks as symbolic acts t hat mark or assist In t imes of t ra nsit ion. He draws upon Van Gennep's a rgument t hat al l rites of passage share the same st ruct ura l stages: separat ion, t ransit ion, and incorporat ion i nt o t he world . 13 Applying t his st ructure to pranks, Dundes suggests t he duped individual is psychologically separated from ot hers by not being " in" on t he joke; t hen upon realization of t he prank, the person becomes admitted i nt o the group. Alt hough Dundes does not mention him in this chapter, some of Victor Turner's observation about rites of passage and the " rit ual process" may also be applicab le. Turner's work centers on t he second st age in Van Gennep's model, t ransit ion or l imlnallty, when the societ al norms are suspended t hrough ritual inversion. Turner however expands the concept beyond t he intermediate stage of a rite of passage; he develops "an I nt erpretat ion of the l iminal or marginal phase as exist ing a utonomously, an independent 1 1 and sometimes enduring category of people who a re 'betwixt and between."' 14 According to Turnec the transitional stage is "full of potency and potentiality. It may a lso be full of experiment and play. There may be a play of words, a play of symbols, a play of metaphors. " 1s Turner a lso a rgued that transition Is marked not o nly by " limlnallty, • but by "communitas" and "ludic recombination." " Ludic recombination" consists of playful reconstruction of cultural elements. "Communitas" Is a special. albeit temporary, community where conventional social hierarchies a re leveled. Clearly, pranks contain elements of these three markers. P ranks are undenia bly playfuL even when used in social critique or subversion. Although political pranks may not necessarily be uti l ized, as Dun des suggests, to Initiate newcomers, they do foster "communitas" amongst activists a n d a udience members who share the laugh. Although neither Van Gennep nor Turner a pplied their " rites of passage" models to pranks, Dundes's use of structura l a nalysis does point to an important disruptive and transformative power In pra n ks. Performing the Political/Polit ical Performances: Theories of Performance Relying largely on performance theories, my analysis of pranks differs from Freud's psychoanalytic or Oring's textual a pproac h to h umor and from D undes' s structural a pproach to practical jokes. Performance t heory incorporates communication a n d theater studies a s well a s socio-l inguistics, providing a model for examining events as enacted and embodied. Performance theory expan ds ethnographic i nvestigations beyon d "text" and "context" towards holistic, event-centered perspectives. By drawing on performance theory, I hope to establish a dynamic framework through which the energy and anarchy of these pranks can be explored without losing the bodily, contextual, and political cues they provide. 1 2 According t o Bauman, performances have a n "emergent" quality; that i s they embody and enact identity. 16 Cultural performances are, then, expressive and symbolic processes that construct and articulate i ndividual and group identities. Through their e nactments, the partic ipants have agency in the production of meaning. Political performances - protests, street theater, "agit- prop" - have received increasing scholarly attention since the Sixties. In the past th i rty years, theorists have begun to examine both the politics of performance a nd the performance of politics. Although, again, pranks have not been the focus of a ny one work, I will b riefly examine several a uthors whose writing can enhance our understanding of the performance of political pranks. In his a rticle " Fighting in the Streets: D ramaturgies of Popular P rotest. 1968-1989," theater studies scholar Baz Kershaw expands the analyses of performance theories to include protest events. Kershaw posits that as reflective and reflexive acts, protests wield a symbolic potential for real transformation - a " radical l iminality" that moves b eyond subversion a nd reslstance.Jl According to Kershaw, the dramaturgy of protest is centrally about disclosure, both In terms of disrupting the spectacle of hegemony and in terms of opening up new forms of ideological exchange between c ivil society and the state, new social move­ ments and institutional power. Whilst those exchanges are always to a g reater or lesser degree prefigured by tradition. they are a lso more or less aimed at creating new spaces for radical discourse, in its widest sense. That is to say, the d ramas of protest always a im for a radical l iminallty which draws authority into a new relation with the potential for change i nitiated beyond Its domain.la In other words, political performances of dissent and resistance, whether protests. pra n ks, wildcat strikes, or riots, can potentially enact and constitute new visions of freedom. The political sphere is not a hermetically-sealed space. Kershaw's a rticle addresses the theatrics of protest in a useful manner for understanding political change (a nd changes h 1 3 i n the political) over t he past t hi rty years. Kershaw's em phasis o n the drama shows how im portant " performance" has become for activists, as for t he political sphere i n general. In Striking Performances/Performing Strikes, speech commu nicati on scholar Ki rk Fuoss a rgues t hat an analysis of cultu ral d rama offers i nsight i nt o larger social d ram a . Fuoss uses t w o case studies from the 1 930s t o exami ne how st ri kers promote t hei r agenda t h rough theat er a nd performance, hi ghlighti ng bot h t he comm unity and contest atio n expressed in and generated by these politi cal performa nces. He argues that "cult u ra l performances are di rectionaL t hat t hey m ove t he social form ation in which t hey occur and of whi c h t hey a re a part in one of two di recti ons: eit her t oward a furt her ent renchm ent of the status q uo values and relations of power, or toward a looseni ng of status q uo values and a redist ri bution of status q uo relations of power."19 I n the examples of st ri ki ng union workers i n Fuoss's research, as In t he case of political pranks, performances can be progressive, or at t he least can move society i n that di recti on. Rhetorician Kevi n Deluca also analyzes contestation and confrontati on in his a rti cle " U nruly Arguments: The Body Rhetoric of Eart h Fi rst ! . ACT UP, and Queer N ati on ." Del uca asserts that t he non-verbal - the body - can provi de a powerful argumentative force. The physical acts and Images of E arth First ! . ACT UP, a nd Queer Nation activists creat e a visual perform a nce, a bodi ly rhetoric t hat extends beyond " reason" and "words. " Deluca's artic le is a n im porta nt cont ri bution to t he t heories of performanc e a n d protest a s i t addresses t h e discursive, mat erial body In cont em porary political perform ances. His analysis of radical activists is si gnificant, for t hei r mode of political perform ance reflects thei r prioritization of li ved, bodi ly experience over " rationality" a n d t raditional political argum entation . The non-verbal a n d the body are im portant sites for t he communication of pranksters' messages. The body can be a vehicle for or a target of a prank . For exam ple, duri ng Critical M ass bi ke rides, cyclists fi l l the st reet , peddli ng 1 4 slowly and bloc king all lanes of traffic in order to highlight and condemn society's over­ reliance on motorized transportation . Unlike more conventional tactics of, say, lobbying and letter-writing, these performances utilize bodies in the medium and the message. F requently the bodily performances of protests and pranks are festive, excessive, and rude. Russian theorist Mikhail Bakhtin 's concept of "carnivalesque" Is applicable to pranks as they are bawdy performances of irreverence and dissent. Bakhtin 's work explores medieval festivals and religious feast days; he argues that carnival combines "the sacred with the profane, the lofty with the low, the great with the insignificant the wise with the stupid . " 20 Bakhtin recounts the oppositions and symbolic inversions abundant in the celebratory atmosphere: the laughter of carnival overcomes the seriousness of official culture, the grotesque and blasphemous bodies displace spirituality and dogmatism. I believe contemporary political protests and pranks capture this "carnivalesque," as my case studies show later, with their pies, puppetry, and pigs for president. Theater scholar Richard Schechner goes as far as saying that " revolutions in their incipient period are carnivalesque."2 1 However, several scholars have dismissed the subversiveness of the carnival and the carnivalesque, insisting they act only as an officially-sanctioned safety valves.22 According to Michael Bernstein, " rul ing conventions allow themselves to be mocked due to a full confidence in their own power to emerge stil l more entrenched the following morning." 23 However, I believe Bakhtin 's conclusions are applicable to the performances in my research, for these political pranks a re neither condoned, nor sponsored, nor tolerated by officialdom. As c ultural studies scholar John Docker a rgues, the "carnivalesque remains an always dangerous supplement, challenging, destabilizing, pluralizing single notions of true culture, true reason, true broadcasting, true art . " 24 1 5 Telling Jokes, Constructing Identities: Narrative Theories Political activism is about "doing"- protesting, teaching, organizing, mon keywrenching- but It is also about "talking" - chanting, negotiating, persuading, and perhaps most importantly tel l ing stories. Narratives play a significant role in political activism, constructing and maintaining individual and community identities.25 As Francesco Polletta explains in her article on narrative, identity, and protest, In tell ing the story of our becoming -- as an individual, a nation, a people -- we establish who we are. Narratives may be employed strate­ gically to strengthen a collective identity but they also may precede and make possible the development of a coherent community, or nation , or collective actor.26 Activists' narratives are important vehicles to promote and legitimate a cause, to garner support, to evaluate previous actions, to recruit new members, and to sustain those already in the movement. Narratives provide a forum for mediating identities and strategies. These protest narratives are performances, but they are a lso performative, constituting political subjects, actors, and agents. "Speaking truth to power, " these narratives configure events in such a way to re-present the past with a radical telos. As activists narrate their own prankster experiences, along with other legendary prank stories, they constitute and perform their transgressive politica l identities. As mentioned earlier, the logistics of pranks make their performance less available to researchers than their aftermath and discussion. Fortunately, the narratives surrounding pranks can be as revealing as the events themselves. Bauman suggests these are actually "two complementary parts of the same expressive tradition . "27 I ndeed, the tale of a prank can be as important as the initial action. As the prank narratives are repeated in activist circles, they take on a greater, even legendary significance. Those present at the levitation of the Pentagon in 1 967, for example, insist 1 6 the U.s. military headquarters was lifted i nto the a ir- a n achievement that demonstrated to the world both the fall ibility and the culpability of the American armed forces.2s Of course, stories of pran ks circulate outside the activist community as welL w here the narrative and the Interpretation may be quite different from activists' i ntent. As folklorist Archie Green observes, "the same . . . a necdote can bind a n arrator and audience i nto a conspiracy of shared cause or dissolve a different audience i nto terror. "29 The media play a n Important role I n crafting narratives and In shaping these pran k performances for mass consumption . As I explore In more detail in Chapter IV, the media are far from objective, often framing polit ical activism in negative ways. N arratives are social acts that can be either subversive or hegemonic. As sociologists Patricia E wick and Susa n Silbey argue, narratives can conform to or counter the status quo. They assert that "narratives are l ikely to bear the marks of social i nequalities, disparities of power, and ideological effects. However, at the same time that particular and personal narratives partake of and reproduce collective n arratives, they also provide openings for creativity and i nvention in reshaping the social world . " 30 The way i n which a pran k Is narrated. then, can become crucial in determining Its meaning and its impact. Making Meaning. Resisting Hegemony: CSub)Cultural Studies Cultural Studies At its broadest level, th is thesis falls under the rubric of cultural studies. a relatively recent academic disc ipl ine that, generally speaking, theorizes culture as material, economic, and ideological practices of signification. Although "cu lture" can mean the way of l ife of people in a particular time, group, or place, it can also be defined as the actions and experiences I n w hich a group makes meaning. For cultural theorists, t his production of meaning is a profoundly political process. Although the field of cultural studies takes many forms and approaches, I want to limit my discussion here to what John Storey labels "neo-Gramscian cultural studies."31 Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci developed the concept of "hegemony" to explain the absence of revolution in capitalist democracies. According to Gramsci, hegemony is the process by which the dominant class(es) in society elicit consent and support from subordinate groups, not by force but by "intellectual and moral leadership."32 Gramsci argued, in part, that the struggle to overcome hegemony­ whether with a direct assault or a lengthy fight - would be an Ideological, a cultural struggle. 17 When applied to cultural studies, the concept of hegemony is used to demonstrate the cultural relationship of classes, a relationship marked by "incorporation" and "resistance." In other words, dominant groups do not fully or completely Impose their values, ideals, and meanings onto others; culture is negotiated some elements incorporated, some resisted. Cultural theorist John Fiske suggests that resistance to hegemony takes two forms, semiotic and social. The former pertains to cultural meanings and identities; the latter with socio-economic change. Fiske sees culture, popular culture to be precise, as the site of contestation. Neo-Gramsclan cultural studies argues that people are active participants and as agents in the production of meaning. According to British cultural theorist Stuart Hall, this process is a struggle for "articulation," as different groups with different politics in different contexts "articulate" different meanings to the same cultural performance. Rather than suggesting that consumers of culture suffer from a "false consciousness" that keeps them imprisoned in capitalist relations, neo-Gramscians believe people are critical receivers and creators of culture. Political pranks, then, are not necessarily working to 1 8 era dicate "false consciousness" (although a dmittedly, some activists may still retain t his rather outdated tenet of revolutionary vanguardism). I nstead, pran ks act to reinvigorate criticism, to challenge complacency, and to provoke thought. Pranks are counter­ hegemonic acts that interrupt the top-down flow of i deology, revealing the machinations of the powerful and of the State. By a pplying neo-Gramcian cultural studies to anarchist "culture," I am arguing that we m ust look at these h umorous texts and practices In t heir specific contexts in order to ascertain their resistance to and Incorporation of the dominant forces of society. I n a ddition, I believe w e must recognize that assessments of these c ultural performa nces cannot be made with academic authority or f inality. As Storey notes, "It is, ultimately, i n 'production i n use' that q uestions of meaning, pleasure, ideological effect, incorporation or resistance, can be (contingently) decided." 33 Subcultural Studies Although most commonly viewed as part of a political " movement, " I wish to frame the pran kster activists in this study as part of a "subculture." Subcultures are, as t he word Indicates, social subgroups distinct from the mainstream. E arly c ultural theorists from the Chicago School of sociology portrayed subcultures as disenfranchised or deviant subgroups (suc h as immigrants, gangsters, and jazz musicians) . 34 In the Seventies, the Birmingham School suggested that subcultures were oppositional , even counter­ hegemonic. These scholars argued that these subcultural groups, primarily youth, respond to and subvert the dominant culture i n creative ways: th is subcultural " style" inc ludes dress, mannerisms, argot, customs, a nd bellefs . 3s Subcultural theorist Dic k Hebdige argues that subcultural "style" is a site of symbolic contention: it Is a signifying practice whereby everyday objects and practices � ria 1 9 are appropriated by "subordinate groups and made t o carry secret meanings: meanings which express, i n code, a form of resistance to the order which guara ntees t heir continued subordination . "36 As "bricoleurs," members of subcultural groups rearrange and transform objects in order to generate new meanings . Drawing on the work of J ul ia Kristeva and Roland Barthes, Hebdige suggests that punk subcultural style in particular displays "signifiance.'' an unending " process of meaning-construction''37 rather than a fixed or final interpretation. While Hebdige's analysis of British subcultures highl ights the symbolic and stylistic resistance of groups l ike the punks, the mods, and the teddy-boys, th is t hesis does not focus on such a clearly-delineated group. Moreover, the "style" of the radical activists examined here is perhaps less evident i n their appearance than i n their politica l beliefs and practices. Although amongst younger activists, there may be some similarities i n dress (black clothing), body decoration (tattoos, piercings, dreadlocks), and lifestyle (vegan/vegetarian, un- or alternatively employed, cooperatively l iving arrangements), not all pran ksters are identifiable by their attire. Pran kster "style" is more an attitude than a " look." By and large, these activists are a nti-corporate, anti-capitalist, anti­ government, and a nti-authoritarian. As a narchists, however, these political pran ksters are u nited by no single organization; they act on or respond to no one issue. Rather, t hey are Involved in many aspects of radical politics - environmentalism (particularly in the animal liberation movement and the ancient forest campaign), a nti-militarism a n d nuclear disarmament, a nti-police brutality and a nti-death penalty, urban gardening, homeless and squatters' rights, pirate radio and a lternative media . An a morphous subculture, pra nkster-activists are affiliated by their radical politics, their (loosely) shared values, and most importantly, their prankster tactics. 1 Richard Bauman, Story, Performance, and Event: Contextual Studies in Oral Narrative (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1 986) 36. 20 2 Robert Georges and Michael Owen Jones, Folkloristics: An Introduction (Urbana: U of I l l inois P, 1 995) 1 8 1 . 3 Jay Mec hling, "Children's Folklore," Folk Groups and Folklore Genres: An Introduction, ed. El l iot Oring (Logan : Utah State UP, 1 986) 9 1 - 1 20. 4 V . Vale and Andrea Juno, ed. Pranks! (San Francisco: RE/Search, 1 987) 4. 5 Vale and J uno, Pranks! 5. 6 J ulia Woodbridge Oxreider, "The Slumber Party: Transition into Adolescence," Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin 43 ( 1 977): 1 28-1 34. 7 Barre Toelken, Dynamics of Folklore (Logan: Utah State UP, 1 996) 1 46. a For examples of pranks in conjunction with holidays and celebrations, see Bi l l Ellis, " H alloween Pranks: 'Just a Little I nconvenience' ," Halloween and Other Festivals of Life and Death, ed. Jack Santino (Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1 994); Monika Morrison, "Wedding N ight Pranks in Western New Brunswick," Southern Folklore Quarterly 38 ( 1 974) : 285-297. 9 Alan Dundes, Folklore Matters (Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1 989) 1 04. 1 o El l iot Oring, Jokes and Their Relations (Lexington : U of Kentucky P, 1 992) 1 6 . 11 Oring, Jokes and Their Relations 1 . 12 Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals (New York: Vintage Books, 1 97 1 ) 1 28. 13 Arnold Van Gennep, The Rites of Passage (London: Routledge, 1 960) vii . 