#Prank store series#

That said, some of the prank calls you hear on the radio are faked with the help of actors. Many radio hosts have used the prank call, including a Miami pair that called Venzuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2003 and used recordings of Fidel Castro to pretend to be the Cuban leader.

Despite what seems like a rather thin premise, the show aired for five seasons, showing just how popular comedy crank calls can be. In 2002, Comedy Central first aired Crank Yankers, a show which featured puppets reenacting crank calls. In 1996, Weird Al Yankovic wrote a parody of TLC’s “Waterfalls,” titled “Phony Calls” about a kid who makes prank calls. In the 1990s, a comedy duo called the Jerky Boys (which many prank call recipients would consider a fitting moniker) released several albums of prank calls. Prank calls became a comedy genre in their own right. Simpsons creator Matt Groening has acknowledged being a fan of them. These calls were recorded and distributed on copied tapes. The caller asked an irritable bartender for Al Coholic and Sal Ammy, among others.

#Prank store series#

Freely.īart’s calls were inspired by a series of prank calls to the Tube Bar in Jersey City in the 1970s. The gag was first used in a 1990 episode where Bart asks for I.P. In the running gag, Bart calls the bar asking for someone with a lewd or embarrassing pun name, which Moe then calls out to his patrons to their laughter and his frustration. The Simpsons have memorably played on prank calls with Bart’s repeated calls to Moe’s bar. Senate all took note of how annoying crank calls can be. Throughout the 1960–70s, emergency dispatchers, businesses, and even the U.S.

The magazine called those who make such calls “emotionally stunted” and “deeply insecure.” That might hint at why such calls are sometimes called crank calls: A crank is someone who acts strangely or is just slightly off. The American Legion Magazine noted how crank calls could cause chaos for the recipients, including police and fire departments sent on erroneous calls. Indeed, the mischief of a prank call can have big consequences. In 1962, a policing journal noted the possibility of students getting schools closed via prank call. The term prank call itself was in use by the 1930s, based on the word prank, or a “trick.” Some 1950s crime stories refer to such phone calls as phony calls.īy the 1960s, prank calls were becoming a fixture of daily life. In 1884, just 8 years after Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone, a prankster started calling undertakers to the scene of fake deaths, leaving them searching for the deceased.īy the 1920s, many families had their own telephones, helping prank calls become commonplace. It didn’t take long after the telephone was invented for some jokester to see the humor (or nuisance) value of the device.