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A prank call, also known as a crank call, hoax call, phony call, or phony phone call is a form of practical joke committed over the telephone. As with all practical jokes, prank calls are generally done for humorous effect, though there is a thin line between humor and harassment. Prank phone calls began to gain an America-wide following over a period of many years, as they gradually became a staple of the obscure and amusing cassette tapes traded amongst musicians, sound engineers, and media traders beginning in the late 1970s. Among the most famous and earliest recorded prank calls are the Tube Bar tapes which centered around Louis "Red" Deutsch, and the Lucius Tate phone calls. Comedian Jerry Lewis was an incorrigible phone prankster, and recordings of his hijinks, dating from the 1960s and possibly earlier, still circulate throughout the country to this day.

Even very prominent people have fallen victim to prank callers, as for example Queen Elizabeth II, who was fooled by Canadian DJ Pierre Brassard posing as Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, asking her to record a speech in support of Canadian unity ahead of the 1995 Quebec referendum.^[1] Two other particularly famous examples of prank calls were made by the Miami-based radio station Radio El Zol. In one, they telephoned Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and spoke to him, pretending to be Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.^[2] They later repeated the prank, except that they called Castro and pretended to be Chávez. El Zol was also fined by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Contents 1 In popular culture 2 On the Internet 3 Reverse calls, baited/unbaited calls 4 Online prank communities/stations 5 Examples 5.1 The Simpsons 5.2 Futurama 5.3 Arnold Schwarzenegger 6 Reaction 7 Legality 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

Prank calls are generally done for the amusement of the pranksters themselves. Many pranksters record the calls to share the joke with an audience. Some performers such as The Jerky Boys have made a name for themselves producing albums of their recorded prank calls. Other prank call performers, such as Touch-Tone Terrorists, The Happy Telephone, and the Tube Bar prank calls.

The television show Crank Yankers is a series of real-life prank calls made by celebrities and re-enacted on-screen by puppets for a humorous effect. Fonejacker, a show started on the 5th of April in the UK on E4, stars Kayvan Novak performing prank calls to the general public and being shown with animated pictures in a Monty Python style with their mouths moving and live recordings as the victim receives the call.

Michael Biggins, an actor whose real name is Michael Bigansky and goes by the performance name of Blackout was (as far as can be researched) the very first person to put original prank calls on the internet in a digital streaming (instantly playable) format. There may have been downloadable calls before this time, but not streaming. He was also the first person to host an internet talk radio show based primarily on prank calls on the now defunct Lycos Talk Radio network^[3] Which was an internet based talk radio site using Wonderhorse internet broadcasting and teleconference software. Blackout started his site Blackout's Box in 1995 (cite: verifiable by a whois check on domain name blackout.com and also verifiable with web archives such as wayback machine and in newsgroups archive postings and several major print sources - see references section) and put his first pranks online using the test version of RealAudio Beta software (which has over time evolved into RealPlayer) on a 14,400 U.S. Robotics modem. The very first call he put on the internet was called The Rrrrrrrooksnitchzien Society^[4] in which he kept 411 telephone operators going mad for a good half an hour. Blackout's pranks were known to be longer and more complex than the average quick prank.

Typically, prank calls are known for being outgoing phone calls to the victim; however, a method known as the reverse prank call is performed when the victim is actually the caller. As opposed to the hit-and-miss results of traditional prank calling, this style of prank call usually produces humorous results due to the fact that the caller actually believes what they are calling is real, further validated by the prankster answering the phone in a manner that confirms they've reached the right number. This tactic has also been performed by UK pranker Fonejacker, who posted advertisements regarding a flat for sale, which lead victims to an automated "flat-line". In the baited variety, the prankster would typically place an advertisement enticing the caller to call, as The Jerky Boys have done. In the unbaited variety, pranks are performed as the calls happen by chance either from the victim dialing a misdialed number, such as people misdialing the number to a popular Pizza delivery service (as is the case with Pizzacalls, or from the victim attempting to telemarket or cold-call (as is the case with many of Jim Florentine's calls).

