Improv Everywhere's Silly Mannequin Stunt Gets Everybody Arrested
Improve Everywhere describes itself as a prank collective. You may remember seeing YouTube videos of them doing things like putting on a musical at a food court (okay, that kind of stretches the boundaries of "improv," though) and starting the annual No Pants Subway Ride, which some may enjoy for reasons having nothing to do with humor.
For their latest stunt, they got 40 people to dress up like mannequins to contribute to the modeling of fashions at The Gap on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. As their video shows, the shoppers look amused and not remotely afraid or concerned about folks wearing full body coverings to simulate looking like mannequins. Security was not as amused and called 911 over the pretend dummies. Then the police came and arrested everybody, providing a lovely image of pranksters dressed like mannequins face down on the floor all over the store.
Improv Everywhere reports a happy ending, however. Once the police found out what was going on, everybody was released and allowed to leave. The cynic in me wonders if the video cameras recording everything and the crowd that gathered to watch contributed to the peaceful conclusion to the incident.
Watch below. Wouldn't it be amusing to see a bunch of actors dressed like cops go into a clothing store and try to arrest actual mannequins? That stunt might not end quite as peacefully once the police showed.