Here is the clip of last night’s Law & Order: SVU scene that fictionalized our Frozen Grand Central mission.
I don’t know why we went to all the trouble to synchronize our watches when we did the original. It’s so much easier to just have Mo Rocca stand on a stepladder and yell, “No sheep!” If you watch this video closely, you’ll notice they actually replicated several shots from our video: the woman eating yogurt, the guy tying his shoe, a man pre-freeze who is holding a train schedule exactly like Rob! is in our video.
Here’s a behind-the-scenes video we found on YouTube:
To reiterate, we had no idea this was happening and the show never contacted us. I guess it’s flattering to see our work fictionalized, even if we’re portrayed as murderers who yell, “Sheep!” at everyone. Too funny!
I wonder if they’ll send you a Cease and Desist for posting their clip. Now THAT’D be too funny.
that’s so f****d up. I can’t believe they just ripped that off.
Reminds me of an email on PostSecret this week:
—–Email Message—–
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 7:49 PM
Subject: Book of Secrets
Hey Frank,
Ever notices how the (corporate owned) media reports on big companies that prosecute people for “stealing” music and other creative content from the web. But you never read any stories about the corporations like 3M and NBC that pirate from PostSecret and other websites.
I assumed you guys were involved. Or that you at least got a check!
You guys are being way too humble and nice about this. I mean, yeay, that your idea was on TV and that people thought it was you, but I personally would be calling NBC for some money and an apology. Or at least my damn name on the credits and website. That’s wrong! They should know better than that. I know that the writers haven’t been writing very many episodes about Law and Order lately, but COME ON- have they not learned anything? You can’t steal other people’s work.
Take their advice. Don’t be sheep! Get your check. They can afford you.
The Post Secret Message! YES!!!! I thought the EXACT SAME THING but forgot that I’d seen it at Post Secret. For some reason I thought I’d seen it here!
Charlie, IE should get some sort of credit out of this. “Hi Law & Order SVU. Noticed you used one of our missions in an episode. How about a shout out for us in the credits.”
Also, what time did they shoot that in Grand Central? 3 am?
Living/working/visiting NYC I wonder how many movies, tv shows, etc we’ve all been in by just merely walking in camera while going on about our day.
If they would have asked, I’m sure they could have gotten at least half of the original participants to reprise their roles. Rob would have done it for a sandwich.
I can’t get your comments to load in IE browser.
That’s great!
I agree with everyone else here. You should give them a call and say “Hey, can we get a mention in the credits?” Well maybe they figured that since the original mission is so well known by now, they felt that they didn’t need to say where it came from.
I can’t get your comments to load in IE browser.
simple 2 step solution:
1) stop using IE
2) start using another browser
ps – i thought the way that TV show did it was lame compared to the original!
Hm, I was the shoe tying guy. Feels kinda weird to see someone act out such a stellar role on a major network television program.
Robin Williams is God.
Royalties is going a bit far… Shows like this often use events in the popular media as springboards for their stories. Nearly every episode of SouthPark for example is a spin off of some popular event, movie, etc. Besides, they might not have wanted to put an “inspired by Improv Everywhere” anywhere in the credits since that would seemingly imply Charlie to be a perverted, homicidal knife-wielding maniac; he seems like an all around nice, down to earth guy to me. *shrug* Then again I don’t know him that well, so just to be on the safe side don’t make any sudden movements around him!
There are many more “IE” hints/things, they have addapted to this episode og SVU. But sadly there is also another “prank”, wich is not based on “IE”‘s work, and haas a very sad story behind it, I hope that doesn’t get acredited to “IE”.
BTW i love your work, but i can’t really do anything like that in my small town :(
The one thing that really bums me out about this is from now on, whenever someone does a freeze, Average Joe will see it and just think “meh, they’re copying that TV show” and move on. A great, simple, wonderful stunt has been co-opted and crapped up by pop culture.
On the bright side, it’s all the more reason to think up something even better for next time.
Yeah a sandwich would’ve sealed the deal for me. But they only offered me half a Fig Newton. Ridonkulous.
You might want to talk to a copyright attorney – I believe this would be considered a “derivative work”, which makes royalties much less of a stretch. NY has a lot of good copyright attorneys.
I’m the “woman eating yogurt” from the ORIGINAL Frozen Grand Central. How dare they copy me!?!?!?!? Come up with your own poses, people! This may sound corny but I felt jipped when I watched that other woman eating her yogurt! Eh… I’m sure I’ll be over it in about two minutes. Mimicry is the highest form of flattery(?).
Spoiler Alert:
The final season of Lost will be an extended Mobius prank.