Ever since the opportunity has been available, there have been internet radio stations dedicated to prank calls. Most of them feature a so-called "rotation" of prank calls which is a constant broadcast of various prank calls submitted by the community, usually streamed from a SHOUTcast server host.

Although prank call communities are still relatively small-scale compared to FM stations that feature live pranks, it is a growing community on the internet today and many new communities are developing.

Some examples of well-known prank calls are:

Caller: Do you have Prince Albert in a Can?

Receiver: Yes, I do.

Caller: Well you better let him out!

Caller: Hello! Is your refrigerator (Nose, Toilet, or Water in some variants) running?

Receiver: Yes, it is.

Caller: Then you'd better go catch it!

Caller: Is Mrs. Wall there?

Receiver: No.

Caller: Is Mr. Wall there?

Receiver: No.

Caller: Are there any Walls there?

Receiver: No.

Caller: Then how does your roof stay up?

Caller: "Guess who?"

Receiver: "You sound familiar."

Caller: "Can you guess what size shoe I wear?"

Caller: "Can you touch your nose with your tongue?"

During the early years of The Simpsons, a popular recurring gag involved Bart making prank calls to Moe's Tavern. This bit was inspired by the infamous Tube Bar prank calls of the 1970s. The calls usually followed a set pattern: Bart would ask for a non-existent person, Moe would shout loudly for the person Bart asked for, Moe catching on only after the bar (usually) erupts in uproarious laughter, and Moe threatening violent revenge upon catching the perpetrator. Moe never seemed to realize that it was Bart who made the call. Once Bart even told Moe that he made prank calls and Moe still did not catch on: Bart: "Well I make prank phone calls." Moe (in a happy voice one uses when talking to children): "Good for you."

"People" whom Bart has asked for include:

• I.P. Freely - (I pee freely)^[5]
• Maya Buttreeks - (My butt reeks)
• Jacques Strappe – (jock strap)^[6]
• Ivanna Tinkle – (I wanna tinkle)
• Amanda Huggenkiss – (A man to hug and kiss)
• Al Koholic – (Alcoholic)^[7]
• Bea O'Problem – (B.O. problem)
• Seymour Butts – (See more butts)^[8]
• Anita Bath – (I need a bath)
• Homer Sexual – (Homosexual)^[9]
• Mike Rotch - (My crotch)^[10]

• Eura Snotball - (You're a snotball)

• Oliver Klozoff - (All of her clothes off)^[11]
• Hugh Jass (Huge ass)^[12]
• Haywood U. Cuddleme (Hey would you cuddle me)
• Ollie Tabooger (I'll eat a booger)
• Ahmed Adoudi (I made a doodie)
• Ima Wiener (I'm a wiener)

One backfire on this formula was a call to "Hugh Jass" (huge ass), as there turned out to be a person in the bar named Hugh Jass.^[12] Another backfire was when Homer was running the bar and didn't know how to carry out the prank when Bart asked for Ollie Tabooger (I'll eat a booger). A third was a time where Mr. Burns called Moe's by mistake while looking for Smithers, and was threatened by Moe who thought it was a prank call. Finally, in a flashback scene to Homer and Marge's youth, Marge tries to call Homer (whom she believes goes by the name "Elvis Jagger Abdul-Jabbar" because of his shyness), only to get Moe to threaten her when she asks for his name. After hanging up, Moe mutters "And that's the origin of that!"

In the second "Treehouse of Horror", Bart, cast in the role of the boy with mystic powers, makes a prank call to Moe's where Moe tells the barflies "I'm a stupid moron with an ugly face and a big butt and my butt smells and I like to kiss my own butt!"

"Weird Al" Yankovic's parody song "Phony Calls" (a parody of Waterfalls by TLC) is entirely about the dangers of prank calls. It includes an audio clip from The Simpsons, specifically from the "Mike Rotch" call.