14 Barbara Myerhoff, " Rites of Passage," Celebration: Studies in Festivity and Ritual, ed. Victor Turner (Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 1 982) 1 1 7 . 1 5 Victor Turner, "F rame, Flow and Reflection : Ritual and Drama as Public Liminal ity, " Performance in Postmodern Culture, ed. Michel Benamou and Charles Cara mello (Mi lwaukee: The Center for Twentieth Century Studies, 1 977) 33. 16 Richard Bauman, "Verbal Art as Performance," American Anthropologist 77 ( 1 975): 302 . 21 1 7 Baz Kershaw, "Fighting in the Streets: Dramaturgies of Popular Protest, 1 968- 1 989, " New Theatre Quarterly 1 3 .51 ( 1 997): 275. 18 Kershaw, "Fighting in the Streets" 274-275. 1 9 Kirk Fuoss, Striking Performances/Performing Strikes (Jackson: U of Mississippi P, 1 997) 93. 20 Mikhail Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics (Manchester: Manchester UP, 1 984) 1 22. 21 Richard Schechner, The Future of Ritual: Writings on Culture and Performance (London: Routledge, 1 993) 47. 22 For an argument against the subversiveness of carnival, see Peter Stallybrass and Allon White, The Politics and Poetics of Transgression (Ithaca : Cornell UP, 1 986) . 23 Michael Bernstein, " When the Carnival Turns Bitter: Preliminary Reflections upon the Abject Hero," Bakhtin: Essays and Dialogues on His Work, ed. Gary Saul Monson (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1 986) 99. 24 John Docker, Postmodernism and Popular Culture: A Cultural History (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1 994) 1 85. 25 See Francesco Polletta, '"It was l ike a fever . . . ' : N arrative and Identity in Social Protest," Social Problems 45.2 ( 1 998) : 1 37-1 59; Scott A. H unt and Robert D. Benford, " Identity Talk in the Peace and J ustice Movement," Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 22.4 (1 994): 488-51 7; Robert D. Benford, '"You Could Be the H u ndredth Monkey' : Collective Action Frames and Vocabularies of Motive Within the N uclear Disarmament Movement," The Sociological Quarterly 34.2 ( 1 993): 1 95-2 1 6. 26 Polletta, "It was l ike a fever . . . " 1 39. 27 Bauman, Story, Performance, and Event 35. 28 I nterview with Abbie Hoffman in Vale and J uno, Pranks! 65. 29 Archie Green, Wobblies, Pile Butts, and Other Heroes: Labor/ore Explorations (Urbana: u of I l l inois P, 1 993) 333. 3o Patricia Ewic k and Susan S. Silbey, "Subversive Stories and Hegemonic Tales: Toward a Sociology of N arrative . '' Law and Society Review 29.2 ( 1 995): 222. 31 For a full description of this approach, as well as an excellent overview of the field of cultural studies, see John Storey, An Introduction to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture (Athens: U of Georgia P, 1 998) 1 3-1 5, 1 23-1 29. 32 Antonio Gramsci, Selections from Prison Notebooks, trans. Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey­ Newell-Smith (London: Lawrence, 1 97 1 ) 57. 22 33 Storey, Introduction to Cultural Theory 1 30. 34 For an overview of the Chicago School ' s definition of subculture, see Albert K. Cohen, "A General Theory of Subcultures" from Delinquent Boys (New York: Free, 1 955) . excerpted in The Subcultures Reader, ed. Ken Geider and Sarah Thomson (London: Routledge, 1 997) 44-54. 35 For examples of the Birmingham School's conceptualization of "subculture, " see Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style (London: Methuen, 1 979); Stuart Hal l and Tony Jefferson, ed., Resistance through Rituals (London: Routledge, 1 993). 36 Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style 1 8 . 37 Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style 1 1 8 . CHAPTER I l l ANARCH Y AND THE TRANSGRESSIVE POLITICS OF PRANKS An artful practical joke can be considered a prank: a pra n k t hat endures i s a hoax; and a hoax that endures I s reality. - Reverend AI, Cacophony Societyl W hereas Chapter II examined academic theories pertaining to cultural performances a n d to pran ks, th is chapter concentrates on literature and ideas from 23 within the activist subculture, with particular attention paid to those cited by the polit ical pranksters themselves. Beginning with some background on anarchism and anarchist tactics, this chapter proceeds to a more detailed Investigation of "detournement," "cu lture jamming," and "TAZ's," practices closely tied to pran ks. Anarchism: A Brief Overview "Anarchism," " anarchist." and "anarchy" may be among the most misrepresented and misunderstood ideas in political t heory. Generally, the words are synonymous with "chaos," "violence," " lawlessness," and " terrorism." As n ineteenth century Italian anarchist Enrico Malatesta said, "since it was thought that government was necessary and that without government, there could be only disorder and confusion, it was natural and logical that anarchy, which means a bsence of government, should sound l i ke absence of order ."2 Anarchism originated in mid- n ineteenth century, theorized throug h the writings of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, M ikhail Bakunln and Peter Kropotkin . Crushed with the Paris Commune in 1 87 1 , suppressed by the US government after the assassination of President McKin ley in 1 90 1 , persecuted In Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution, destroyed by Franco in the Spanish Civil War, and J 24 dissolved with the end to Sixties student radicalism, a narchism has seen a recent resurgence amongst activists. Although repressed by the state and vilified by the media, anarchism continues to offer an important and vehement critique of society. As Jon Purkis and J ames Bowen suggest In their book Twentieth Century Anarchism. " It is not so much that anarc hism offers blueprints for a liberated egalitarian and sustainable future. but that it poses difficult questions right now a bout power. the relationships of human beings to the rest of the world and about culture and ldentlty."3 In order to fully u nderstan d pranks and prankster activists, It is necessary to review some a narchist theories and tactics. Emma Goldman defined anarchism as "the philosophy of a new social order based on l iberty u nrestricted by man-made law, the t heory that a l l forms of government rest on violence. and are therefore wrong and harmful, as well as unnecessary. " 4 Anarchism is opposed to domination in al l its forms; capitalism a n d nationalism were the targets of early anarchists, but contempora ry a narchists include sexism, racism, homophobia, species-ism, and environmental destruction In the litany of oppressions they wish to end. While not al l a narchists believe that humans are I n herently good or w ise, they do argue that we do not need institutions l ike the government, the pollee, private property, religion, or the workplace in order to keep us from h urting eac h other and harming ourselves. U nlike a M arxist revolution that would place the machinery of the state i n the hands of the workers, a n a narchist revolution would abolish the state. Although anarchists disagree on tactics - w hether to rise up and overth row the system or w hether to turn their backs on It and form their own autonomous collectives, many anarchists remain committed to Kropotkin's notion of ·mutual aid# - building a n alternative community that provides for and assists each mem ber in a non-coercive, non-exploitative manner. 25 A wide range of a djectives labels the different "brands" of a narchism: a narcho- syn dicalism, anarcha-feminism, a narcho-lndividualism, green a narchism. and primitivism to name a few. Although an In-depth analysis of their different perspectives is beyond the scope of this thesis, a more detailed examination of situationism, a form of twentieth- century a narchism developed In France, will be given later in t his chapter. Two elements of a narchist thought are particularly relevant to u nderstanding the use of pranks by radical activists. First. a narchism, in addition to being a nti-State and a nti-government, I s a nti-hierarchical. " H ierarchy i s the organizational structure that embodies authority," explains one anarchist website. s Opposition to hierarchy, then, is the underlyin g project of a narchism. Pranks, as addressed in the previous chapter. o perate to subvert authority and flatten hierarchy, conveniently coinciding with the a narchist agenda. Second, some anarchists embrace " play" as a n a lternative mode of existence to " work ."6 Although clearly syndicalists and trade unionists do n ot hold this belief. some contemporary a narchists do see " play" as a key to re-imagining social relations. In this respect, pran ks are a tactic that combines philosophy and fun, sabotage and sill iness. According to one prankster, " While the issues we try to tackle are serious - clear-cutting redwoods and the global economy - there's something very valuable in getting people to laugh." ? By pull ing pran ks. a narchists utilize a ritual that c ombines politics, play, subversion, and social criticism. " Propaganda by the Deed" and Other Anarchist Tactics In the nineteenth century, a narchist tactics were branded as " propaganda by the deed. " a phrase that predated the contemporary l abel of "terrorism." Whi le "terrorism" conjures images of violence and destruction, the phrase " propaganda by the deed" implies an act that both i nforms and promotes anarchy. " Propaganda by the 26 deed" recognizes the informational value of a n insurrectionary act. As performa nces that serve to educate, enlighten, and perhaps even terrorize, pranks can be thought of as a new type of " propaganda by the deed. " Although as historian Richard Sonn cautions, one should not "conflate the symbolic value of the deed with its instrumental role as catalyst of social revolution:· a a narchists have sought many means of effective action, both symbolic and substantive, without condemning t hose who may take this " propaganda" to the extreme. Anarchist tactics include a number of different practices, some similar to those of other political movements. " Direct action" and "sabotage" have been tools for political c hange since well before the inception of a narchism but are closely associated with the political theory. Sabotage includes the damage of industrial equipment and property, and it also implies the withdrawal of efficiency by workers. " Direct action , " a more general term, includes such actions as strikes and sabotage and refers to events that are intended to achieve an immediate political goal without mediation through the formal processes of the State. Pranks, I would argue, contain elements of both sabotage a n d direct action, a s they sabotage a ppearances and undermine t h e "efficiency" o f the status quo with Immediate and confrontational political acts. I t should be noted of course, that w hile obviously n ot al l pranks are political, not all a narchists a n d activists are pranksters. M ore importantly perhaps, even activists who d o utilize pranks are involved in other aspects of their respective movements; h umor and theater are only one part of their political activism. Pranks do not replace other forms of political struggle; as one activist n otes, pran ks are "just one tool in the large toolbox of resistance. "9 N onetheless, they are popular tools, ones that have seen increasing implementation since the Sixties. Through their pranks, activists can simultaneously assert 27 their radical ideology a nd their sense of hum or, proudly em bracing this tactic as "com ical terrorism "10 a nd "sym bolic warfare." 1 1 As Vale and Juno write, " pran ks c hallenge al l aspects of the social contract that have ossified, and c ha llenge the authority of appeara nces. . . . They blur what we understand by definitions of a rt and politics. " 12 Pra n ks a re one facet of what has become better known as "culture jamming" 1 3 - a com bination of m edia sabotage and "semiological gueri l la warfare . " 1 4 The "theory" and "tactics" behind culture jamming a nd political pra n ks can be traced to the Situationist International . Detournement: Towards Revolutionary Diversions Despite their rather grand and cosmopolitan name, the Situationist International were a smal l and short-lived anarchist group of mostly m ale, m ostly European artists a nd theorists; less than seventy individuals claim ed to be sltuationists during the g roup's brief existence from 1 957 to 1 972. Although they may have since drifted into obscu rity, the Sl played a crucial role in the French student uprisings of the late Sixties, particularly during the events of May 1 968. The influence of situationism continues, recognizable In forms as disparate as punk rock a nd post-structuralism . 15 Although not frequently credited, situationist theories and techniques inform m any elements of contem porary radical politics, particularly for those groups concerned with expressive and dramatic performances of resista nce. This section wil l examine one of the key ideas of the Sl : detournement. The situationists argued that detournement c ould disrupt the power and oppressio n of the dom inant culture, creating "situations" that liberated people from capitalism and from constraint. While not generating a total, societal revolution, detournement does function as a prank of sorts. i t creates a temporary reversal or Inversion, a provocative fracture in 28 the system, and m ost im port antly perhaps, a vehicle for participat ion in rat her than consum ption of cult ural perform ances. Before 1 proceed wit h a n analysis of detournement. It is necessary to provide som e background inform ation on other aspects of sit uat ionist t heory and show t he context i n which detournement was conceived and i n which it operates. Sit uat lonlst theory posits t hat individuals in society have m oved from " being" to " having" to "appearing." I n other words, modern condit ions have exceeded M arx's analysis of product ion and labor: moreover, alienat ion has grown beyond Marc use and Lefebvre's em phasis on consum ption and leisure. We now live i n a world of "spectacles," where all life is reduced to images and representat ions. We a re a lienated from all aspects of our surroundings - work and leisure, knowledge and relat ionshi ps, c ultu re and consciousness. According to G uy Debord, m ain theorist of the Sl and aut hor of Society of the Spectacle, where t he real world changes into sim ple images, the simple im ages become real beings and effective motivat ions of hypnot ic behavior. The spectacle, as a tendency to make one see t he world by means of various special ized m ediations [ it can no longer be grasped direct ly], natural ly finds vision to be the privileged h uman sense which t he sense of touch was for ot her epochs: t he most abst ract , t he m ost myst lflable sense corresponds to t he generalized a bst raction of present-day society. But t he spectacle is not identifiable wit h m ere gazing, even com bined wit h hearing. It is that which escapes t he act ivity of men, t hat which escapes reconsiderat ion and correct ion by t heir work. It is t he opposite of dialogue. Wherever t here is independent represen tation, t h e spec­ tacle reconst it utes itself.16 In t he spectacle, objects become images; expression is di lut ed i nt o Inform ation. People are m ere spect ators, passive observers of the spectacle around t hem . Lives a re reduced to lifestyles, commodified a nd circum scribed roles. Part icipat ion and self-fulfillment a re only mediated t hrough consum ption. "Choice" m ea ns Coke® or Pepsi®. 29 The spectacle, the situationists a rgued. was everywhere. Debord contended that the basically tautological c haracter of the spectacle flows from the simple tact that Its means are sim ultaneously its ends. It is the sun which never sets over the em pire of m odern passivity. It covers the entire surface of the world and bathes endlessly in its own glory.l 7 Faced with the paradoxical task of resisting and subverting the totalizing and universal spectacle, the situationlsts merged theory with practice - they proposed the creation of "situations, " performances that disrupted the spectacle, l iberating "words" from "work, " embracing "play," and thereby transcending a lienation. One m ethod for creating these subversive "situations" was the derive. or drift . M odeled after the surrealist practice of "automatism," the situationists advocated ram bling expeditions through the city, not guided by the designated routes of the spectacle, but i nstead led by the desires and direction of the unconscious. Debord and others c reated "ma ps" that depicted a re-envisioned u rbanism, one privi leging happiness over efficiency. The other important method, and my focus here, is the detournement, translated from French as diversion or subversion. Detournement is the "theft" of pre-existing artistic productions and their Integration i nto a new construction, one that serves the Sl' s radical political agenda: the revolution of everyday l ife. the realization of poetry and a rt . Images and texts are decontextualized, detourned, a nd then recontextual ized; the displacement of cultural a rtifacts reverberates Into both the old and the new contexts. destabilizing the primacy a nd stasis of Images. Detournement, according to Grel l M arcus, " was a politics of subversive q uotation. of cutting the vocal cords of every empowered speaker. social sym bols yanked through the looking glass, m isappropriated words a nd pictures diverted into fam il iar scripts a nd blowing them up." 1 e By utilizing texts + 30 and images stolen from the spectacle, the Sl hoped to foster a n insurrection at the level of representation. The jarring effects of this defamllia rization were revolutionary, according to the situationists. They argued that detournement offered a critique that went beyond mimicry or pa rody of the spectacle. They believed "an accumulation of detourned elements. far from aiming at arousing i ndignation or laughter by alluding to some original work, wil l express our Indifference toward a mea ningless and forgotten original and concern Itself with rendering a certain sublimity. " 19 Situationists - often quoting the nineteenth century French poet Comte de Lautreamont's maxim that " plagiarism is necessary; progress demands it" - took up texts, images, and theories and twisted them to suit t heir own revolutionary program. The situationists a re perhaps best known for thei r detourned cartoons - popular roma nce comics w hose speech balloons were altered to espouse situationist theses (see Figure 1 ). Guy Debord was also famous for his detourned films. Hurlements en faveur de Sade ( 1 952), for example, contains no images; it is comprised of a black screen and silence, with i ntermittent fragments of banal conversation, white l ights, and lettrist poetry. The influence of situationist praxis was particularly evident during the occupations of M ay 1 968, for detourned performances and a rtifacts were prevalent in the streets of Paris. Graffiti and posters decorated the walls of the city, proclaiming situationist-inspired slogans l ike " Beneath the cobbles - the beach," "Run ! The Old World Is behind you! " a nd " Workers of al l countries, enjoy!" (see Figure 2) . The Odeon Theatre was raided and became the locus for the whole revolt: the i nsurrectionaries wore costumes; they were pirates, knights, and queens; they bore swords and shields and c hainmall to defend the ba rricades. These dramatic but playful violations of expectation threatened the more conventional modes of resistance, those accepted by the spectacle. t�'896l S!JOd WOJJ e60WI ·c; em6!:l a�·uoo�mo peumo�9a 'l em6!:l l£ b 32 In " Methods of Detournement," Debord and fellow filmmaker Gil l Wolman describe the " laws" of diversion and theorize its implementation and effect. In doing so, they distinguish "minor" and " deceptive" detournements. The former consists of a detournement of an insignificant item, one that d raws al l its meaning i n its new context. The latter uti l izes a cultural ly significant element, which develops a new meaning i n its detourned context but that still reflects its former inhabitancy. Debord and Wolman argue that these distortions should remain simplified, so connections to and recollections of old contexts can remain. They also suggest that the greater the distance between the contexts of detourned elements, the greater the Impact of their reconfiguration; the least expected object is the most effective. This discrepance between contexts provides a clash of images and meanings - a shoc k that disrupts the seamlessness of the spectacle. A significant aspect in the situationist project of detournement is its collective and participatory character, echoing Lautreamont's call for "poetry made by al l . " I n her article "Reusing Culture: The Import of Detournement," Astrid Vicas also c redits the influence of the surrealist game of "exquisite corpse" on the situationist concept of detournement. This game consists of writing a word or phrase on a piece of paper, folding it down before passing It on to the next participant. Unrelated words a re combined in a g roup process of authorship - a combined derive or drift through poetic language. In this way, both "exquisite corpse" and detournement problematlze conventional notions of "author" and " reader." By utilizing pre-existing a rtifacts, one participates in a creative project that undermines individual "talent" or "genius," along with the specialization of "artist . " Detournement is accessible to all . As Grell M a rcus explains in Lipstick Traces, "the only necessary tools were a few newspapers, a pair of 33 scissors. a jar of paste, a sense of loat hi ng, a sense of h umor. and t he notion t hat t o be agai nst power was to be agai nst t he power of words."22 The situationists recognized t hat discourse, whet her used i n support of or i n resi stance t o t he spectacle, i s i next ricably li nked to power. As Debord noted, " I n spite of what the h um orists t hi nk, words do not play, nor do t hey m ake love, as B reton t hought , except i n dreams. Words work, o n behalf of t he domi nant organizatio n o f li fe. And yet . . . t hey em body forces t hat can upset t he most careful calcul at lons. "23 Although t he forces of t he spectacle reduce expressi on t o Inform ation and bureaucratize m ea ni ng i nt o banality, detournement provi des a tacti c to reinvigorat e h uman comm unication with desi re and subjecti vity. By det ourni ng words and by re-Igniti ng passion, t he Sl argued that one could realize poet ry and rediscover revolution . Despite t hei r proclamations and t heories about the subversive p otentia l of detournement, t he Sl st ruggled to resolve whet her or not any radical techni q ue could evade t he recuperati ve powers of t he spect acle. The sltuationists contended t hat al l criticism had heretofore been absorbed. twisted, and event ually used to promote t he existi ng struct ures of power. In Sadie Plant 's words, the sit uati onists argued t hat collapses of t he m arvelous i nto the mun­ dane or the criti cal i nto the counterrevolution are never signs of na­ t ural destiny or apolitical degeneration. On t he cont rary, such shi fts a re effected i n order t o remove t he explosive content from gest u res and meani ngs w hi c h contest t he capitalist order.24 Forces of opposition are "spectaculari zed" -mani pulated and exaggerated by t he media . Hence, all anarchist s are bom b-th rowers: Eart h Fi rst ! equals terrori sm: Che Guevara posters hang next t o rock stars' on t eenagers' bedroom walls: and revoluti onary slogans are used t o sell beer. What cannot be i ncorporated or commodi fied by t he spectacle is i gnored. 