Improv Everywhere

Improv Everywhere is the improvisational troupe founded by Charlie Todd that goes into New York and does really odd (and awesome) stuff for their own amusement. Known for pulling off a fake U2 concert atop a roof top where a real one was about to be held (before being pulled away by cops), riding a subway with no pants en masse (before being pulled away by cops), and going to Best Buy dressed in blue shirts and tan khakis like employees (before being pulled away by cops.)

We Cause Scenes.

—Improv Everywhere's motto

Improv Everywhere provides examples of the following tropes:

Anticlimax: To celebrate five years after what he considered IE's first mission, Charlie Todd attempted to call one of that mission's marks (who had given him her phone number), to see if she had ever figured out it was a prank. When he dialed, a voice told him the number had been disconnected. Lampshaded in the Improv Everywhere book.
April Fools: Five times IE has posted a fake mission on April 1, with the joke being on the fans of the website. In 2009, they claimed to have crashed a funeral, and in 2010, they supposedly rode the subway sans pants and underwear. In 2011, they created a "sequel" to "Star Wars Subway Car" in which an actor playing Jar Jar Binks gets beat up on a subway train. In 2012 there was the time they claimed to have filled a New York park with eight sets of identical quadruplets. In 2013 they posted a video of what was alleged to be 2,000 of their operatives walking backwards en masse through Times Square. The 2009 prank actually fooled the media as well, and was reported on as a real event.
Big Applesauce: The group is based in New York City and performs most of its missions there, probably because it's the only place where you could get away with the stuff they do.
Bavarian Fire Drill: See their Best Buy operation.
The Cameo: Ann Curry has a bit part near the end of "I Love Lunch! The Musical" (see below), which was filmed for The Today Show.
Candid Camera Prank: Nearly every mission is one of these, as IE usually uses hidden cameras to record the mission and capture people's reactions.
Celebrity Impersonator: King Philip IV of Spain (1605-1665) signing autographs in front of his portrait at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Crowd Song: Their "spontaneous" public musicals, which they've done six of so far:
- Food Court Musical: Sixteen agents, posing as employees and customers in a mall food court, break into song about their collective need for napkins.
- Grocery Store Musical: Six agents, posing as employees and shoppers in the produce section of a grocery store, break into song about how they must "squish [their] fruit together."
- I Love Lunch!: Several agents, eating in the atrium of Trump Tower, break into song about how much they love lunch. Includes a cameo by Ann Curry.
- Gotta Share: A bunch of agents at the 2011 annual GEL conference interrupt a fake presentation with a song about their love for social media.
- Mall Santa Musical: Several agents in a shopping mall break into song about their desire to sit on Santa's lap.
- Epic Christmas Caroling: What starts out as a classic instance of carolers in 18th century costume at the door of a suburban home soon turns into a production number with chorus, 20-piece mini-orchestra and dancing Santas.
Dead Person Impersonation: Done non-maliciously in the Anton Chekhov and King Philip IV missions.
Doing It for the Art: Of comedy. No one gets paid, and everyone participates just for the sake of causing random fun.
Don't Try This At Home: The Amazing Stuntmen
Flashmob: Pretty much the entire point.
Groundhog Day Loop - The Moebius: A group of agents repeat the same five-minute chain of events twelve times over one hour in a Starbucks.
Hypno Fool: The Amazing Hypnotist and The Amazing Hypnotist Redux
Identical Stranger: The basis for the King Philip IV prank.
Interrupted Suicide: Suicide Jumper
The Jimmy Hart Version: Who You Gonna Call? features one of the Ghostbusters theme.
Loophole Abuse: Many of the pranks bank their success on this trope, and as such it's usually exploited by the group:
- What's wrong with forty-odd people in khakis and blue shirts just standing around in a Best Buy helping anyone who mistakes them for employees? (Besides freaking out the management, that is.)
- Technically, there's also no rule that you can't lug a desktop computer (complete with CRT monitor) into a Starbucks...
- There's also (technically) no rule that King Philip IV of Spain can't sign autographs in front of his own portrait at the Metropolitan Museum of Art...
Mall Santa: Forms the basis for one of their musicals (see above).
The Mark: Any passersby, or whoever IE decides to randomly target. Always without malicious intent, of course.
Mirror Routine: Human Mirror: Eight sets of identical twins sit across from each other in a subway car, copying each other's movements exactly.
Mistaken for Servant: Best Buy: 80 agents wearing blue polo shirts and khaki pants enter a Best Buy.
New York Subway: A great many of their pranks are carried out here.
Non-Indicative Name: They call themselves Improv Everywhere... but they don't do much Improv; the events are more like elaborate pranks, and are almost always planned out in detail. They also aren't as "everywhere" as they seem; despite the logo on each video showing the entire U.S., almost all official events take place in Manhattan.
- The "Improv" bit of their name is a bit of an Artifact, in that the first IE missions had very little planning and were in fact improv routines and techniques sprung on an unwitting public. Charlie Todd actually teaches and performs improv for the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.
Not Wearing Pants: No Pants! Subway Ride Now done annually.
Novelization: Of sorts. Causing a Scene, co-written by Charlie Todd, documented some of IE's more memorable missions, and included tips from agents about how readers could run similar pranks in their own cites.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Most mission agents are told to pretend they don't know anything about the mission. Also, this guy
- Plus, some of the paranoid guards are ridiculous. "Thomas Crown Affair! Thomas Crown Affair," shouted one real worker in the Best Buy, as if they "were using [their] fake uniforms to stage some type of elaborate heist." “I want every available employee out on the floor RIGHT NOW!”
Our Ghosts Are Different: Who You Gonna Call? Apparently these ghosts like to read books, use laptops and check words in the dictionary.
Pillow Pregnancy: The pregnant lady in the grocery store musical isn't really pregnant.
Retraux: Parodied with the Old Timey 1997 Photo Booth and the 1860s Bar.
Rooftop Concert: Once got a cover band pretend to be U2 and play some of the band's songs on top of a Manhattan rooftop (in reference to the band's Music Video for "Where The Streets Have No Name") when the real band was scheduled to play at Madison Square Garden.
Rule of Fun: Improv Everywhere actually distills the Rule of Fun into clean, alternative energy.
Shirtless Scene: No Shirts: 111 male agents enter an Abercrombie & Fitch store and take off their shirts.
This Is My Side: The Tourist Lane: Agents draw a chalk line down a sidewalk, dividing it into a "Tourist" lane and a "New Yorker" lane.
Time Stands Still: Frozen Grand Central.
Wacky Marriage Proposal: Will You Marry Me?: An agent enlists the help of strangers in a subway to hold up signs to propose to his "girlfriend" (who is actually his wife).
Wedding Day: Surprise Wedding Reception, obviously.
Weirdness Censor: Defying this is a recurring theme.
What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome??: "Best Game Ever": A kids' Little League baseball game gets all the trappings of a pro game, with a huge influx of fans in team colours waving banners with the players' names, vendors giving out food and programs, mascots, a "Jumbotron" video screen displaying the action, camera crews, CBS Sports commentator Jim Gray providing commentary and the Goodyear blimp passing overhead displaying messages for both teams.
- Imperial Stormtroopers capture Princess Leia on the New York subway.
- The Amazing Stuntmen.
- Spider-Man in Real Life. Most of the "[movie] in Real Life" operations, in fact.