Just a slight shifting of established social norms — wearing a Speedo to work, for example — can make something entirely routine into something completely wacky. Improv Everywhere uses this theory in their latest stunt, which involved recruiting several hundred folks — adults and kids — to run around Coney Island and Brighton Beach doing all the things you normally might on a beach day, except in formal wear.
The beach crowd was suitably entertained, because swimming in a tuxedo is damn crazy, and even crazier when 200 people do it! Plus, jogging, metal-detecting, burying people to the neck, and chicken fights in formal wear: HILARITY ENSUES. Ugly dresses, by the way, were harmed in the making of this video, but zero puppies were thrown.
We like the beach-formal wear meme, but our favorite Improv Everywhere still has to be the classic, freakily apocalyptic “frozen Grand Central.” Remember?
Carry on, all.