Nixta Rolls

Improv Everywhere are the geniuses behind the Abercrombie topless shopathon, the Grand Central frozen in time gag, and others.

Normally I enjoy them, but I always get this nagging feeling that they’re really just doing it for themselves. It’s beyond the attention, there’s no doubt it’s not for the attention, but art for art’s sake often gets right up my nose.

This one is truly heartwarming. Rather than just being “Pretty clever but WTF”, as the parent at the end says, this will stick with the kids forever. It’s fantastic. It’s a dream come to life.

See the video.

I once had a moment like that when a load of bearded scuba divers walked out of the sea in Piran, Slovenia and told me when I accosted one of them that they were from a submarine offshore. The marvelous thing about that moment is that as I’ve grown older and have realised they must have been lying, the wonder and mystery that I felt then wins out and I can still indulge in the wonder of it as if I never knew otherwise.

Update: I’m copping a bit of flack for the “art for art’s sake” statement. I should maybe think a bit more about what I mean when I say that coz it’s probably not what most people interpret that to be. What I mean is that a lot of the Improv Everywhere stuff gets up my nose just because I know that if I were on the receiving end it would make my life more painful and so I wonder if their enjoyment at doing it and other people’s enjoyment at witnessing it makes up for that. Like I said, I see the great side of it most of the time, but this one is just pure warmth and stands out for that reason.