34 The situatlonists had witnessed the radical elements of surrealism and dadaism be i ntegrated into the dominant culture, drained of their crit ical spark and transformed i nto commodities - The Persistence of Time on a Swatch rM watch . So although their origins lay in the artistic avant-garde, the situationists eventually proclaimed that a rt could not be revolutionary. Already manifest in Images, art they argued, is the easiest cultural production for the spectacle to absorb. As a n a rt icle i n A rts Magazine notes with some contempt, the Sl "took a step no literary or a rtistic avant-garde h as taken before: it denied revolutionary value to cultura l innovatlon . "2 s But a re all aesthetics corrupt? Is all dissidence spectacular? Is detournement "always already" part of the spectacle? While a postmodern reading of the Situationist I nternational may dismiss the group for their impossible demands and inconsistencies, I do not wish to reject their project outright, nor do I wish to dwell on their theoretical myopia here. I wil l concede that detournement has not provided the catalyst or the conduct for social revolution; the totalizing theory of the Sl falls a part under post-structura list scrutiny. Vet activists with agendas similar to the situationlsts have continued to use detournement, unwill ing to surrender to hopelessness or to " hyperreality," Baudril !ard's spectacle-to-the-extreme.26 As Plant observes, the most radical of gestures Is indeed vulnerable to i ntegration, a n d ex­ pressions of dissent a re often deliberately fostered as political safety­ valves. But the sltuationlsts were convinced that none of t his precludes the possibility of evading, subverting. a n d interrupting the processes by which effective criticism is rendered harmless.27 Detournement benefits from theft and surprise; it is not "always al ready" defined by the spectacle, although surely the spectacle lays i n wait . As Raoul Vaneigem, situationist and a uthor of The Revolution of Everyday Life, asserted, people sti l l try to use words and signs to perfect their aborted gestures. b It is because they do that a poetic language exists: a language of lived experience which, for me, merges with radical theory, the theory which penetrates the masses and becomes a material force. Even which it is co-opted and turned against its original purpose, poetry always gets what it wants in the end. The 'Proletarians of al l lands, u nite' which pro­ duced the Stal inist State will one day realise the c lassless society. No poetic sign is ever completely turned by ideology.2s Poetry, detourned lang uage, articulates the rhythms of the revolution the situationist sought . For Jul ia Kristeva, the disruption offered by poetic language is analogous to political insurrection. I n " Revolution in Poetic Language," she a rg ues that mimesis and poetic language are transgressive, constructing and destabilizing meanings. "They a re not c ritics of theology but rather the enemy within and without, recognizing both its necessity and Its pretensions. In other words, poetic language and mimesis may appear as an argument complicitious with dogma . . . but they may also get in motion what dogma represses. I n so doing. they n o longer act a s instinctual floodgates within the enclosure of the sacred and become instead protesters against its posturing. And th us, Its complexity u nfolded by its practices, the signifying process joins social revolution .29 Poetic language and detourned Images exceed the limitations a n d restrictions of the 35 spectacle. Its omnipresent and unitary fagade is shattered; i nstead. fragmentation and multiplicity are accentuated. Detournement disrupts. a n d in that moment of rupture. it recognizes its g reatest power. The creation of temporary and transitory performances Is the site of societal breach and i nsubordination . Although the spectacle quickly "spins" the outburst back Into the fold. "the powerful spectacularization of dissent necessitates the repeated a nd considered resistance to its domination . " 30 I f detournement is seen as a process rather than a final a rtistic product, as an emergent culture rather than a determi nate or fixed revolution, i t can continue to offer a promising and provocative tactic, even in o u r postmodern age. 36 Cult u re J ammi ng: "Semiological Gueril la Warfa re" While t he sit uot ionists' detournement may not be recognized by nome, t he pract ice cont inues to be employed in some respects by contem porary radical act ivists. Today, t hese diversions and subversions of spectacular society a re better known as "culture jamm ing." "Jamming" is CB slang for t he il legal disrupt ion of radio t ransmissions. Culture jamming, t hen, Is a disruption a im ed at t he cultural or Inform ational t ransmissions of modern-day society. In a 1 967 essay ent it led "Towards a Sem iological G uerilla Warfare," Ital ian writer Umberto Eco form ulates a plan to counter t he "narcot ic passiveness" inst il led by m ass m edia. 31 According to Eco, t his " batt le" should t a ke place not at t he source of communicat ion, but at t he dest ination; creative and crit ical reception can shatter the singular and hegemonic message of the i nform ation society. I n ot her words, fracture t he broadcast ; "jam" the t ransmissions. The term "cultu re jamming" was coined in 1 984 by the collage band N egat ivland to describe a variety of tact ics that sabot age media and advert ising: bil lboard alteration, pirate broadcasts, media hoaxes, hacking, "text ual poaching," "adbust ing," "subvert ising," and other form s of audio, visual, econom ic, and perform ance "jams." According to journalist Naom i Klein, cu ltu re jams, specifically bil lboard " l iberat ions," a re counter-messages that hack into a corporat ion's own met hod of com­ m unicat ion to send a message starkly at odds wit h the one that was Intended. The process forces the com pany to foot the bill for its own subversion, eit her l iteral ly, because the com pany Is t he one that paid for the billboard, or figurat ively, because anytime people mess with a logo, t hey are tapping into t he vast resources spent to make t he logo meaningful . 32 Cigarette mascot "Joe Cam el" is t ransformed Into "Joe Chemo," wast ing away of lung cancer In a hospital bed (see Figure 3) . A blac k and white phot ograph characterist ic of Calvin Klein ads reveals t he " real" obsession, as a waif-like model leans over t he t oilet (see Figure 4) . 'SJBJSnqp't;f WOJJ ,,'UBWOM JOJ UO!SSBSQO .. 't:' BlnD!:I 'SJBJSnqp't;f WOJJ ,,'OWBLj:) eor .. '£ BJnD!:I L£ 38 Culture jamming can be a highly sophisticated endeavor, such as the glossy ads and images produced by the Media Foundation, a Vancouver, BC-based group that publishes the magazine Adbusters and uses "subvertising" to u ndermine well-known advertising images and slogans. Employing past and present advertising designers and using high-tech tools like computers and scanners, Adbusters c reate " ads" that c losely resemble their targets, " borrowing visual legitimacy from advertising itself . " 33 Of course, culture jamming also occurs on a more " low-tech" or grassroots level; with handmade stickers or a permanent marker, anyone can alter and detourne popular culture (see Figure 5). As Mark Dery contends, " pa rt artistic terrorists, part vernacular c ritics, culture jammers like Eco's 'communications guerillas: introduce noise into the signal as it passes from transmitter to receiver. encouraging idiosyncratic, unintended interpretations. "34 Like detournement, culture jamming offers activists a tactic for disruption of the spectacle. Culture jams, in that case. are pranks, not against a single i ndividual. but against our modern-day culture of commodities and corporations. Figure 5. " Liberated" billboard. ,, � 39 Poetic Terrorism and Temporary Autonomous Zones I n his col lection of essays and communiques entitled T. A .Z. : Temporary A utonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism, anarchist Haki m Bey cal ls for a theatrical resistance - ephemeral yet immediate - that is greatly i ndebted to situationist theory, but self-avowedly more radical. Bey advocates weird dancing i n al l-night computer-banking lobbies. Unauthorized pyrotech nic displays. Land-art earthworks as bizarre al len artifacts strewn in State Parks. Burglarize houses but instead of steal ing, leave Poetic-Terrorist objects. Kidnap someone a n d make t hem happy. Pick someone at random and convince them they're the heir to a n enormous, useless a n d amazing fortune - say 5000 square miles of Antarctica, or an aging circus elephant, or an orphanage In Bombay, or a collection of alchemical mass. Later they will come to realize that for a few moments they believed in something extraordinary, a n d will perhaps b e driven a s a result to seek out some more i ntense mode of existence. . . . The audience reaction or aesthetic-shock produced by PT ought to be at least as strong as the emotion of terror - powerful disgust, sexual arousal, superstitious a we, sudden I ntuitive breakthrough, dada-esque a ngst - no matter whether the PT Is aimed at one person or many, no matter whether it is "signed" or a nonymous, if it does not change someone's life (aside from the artist) it fai ls.35 · Bey's prescription for " poetic terrorism, " and later in h is book, h is cal l for " art sabotage" deliberately echoes the sltuationists' model of detournement. I t necessitates drama, shock, and passion be inherent i n the act; it demands a n i ntense emotional response from onlookers. Like the situationists, Bey hopes that these actions instill the desire for further radical actions. Although Bey admits his concept of the "temporary autonomous zone" or "T.A.Z." Is less dogma or theory than rant or " poetic fancy," h is essay on the subject does provide an interest ing vision of an alternative, creative i nsurgency. Reject ing all "revolutions" as doomed to fail once a " new" State comes to power, Bey suggests l iberation Is found In insurgency itself and thus agitates for perpetual u prising. Hence, " temporary 40 autonomous zones" a re the clandestine and ephemeral liberations - "of land, of time, or imagination."36 Completely avoiding questions of social justice and conveniently sidestepping most anarchists' difficulty theorizing a n d organizing radical social c ha nge, Bey suggests a utonomy can be foun d in moments of insurrection, not in the banality of the aftermath. W hile Bey's work may have serious flaws - w hat, for example distinguishes a T.A.Z. as a revolutionary act from. say, surfing the ' Net w hile at work? - it is influential amongst many contemporary anarchists. Bey's notion of realizing "temporary autonomous zones" through performances of " poetic terrorism," echo the concept of pra n ks creating short-lived fractures in the spectacle. Theory and P raxis With my discussion of situationism, culture jamming, and poetic terrorism I have tried to construct a theoretical context for the performance of anarc hist pranks, one based on the arguments and influences of pranksters themselves. Combined with Chapter I I , this section of my thesis has outlined some of the theoretical dimensions of pranks . The rest of thesis will focus on " praxis, " the practice and performa nce of political pranks. It must be noted that this division between theory and practice is more a construction of this project than it is a representation of a similar dichotomy amongst prankster activists. Rother than solely theoretical justifications. many pranksters a re I nspired and influenced by the pranks of others. The acts of the Bil lboard Liberation Front, the Barbie Liberation Organization (see Figure 1 0), the Cacophony Society, the Guerilla Girls, and the C hurch of the Subgenius, and the writings of The Onion and of Robert Anton Wilson ore only a few examples of clever and influential pranks a n d pran ksters. The next section of this thesis uses three "case studies" to examine particular pranksters more closely. Chapter IV a nalyzes the relationship between activism, p ra n ks, 41 and the media, focusing on the performances of Earth First! and the Yippies. Chapter V examines the "Global Pastry Uprising," militant pie-throwers who have targeted corporate criminals and government officials worldwide. Chapter V I documents EAT, the Eugene Anarc hists for Torrey mayoral campaign and their use of parody and pranks to promote an anarchist critique of electoral politics. Throughout these chapters, the practices of detournement and culture jamming wil l reoccur, as the activists theorize and pul l their political pranks. 1 cited by Gareth Branwyn, Jamming the Media: A Citizen 's Guide to Reclaiming the Tools of Communication (San Francisco: Chronicle, 1 997) 278. 2 Enrico Malatesta, "The Word 'Anarchy' , " excerpted in What is Anarchy? An Introduction, ed. Donald Rooum (1 891 : London : Freedom, 1 992) 29. 42 3 Jon Purkis and James Bowen, ed. Twentieth Century Anarchism: Unorthodox Ideas for a New Millennium (London: Cassell, 1 997) 1 . 4 Emma Goldman, " Anarchism, " Anarchism and Other Essays (London: Dover, 1 969) 50. 5 " What is Anarchism? " An Anarchist FA Q. http://www. lnfoshop.org/faq/secAcon .html . 6 For more information on primitivism, see Fredy Perlman, Against Leviathan, Against His­ Story! An Essay (Detroit : Black and Red, 1 983): John Zerzan , Future Primitive and Other Essays (New York: Autonomedia, 1 994). 7 Gregory Lewis, "P ie-pitch Recipe: Activism with H umor," San Francisco Examiner 9 November 1 998. 8 Richard Sonn, Anarchism (New York: Twayne, 1 992) 52. 9 AI Dec ker, " Letter from the BBB , " 3 December 1 998 a-infos@tao.ca (4 December 1 998). 1 o Noel Godin, as quoted in AI Decker, "The Dialectics of Pie-Throwing," Renegade 2 February 1 998: 3 ._ 1 1 Abbie Hoffman, cited in V. Vale and Andrea Juno, ed., Pranks! (San Francisco: RE/Search, 1 987) 66 . 1 2 Vale and Juno, Pranks! 4-5. 1 3 Mark Dery, Culture Jamming, Hacking, Stashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs (Westfield: Open Magazine Pamphlet Series, 1 993) . 1 4 Umberto Eco, :·Towards a Semiological Guerilla Warfare," Travels in Hyperreality (New York: H arcourt, 1 986) . 1 5 For the connections between situationist thought and punk rock, see G rell Marcus, Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: H a rvard UP, 1 992) . For an examination of the relationship between the Sl and post-structuralism - and by far the best analysis of situationism - see Sadie Plant, The Most Radical Gesture: The Situation/sf International in a Postmodern Age (London: Routledge, 1 992) . 1 6 Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle (Detroit : B lack and Red, 1 983) thesis 1 8. 1 7 Debord, Society of the Spectacle thesis 1 3 . / 43 1 8 Marcus, Lipstick Traces 1 79. 1 9 Guy Debord and Gil J Wolman, " M ethods of Detournement," Situationist International Anthology, ed. Ken Knabb (1 956; Berkeley: Bureau of Public Secrets, 1 98 1 ) 9. 20 Rene Vienet, Enrages et Situationnistes dans le mouvement des occupations (Paris: Gall imard, 1 968) 1 78. 21 Vie net, Enrages et Situationnistes 1 00. 22 Marc us, Lipstick Traces 400. 23 Plant, The Most Radical Gesture 87. 24 Plant, The Most Radical Gesture 79. 25 Myriam Maayan, " From Aesthetic to Political Vanguard: The Situationist I nternational, 1 957-1 968," Arts Magazine 63.5 (1 989): 52. 26 Jean Baudril lard, who like most French post-structural ists was involved in the uprisings of 1 968, draws on situationist conceptualization of spectacle. However, Baudril lard sees no space for resistance as there is no " real world" beneath the spectacle's veneer. See Jean Baudril lard, Simulacra and Simulation, trans. Sheila Faria Glaser (An n Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1 994). 27 Plant, The Most Radical Gesture 75. 28 Raoul Vaneigem, The Revolution of Everyday Life (Seattle: Left Bank, 1 994) 1 01 . 29 J ulia Kristeva, " Revolution in Poetic Language," The Portable Kristeva, ed. Kelly Oliver (New York: Columbia UP, 1 997) 49. 3o Graham White, " Direct Action, Dramatic Action : Theatre and Situationist Theory," New Theatre Quarterly 9.36 (1 993) : 339. 31 Umberto Eco, "Towards a Semiological Guerilla Warfare," Travels in Hyperrea/ity (New York: Harcourt, 1 986) 1 37 . 32 Naomi Klein, No Logo (New York: Picador, 1 999) 281 . 33 Klein, No Logo 285. 34 Mark Dery, Culture Jamming, Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs (Westfield : Open Magazine Pamphlet Series, 1 993) 7 . 35 Hakim Bey, " Poetic Terrorism," T.A.Z. (Brooklyn : Autonomedia, 1 99 1 ) 4-5. 