Ninth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

Public health activists generally seek justice by employing public education and political action to garner remedies. For survivors, anger and grief are often the motivators and the actions used reflect those emotions. Outside of protest march placards, the use of effective humor to engage the public, politicians, and other stakeholders is somewhat rare. I examine the use of humor and theater by the “Yes Men” for advocating for proper compensation, rehabilitation, and medical care for the survivors and remediation of the environmental contamination resulting from the 1984 Union Carbide Disaster in Bhopal, considered the world’s worst industrial disaster in history. The “Yes Men” have engaged in what they term “identity correction” as well as elaborate public pranks using puns and outrageous theatrics to bring awareness to the plight of the survivors in Bhopal. I argue that the pranks of the “Yes Men” effectively engage the global public’s attention. The techniques and execution of these elaborately choreographed stunts demonstrate the effectiveness of a rarely acknowledged method, humor, in the struggle for public health justice.