A prank call leads to Fry's delivery of a pizza to a cryogenic lab, which sets the whole series in motion. The name used is I.C. Wiener.^[13] Fry also adopts a dog after receiving a prank call asking for a pizza to be delivered to a Seymour Asses ("see more asses"). Fry then names the dog Seymour following the prank call.

Many fans of Schwarzenegger's films have created Shockwave Flash-based 'soundboards', featuring sound bites of his film dialogue that can be played back at the touch of a button. An unknown prank caller took to using this soundboard to call individuals pretending to be Detective John Kimble, his character from the film Kindergarten Cop. A typical call would begin with the victim saying hello, followed by clips of Arnold identifying himself by saying, "I'm Detective John Kimble," either preceded or succeeded by "Hey, I'm a police officer." Eventually the caller would establish that "I want to ask you a bunch of questions and I want to have them answered immediately", which would invariably be followed by the line "Who is your daddy and what does he do?". Many of the calls were recorded and frequently disseminated on the internet. Victims who began complaining were often met with the phrases "Stop it!," "Stop whining!" and "You lack discipline!" Eventually, victims are usually met with the phrase "You son of a bitch."

Prank calls are now easily traced through Caller ID, so it is often asserted that prank calls since the 1990s have been harder to accomplish. However, most telephone companies currently permit callers to withhold caller ID if they do not wish the called party to know their identity.

Sometimes the joke can be taken too far, especially if the prankster succeeds in making his victim believe the scenario is real. Prank call comedian Jim Florentine (who mainly takes incoming calls from telemarketers and turns the tables by performing pranks on them) has had the police called on him on more than one occasion for taking his jokes too far. During one call, Florentine tells an insurance agent that, rather than pay to keep an elderly woman alive, he is going to go to the hospital and smother her with a pillow.^[14] After the call, the agent called 9-1-1 and gave them Florentine's number and the address on file, and the police arrived at his home with guns drawn. However, when the police arrived at the scene and discovered it was actually a prank, the officer asked, "Don't you think you're a little old for this?"^[15]

Prank calls range from annoying hang-ups to false calls to emergency services or bomb threats. Prank calls that waste the time of emergency services are a criminal offense in most countries. It is considered telephone harassment in the US.

One such hoax call occurred in Perth, Australia, on New Year's Eve 2002, when a drunken teenager called the new anti-terrorist hotline to report a bomb threat against the New Year's Eve fireworks celebration.^[16] The threat was taken seriously, and the celebrations were about to be canceled, when police discovered that no such threat existed. The teen was arrested for deliberate false reporting.

Tension was also caused in December 2005, when a Catholic Church-owned radio station in Spain (COPE) played a prank on Bolivian president-elect Evo Morales. The hoaxer pretended to be Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, congratulating Morales on his election^[17] and saying things like, "I imagine the only one not to have called you was George Bush. I've been here two years and he still hasn't called me".^[18] The Bolivian government protested to Spain, and the real Zapatero called Morales and apologized. The Spanish government in turn summoned the papal nuncio in protest.

In the United States, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 makes some prank calls a felony with penalties of up to two years in prison, and possible fines (depending on severity). However, such penalties are rarely carried out. As an example, the Chicago shock jock Erich "Mancow" Muller, after being criticized for the extensive use of prank calls on his radio show, broadcasted the sarcastic remark: "Reality check for you people: Chicago's the murder capital of America. The police don't care if you get a prank call."

Moreover, to make a prank call that falls afoul of the Telecommunications Act, 47 U.S.C. § 223 (a)(1), the call must be done with the intent to "annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass". Arguably then, if the intent of the call is to amuse, confuse, or simply to engage the call's recipient, there is no violation of the Telecommunications Act.

Tube Bar prank calls The Simpsons (specifically, Moe's Tavern) Tube Bar prank calls Obscene phone calls Phone Losers of America Dead Ringers (comedy) Matt Tilley

The Happy Telephone Touch-Tone Terrorists The Jerky Boys Rickey Smiley Fonejacker

• Prank Calls at the Open Directory Project