36 Bey, "Temporary Autonomous Zone" 1 01 . CHAPTER IV "M IND BOMBS" AND MONKEYWRENCHING: PRANKS AND THE MEDIA "The Whole World i s Watching" : Publicity and Pranks As Todd Gitlin explains in the introduction to his book The Whole World is Watching: Mass Media in the Making and Unmaking of the New Left, since the advent of radio broadcasting half a century ago, social move­ ments have organized, campaigned, and formed their social identities on a floodlit social terrain . The economic concentration of the media and their speed and efficiency in spreading news and tel l ing stories have com­ bined to produce a new situation for movements seeking to change the order of society, , 44 I ndeed, the c hant from the 1 968 Democratic Convention in Chicago - "the whole world is watching ! " - marks the recognition amongst activists that the media was broadcasting their image and their issues to mill ions of viewers. Many groups realized that performing for the media could be a crucial (and even amusing) part of radical politics. The media could provide activists with an opportunity to vocalize their grievances and promote their causes. As Gitlin ' s book on the New Left suggests, there can be negative consequences and serious drawbacks in courting the media . Gitl in 's book documents the role of the media In the rise and fal l of New Left activism, arguing that the media framed the movement in ways that triviallzed, polarized, marginalized, and disparaged the radicals and their messages.2 According to Gitl in, In the late twentieth century, political movements feel called u pon to rely on large-scale communications in order to matter, to say who they are and what they intend to publics they want to sway; but in the process they become " newsworthy" only by submitting to the implicit rules of newsmaking, by conforming to journalistic notions of what a 'story" is, 45 what an "event" is, what a "protest" is.s By defin ing and constructing politica l movements, the media not only single out certain i ndividuals for celebrity status, but focus on extraordinary events, frequently neglecting to explain the relationship of these events to issues or ideology. Although often characterized as the " liberal press, " the media is in fact an entrenched i nstitution . As Ben Bagdikian and others have shown, most major news organizations a re owned by multinational corporations. I t should be no surprise then, that the media is particularly u nsympathetic towards radicalism.4 However, w hile Gitlin cla ims people " have no voice In w hat the media make of what they say or do, " I believe activists can crack through this ideological shell .5 As Kevin Deluca points out, "although . . . radical environmental g roups inhabit a difficult space within the corporate-controlled, mass-mediated public sphere, it is not a hermetically sealed space. There are c racks and openings for resistance. alternative readings, aberrant sense-making."6 Despite the negative framing of activism, observers can interpret news i n any number of ways. Pranks a n d other political performances can be what Deluca describes as "tactical image events"7 and w hat Robert H unter calls "mind bombs" - acts that explode " In the public 's consciousness to transform the way people view the world . "e Although fully aware of the possible downside of solicit ing media coverage, activists hope to be able to perform acts that will deliver their messages regardless of the media's presentation of "the news." I n Jamming the Media: A Citizen's Guide to Reclaiming the Tools of Communication, Gareth Branwyn suggests that p ranks function as resistance. They are an a ntidote to the helplessness, a nger, and frustration that comes with full crit ical a wareness of the I nsidiousness of mainstream media. For those who feel hustled, brainwashed, talked down to, and mar­ ginal ized by mainstream media (and media seems to be synony­ mous with culture these days), pranking is a way of fighting back through parody, humor, and absurdist gestures.9 46 This c hapter exami nes the relationshi p of pranksters and t he press, focusing on t wo m ovements that have em braced gueri lla t heater to dramatize t hei r c auses: t he Yip pies and Eart h Fi rst ! I argue t hat pranks have provided t hese activists wit h t he m eans to dramatize t hei r philosophies outside typical politi cal m ea ns and t he usual political rhetori c . "Revolution for t he Hel l of It " - The Ylppies Alt hough t hey were despised by t he sit uatio nlsts for advocating " revolution for t he hell of it , " the Yout h I nternational Party - better known as the Yippies - a re probably the m ost im portant a nd i nfluentia l of t he American politi cal pra nksters. I ndeed, no exami nation of political pranks would be complete wit hout a look at t he Yi ppi es, for t hey added a new level of drama and flai r to t he soci al upheaval of t he Sixties. They radicalized "t raditional" m et hods of political protest - movi ng away from the "march" t o c reat e a guerri lla or st reet t heater, ret reati ng from "seri ous" t reatment of Issues t o adopt parody and nonsense. As Abbie Hoffman asserted, We are dynamiti ng brai n cells. We are putti ng people t h rough changes. The key to the puzzle lies In t heater . We are t heat er i n t he st reets: t otal and committed. We aim to involve people and use (unli ke ot her m ove­ m ents locked i n Ideology) any weapon (prop) we can fi nd. The aim is not to earn the respect , admi ration, and love of everybody - it's to get people to do, to participate, whet her positively or negatively. Al l i s rele­ vant only "t he play's the t hi ng.0 10 The Yi ppies were constantly playi ng pranks, confronti ng and befuddli ng "t he system # i n creative and dramatic ways. Thei r best known pranks Include levitati ng t he Pentagon, nomi nating a pig for President, a nd t hrowi ng dollar bi lls out o nto t he floor of the New York Stock Exchange (causi ng utter pandemonium as t raders scram bled for t he money, m omentari ly shutting down t he m arket , and com pelli ng NYSE offici als to Inst al l a plexiglass screen between the visitor observatio n booth and t he floor) . 1 1 When Ylppie 47 " leader" Jerry Rubin was subpoenaed to appea r before the House U n-Amerlcan Activities Committee (HUAC), he could not guara ntee that media would broadcast his words, but he knew they would at least take a picture of him. So Rubin appeared before HUAC I n an American revolutionary costume and delivered his c ritique of the committee on a symbolic, rather than verbal level. Thumbing their noses at the "straights," the Yippies tried to be as incomprehensible and outlandish as possible. As Rubin notes, "the secret to the yip pie myth is that it ' s nonsense. Its basic I nformational statement i s a blan k piece o f paper." 1 2 W hile the Yipples were certainly lacking i n a rigorous theoretical base, they saw this as a strength, not a weakness. W hen subverting the dominant culture, they I nsisted that "confusion is mightier than the sword . " 1 3 Monkeywrenchlng and Other Earth First! Pranks The Yippie spirit of "serious play" continues in the radical environment group Earth First ! In fact, Earth First! co-founder M ike Roselle was an ex-Yippie. Earth F i rst le rs have honed political pranks, using them for environmental defense, rather than merely "for the hel l of it ." In addition to their Yippie l ineage, Earth First! draws on the actions of Greenpeace. As Roselle remarks In Pranks!, Green peace was one organization we took a cue from - they knew how to do stunts or pranks that get the message out. Who's doing the whal ing? The Soviets. The stage is set for this perfect drama on the high seas: a little boat in front of a whale and the big bad Russians are shooting harpoons at it . This Image was something the news media loves. We felt there were lots ways the media c ould be used if you u nderstood what they wanted .14 This type of direct action is both a n act of symbolism and an act of sabotage; It Is a performance to send a message, but it Is a lso a performance to protect the whales. Another Inspiration for Earth First ! ' s performance of political pranks is The Monkey Wrench Gang, a novel by environmental author Edward Abbey. The Monkey Wrench 48 Gang relates a tale of adventure and mayhem in the deserts of the America n Southwest . The Gang is a group of fou r individuals, disparate in their backgrounds and identities, but u nited by their desire to protect the wilderness and their wil l ingness to use radical tactics to accomplish this. They sabotage vehicles, tools, and equipment used to plunder and destroy the environment. Their targets include billboards, construction sites, clear-cuts, and power-plants. The characters and their actions a re "carn ivalesque," baw dy, parodic performances that u ndermine social norms. They paused once again, near the north end of a meadow cal led Pleasant Valley, to edit and beautify an official US Forest Service Smokey Bear sign . The sign was a life-size simulacrum of the notorious u rsine bore, complete with ranger hat, blue jeans and shovel, and it said what these signs always say, to wit, "Only YOU can prevent forest fires." Out w it h the paints again. They added a yellow mustache, w hich certainly improved Smokey's bland muzzle, and touched u p h i s eyeballs with a hangover hue of red. H e began to look l ike Robert Redford as the Sundance Kid. Bonnie unbuttoned Smokey's fly, pictorially speaking, a n d painted onto his c rotch a limp pet-cock with hairy but shriveled balls. To Smokey's homily on fire prevention Hayduke attached an asterisk and footnote: "Smokey Bear i s full of shit. " (Most fires of course are caused by that vaporous hominoid In the sky. God; d isguised, i .e ., as l ightning.) Very funny. However, In 1 968, the United States Congress made It a Federal offense to desecrate, mutilate or otherwise Improve a ny official representation of Smokey the Bear. Aware of t his legislation, Bonnie bul­ l ied Hayduke into the jeep and out of there before he could carry out h is urge to hang Smokey by the neck to a ny nearby tree . . . . 1s Although fiction, Abbey a dmits the episodes in the novel were based on true occurrences: "Everything in it is real a n d actually happened. And it all began just one year from today." Abbey's predictions came true f ive years after The Monkey Wrench Gang was published. I n 1 980, the Earth F i rst! was formed just as the Monkey W rench Gang was: on a camping tr ip of people committed to the protection of the wilderness by any means necessary - "No Compromise in Defense of M other Ea rth ." Earth First! saw Glen Canyon Dam as the preeminent symbol of environmental destruction, a n d echoing the aims of the Monkey Wrench Gang, the dam was the target of their first prank . O n the spring equinox, 1 98 1 Earth First! u nfurled a 300-foot piece o f black plastic from t h e top of the dam, symbolically "cracking# Its face. Pictures of the " broken# dam fil led newspapers the next day, capturing environmentalists' sentiments about the dam's deleterious effects on the region. 16 The events In the novel The Monkey Wrench Gong intertwine with Eart h First ! ' s own " mythology," and the term "monkeywrenching" has become part of the movement's l ingo, describing their particular brand of e nvironmental " protest. " According to co-founder Dave Foreman, It was time for a new joker In the deck. Something more than commen­ ting on dreary environmental-impact statements and writin g letters to members of Congress. Politics in the streets. Civi l disobedience. Media stunts. Holding the villains up to ridicule . . . . Al l that would be requ ired to join us. we decided, was a belief in Earth first.H Like the Yipples. Earth First! utilizes gueril la theater and political pranks as highly effective " publicity stunts, " drawing attention to Issues l ike pollution, rangeland 49 destruction, and deforestation . As media a nalyst Douglas Rushkoff notes. whereas some activists uti l ize civi l disobedience to do battle In the courts, Earth F i rst ! uses pranks to d o battle in t h e medla .1 8 O f course, not all monkeywrenching i s done for cameras. nor I n broad daylight for that matter. But even the nighttime handiwork of mischievous E LFs (the Earth Liberation Front). which Is aimed more at destroying I ndustrial equipment than at c reating photo-opportunities, draws publicity. By hanging banners f rom atop skyscrapers and smoke-stac ks, by dismantl ing machinery, by destroying genetical ly engineered c rops, and by burying themselves c hin deep in logging roads, Earth F i rst ! , E LF, and others have created performances that transcend and exceed conventional politics. --------------- - 50 Irrational Performances, Un reasonable Politics As Kevin Deluca asserts In Image Politics, i t would be a mistake to reduce these dramatizations to mere "attention-getting devices." l 9 " Although designed to flag media attention and generate publicity, image events a re more than just a mea ns of getting on television. They are crystallized philosophical fragments, mind bombs that work to expand the ' u niverse of thinkable thoughts' . "20 In other words, activists pull pran ks a n d monkeywrench not only t o raise awareness of their Issues, but to frame their politics i n such a way a s to disrupt conventional, " rational" discourse. Furthermore, t h e " irrational" acts and rhetoric of these pranksters point, In turn, to the insa nity of contemporary political, social, and economic relations. As one of the characters I n The Monkey Wrench Gang states, "The wilderness once offered men a plausible way of life . . . . Now it functions as a psychiatric refuge. Soon there will be no wilderness." He sipped at h i s bourbon and ice. "Soon t here wil l be no place to go . Then the madness becomes u niversal . " Another t hought. " An d the u niverse goes mad."21 The sabotage enacted by the Monkey Wrench Gang and Earth First ! can be contrasted to the environmental degradation enacted by the government and the corporations. Similarly, the playfulness of the Yippies, chanting incantations around the Pentagon or throwing money onto the Stock Exchange, counters the logic of capitalism a n d warfare. In the face of pollution, c learcuts, habitat destruction, and war, activists' performances posit that their response is justifiable and reasonable. As literary sch olar Rebecca Raglan says of The Monkey Wrench Gang, "Abbey gives the vandalism of the gang a manic, wi ld humor, and by directing their creative violence against machines, he is able to expose the real violence of his society."22 This conflict between " reasonable" and "unreasonable" responses to war and environmental destruction continues to be at the core of the pran ksters' monkeywrenching tactics. Although condemned by those on the 5 1 Right and the Left, the political pranksters a s embodied b y Earth First ! , t h e Mon key W rench Gang, and the Yippies insist that their actions make sense. 52 1 Todd Gitlin, The Whole World is Watching: Mass Media in the Making and Unmaking of the New Left (Berkeley: U of California P, 1 980) 1 . 2 Gitl in, The Whole World is Watching 27-28. 3 Gitlin, The Whole World is Watching 3. 4 See Ben Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly (Boston: Beacon, 1 980); Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (New York: Pantheon, 1 988) . 5 Gitlin , The Whole World is Watching 3 . 6 Kevin Deluca, Image Politics: The New Rhetoric of Environmental Activism (New York: Guilford, 1 999) 1 1 9 . 7 Deluca, Image Politics 3 . s Green peace activist Robert Hunter, The Storming of the Mind, cited in Deluca, Image Politics 1 . 9 Gareth Branwyn, Jamming the Media: A Citizen 's Guide to Reclaiming the Tools of Communication (San Francisco: Chronicle, 1 997) 273. 1 0 Daniel Simon and Abbie Hoffman, ed. The Best of Abbie Hoffman (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1 989) 1 7 . 1 1 For an account of this prank, see Jerry Rubin, Oo It! Scenarios of the Revolution (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1 970) . 1 2 Rubin, oo It! 83. 1 3 Simon and Hoffman, The Best of Abbie Hoffman 1 7 . 14 Mike Roselle, in an interview with V . Vale in V . Vale and Andrea Juno, ed. Pranks! (RE/Search : San Francisco, 1 987) 1 24. 15 Edward Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang (New York: Avon, 1 975) 208. 16 For a more detailed account of the "cracking of Glen Canyon Dam," see Christopher Manes, Green Rage (Boston : Little, 1 990) 3-8. 1 7 " For the members of Earth First ! some things just aren ' t negotiable," The Oregonian 25 November 1 984. 18 Douglas Rushkoff, Media Virus! Hidden Agendas in Popular Culture (New York: Bal lantine, 1 994) 264. 1 9 Deluca, /mage Politics 1 7 . 20 Deluca, Image Politics 6. 21 Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang 60. 53 22 Rebecca Raglon, "Surviving the Doom and Gloom: Edward Abbey's Desert Comedies," Coyote in the Maze: Tracking Edward Abbey in a World of Words, ed. Peter Quigley (Salt Lake City: U of Utah P, 1 998) 1 80. ' . CHAPTER V "SPEAKI NG PIE TO POWER" : N ARRATIVES FROM THE GLOBAL PASTRY UPRISING And the bigger the fall, the bigger the joke. It would be better fun to throw a custard pie at a bishop than at a curate. - George OrweiP Never doubt that a small, committed group of people with pies can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing t hat ever has.- Subcommandante Tofutfi2 54 On February 4, 1998, Microsoft chairperson Bill Gates was in Brussels, meeting with Belgian government officials and business people. As he climbed t he steps to an office building, a group of activists known as the Patisserie Brigade lnternationale pelted him with cream pies. Always on the heels of t he corporate celebrity, the media were there to document the incident; footage of Gates, his face smeared with the yellowy filling, graced both newspapers and television. This prank was the work of Belgian artist/writer Noel Godin. Many in Belgium were a lready familiar with Godin's pie-throwing antics, as he has performed similar stunts against European politicians and celebrities for decades. With the Gates incident, pie-throwing was thrust into the spotlight worldwide. Though deliciously mischievous, Godin's actions are but a small "piece of the pie"; militant bakers everywhere have heeded a call to arms. The "pie-In-the-face" prank has a lengthy history with manifestations in popular a �d folk culture. This chapter explores the history of pie-throwing as a political prank, with particular attention to the recent spate of "pie-litical" incidents. This c hapter focuses on t he carefully crafted symbolism in these pranks, evident in both t he enactment and in the subsequent narratives and documentation. As discussed in Chapter I I , I argue that the performance of a prank has an immediate but limited audience: however, through the media and through activist networks, the impact and the story of a prank take on further layers of symbolism and meaning. "The Pie is Cast" - The History of Pie-Throwing From the pie-toss at the county fair to vaudeville, stage, and screen, shoving a 55 pie in someone's face has been a common act of slapstick and subversion. As Mack Sennett, founder of the Keystone Cops proudly declared, "A pie in the face, provided the recipient does not anticipate it, has no equal in slapstick comedy. It can reduce dignity to nothing in seconds."3 Contemporary prankster activists combine this traditional custom with political targets- and innovative press releases. Pies are retributive pranks, punishing corporate criminals, corrupt government officials, and others who represent injustice, inequality, and exploitation. Pie-throwing became an expression of political discontent in the late Sixties and early Seventies with the Yippies. Aron Kay, known as "the Pieman," tossed pies at numerous politicians and public figures, including Phyllis Schaffly, William F. Buckley, Anita Bryant, G. Gordon Liddy, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Andy Warhol, and William Shatner (see Figure 6). Kay retired in 1992 after pieing Randall Terry, head of the anti-abortion group "Operation Rescue." Today he maintains a website that contains photographs and descriptions of his acts, as well as updates on those pie pranks "perpetrated" by others. 