Feb 26 2008People Take Full-Sized Desktops Into Starbucks To Use Free Wi-Fi Service
Improv Everywhere, an improv troupe that is always up to some sort of ridiculous shenanigans, is at it again. This time a group of them bring full-sized desktop computers (complete with CRTs) into Starbucks to take advantage of the free Wi-Fi. Oh the hilarity. You should see the looks on the faces of bystanders. They're all totally thinking WTF. What a great prank. Almost as awesome as the prank when I hid under my girlfriend's bed and was going to scare her when she went to sleep. It was hilarious! She came home with my boss and another one of my coworkers and took turns doing them while I cried silently and tried to avoid the bedsprings. Yeah, I got her good.
Video after the jump, along with another one of their improv skits in which a ton of them come to a dead stop in Grand Central Station for five minutes. That one is actually worth watching.
Taking a Full-Sized Computer into Starbucks [boingboing]
Reader Comments
1. Daniel - February 26, 2008 7:08 PM
This is totally f***ing stupid.
2. Spam - February 26, 2008 9:16 PM
That's stupid.
3. Anexio - February 26, 2008 10:01 PM
The Grand Central prank was excellent, but the Starbucks thing was retarded.
It made me want to buy a scalding Grande, and oh yes, fill it to the top, no room for milk......and then throw it in their faces.
I'd feel badly afterward though. I just wasted $2.50.
4. guate6 - February 26, 2008 11:15 PM
#1-2: you guys don't appreciate the simple things in life. Anyway, the first video was great, and the second one was awesome! I only wish they had done it the times I was in Grand Central. If I'd come off the uptown shuttle and see that, I would have been amused (and perhaps confused). Good show guys.
5. Super Duper! - February 27, 2008 1:31 AM
The grand central one was cool. If anyone's seen the chasers war on everything (Australia), the starbucks one reminds me of that. A piece of shit, basically.
6. Peter888 - February 27, 2008 4:00 AM
Ya, looks like very stupid too.
7. Michelle - February 27, 2008 6:55 AM
F***ing love the Grand Central stunt.
8. Tap - February 27, 2008 8:19 AM
Improv Everywhere is great. If you like their stuff, check out the Best Buy prank. It is possibly one of their best.
9. benjammin - February 27, 2008 8:40 AM
since when does starbucks have free internet?
10. wtfrofldork - February 27, 2008 8:43 AM
#9 you serious ?
11. kstatus - February 27, 2008 10:06 AM
Schlepping? . I'd rather bring my whole pc around with me 24/7 then use yiddish slang bahaha
12. daguz - February 27, 2008 10:13 AM
Best post ever... :)
13. Ken - February 27, 2008 10:32 AM
This is a paid viral marketing strategy and is implemented by clever advertising/marketing companies.
Their goal is to get you to watch it, be shocked, talk about it and sharing it with your friends.. it's cheap advertising because you will be spreading the word.
14. BlueButterfly - February 27, 2008 10:40 AM
This is SO funny! I was thinking it would be very funny if they were running Windows 98 then I saw they're running Windows 95 - even better!
15. blp - February 27, 2008 10:44 AM
1st video - I would carry a desktop around to save £30 a month on internet bills. Because I'm cheap but also a real man who doesn't mind carrying heavy things, unlike you fancy boys with your fur coats and MacBook Airs. Girl at 2:07 is hot. Replace the fatties at my local Starbucks with girls like that and I'll buy more coffee and look at less porn on my desktop whilst in Starbucks.
2nd video - Awesome. If only they could get every person but one in Grand Central to freeze. If I was the victim I'd be looking at my watch to see if it stopped.
16. guate6 - February 27, 2008 11:16 AM
#10: yeah they're serious...I too know of starbucks locations with no free internet.
#13: you'd have a point if it wasn't this semi-organized group with absolutely no product to actually advertise.
#15: yeah the watch thing would be a good idea.
17. serious #9 - February 27, 2008 12:01 PM
dont know any starbucks in atlanta with free internet but then again i usually go to the non-chain coffeeshops where wifi is always free (if they have it at all...)
18. Jonny Fullpint - February 27, 2008 12:47 PM
They have tons more stunts if you go to improveverywhere.com or search them on youtube, the best buy stunt is hilarious
19. Erick - February 27, 2008 2:32 PM
@13: Do a little research. Improv Everywhere is an organization that has been doing stunts like this for years purely for the sake of it. They get no money and are not part of some ad campaign. You should check out the no pants day they have every year:
http://improveverywhere.com/2008/01/16/no-pants-2k8/
20. Nat - February 27, 2008 3:19 PM
Wait. Starbucks has free wireless? All the one's I've ever been you had to pay for wireless.
21. laz - February 28, 2008 5:48 AM
flashmob are the other guys that do this kind of group thing... i think there is london flashmob and cape town flashmob etc... would look for a link, but really couldn't be arsed.
22. Station = Good Starbucks = Ubersuck - February 28, 2008 12:40 PM
Wtf
23. crap - February 28, 2008 5:22 PM
pfffff
24. Jon H - February 29, 2008 11:14 PM
Blah, I did that with a NeXTStation and a 17" black & white CRT back in 1994 in Chicago, just not at a Starbucks. The owner even let me store it in the basement when I wasn't there.
25. Melissa - March 1, 2008 6:19 PM
How is taking pictures of frozen people going to prove that they're frozen? You gonna put someone running real fast next to them? Or be like "I exposed this shot for ten whole seconds and look! that guy is still there!!!"? How silly!
26. groonk - March 3, 2008 4:47 PM
FAIL.
now if they had done this during the height of laptops in coffee bars, *that* would have been something. now it's just idiots carrying around ancient technology trying to be art.
go back to standing still in Grand Central Station improv people. least that was entertaining.
@laz: people still flashmob? how quaint.
27. ReverendMLE - May 5, 2008 1:14 AM
Oh jeez.
My heart died when the Win 95 screen came up. I wept.