(YouTube link)
What do you take with you to a Little League game? If you’re Improv Everywhere, you take a cheering section, a Jumbotron, some play-by-play announcers, and a blimp. It sent a bunch of unsuspecting ten-year-old players (and their parents) to baseball heaven. Read the particulars at Improv Everywhere. Link -via Metafilter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=839XtOtyLsw
The whole event was featured in the first episode of the television version of This American Life with Ira Glass on Showtime. It's worth seeking out for a download if you like that sort of thing.
That is the coolest thing ever. I so want to be a Mudcat now.
But........... who won?
Re: Everybody else who wants to join in. Check the official site, there are hundreds of small groups sprouting up in almost every major city right now. Check out the link, from IE's own FAQ:
http://improveverywhere.ning.com/
That video was wonderful. I love how excited the kids were. There happiness seriously brought tears to my eyes. Pure joy!
They're not entertaining everyone else as much as they are entertaining themselves. To do so, they (the organizers at least) take a view that their prank will obviously be fun for everyone. If you are a target and you don't have fun, then you didn't get the joke or you're just boring.
If the kids enjoyed it, then great, I'm glad for them. But this doesn't make IE's pranks smart, funny, or entertaining if you're the target.