56 Figure 6. Anti-feminist Phyllis Schaffly receives her "just desserts. " Political pie-throwing in Europe also has its origins in t h e Sixties. Noel Godin, the man responsible for pieing Bi l l Gates, was active in the student uprisings in Paris. " I was never c ured of the fever of May 1 968," he admits.4 He continues to subscribe to the situationist practice of detournement and has been pieing politically since the Sixties. He targets those he who describes as "empty celebrities" - those with power and ego, but no humor.5 I n addition to Gates, these include novelist Marguerite Duras, f i lm director Jean-Luc Goddard, and philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy. " Permit me to recommend the bomb threat," says Godin . "One little phone calL and it never fails. There are a thousand forms of subversion, al l of them interesting. But few, in my opinion, can equal the convenience and immediacy of the cream pie."6 I n 1 997, six months before the Gates pieing received worldwide attention, the Biotic Baking Brigade struck their first target: Charles H urwitz, CEO of M axxam Corporation - parent company of Pacific Lumber, responsible for the ctearcutting of the H eadwaters Redwood Forest. Since then the BBB pied many public figures for a variety 57 of causes including anti-biotechnology, anti-global capitalism, and human and animal rights. Although most of the BBB pieings have occurred in the Bay Area, the Brigade now has "factions" throughout the country. They are adamant, however, that they are not a formal organization; they are " flan-archists. " As spokesperson Agent Apple notes, The BBB is a movement rather than a group. We have no members, though there is an underground network of militant bakers who provide us with nothing but the best vegan and organic pies. The focus of the current pastry 'uprising' is to hold corporate crooks and their lackeys in government and the non-profit sector accountable . Our track record shows that unlike them, we don't just promise pie in the sky, we deliver/ Although their vision of peace, justice, and biodiversity may seem far-fetched and " u n- american" in a culture of profit and plunder, these activists see their pie-throwing as part of the venerable tradition of political pranking in the US. I ndeed, politica l commentator Jim Hightower asserts, "The BBB's pies are the Boston Tea Party of our modern day, sending a serious message softly to the corporate oligarc hy."8 Contemporary relations of global capitalism have necessitated a global response from political activists. Agent Apple point out, "as the Zapatistas have made clear, in a global economy, we al l live in Chiapas. The Biotic Baking Brigade (BBB) builds on that connection : under neoliberalismo, we al l can throw a pie in the face of economic fascism."9 In many ways pies are a form of "visual esperanto, " an act that translates across languages, borders, and nationalities. Pie-throwing has spread throughout the West; bands of "militant bakers" are at work in Canada, England, Holland, and Australia . Listed in Table 1 are some of these groups' recent targets. Although not al l these people are necessarily famous, they are public and more importantly, symbolic figures who embody the government and corporations. A pie thrown is, then, a direct attack upon a body of authority. Those targeted by the pranksters experience public humiliation, but the injury is to their pride, not their anatomy. While powerful institutions 58 and their f igureheads may desire the a ppearance of inviolability, pies prove that i n fact. no one is u ntouchable. Repercussions for political pie-throwing seem to vary according to the sense of h umor of the i ndividual targeted. Sometimes activists are a ble to c apitalize on the fact that throwing a pie is a joke. Since it Is "all in jest," charges a re not necessarily fi led, and when they are, these pra nksters a re not severely punished. However, the th ree activists who pled San Francisco Mayor Will ie Brown in 1 998 were charged with felonies for conspiracy and assault. Dubbed "the Cherry Pie Three," t hey were convicted a n d sentenced t o six months i n prison . For their part, these pie-th rowers claimed to have never i ntended to hurt a nyone; nevertheless the prosecutors treated their act as a vicious attack on the mayor. I n turn, the activists attempted to undermine the state's definition of violence, insist ing that the real violent acts a re crimes perpetrated by corporations and the State -- evicting poor people from their homes, police brutality, pepper-spraying unarmed citizens, clearcutting, polluting, a n d so on. I n a communique, the BBB state, " Don't forget to write pie-loving letters to the editor, so the press gets a little perspective on what constitutes a 'violent act' . " 1 0 I ndeed, the mainstream media have tried to vil ify the pie th rowers, often accusin g them of silliness and frivolity. As one columnist writes, " Why would you want slapstick laughs aroun d homelessness, the raping of the environment or corporate greed? That isn't fun ny . "n The pie-slingers i nsist these c ritics have missed the punchl ine. 59 TABLE 1 . Recent "P ie-litical" Targets - Names, Location, and Dates Name Location Date C harles Hurwitz, Maxxam CEO Humboldt County, California August 1 997 Bil l Gates. M icrosoft c hairman Brussels, Belgium February 1 998 M ilton Friedman, economist San Francisco, California October 1 998 Robert Shapiro, Monsanto CEO San Francisco, California October 1 998 Renato R uggiero, World Trade Organization, London, E ngland October 1 998 Director Willie Brown, San Francisco mayor San Francisco, California November 1 998 Oscar de Ia Renta, fashion designer Portland, Oregon November 1 998 Gordon Rousser, Dean, College of Natural Berkeley, California November 1 99& Resources, UC Berkeley Douglas Watson, Novartis CEO Berkeley, California November 1 998 Larry Vanderhoof, UC Davis Chancellor Berkeley, California November 1 998 Carl Pope, Sierra Club president San Francisco, California November 1 998 Frits Bolkestein, Dutch right-wing politician Leiden, The Netherlands December 1 998 Sir Richard Evans, Chairman British Aerospace London, E ngland December 1 998 J im Torrey, Eugene mayor Eugene. Oregon December 1 998 Gerrit Zaim, Dutc h Finance Minister Leiden, The Netherlands January 1 999 Caries CampuZano, Spanish politician Spain January 1 999 John Pepper, Procter & Gamble, Chairman Chicago, I ll inois and February 1 99 9 Columbus, Ohio Kenneth T Derr, Chevron C E O S a n Francisco, California March 1 999 Neal First, geneticist. U n iversity of Wisconsin North Hampton, New March 1 999 Hampshire Miet Thielen, Belgian politician Nijermegen, Belgium March 1 999 Roger Landry, LaPresse, President Montreal, Quebec March 1 999 Charles Raines, Sierra Club staff member Eugene, Oregon March 1 999 Jesse "The Body" Ventura, Minnesota Governor M i nneapolis, Minnesota March 1 999 Ujjal Dosanjh, British Columbia's Attorney Burnaby, British Columbia Marc h 1 999 General Reverend Fred Phelps San Francisco, California March 1 999 Lord David Sainsbury Swanssea, Wales March 1 999 R ussel De Valois, UC Berkeley professor Berkeley, California Apri1 1 999 and vivisector Dennis Avery, "free market biotech advocate" Grinnell, Iowa Aprll 1 999 Carol Flynn, Minnesota State Senator Minneapolis, M i nnesota April l 999 Stephane Dion, Minister of Intergovernmental Montreal, Quebec May 1 999 Affairs Patrick More, co-founder of Greenpeace Santa Cruz, California December 1 999 Keith Campbell. geneticist and creator of Brighton, England J anuary 2000 Dolly, the cloned sheep J oyce Groote, president of BI OTECanada Montreal. Quebec January 2000 Michel Camdessus, I M F Director Bangkok, Thailand February 2000 Chuck Foldenaur, president of US Atomics Southern Australia February 2000 Ann Widdecombe, British Shadow Home Oxford, England April 2000 Secretary Martina McGlaughlin, Director of Bio- San Francisco, California Apri1 2000 technology, UC Davis. Dan Glickman, US Secretary of Agriculture Washington DC May 2000 J ea n C hretien, Prime Minister of Canada Montreal. Quebec August 2000 ---------------------------------------------------------------·----- _ __..... " I f at First You Don't Succeed, Pie a n d Pie Again" ­ Post-Prank Discourse Like Earth First! and the Yippies, political pie-throwers u nderstand the potentials and the problems of using pranks to gain attention and support via the media. As i n a lmost all political actions, t h e press and their " telling" o f t h e joke play a key role i n the pie prank . L ike other forms of politica l performance, pranks a re directed at a specific "victim" or target, but also at a broader a udience. According to Barre Toelken, pran ks have several audiences - i nsiders who perform the trick, strangers who know little or 60 nothing, and bystanders who become initiated, becoming insiders t hemselves. Toelken points to the importance of audiences as they strengthen the " esoteric sense of heightened participation In a special group." l2 I n other words, the performance of the prank solidifies the i nsiders' identity and group cohesion. For some outsiders, the prank can i nform, educate, or convince: for others, of course, the pra n k can o nly embarrass, repulse, or r idicule. I n many ways, the mainstream press acts as the "outsider" audience in the prank performance. "On behalf of the corporations which own them," writes Agent Apple of the BBB, mainstream media outlets present a spectacle that bamboozles and distracts its viewers. To state the obvious, i t I s extremely difficult to get a dissenting message through the mass media filters and into the hearts a n d minds of the public . If we h old a rally in demonstration-jaded San Francisco, the media usually won't c over i t . I f we write letters to the editor, they don't get printed. However, the visual of a p ie in the face makes a sizable chink i n the media armour through w hich we can then discuss the reasons why a figure deserved to be pled. I t al lows us to c ommunicate our message to a greater extent than traditional means c urrently allow.1s A member of the "Cherry Pie Three,· echoes this, noting that protests and marches a re so commonplace that In order "to catch people's attention, it's got to be something bigger and different. Which Is the curse and the blessing of pie." 1 4 However pie-throwers, l ike other pranksters, a re often accused of merely acting for the cameras, and sometimes the protesters' actual message is lost beneath the media hoopla over the prank Itself. Some have lamented that the press is more interested in ascertain ing the pie's flavor than pursuing the rationale for the act. 61 Despite the drawbacks, the media does offer activists a vehicle for spreading the word to others outside their movement. I t also gives them a platform to Include additional dialogue, narrative, and interpretation with their init ial prank performance. For example, when one pie-th rower was convicted of harassment, disorderly conduct, and criminal mischief and ordered to formally a pologize to her target, she seized the opportunity to append her joke: "Ali i can say is I am sorry. I ' m sorry I missed w he n I hurled that pastry projectile, an al l-American apple pie, I n your direction . . . . " 1 5 She insured that the last laugh would be hers - not the judicial system's. Despite the media coverage of many protests and political pra nks, most of the communication about these events still goes on "underground ." At th is g rassroots, in· group level, much discussion goes on orally, as word about actions is spread amongst friends. Due to the subversive nature of their political beliefs and due to the i l legality of some of their activities, the activists are generally secretive and wary of outsiders. especially during the planning stages of a prank. Nonetheless, after a prank, there is usually much discussion a n d analysis both orally and in writ ing. Manifestos and communiques, once only handwritten, typed or xeroxed on flyers or in 'zines. a re now published on web pages and spread via email. The I nternet provides a medium for widespread dissemination of politica l Information, a n d a certain level of anonymity onl ine faci litates subversive discourse. J ust as the Zapatista rebels i n M exico have util ized the I nternet to broadcast their messages beyond C hiapas, the pie-throwers have taken a dvantage these new networks of communication, helping spread the ------------------------- -- · 62 "tra dition" of the pie-toss elsewhere. Indeed, much of the researc h for this chapter was accumulated from A-I NFOS News Service, an i nternational a narchist listserv, w here Aron Kay, TAART, the BBB amongst others relate their activities a n d post their communiques. No matter what format they take - digital. paper, or oral. h umor a n d social criticism continue in the activists' narratives and literature. For example, the communiques f requently make a point of describing the types of pies, for the ingredients a re chosen purposefully. The pies a re often homemade, not store-bought. By using organic a nd vegan i ngredients, the protesters al ign themselves with Nature, and in opposition to corporations and capitalism. Organic tofu cream pie had special significa nce for the pieing of Monsanto C E O Robert Shapiro, as his corporation produces genetically-engineered soybeans. Apple pie also has particular resonance as it symbolizes traditional American i deals. I t provides a political crit ique not only of the actions of the person targeted but of what exactly these Ideals entail a n d h o w they are attained . The pie-throwers' communiques also utilize a specialized language or a rgot that heightens the h umor of their actions. For example, the Belgians invented terms l ike "entarteur" ( " pie-thrower") and "glouplnesque" (" pie pranks") to describe their a ntics. The activists in Montreal call themselves "entartistes." Many of the pie-tossers also use abbreviations and acronyms to label themselves. These Include the BBB-CIA (Biotic Baking B rigade - Central Iowa Anarchists), PIE (People I nsurgent Everywhere), and TAART (Dutch for " pie") . One group, mimicking the Nobel-peace-prize medical organization, cal l t hemselves "Bakers without Borders." The BBB has also a do pted a "spy" l ingo to describe t hemselves a n d their actions; there are secret agents, code-words, and u ndercover operations. Pie t hrowers include Agent Apple, Special Agent Cow-Pie, Special Agent Creamy-Genes, a n d Subcommandante Tofutti . Most take names of well-known types of pie: Agent Cherry Rhubarb, Agent Lemon Chiffon, Agent Pecan, Agent Key Lime. In "Operation: Double 63 Fudge," pieings occurred simultaneously on the UC Davis and UC Berkeley campuses. I n "Operation: Second Phelping," two activists, dressed in nuns' habits, pied Reverend Fred Phelps with banana tofu pie - Phelps is the fundamentalist Christian minister who travels a round the country denouncing the sins of homosexuality at the funerals of gay men . The opening lines of one pie-litical experience narrative read: Twas round midnight when I got my marching orders from the Biotic Baking Brigade (BBB), sent from the General HQ and secrets ovens located deep in the heart of Headwaters Forest. M axxam CEO C harles Hurwitz was having a hush-hush . . . meeting the next day. My assignment was to penetrate the security surrounding the event, locate Hurwitz . . . and pie him. 16 The rhetoric of espionage, although certainly tongue-in-cheek, reiterates the activists' need for secrecy; it a lso mimics the very authorities who do monitor and infiltrate radical political groups. The pie-throwers' manifestos, communiques, and press releases contain other types of prankish and joking language. The authors frequently detourne famous quotations and well-known proverbs, incorporating words and phrases associated with baking and pies. These include: " pie high" " let slip the pies of war" "another one bites the crust" " pies fly while you're having fun" " pie 'em all , and let God sort 'em out" " if the people pie, the leaders wil l swallow" " it's a good day to pie" " we can lic k the upper crust" " it's better to pie on our feet than live on our knees" "the pie' s the limit" 64 " ask not for whom the pie throws - It throws for thee" Agent Apple of the BBB Is particularly fond of puns and word plays, often crying, ''let justice be served/' claiming that the ric h will get their "just desserts" and "c ul inary comeuppance," or that they will eat "humble pie. " Echoing the communiques of the Zapatista spokesperson Subcommandante Marcos, Agent Apple often signs his letters "from somewhere in the mountains of Northwestern California, I remain faithfully yours" (Marcos signs his "from the mountaii)S of the M exican Southeast") . This use of wit is a n additional word-play, one that draws o n well-known revolutionary rhetoric to heighten the practical joke of pie-throwing. The use of humor in both narrative and performance make the BBB communiques as much a joy to read as their pra n ks a re a joy to witness. Pie-throwing is a n appealing type of prank for activists as it does h ave these multiple layers of meaning. Pie-throwing is a symbolic gesture, a way to publicly humiliate powerful members of society. By uti l izing pranks and pies, political activists are able to u ndermine hierarc hy, mock authority, and capture the attention of the media and publ ic-at-large. The visual image of the pie-In-the-face marks a popular act of ridicule and a well-known symbol of irreverence - one that even disparaging press coverage can hardly undermine. The "global pastry uprising" has embarrassed many targets and perhaps more importantly, has drawn attention to many Issues. Although few people may witness the actual pieings, the a udience is widened by the media and by the activist 's own communication networks. It i s this secondary, or narrative level of the prank that reiterates and strengthens the joke. I n the words of Agent Apple, "The technocrats who dominate i ndustrial society may call us radical and unre alistic, but the dream of a bio-diverse future is one for which we will f ight u ntil the day we pie . " 1 7 65 1 George Orwell, " Fu nny But Not Vulgar," The Collected Essays: Journalism and Letters of George Orwell (New York: H arcourt, 1 968) 284. 2 Agit-prop, "Cal l for solidarity with BBB," 29 M arch 1 999, a-infos@tao.ca (Marc h 30, 1 999) . 3 Diane M acintyre, " Keystone: Kops, the King, and J ust Desserts," 1 996, http://www.mdle.com/CiassicFI Ims/FeaturedStar/keystone.htm (3 September 2000) . 4 Robert Chalmers, " Let Them Eat Cake," The Observer 3 J uly 1 995: 1 0. 5 Henry Hughes, " Let's Pie the Polluting Lolly," Harper's Magazine May 1 998: 20. . . 6 C halmers, " Let Them Eat Cake" 4. 7 AI Decker, " BBB Pies Head of the Sierra Club," 1 5 November 1 998, a-infos@tao.ca ( 1 6 November 1 998) . e Agit Prop, "Cherry Pie 3 Follow-up," 27 February 1 999, a-infos@tao.ca (28 February 1 999). 9 Agent Apple, "The Global Pastry Uprising," The Ecologist August-September 1 999: 298. 1 0 AI Decker, " Letter from the BBB," 3 December 1 999, a-infos@tao.ca (4 December 1 999). , AI Decker, " Big Fat BBB New Years Greetings from Pie Throwers, " 4 January 1 999, a­ infos@tao.ca (5 January 1 999). 1 2 Barre Toelken, The Dynamics of Folklore (Logan : Utah State UP, 1 996) 1 46. 1 3 Agent Apple, " A Treatise on the Global Pastry U prising," Biotic Baking Brigade website, http://www.asis.com/-aqit-prop/bbb/treatise .html (3 August 2000) . 1 4 Ana M aria Cox, "The Medium is the Meringue: Pie-Throwing Protesters Who Take Their Slapstick Seriously (Pie Throwing as Means of Protest)," Mother Jones March 1 999: 42. 1 5 Tricia Schwennesen, " Activist Guilty in Pie I ncident . " The Register Guard 24 February 2000: D 1 . 1 6 AI Decker, " I n Defense of Apple Pie," 1 998, http://www.bud .com/98/07/ tkles/24.aldeck .pie/ (28 May 1 999). 17 Biotic Baking Brigade, " Pastry Uprising against Genetix Continues in M ontreaL" 26 January 2000, a-infos@tao.ca (27 January 2000) . CHAPTER V I SUBVERTIN G SPECTACULAR POLITICS: THE EUGENE ANARCHISTS FOR TORREY (EAT) CAM PAI G N 66 In her article "The I nverted World of Spectacle: Social and Political Responses to Terrorism," Aida Hozic draws on situationist theory to argue that radical political groups are de-legitimized and demonized through their representation by the media. What she calls the "spectacularization of opposition" marginalizes al l dissent while at the same time dramatizing certain acts as "terrorism" - " i rrational violence with no political significance whatsoever.'' 1 While violent acts are easily recuperated and used to justify political repression, this chapter demonstrates that on the contra ry, pranks can subvert the spectacle's representations of dissidence. This chapter focuses exclusively on one prank: the Eugene Anarchists for Torrey (EAT) campaign . Like most practical jokes, this prank operates at several levels, addressing and expressing internal and external concerns, meanings, and interpretations. By focusing on both the context and the performance of the EAT prank, this chapter argues that pranks shatter one-dimensional representations of dissent and resistance in order to u ndermine the "spectacularization of opposition . '' Before I describe the Eugene Anarchists for Torrey campaign, however, it is necessary to provide some bac kground on the infamous " Eugene Anarchists.'' 2 Background: The " E ugene Anarchists" E ugene, Oregon is a l iberal college town of approximately 1 30,000 residents in the Wil lamette River Valley, two hours south of Portland. Eugene is a nexus of environmental and social justice activism, with remnants of the Sixties counterculture. It is home to the 67 Earth First! Journal, miles of bike paths, several ex-Merry P ranksters, and hundreds of displaced Deadheads. Animal House was f i lmed on the U niversity of Oregon campus, and Seventies track legend Steve Prefontaine ran there. E ugene proudly celebrates multiculturalism and diversity, but Eugene is overwhelmingly w hite.3 Ethnic minorities are quick to attest to a deep-seated racism that dates back a h u ndred years to O regon's a nti-Black immigration Jaws. At the same time as i t whirls i n tie-dyes and "tolera nce, " Eugene Is a conservative town, with an economy still tied to timber interests whi le actively promoting new high-tec h industries. Caught between these economies of boom and bust salaries in the area are low, a n d a recent survey listed Eugene as the third least-affordable housing market I n the country.4 Although once known as a Democratic stronghold I n a Republican state, lately the politics i n Eugene have taken a more radical turn. Several important events i n recent yea rs have put a small g roup of "Eugene Ana rchists" i nto conflict with local authorities and have thrust "Tree City USA" i nto the national spotlight. On June 1 , 1 997, the city government a pproved the removal of forty heritage trees to make way for the construction of a nother downtown parking garage. Although there was no public announcement, protesters caught wind of the Impending cut and arranged a n i mpromptu Sunday morning demonstration. Several individuals cl imbed i nto the trees hoping to protect them. Pollee tr ied to pull them down, brutally pepper­ spraying protesters' eyes and genitals as they clung precariously to the branches. The mayor watched from his car. The i ncident caused an u proar, and calls were made for a citizen-review pa nel to monitor pollee brutality. On October 1 7, 1 998, during a protest against sweatshop labor, the Nike outlet store was raided by a ban d of masked individuals, who proceeded to smash pumpkins, tip shelves, and throw shoe boxes into a nearby fountain . In response, police raided a 68 local home, holding a family at gunpoint and searching their house for seven hours. Alleging their teenage son was i nvolved in the N ike " riot " the pollee seized books, video tapes, posters, sign-making materials, and a computer. On J une 1 8, 1 999, local activists joined the call for an "international day of action . " " Reclaim the Streets" parties were being held worldwide - in London, New York, Prague, San Francisco - to coincide with a G8 Summit in Germany. Originating in London, " Reclaim the Streets" actions bring together rovers and radical activists to block traffic, reclaim urban space, and create spontaneous carnivals In the midst of busy intersections. The Eugene event took place on the downtown plaza a n d Included drumming, dancing, and parading. Many participants wore black ski masks. Anti­ technology demonstrators smashed television sets and stereos with shouts of encouragement from onlookers. A few black-masked Individuals, feel ing emboldened, stopped cars and harassed motorists; some downtown businesses' windows were broken. Police appeared In riot gear and chased protesters into a nearby park, u nleashing a barrage of pepper spray and tear gas. Fifteen people were arrested for rioting. L.A. resident Robert Thaxton, I n town for the event, threw a rock at a pollee officer, grazing his shoulder; Thaxton was sentenced to eight years In prison for assault . As these police-ana rchist confrontations drew more and more media attention locally, regionally, and n ationally, many cameras and microphones turned to John Zerzan, a local author who has published several books and a rticles o n a nti­ technological anarchism, also known as "future-primitivism." Zerzan had made a name for h imself by becoming a correspondent with the Una bomber Theodore Kaczynski, a connection the mainstream media never neglects to mention when they report on "Eugene Anarchists . " A 'zine entitled Black Clad Messenger, "Radio Free C ascadia, " a 69 pirate radio station. and Cascadia Alive, a community-access television show provided additional and alternative mouthpieces for the " Eugene Anarchists ." Although each of these events had local significance, the most Important for the "Eugene Anarchists" was undoubtedly the World Trade Organization protest In Seattle, Washington . From November 30 through December 2. 1 999, the "mil lennium round" of WTO trade talks were protested and blockaded by activists from around the country and the world. O n November 30, over 40,000 protesters, I ncluding union members, students, and environmental activists, barricaded streets in downtown Seattle, in effect denying a ccess to the convention center and shutting down the meeting. Although the truth of the c harges against them is questionable, sufficed to say, the " Eugene Anarchists" received international media attention for their al leged role in the property destruction that accompanied the a nti-WTO demonstration. For a brief time, Seattle officials tried to convince the public that the pollee's use of tear gas, pepper spray and concussion grenades was a necessary response to the "violence" from "Eugene Anarchists."s The television showed Images of downtown Seattle flooded with tear gas and of hundreds of police In Darth Vadar-like riot gear . These representations of police power were matched with footage of someone in black smashing a Starbucks window . " Eugene a narchists were major players in the violence," c laimed The Seattle Times the next day.6 Since December 1 999, the media have become obsessed with the "Eugene Anarchists." Numerous a rticles have appeared in the local Register-Guard and Eugene Weekly, and coverage has extended to regional and national newspapers as well -- The Oregonian, The L.A. Times, The Seattle Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal. Simila rly, local a nd regional TV crews have sought the " Eugene Anarchists" out. as have national. mainstream media. " Eugene Anarchists" have been featured o n 60 Minutes II and on Art Bell ' s radio show. They' ve appeared in SPIN Magazine, Rolling Stone, a nd 70 Harper's. C N N wants to Interview them, and rumor has It Glamour Magazine is writ ing a n a rticle a bout the women i n the " movement." I n some respects, all the media coverage is "a joke" itself, for the press has greatly exaggerated and spectacularlzed the "Eugene Anarc hists." Rolling Stone, for example, featured a Hunter S. Thompson-esque expose, a c razy weekend In the " Eugene Anarchist" u nderworld, spiced with drugs, shoplifting, vandalism, and of course, roc k-n­ rol l . The SPIN article puts the n umber of "Eugene Anarchists" at two h undred and describes them as the " Black Army Faction," conjuring Images of Germany's Red Army Faction, a terrorist organization from the 1 970s.7 Although it is impossible to say for sure, there a re probably no more than fifty " Black B lockers" - less than one percent of the population of E ugene. Nonetheless the " Eugene Anarchists" have caused a " moral pa nic, " that age-old threat to society of youth-gone-wild and kids-turned-bad: this time, the fear was heightened as the a na rchists were deemed "terrorists" in the community's midst. The post-June 1 8th and post-Seattle hysteria over " Eugene Anarchists" elicited a response from the state, as well as the press. Embarrassed to be at the helm of the "anarchist capital of the world," E ugene mayor Jim Torrey was quick to apologize for " exporting anarchlsts ."8 Citing "anarc hists" and "eco-terrorlsts" as the new threat to American security, FBI and police promised Increased surveil lance, Infilt ration, and repression.9 Eugene police began detaining and "unmasking" Individuals at rallies a nd protests. Eugene activists (anarch ist or not) returned home from the WTO protest in Seattle with mixed reactions to the event. Pleased with their success at shutting down the ministerial meeting and at gaining attention to the issues of "free trade" a nd "global capitalism," the activist community was split over the Issue of property destruction and 71 troubled by media distortions of their town. These tensions were exacerbated as police, both locally and in Seattle, vowed to crack down on " violent" p rotesters. I ndeed, several Eugene activists faced criminal charges for their actions at the protest including incit ing a riot and violating the " No Protest Zone." Paranoia and fear were heightened when it was revealed that Seattle police had used a carc inogenic nerve gas on protesters.w This was the cl imate in which two "Eugene Anarchist" -pra nksters, Rotten Johnny and Kooky Dow, decided to " lighten things up." 1 1 The P rank O n December 1 7, 1 999, the Eugene Anarc hists for Torrey (EAT) campaign held a press conference and rally on the steps of City Hal l , a n nouncing their active support for the re-election of Eugene Mayor Jim Torrey. The small group of black-clad a n d (a few) black-masked individuals was outnumbered by several Eugene pollee officers, a handful of reporters, and a few curious onlookers. Playing on the mayor's own pronouncements, flyers for the event exclaim, " Let's keep Eugene a n exporter of Anarchists. Re-elect J im Torrey! A vote for Torrey is a vote for inevitable anarc hy!" The EAT press statement reads, A faction of the Eugene Anarc hist scene has decided to endorse Jim Torrey as our candidate for next year's mayor race. People will wonder how an anti-authoritarian group could endorse a ny candidate for a government posit ion. Well, we believe that J im Torrey has been very influential in turning Eugene into a ' hotbed' of Anarc hy. We look at h is vital role in the June 1 st Treecutting/Torture and h is ability to get gross polluters and disc riminating corporations l ike Hyundal to move to our town, as pr ime examples of his Conservative/Corporate agenda, thus c reating the i nevitable and beautiful Anarchist backlash . Although none of us a re foolish enough to buy into the scam of Democracy, and of course do not plan on voting, we encourage others, who still believe, to at least vote for the greater of two evils. I f not for pure comedy, at least to make It c lear to all w hat type of Fascist system we live u nder.1 2 , I 72 Asserting that "every good revolution needs a Torrey, " the campaign puns the mayor's name, a homonym for a British conservative. Flyers for EAT provide the definition for "Tory" - " l : a member of a chiefly 1 8th Century B ritish Party upholding the established church and traditional political structure 2: an American supporters of the British during the American Revolution 3: an extreme conservative." The campaign flyers a lso contain a photograph of the mayor at a pie-eating contest at the county fair, al luding to his symbolic pieing i n December 1 998 for his complicity and his complacency during the June First inc ident. Pieced together with scissors a nd glue, assorted texts, typefaces, and Images, the D. I .Y. (Do-lt-Yourself) look of the EAT 'zlnes and flyers u ndermines the glossy pictures and slick publications from the "official" Torrey campaign (see Figure 7). Camouflaged as parodic material, the EAT literature also contains more "serious" analyses and explanations of anarchist beliefs and tactics. The EAT campaign has become an extended prank of sorts, lasting beyond a si ngle, momentary joke, as the members of EAT have stayed " in cha racter" to show their "support" at numerous engagements. On January 2 1 , 2000, EAT met with the mayor; the room was filled with as many police and journalists as anarchists. Although the event was supposed to mark the beginning of a dialogue between the city and a narchists, Torrey refused to speak . I ndefatigable, EAT asked the mayor to blink once for "Yes" and twice for " No." Thus, they secured Torrey's approval for the next meeting of the WTO to be held in E ugene, as well as for equal funding for police and anarc hists - "to level the playing field i n the class war." Before security officers escorted the mayor from the room, EAT sere naded him with their rendition of the Sex Pistols's " Anarchy i n the UK" : Torrey is the Antichrist And I am an anarc hist. I ' m not gonna vote, But I want him to win . It 's Eugene Anarchists for Jim Torrey! ------ -- 'Cause I wanna eat Jim Torrey! Jim Torrey in Eugene, Leader of the Anarchists, Sympathizer for the Brits. Shows the System for what it is. 'Cause 1 wanna eat Jim Torrey! Likes to eat a lot of pie, Watch the trees and wetlands die, Helps spread anarchy to al l , Proving that the State must fal l ! 'Cause I wanna eat Jim Torrey! Any vote for J im Torrey Is a vote for anarchy, And for those who still don' t get the joke I t 's even better not to vote! 'Cause I wanna eat Jim Torrey! True to the decentralized nature of anarchism, others have taken up the EAT 73 mantle. The word " EAT" and a "circle-A" anarc hy symbol were spraypainted on the side of a neighborhood police station . Farther afield, anarchists in Olympia, Washington formed OAT (Olympia Anarchists for Torrey), and Portland, Oregon anarchists created PAT (Portland Anarchists for Torrey) . "It appears there' l l be a power struggle to see who gets him. I n fact, we' re nominating him for the dictator of the Pacific N orthwest, " quips Rotten . l 3 As the primary election grew near, EAT attended several mayoral debates. Rotten asked candidates such probing questions as, " Would you support the name of our city being changed to www.hyundai .com? " 1 4 On election n ight, a dozen EAT supporters "crashed" the public party at the Lane County Fairgrounds, helping themselves to hers d ' oeuvres, dancing the conga, and c heering with encouragement as the results came in . . . A landslide victory! In a post-election flyer, EAT proclaim that "Torrey received over 74 71 percent of the vote in the Eugene primary. Jim only expected 60 percent. so the extra 1 1 percent has been attributed to the hard work of the E AT campaign . " 1 5 "We put a lot of work into this campaign," Rotten gushed to the local newspaper on election night. "We' re really happy." l6 EUGENE ANARCHISTS ' . - for TORREY (EAT) Press Conference and Rally to Support the Re-Election of ·Jim Torrey City HaJI Stairs (777 Pearl St) Friday, December 17th at 5pm LET'S KEEP EUGENE AN EXPORTER OF ANARCHISTS, RE-ELECT JIM TORREY! A VOTE FOR TORREY IS A 'VOTE FOR INEVITABLE ANARCHY! A faction of the Eugeue Aoarcbist scene b&s decided to endorse Jim Torrey as our candidate fo� ae�t year's mayoral race. P�ple will wonder how an anti-autboritariau group could endorse any undidatelfor a government position.. Wei� we believe that Jim Torrey bas been. very influential in turning Eugene into a "hotbed" of Anarchy. We look at his vital role in the June 1" Treecuttin_g/Torture and his obnity to get gr0ss polluters and discriminating corporations like Hyundai to move to our town, as prime examples of his COnservative/Corporate agenda, thus creating the inevitable ond beautiful Anarchist backlash. Although none of ns are foolish enough to buy into the se�m of Democracy, and of course dO aot plan on voting, we encourage others, who still believe, to afleast vote for the greater of two evils. If not for pure comedy, at least to make it clear to oil what type ofFascist system we live under. Often more: liberal candidates muddy the waters with reform tactics which offer no real solutions to our problems, while promoting a corporate agenda. · TORY \'tor-e\ 1: a member of 1 chiefly 18" Century British Party upholding the established church and traditional political structure 2: an American supporter of the British during the American Revolution 3: an extreme conservative. -Funk ond Wagoalls Dictionory · • 'CAUSE Ij:VERY GOOD REVOLUTION NEEDS A TORREY! I Sponsored by EUGENE ANARCHISTS for TORREY (EAT) -And The "THIRD FRIDAY of the MONTH" Series Figure 7. EAT flyer, c irca December 1 999. I Getting the Joke Most people th ink the EAT campaign is merely a joke dis­ guised as a campaign. I t 's actually a campaign disguised as a joke. - Eugene Anarchists for Torrey (EAT)17 Like al l practical jokes and pra n ks, the EAT campaign requires an audience, for 75 jokes are performed for one's self and for others. In this way, the prank has both esoteric and exoteric functions and Interpretations. In other words, pranks perform for "outside" forces, subverting a nd u ndermining the status quo; they also serve a purpose for those " inside" the movement, sustaining and reinvigorating an activist community u nder attack by the media a nd the government. There are severai levels at which one can "get" this joke. Obviously, the EAT campaign is a stab at the mayor with a not-so-subtle reference to Torrey's corpulence. As with the pie-pranks, it Is the body of a uthority, literally and symbolically, that Is targeted. As the EAT flyers and communiques reiterate, Jim Torrey has played a central role In cultivating the sociaL political. and economic atmosphere that has made E ugene a " hotbed of a narchy." Whether sitting safely i n a limousine, presiding over the destruction of 'public property' at the Infamous J une First tree-cutting, pepper spray jamboree, or facilitating the arrival of racist, sexist multinational cor­ porations to abuse workers and polson our water, J im has played a pivotal role In the growth of open opposition to a uthorltyP8 Although the mayor eventually faced several opponents In his re-election bid, he was running u nopposed when EAT was first formed. With over $20,000 In campaign contributions. Torrey's re-election was never really In doubt. By supporting the mayor's campaign, " E ugene Anarchists" twist the Implications of Torrey's " Inevitable" re-election . EAT's promise o f a victory "by a ny means necessary" not only echoes M alcolm X ' s call for racial justice but alludes to the tactics of President Nixon ' s 1 972 re-election campaign. 76 Likewise, EAT's call for "Four more years" repeats a slogan from President Reagan's 1 984 reelection campaign. While the EAT campaign obviously mocks the conservative politics of Jim Torrey, it also ma kes fun of liberals a nd left-wing politicians. Reiterating the a narchist condemnation of l iberal politics that seek to reform rather than abolish the State, the EAT materials point out that " electing a more l iberal candidate may have been a disasterous [sic] development, as it would have allowed local liberals to once again believe all the lies a bout how you can c hange the system by begging the powers-that-be for reforms. " 1 9 Dismissing l iberals as "whi ners," the EAT campaign criticizes left-wing complicity with "the system." EAT also pokes fun at the electoral process I n general, as part of a larger anarchist critique of America n politics and " democracy." One EAT flyer asks, " if i t 's humiliating to be ruled, how much more degrading is It to choose our masters?"20 Anarchists oppose voting, often asserting that if voting could change things, " it would be i llegal . " Furthermore, the EAT campaign mocks the logic of choosing the " lesser of two evils, " a decision American voters frequently bemoan. EAT thereby embraces voter disi l lusionment, c haracterizing it as a political act rather than inaction or apathy. As one communique notes, W hile we d ream of a day when we have no masters, tyrants, bosses (or mayors) or their merciless defenders of wealth, . . . a day when we wake up on election morning and realize that absolutely nobody voted and our government I s universally recognized as illegitimate, u ntil then i f we are still to be ruled by someone (or something), let him be the greater of the evils!21 Moreover, by explicitly stating the dilemma of the "two evils" in their campaign literature and by throwing their weight behind the g reater of the two, EAT a rgue that conservative politics and its accompanying pollee state lead to social upheaval and " Inevitable anarchy." 7 7 Although EAT performs its joke for a n d on others - the media, the mayor, and mainstream E ugene for example, some elements a re, of course, for " i nsiders." H umor has a particular internal resonance as it corresponds to the " Eugene Anarchists" espousal of " play" and rejection of "work." I n this respect, EAT makes l ight of anarchism, not only by al lying themselves (albeit jokingly) with an electoral c ampaign, but by uti l izing pranks as opposed to more conventional praxis. By no means rejecting more militant direct action, EAT suggests that culture jamming can be a useful anarchist tactic. Labeling their I particular brand of activism "anarcho-cynicism." members of the EAT campaign satirize the "serious" work of a narcho-syndicalism. " Like n ihilism but a lot more fun," anarcho- I cynicism Implies that society's most dangerous vandals are really comedians. " People don't believe anarc hists have a sense of humor, " laments Kooky. "EAT shows they' re wrong." "Things are pretty hopeless, " says Rotten. " At least we make people laugh. "22 Contrary to their reaction to the other coverage local a narc hists h ave received, Rotten and Kooky express their pleasure with how the EAT campaign has u nfolded in the media . They note with a certain satisfaction that EAT has confused the press. Unable to "spin" the story, journalists report EAT pranks blow-by-blow. word-for-word. For once, " Eugene Anarchists" have a chance to spout their rhetoric un inh ibited - even though the delivery is as a punchl ine rather than a political oratory. Whi le most interactions with the mainstream media get twisted to suit the dominant, corporate viewpoint. I t appears in this case the press just does not "get it. 0 This seems to be the most powerful and important moment of the pra n k -- the inability for it to be rationalized, recuperated, co-opted, appropriated, and doctored by the media. At the beginning of this chapter, 1 attempted to ch ronicle a series of local events and media exposes that have lead to increased tensions and hostilities between police a nd a narchists. The EAT campaign throws a monkeywrench (pun definitely 78 intended) into this "spectacularization" of " Eugene Anarc hists. " While the media is furiously promoting the image of violent anarc hists -- protesters w ho smash windows, spraypainting graffiti, and hurl rocks at police, the " Eugene Anarchists" have responded with a practical joke, retorting " where's your sense of h umor? " EAT takes the popular image of anarchy (Figure 8) and inverts it (Figure 9), presenting it in a manner that runs counter to the conventional portrait of insurrection and is therefore difficult to commodify or distort. The prank Interrupts the dominant narrative that portrays anarc hists as angry, violent terrorists, responding instead with an image of a clown . The prank defuses the escalating tensions, c hallenging the single narrative that equates anarchy with chaos and destruction . Furthermore, it interrupts the headlines of " mayhem," utilizing the media to broadcast " mirth . " As one anarc hist ' s account of EAT's activities on election night states, "Security presence was surprisingly minimal, and no violent incidents were reported, proving that dispite [sic] our hooliganish media reputation, it's fun ner to ridicule the mayor than to punch him."23 Figure 8. Calvin Klein a dvertisement from the issue SPIN Magazine (Marc h 2000) that featured an article on t h e " Eugene Anarchists." 79 80 Figure 9. EAT flyer, detourned SPIN image. 81 This c hapter has shown how humor can interrupt the dominant narrative that "spectacularizes" and stereotypes oppositional forces. As theater studies scholar Gra ham White suggests, " in order to resist the spectacularizing of political acts which are representable as i rrationaL oppositional groups must be continually striving to subvert the spectacle's own narratives, challenging dominant representations. "24 By performing pranks, activists util ize symbolic inversion, deflating egos and subverting hierarchy. The image of a mayor assured of re-election is destabilized when the most radical element of h is community vows their support for his campaign . While EAT may be a mollification of local tensions in so far as it defuses the violence, it is by no means a conciliatory act. EAT does not mark resolution, coalition, or compromise between the mayor, the city government, police, and anarchists - it Is a joke. The campaign does mark, however, a n important point of departure from previous representations, giving a whole new meaning to the " Eugene Anarchists" - they' re "a riot . " 1 Aida Hozic, "The Inverted World of Spectacle: Social and Political Reponses to Terrorism," Terrorism and Modern Drama, ed. John Orr and Dragan Klaic (Edinburgh: Edinburgh U P, 1 990) 73. 82 2 Throughout this chapter, I have placed "Eugene Anarchists" In quotations, for I want to highl ight what I see as the media's "construction " of this group. When they refer to " Eugene Anarchists, " they a re describing a activist demographic, If you will -- in their minds, mostly young and w hite males. This is who a ppears before the cameras; this is who is quoted in the papers. (And, incidentally, this is EAT.) Certai nly there a re other anarchists in Eugene, less apt perhaps to wear black masks o r be interviewed by Rolling Stone. For this reason, I want to signal with quotations that this phenomenon Is as much as reflection of media manipulation as It is a " real," monolithic g roup or organization. While I am by no means denying the existence of a militant " Black Block" In E ugene, I want to mark that the spectacularized image does not fully represent a na rchism in Eugene. 3 According to the "Consolidated Plan for 1 995 Executive Summary, " by the U S Department o f Housing a n d Urban Development, 93% o f Eugene residents are Caucasian, 1 .3% a re Black, 2 .7% a re H ispanic, and 3.5% Asian. 4 Richard Seven, " Eugene: Where Alternate Realities Go to Live -- Loggers, J oggers, Organic Farmers, Tree-Sitters, Anarchists, Oh My! " The Seattle Times 1 2 M a rc h 2000: 1 4. 5 Alan Pittman, " New World Disorder," Eugene Weekly 9 December 1 999: 9 . 6 David Postman, "Group Rejects Others' Pleas of ' N o Violence' - B lack Clad Anarc hists Target Cars, Windows, " The Seattle Times 1 December 1 999: A 1 2 . 7 RJ Smith , " Chaos Theories," SPIN Magazine March 2000: 1 1 4. 8 Associated P ress, " E ugene Anarchists l inked to riots," The Oregonian 3 December 1 999. 9 Evan W right, "Swamp's Last Day on Earth," Rolling Stone 30 M a rc h 2000: 45. 1 0 Dr. Kirk M urphy, " Neurotoxic Symptoms In Chemical Warfare Casualties At Seattle WTO Meeting," cpa@efn.org 7 December 1 999. 1 1 These a re obviously not the activists' real names, although they a re t hei r "action names . " I have struggled over the issue of anonymity and have discussed i t several times with my main i nformants. As the media has continued to focus on the " E ugene Anarchists," the issue of anonymity has become, quite fran kly, a moot point. Both these individuals are quite public with their prankster performances, and their "act" has been described in newspapers, magazine a rticles, and on TV . In some respects, both " Rotten Johnny" and " Kooky Dow" a re "characters," personae worn for their demonstrations of social c riticism and humor; a n d the last time I checked, neither wit nor dissen t are Il legal . Yet. I have come to the conclusion that to obscure their identity would be counter­ productive to my goal of showing EAT's activities as contrary to the stereotypical " bomb- --�-- 83 throwing" anarchist. For more discussion on anonymity, see the methodology section in the Appendix. 1 2 Eugene Anarchists for Torrey flyer, circa December, 1 999. 1 3 " Radical Politica l Theatre and Culture Jammin' ." Eugene Active Existence workshop. Eugene, Oregon . 5 May 2000. 1 4 Hyundai opened a computer-chip manufacturing plant on the outskirts of town in the mid-nineties, and Torrey was instrumental in wooing the company to the region. The city and county offered major tax breaks to Hyundai in order to entice them to town, despite protests from environmentalists that the corporation's voluminous use of water resources as well as their production of toxic chemicals would destroy the surrounding wetlands. Rotten's joke refers to the small Oregon town of Halfway that c hanged its name to www.half.com. 1 s EAT campaign flyer, circa September 2000. 16 Greg Bolt, "Torrey takes race in landslide," The Register Guard 1 7 May 2000: C 1 . 1 7 "EAT," Cascadia Alive!, Cable Access, Eugene, 2 February 2000. 1 e Eugene Anarchists for Torrey flyer, circa January 2000. 1 9 Anonymous, "EPigD hiring +more EAE updates, " 1 9 May 2000, email posted to Eugene Active Existence website, http://www.fruitiondesiqn.com/eae ( 1 4 June 2000) . 20 Eugene Anarchists for Torrey flyer, circa September 2000. 21 Eugene Anarchists for Torrey flyer, circa January 2000. 22 " Radical Political Theatre and Culture Jammin ' ." Eugene Active Existence workshop. Eugene. 5 May 2000. 23 Anonymous, " EPigD hiring +more EAE updates," 1 9 M ay 2000, email posted to Eugene Active Existence website, http://www.fruitiondesiqn.com/eae (1 4 June 2000). 24 Graham White, " Direct Action, Dramatic Action: Theatre and Situationist Theory," New Theatre Quarterly 9 .26 (1 993): 339. 84 C HAPTER V I I C O N C LUSION Using h istorical, l iterary, and ethnographic sources. this thesis has surveyed the performance of political pranks by radical activists. I have argued that pra n ks coincide with a n a rchist philosophies; pra n ks do not seek to gain power but disrupt it . W hether one looks at structure or meaning, pranks are acts of mockery and insubordination. P ra n ks allow us to have a laugh at the expense of someone else - in this case, the powerful and elite. P ra n ks have become Importan t tools for political activists, as the forces of "spectacular" society compel ever more creative and outlandish modes of protest. Using the examples of monkey-wrenchers, pie-throwers, and a n a rcho-cyniclsts, this thesis has demonstrated how activists utilize pra n ks to h umiliate and subvert authority, to educate others, and to amuse themselves. H umor plays an important role in activism as it can release tension and strengthen commun ity. Humor can also disguise a biting critique of politics and culture. Anarchists, Pranksters, Tricksters, and Clowns Lest we forget at least a n over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from al l our legends, mythology, and history (and who Is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins - or which i s which), the fi rst radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so ef­ fectively that he at least won his own kingdom - Lucifer. - Saul Alinskyl Although this thesis has focused on contemporary activism, the history of " pranksterism" is a lengthy one, with roots in mythology and legend as well as in politics and popular culture. Although some discussions of pranksters and practical jokesters c lassify them as separate and distinct from tricksters, I want to suggest that political pranksters do Indeed tap into traditions of tricksters and c lowns.2 85 Tricksters and clowns a re ubiquitous figures in folklore and literature throughout the world. Tricksters of myth appear In a variety of forms from a nimal (Mon key, Raven, Spider), to human (Odysseus), to god (Hermes, LokL Legba). In the U nited States, tricksters a re perhaps most commonly associated with the Native American figure of Coyote, but in fact, tricksters appear In many c ultures. They can be characterized as border-crossers, shape-shifters, gluttons, wanderers, and thieves.3 They are deceptive and disobedient; they do things backwards. As Lewis Hyde notes, trickster "embodies and enacts that large portion of our experience where good and evil a re hopelessly intertwined. He represents the paradoxical category of sacred amorality."4 Clowns and tricksters can also be social commentators, embarrassing those who break rules and mocking those In power. Tricksters frequently establish or reveal social ta boos, a ppearing at moments where culture is fou nded, or where an old world transitions i nto a new one. According to Clowns and Tricksters, A n Encyclopedia of Tradition and Culture, "Tricksters a re at the same time obscene and powerful, jester and culture hero; their roles are never easily defined. They personify the ability to be both respected and condemned by society."s I believe political pran ksters draw on some of these traditional characteristics of tricksters and clowns to perform their particular brand of subversive h umor and playful politics. As detailed in Chapter IV, the Irrational acts of political pran ksters run counter to the norms of conventional, " rational" politics. By embracing this " hermetic" reason, they become (sub)cultural heroes that subvert classic (or Apollonian) virtue and strength . As agents for change, both tricksters and political pranksters operate on the c usp of societal transformation. The destruction and creation of society that tricksters have always enabled now has an explicitly political purpose. 86 While traditional forms of clowns and carnivals operate to invert class and status, this dualistic reversal (where kings become peasants, and peasants become kings) is complicated by a world w here power Is more I nsidious. Nonetheless many theorists have embraced the trickster figure as a model for a postmodern politics of resistance and transgression.6 Political pranksters, with their blasphemy, excess, and wi ld humor. also evoke this postmodern trickster. Some Thoughts on the Efficacy of Pra n ks Although a theoretical a nalysis of pranks can never capture their dynamism, this thesis has sought to demonstrate how pranks a re compelling political performances. As someone who claims to both " get" the pranksters' jokes and share their vision of a n a utonomous, biodiverse world, I feel compelled to say a few words about the effectiveness of pranks as political weapons. As Richard Schechner cautions, however, "no performance is pure efficacy or pure entertainment . " 7 The effectiveness of a performance. as many scholars suggest, is a difficult matter to assess. Each audience member and participant gauges a performance based on their personal experiences, on their unique point of view. on their own sense of humor. Oftentimes, the media serves as a filter or gatekeeper for these actions a n d adds its own "spin" o r commentary to performances. It dictates how the performances wil l be captured a nd portrayed and therefore has a hand I n determining the effectiveness of a political action. As communication studies sc holar Cindy Kistenberg suggests in her book on AIDS activism, 8 7 there i s n o definitive, essential way t o talk about performance and social change. It is o nly when we look at specific performances, how they are received, circ ulated, debated, or ignored, that we can begin to u nder- stand whether or to what extent they reproduce or challenge existing systems of power or a uthority.s If we look, then, at the reception of pranks by the "authorities," we can see that they are not "acceptable" forms of protest . like the butts of most jokes, the targets usually don 't laugh; and in these particular cases, those targeted are frequently i n position to wield political a nd judicial power in response. Legal retribution allows the media frame the prank as a "crime story" where activists a re presented as dangerous and deviant. Yet criminalization can backfire, furnishing pranksters with more material . When one faces felony assault charges for throwing a pie, for example, the tyranny (and h umorlessness) of the State is exposed. "After all," says Agent Cherry Rhubarb Tart, "a pie Is nothing more than butter. sugar, flour, and fruit for tuck's sake ! " If one was to assess prank performances by the (over) reactlon of the authorities, then. one could easily assert that pra n ks must in some way threaten the status quo. As Kirk Fuoss argues however, "efficacy cannot be established irrefutably under a ny circumstances. regardless of the method or perspective employed."9 The situationlsts believed most political tactics were Ineffectual and a rgued that the spectacle quickly " recuperates" al l forces of opposition. In other words, resistance - its rhetoric, Its symbols, its "style" - is incorporated by the system, di luted and commodified. Although the image of "anarchism" may become fashionable (see Figure 8), these anarchists' pranks may be more difficult for mainstream society to a bsorb. Pranks a re Impromptu and require continual change a nd creativity in order to maintain the element of surprise. Even pie-throwing, with its origins i n popular a n d folk culture, operates to humil iate and mock and Is therefore a practice that mainstream politics is unl ikely to embrace. Because of their reliance on inversion of power, pranks contain a dynamic that would be u nsettling if i ncorporated by the spectacle. 88 The question still remains, of course, as to w hether or not the prankster actually changes things. Certainly the actions of tric ksters, i n both mythological and political forms, create instability, where taboos, norms, and cultures can come undone. Tricksters exist at the cusp of the destruction and creation of a new world, but they cannot always insure that their actions wil l create a " better" world. Political pranksters can a lso be seen as Inciting others to action, evoking revolutionary fervor In others with tric kster rhetoric, reason, and performances. To assume the role of trickster is to step outside the constraints of society, and i n this case, to push the limits of political protest. These political pranksters stand poised to monkeywrench this world i nto a new one. Yet tricksters - mythical, legendary, and real - never fully control the outcome of their prankish behavior. Tricksters are models of transience: It is u nclear what type of revolution they can or wil l bring about. The tricksters' u npredictability makes them powerful and dangerous political figures. The pra nksters' unpredictability, li kewise, make them unsettl ing and volatile actors. The Last Laugh: An E ndorsement To document and discuss these political pran ks is to deem them worthy of scholarly consideration and In some way, therefore, Is to endorse their enactment. This may be seen as misguided and pedestrian by those who see pra n ks as a nti-social or obscene at best, violent or criminal at worst. Although neither manual nor manifesto, this thesis does operate with the assumption that there Is a punch l ine to these practical jokes; I make no apologies to readers who don 't laugh. 89 Pranks, along with other forms of guerilla theater and culture jamming offer a vehicle for active participation in, rather than passive reception of contemporary culture. While the spectacle presents itself as "untouchable" in its displays of power and might, these radical theatrics allow a participatory ritual that cracks this fac;ade. As Aida Hozic notes, spectacle increases the gap between the actor and audience, between the empowered and powerless. But as a form which pleases the audi­ ence, it also reduces conflict and social tension . Theatrical action, on the other hand, questions everything, reopens hidden conflicts and taboos, and attempts to mobilize, not satisfy, the audience.lo By utilizing a performance already popularly associated with ritualized inversion yet "harmless" laughter, political pranksters have discovered a valuable tool for mocking power and disrupting the spectacle. Although pranks have been largely ignored by academics, their prevalence in literature, folklore and radical politics signal their importance. Although one can never assert with finality the efficacy of these political pranks, it is clear that the pranksters' explicit goal of u ndermining hierarchy make them provocative performances worthy of serious attention. Moreover, it seems that the current state of affairs - the pacifying force of the spectacle - demands a creative and transgressive response. Pul l a prank. Change the world. 90 1 Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals (New York: Vintage, 1 97 1 ) ix . 2 I n his attempt to classify pranks as a particular genre of folklore, Richard Tallman explicitly states that tricksters and pranksters are not the same, as they draw on different individual and cultural traditions. See Richard S. Tallman, "A Generic Approac h to the Practical Joke, " Southern Folklore Quarterly 38 (1 97 4) : 259-27 4. 3 For descriptions of the mythological trickster figure, see Wil l iam Bright, A Coyote Reader (Berkeley: U of California P, 1 993); Lewis Hyde, Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art (New York: Farrar, 1 998) . 4 Hyde, Trickster Makes This World 1 0. s Kimberly Christen, ed. Clowns and Tricksters: An Encyclopedia of Tradition and Culture (Denver: ABC-CLIO, 1 998) xii . 6 For uses of "trickster" as a postmodern figure, see Donna H araway, " A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Tec hnology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Centu ry, " Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1 991 ); Shane Phelan, " Coyote Politics: Trickster Tales and Feminist Futures, " Hypatia 1 1 .3 (1 996): 1 30- 1 59; Gerald V izenor, "Trickster Discourse," American Indian Quarterly 1 4.3 ( 1 990): 277-287. 7 Richard Schechner, Performance Theory (New York: Routledge, 1 988) 1 20. e Cindy Kistenberg, AIDS, Social Change, and Theater: Performance as Protest (New York: Garland, 1 995) 1 77 . 9 Kirk Fuoss, Striking Performances/Performing Strikes (Jackson : U of Mississippi P, 1 997) 1 62. 1 0 Aida Hozic, "The I nverted World of Spectacle: Social and Political Reponses to Terrorism," Terrorism and Modem Drama, ed. John Orr and Dragan Klalc (Edinburgh : Edinburgh UP, 1 990) 68. lbr . 91 APPENDIX A METHODOLOGICAL C O NSIDERATIONS Although I suppose any lengthy project l ike a M aster's Thesis takes one on a n intellectual journey o f sorts, I feel that the road I traveled with this thesis i s worth relating h ere. With a gesture that recognizes the need for scholars to locate themselves ­ ideologically and experientially - in their research, 1 wish to address some of my rationale for this project and justifications for my methodology. In November 1 998, I began subscribing to the A-I NFOS news service, an international anarc hist list-serve; I was interested in the daily emails due to my own political interests, the coverage of International Issues and events, and the notices for "calls to action." Even in the "l iberal" town of Eugene, Oregon, information on radicalism is not always forthcoming. In the first few months of subscription, I received emails almost weekly on the acts of political pie-throwers around the world. Usually these notices were the only " news" I heard of the events. I was i ntrigued by the use of political pranks, and I methodically printed and saved each communique I received. I n December of 1 998, the pies struc k home, so to speak: the mayor of Eugene was pled by two environmental activists. Although lambasted by the local daily newspaper, the story made its roun ds through the activist community amidst giggles - and the satisfaction that a retributive blow had been struck against a man responsible for what many saw as the deterioration of the local community and local environment. Although I wrote a paper on pie-throwing, I thought little more a bout pra n ks, performance, and politics u ntil the following faiL when the activist community in the Pacific Northwest geared up for the WTO p rotest in Seattle. At a performance staged by "Art and Revolution" and the " Anti-WTO Roadshow," I witnessed firstha n d the degree of 92 communication a nd mobilization offered by street theater. Perhaps more importantly, I saw my first C RAP (Cascadia Rising Anarchist Puppet) Theatre skit: " Pepper-Sprayed Peaceful Protester," a hi la rious puppet re-enactment of the J une F irst tree-cutting i ncident. At a puppet-making workshop held in conj unction with the "Anti-WTO Roadshow " later that afternoon, I chatted with the C RAP puppeteers, Rotten and Kooky, about design a n d h umor - they were Inspirational . And from that point on, my thesis began to take shape, with their brand of gueri l la humor firmly in mind. 1 experienced little to laugh about at the WTO protest i n Seattle. Tear gas, rubber bullets, a nd martial law just aren't funny. Although I returned to E ugene triumphant with what protesters had achieved, I was horrified at the pollee use of force and disgusted by the media's and the government's (and even other activists ' ) finger-pointing at " Eugene Anarchists" for the " violence." Like many people who felt u neasy about escalating tensions between police and protesters. 1 found the EAT campaign a refreshing release. As with my archival of pie-litical communiques, I began diligently collecting EAT materials: flyers, press releases, newspaper articles, emails . I had a moment of ethnog raphic angst i n January 2000 after being told about the meeting between EAT a nd the mayor; I had tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard, but no tape recorder to capture the story. I n the spring of 2000, the "Eugene Anarchists" staged the "Seven Weeks of Revolt," a n a narchist conference of sorts. Also known as "Eugene Active Existence," the event gave anarc hists t ime to share their theories and tactics, gave me a mple opportunity for fieldwork. I attended workshops on situationist theory and culture jamming, for example. The "Seven Weeks of RevoW also gave local police the occasion to i ntimidate a nd ar rest "terrorists" and " bomb-makers" and gave local press the material to cultivate more fear and misunderstanding. Again, tensions rose in the 93 community as the police and the press together stirred up panic in a nticipation of a scheduled "h istoric re-enactment�� of the June 1 8, 1 999 " riot:' W hile original plans were for a CRAP theater re-enactment, no one i n power was prepared to "get the joke" or even wait for the punch-line (and admittedly, many anarchists probably hoped they wouldn' t) . The cycle of spectacular politics seemed to prevail as a rrests, a rson, a nd tear gas again framed the "Eugene Anarchists" as dangerous, violent threats to the community. As I document i n Chapter V I , the mainstream press has gushed over the " Eugene Anarchists, " sending reporters from slick and hlp magazines l i ke SPIN and Rolling Stone on "dangerous missions" i nto the u rban jungles of E ugene's W hi ttaker neighborhood, in order to write shallow, often derisive exposes on the local anarchist "scene." Many times during my research, I have felt "the story" corrupted and twisted, so I have tried to w rite something different here. My own political beliefs, my training as an ethnographer, and most importantly my friendship with many of these people prevent me from misrepresenting or dismissing their actions as frivolous or I nfantile or condemning their performances as violence or vandalism . Although I want to remain faithful to the philosophies of my informants, this Is after all, as M aster's Thesis, a document that must ci rculate through an archaic Institution and eventually receive a bureaucrat's initials, indicating 1 am worthy to be a M aster of Arts ­ a ntithetical to a n anarchist to be sure. The process of writing this thesis has i ndeed pulled me in two different directions - the academic versus the anarchist - so I have tried to wade carefully through these treacherous waters of ideology, theory, ethnography, and experience. From the beginning of this project, I have Intended to i ncorporate a feminist a nalysis of political pranks. As I have witnessed events unfold locally and as I h ave 94 gathered my materials to analyze, I have constantly been reminded of the male- domination that permeates radical politics (as It does, in fairness, of most aspects of our patriarchal culture). The situationists, the Yippies, (early) Earth First ! . and E AT are all movements comprised overwhelmingly of men. As a feminist, I am troubled when the politics of radical social transformation are monopolized by what Robin M organ calls the " politics of manhood." 1 At the same time however, I have been reluctant to typify political pra n ks as the stereotypical actions of adolescent males, thereby dismissing both anarchism and pranks as infa ntile and underdeveloped practices. Quite to the contrary, I believe that pranks can subvert the violent, terrorizing tactics that Morgan associates with mascul inist revolutionary politics. U nfortunately, I doubt that some of my "case studies" make good examples of that. I do regret not trying harder to find female pra n kster informants. Several pie-throwers, for example, have been women (not to fall into an essentialist trap of associating women with only cul inary praxis) . So although this thesis gives much space to male pranksters, I do not believe that political pra n ks are necessarily a bastion of patriarchal politics. With respect to what my Informants call "security culture" and what the university deems "ethical treatment of human subjects," there are several other methodological considerations I have taken I nto account, for this thesis documents conceivably c riminal activity by would-be revolutionaries and Insurgents. The safety of my Informants Is of utmost concern, so I have tried my best to protect them. As fears of police/FBI I nfiltration are very reaL 1 have exercised utmost caution with my field notes. In fact I h ave committed most I nformation to memory rather than to paper. Where there has been written record-keeping. I have Insured that no real names are mentioned. I nitially saddened to not have tape-recorded EAT tales, I have since elected not to record any interviews. As mentioned i n Chapter VI. I have struggled with the Issue of a nonymity. As , . 95 the media have converged on E ugene, a nonymity has become quite pointless. Several newspaper and magazine articles have revealed the names and identities of the " Eugene Anarc hists." Similarly, arrested pie-throwers have been " unmasked" in public . Nonetheless, I have elected to use the "action names" of my i nformants. a lthough several have consented to letting me use their given ones. Although certainly, the government already has files on us all, I do not wish to make any of this i nformation easily available to those who aren't "in the know." Ai l th is being said, i t has not been my direct intent to hunt down "vandals," "terrorists." and "criminals" ; on the contrary, I hope my work has debunked and undermined some of these stereotypes. I have not sought to elicit "confessions" and have tried to focus on pranks that have been publicly claimed or have a l ready been " revealed" in the press. Although several other c lever pra n ks have been pulled locally ­ the US flag removed from Skinner's Butter and replaced with a smiley-face flag, for example, and the front doors of several businesses, including Starbucks, bicycle-locked shut on May Day morning - I have neither researched nor analyzed these actions. W hile legality of pranks Is a n Issue I have addressed in Chapter V, I have not wanted this to become the focus of my study. Throughout this project I have been interested in my informants' activism but a lso in their analysis of their actions. For this reason, I have tried to conduct a version of what folklorist E laine Lawless calls " reciprocal ethnography,"2 sharing my fieldwork and my i nterpretation a nd eventually even parts of my rough drafts with my i nformants. I n this way, I hope to avoid the misrepresentations perpetrated by outsiders - by the mainstream media, but a lso by scholars. I want to reassure them I remain a fan, ever more so than a critic or theorist, of political pranks. 1 Robin Morgan, The Demon Lover: On the Sexuality of Terrorism. (New York: Norton, 1 989) . 96 2 Elaine Lawless, '"I was afraid someone like you . . . an outsider . . . would misunderstand . ' Negotiating I nterpretive Differences Between Ethnographers and Subjects, " Journal of American Folklore 1 05 (1 992): 302-3 1 4. APPEN DIX B PRAN K ART We would hurl ourselves across the canvas of society l ike streaks of splattered paint. - Abbie Hoffman1 Although this thesis has focused on well-known prankster-activists, it should be reiterated that pranks a re never solely the work of groups or movements and need not be enacted on a level to attract the likes of C N N or SPIN Magazine or even one's local newspaper. As the situationists asserted, resistance to the spectacle should be a participatory project - "the revolution of everyday life . " I n that spirit, I have opted to include some inspirational and instructive prank art . Figure 1 0 contains "art " from the 97 Barbie Liberation O rganization and details how to " liberate" sexist dolls. By switching the voice boxes in talking Barbie Dolls and G l Joes, these toys subvert the strict gendering of chi ldren's toys: Barbie now hollers, "Vengeance is mine ! " and Joe wonders, " Do these shoes match my dress? " Figure 1 1 is a detourned parking tic ket, for motorized vehicle infractions that include contributing to global warming, traffic g ridlock, and noise pol lution . Figure 1 2 includes a variety of stickers that detourne conventional product warning labels. a To open G. I. Joe. remove batterieS and pq:> olf head. Using • saw, make i1Cislon across abdomen tom seam to sean. a. c:lft(ul not to c:ut undamelllh. Figure 1 0. Barbie Liberation Organization i nstructions.2 98 , c; :c ., , C: o ' '§; a; , c: ::1 ., 0 " 0:: Figure 11. Detourned parking tic ket. ES 0 0 3 6 7 9 3 0 4 IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ CAREFU LLY Consider the man on horseback, and I have been a man on horseback 1or most of my life. Wall, mostl'y he 18 a good man, but there is a change in him as soon as he mounts. Every man on hOrseback is an arrogant man, hooever gentle he may be on foot l1le man In the automobUe is one thousand times as dangerous. 1 tell you, it will engender absolute selfishness in mankind if the driving of automobiles becomes common. It will breed violence on a scale never seen before. it will mark the end of the family as we know It, the three or fol.l' generations living happily in one home. It w�l destroy the sense of neighborhood and the true sense of Nation. It will create giantized cankers of cities, false opulence of suburbs. ru!nizad countryside, and unhealthy conglomerations of specialized farming and manufacturing. It will make every man a tyrant. - R.ALafforty Mr.Lafferty's leslimooial was wr-ten in the late nine­ teenth century. His VIeWS W'efe considered alarmist tnd foolish in his d3f. DO NOT WRlTE BELOW THIS UNE IF YOU OESPVTE THIS FINE, THE TRIAL WlU. 8E HElD IN 'roUA OWN CONSCENCE 99 "' ;; 0 .. 0 " ., " � .. " c. 5' "' < .. :r ;; i' · · · · - - · - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1 This is SEXIST and DEGRA DING . to WOMYN! L .. . . . .. . .. . .. . ............................................ ............. : . ' this ·· .• . · ·. · · e · ·s· . . · . · . . . . . . . :· . . . . . . . . ' .· . · . . . · · · .. 1 : · . . . Ug. · y·· · · ·· . . .... ... .. ........ . . ... . . ·· . . · . •. .. • . . . ·. . . . . . . . . sponsored by.. . . . · the· 9oc.,lition:.to raise · .·.· aesthet_ic consciol.jsness. Figure 1 2. Stickers. 1 00 GEN ETICALLY MODIFIED GENETICALLY MODIFIED 1 01 1 Abbie Hoffman, as quoted in Steven Durland, "Witness: The Guerilla Theater of Greenpeace," Radical Street Performance: An International Anthology, ed. Jan Cohen­ Cruz (New York: Routledge, 1 998) 68. 2 For more information on the Barbie Liberation Organization, see the Culture Jammers' Encyclopedia at http://www.syntac .netlhoax. More information is also available onl ine about a similar group, the Barbie Disinformation Organization. This group places detourned stickers on the outside of Barbie Doll boxes while they' re still on shelves in stores. http:/ lwww .cs.cmu .edu I afs/ csluser ljthomas/SurReview I reviews-htmllbdo.html . BI BLIOGRAPH Y Abbey, Edward. The Monkey Wrench Gang. New York: Avon, 1 975. ACERCA. "BBB - Northeast Cell Pies Cloning Researcher.# 1 4 March 1 999 a-infos@tao.ca (1 5 M arch 1 999). 1 02 Agent Apple. "Global Pastry Uprising, The .N The Ecologist August-September 1 999: 299- 300. "Treatise on the Global Pastry Uprising, A.N Summer 1 999 Biotic Baking Brigade website. http://www.asis.com/-agit-prop/bbb/treatise.htm l . ( 1 0 August 2000). Agent C ustard Tart. " U K Pie-ing Communique from Sussex Cell of the Biotic Baking Brigade." 26 January 2000 a-infos@tao.ca (27 January 2000) . Agit Prop. " BB B Pies Anti-Native State Senator (MN) .N 1 Aprll 1 999 a-infos@tao.ca (2 Apri1 1 999). " Call for Solidarity with BBB ." 29 Marc h 1 999 a-infos@tao.ca (30 Marc h 1 999) . "Cherry Pie 3 Follow-Up." 27 February 1 999 a-infos@tao.ca {28 February 1 999). "Cherry Pie 3 M axed: 6 M onths in Jail for Pieing Mayor of San Fra ncisco." 25 February 1 999 a-infos@tao.ca (26 February 1 999) . " Chevron CEO C reamed by Pies." 1 1 March 1 999 a-infos@tao.ca (1 2 M arch 1 999) . "Global Pie Round-Up, A . " 23 March 1 999 a-infos@tao.ca (24 Marc h 1 999) . " Let Justice Be Served! -- BBB Domestic Pie Actions." 27 Marc h 1 999 a-lnfos@tao.ca (28 Marc h 1 999). Agitation Propaganda. " BBB/CIA Pies Biotec h nology Spin Doctor." 1 0 Apri1 1 999 a-lnfoSCwtao.ca (1 1 April 1 999). Alinsky, saul D. Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals. New York: Vintage, 1 971 . "Anarchists for Torrey." Eugene Weekly 27 January 2000: 5. Anonymous. "EPigD hiring +more EAE updates." 1 9 M ay 2000 Eugene Active Existence website message-board http://www.fruitlondesign .com/eae ( 1 4 June 2000) . Associated P ress. " Eugene Anarchists l inked to riots." The Oregonian 3 December 1 999. Auslander, Phi l ip. Presence and Resistance: Postmodernism and Cultural Politics in Contemporary American Performance. A n n Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1 992. Babcoc k, Barbara . "A Tolerated Margin of M ess: The Trickster and H is Tales Reconsidered." Journal of the Folklore Institute 1 1 (1 975) : 1 47- 1 86. 1 03 Bakhtin, M ikhail . Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1 984. ---. Rabelais and His World. 1 965. Bloomington : I ndiana UP, 1 984. Bauman. Richard. Story, Performance, and Event: Contextual Studies of Oral Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1 986. "Verbal Art as Performance." American Anthropologist 77 ( 1 9 75): 290-3 1 1 . Berendt. John. "The Hoax: A Prank of the Highest Order." Esquire 1 2 1 .4 ( 1 994): 60. Berger, Arthur Asa . Blind Men and Elephants: Perspectives on Humor. New Bru nswic k: Transaction. 1 995. Bernstein , Michael . "When the Carnival Turns Bitter: Preliminary Reflections upon the Abject Hero." Bakhtin: Essays and Dialogues on His Work. Ed. Gary Saul Monson. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1 986. Bey, Hakim. TAZ: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism. Brooklyn : Autonomedia, 1 991 . Bigfoot Cascadia . "BBB Strikes - Mayor Pied in Eugene, Oregon, USA." 1 2 December 1 998 a-infosCwtao.ca (1 3 December 1 998) . Biotic Baking Brigade. "Action News from Amsterdam and Prague." Letter to the author. 6 October 2000. "Anti-Genetix Patisseristas Cream Canada 's Head." 1 7 August 2000 a-infos(Q)tao.ca ( 1 8 August 2000) . "BBB Pies UC-Berkeley Animal Torturer! ! ! " 30 April 1 999 a-infos@tao.ca ( 1 May 1 999) . '" Biotic Not Biotech ! ' Action, A1 6 Target, Creamy Genes and Other Pastry News." 1 2 April 2000 a-infos@tao.ca ( 1 3 April 2000) . '" Eco-Judas' Patrick Moore Receives J ust Desserts . . . and Legal Updates." 1 2 December 1 999 a-infos@tao.ca (1 3 December 1 999) . " Le Premier Min istre Entarte ! " 1 7 August 2000 a-infos@tao.ca (1 8 August 2000) . "Pastry Action Reports from the U K and OZ." 1 0 February 2000 a-infos@tao.ca (1 1 February 2000) . "Pastry Uprising Against Genetix Continues in Montreal . " 25 January 2000 a-infos@tao.ca (26 January 2000) . " USDA Secretary Glic kman Pied." 1 June 2000 a-infos@tao.ca (2 J une 2000) . Biotic Baking Brigade website. http://www.asis.com/-bbb. ( 1 4 August 2000). Bishop, Bil l . " Pie thrower told to pay court costs. " The Register-Guard 3 J une 1 999: B 1 . Bolt, Greg. "Torrey takes race In landslide . " The Register Guard 1 7 May 2000: C 1 . Bowen, Arabella . " Egg on their Faces? Pie Throwers M iss Their Target with Dian. " The Gazette 1 2 May 1 999: A4. Bra ke, M ichael. Comparative Youth Culture. London: Routledge, 1 985. Bra nwyn, Gareth. Jamming the Media: A Citizen 's G uide to Reclaiming the Tools of Communication. San Francisco: Chronicle, 1 997. Bright, Wi ll iam. A Coyote Reader. Berkeley: u of C alifornia P, 1 993. 1 04 Burros, M arian . "Official Grazed by Pie, Serves u p a Quip." The New York Times 3 1 May 2000: A1 6. Butler, Judith. Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex." New York: Routledge, 1 993. C arr, c. "Wheat Pasting against the Machine." VIllage Voice 28 April - 4 M ay 1 999. Chalmers. Robert. " Let Them Eat Cake," The Observer 3 J uly 1 995: 1 0. http:/!www.mindspring.comHaybab/observer.htm 1 . ( 1 1 August 2000). C hristen, Kristen, ed. Clowns and Tricksters: An Encyclopedia of Tradition and Culture. Denver: ABC-C LIO, 1 998. Cox, Ana Marie. "The M edium is the Meringue: Pie-throwing Protesters Who Take Their Slapstick Seriously (Pie Throwing as M ea ns of Protest) ." Mother Jones 24. 1 2 ( 1 999): 42. Culture Jammers' Encyclopedia. http://www .syntac .net/hoax. (6 J a nuary 2000) . DAM N . " BC Attorney General Pied in Bu rnaby · Remember the Ts' peten Sundancers. " 1 1 M arch 1 999 a-infos@tao.ca ( 1 2 March 1 999). Debord, Guy. Society of the Spectacle. 1 967. Detroit: B lack and Red, 1 983. Decke r, AI. "An Anti-Genetix Field Day for the BBB . " 24 November 1 998 a-infos@tao.ca (25 N ovember 1 998) . " BBB Pies Head of the Sierra Club." 1 5 November 1 998 a-infos@tao.ca ( 1 6 November 1 998) . " Big Fat BBB New Years Greetings from Pie Throwers." 4 January 1 999 a-infos@tao.ca (5 Janua ry 1 999). " Cherry Pie Three Trial Saga Comes to a Close, The." 22 January 1 999 a-infos@tao.ca (23 January 1 999). " Dialectics of Pie-throwing, The. " Renegade. 2 February 1 998. http://fornits.com/renegade/peaars.cgi?fetc h= 1 37 1 . ( 1 6 April 1 998). 1 05 "Dutch Pie Group Strikes Again; BBB Legal U pdates; and a Few Verses." 1 4 January 1 999 a-infos@tao.ca (1 5 January 1 999) . " Forestry C hief Symbolically Pled at Meeting." 2 December 1 998 a-infos@tao.ca (3 December 1 998) . "Great Hurwitz Pie I ncident or, I n Defense of Apple Pie, The . " Renegade. August 1 997. http://www .bud .com/98/07 /tkles/24/aldeck/pie/. (28 M ay 1 999) . " Letter from the BBB ." 3 December 1 998 a-infos@tao.ca (4 December 1 998) . " Monsanto Corporation CEO Robert Shapiro Gets Pie i n the Face at Conference by Biotic Baking Brigade -- 2nd Pie I ncident This Month." 30 October 1 998 a-infos@tao.ca (3 November 1 998) . " Nobel Laureate Economist M ilton Friedma n Gets P ie i n the Face at Corporate Conference. " 1 3 October 1 998 a-lnfos@tao.ca ( 1 4 October 1 3 1 998). "Support the C herry Pie Four! 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