Prank call
A prank call (also known as a crank call or a hoax call or a goof call) is a telephone call intended by the caller as a practical joke played on the person answering. It is often a type of nuisance call. It can be illegal under certain circumstances.
Recordings of prank phone calls became a staple of the obscure and amusing
One victim of prank callers was 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] Another example is that of the 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 president Fidel Castro.[2] They later reversed the prank, calling Castro and pretending to be Chávez. Castro began swearing at the pranksters live on air after they revealed themselves.[3]
Early examples
British physicist
Anonymity
Prank callers can now be easily found through
Another increasingly popular option is to use some form of
Political leaders
Sometimes, prank callers are able to connect with political leaders. In December 2005, a commercially operated radio station in Spain (
Prank calls and the Internet
Ever since the opportunity has been available, there have been multiple 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
The internet has allowed many people to share their own personal prank calls and develop into communities. Prank calls can be carried out in many ways; live or pre-recorded. Web platforms such as
A flaw of Craigslist and other social media sites is that it allows one to post telephone numbers without a means of confirming they own the number. A common ruse to generate prank calls is to post someone's name and phone number in an enticing Craigslist post. If this is done in a location with a different time zone than the victim, the victim may receive large number of phone calls at an inconvenient time. Craigslist, and many other sites, have a policy of not releasing the identity of the original poster without a court order. In Washington state, one cannot file an anti-harassment order against an anonymous person, leading to a catch-22 situation.[citation needed]
Modern Prank Calling
In recent years, the landscape of prank calling has evolved with the advent of new technologies and platforms. While traditional prank calls have been on the decline,[11] new forms of pranking have emerged.
Ownage Pranks, a popular prank-calling YouTuber, brought intrigue into the space once dominated by radio shows. Apps like PrankDial gained popularity, offering pre-recorded prank calls that users can send to unsuspecting recipients, although became less relevant in the 2020s.
Additionally, the rise of
Despite these new developments, traditional prank calls have faced a decline in recent years. Factors such as the widespread use of caller ID, the increasing awareness of phone scams, and the potential legal consequences have contributed to this trend. However, the pranking community continues to evolve, finding new ways to engage in this form of comedy and entertainment.
Legal issues
Some prank calls are criminalized in many jurisdictions, for instance if the call involves calling the emergency services, while others may be protected as
Rudimentary criminal 'pranks' may range from simple
More elaborate pranks rely on tricking the recipient into harmful behavior. An example of these was the 1996–2004
A series of prank calls by Joseph Sherer led to convictions and a twenty-year prison sentence for impersonating a physician, criminal endangerment, and
Until his death in 2011, Oklahoma construction worker Frank Garrett was prank called and recorded countless times for his vitriolic reactions. The
In 2012, Jacintha Saldanha, a nurse at King Edward VII hospital who was attending a pregnant Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, was deceived into transferring a prank call from Mel Greig and Mike Christian, the hosts of the Hot30 Countdown radio program broadcast on 2Day FM in Sydney, Australia, who were impersonating Queen Elizabeth II and Charles, Prince of Wales. The hoaxsters were able to ask the duty nurse questions about the duchess' health, making the answers public. Saldanha was later found dead in a suspected suicide. The incident and the following death received intense media coverage and triggered an investigation, but no charges were laid.[23][24]
Popular culture
Two early and famous prank phone calls are the "refrigerator" gag and the "Prince Albert" gag. The first involves calling a target to ask "is your refrigerator running?" When the responder says "yes", the prankster replies "Well, you'd better go catch it!" The second requires calling a commercial establishment to ask if they have "Prince Albert in a can". If the reply is yes, the prankster responses with "Then you'd better let the poor guy out!" The origin of both of these jokes is unknown, although it is theorized they may have been adapted from vaudeville routines rather than any single real-life incident. They have since been repeated in multiple outlets, though less for their comedic value than to convey the idea of a "prank phone call".
In John Carpenter's horror thriller, Halloween, a group of friends tease one another with prank calls as a Halloween trick. During one such prank, Lynda is strangled by Michael Myers while in the midst of a phone call with Laurie. Laurie, assuming it is another friend making a prank call, hangs up on Lynda's cries of distress.
Some performers such as The Jerky Boys, Tom Mabe and Roy D. Mercer, made a name for themselves producing albums of their recorded 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.
Beginning in early 2011,
See also
This section may contain Wikipedia's Manual of Style. . (January 2019) |
- Bomb threat
- Caller ID spoofing
- Email spoofing
- Fonejacker
- Great Phone Calls Featuring Neil Hamburger
- List of practical joke topics
- Longmont Potion Castle
- Malicious Caller Identification
- Obscene phone call
- Phone Losers of America
- Phone scam
- Scam baiting
- Soundboard (computer program)
- The Jerky Boys
- The Masked Avengers' prank on Sarah Palin
- Text roulette
- Touch-Tone Terrorists
- Tube Bar
- Performers
- Steve Allen
- Guido Hatzis
- Dr. Tangalanga (Julio Victorio De Rissio)
References
- ^ "Hoaxing: A national pastime". BBC News. BBC. January 25, 2000. Retrieved September 15, 2007.
In 1995, Canadian DJ Pierre Brassard got through to Buckingham Palace pretending to be Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. He chatted to the Queen for 15 minutes on air – eliciting a promise that she would try to influence Quebec's referendum on proposals to break away from Canada – and she never realised it was a hoax.
- ^ "Chavez falls for Castro hoax". BBC News. BBC. January 8, 2003. Retrieved September 15, 2007.
A radio station in the American state of Florida Hasplayed a practical joke on President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela with a hoax phone call he believed was from his friend and ally, the Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Two presenters at Radio El Zol, in Miami, called Mr. Chavez on a private line and used taped extracts of Mr Castro's voice to make him think it was the communist leader himself on the phone.
- ^ Cova, Tony de la. "Transcript of Castro's prank call". Retrieved December 30, 2016.
- ISBN 978-0141042824. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
- ^ a b "The vanishing, underappreciated prank call - The Boston Globe". The Boston Globe. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
- ^ "Prank call to Evo Morales". Retrieved September 10, 2016.[dead link]
- ^ "Noticias, última hora en Informativos Telecinco". Retrieved December 30, 2016.
- ^ "Kremlin Critic Navalny Makes Prank Call To Agent Allegedly Involved In His Poisoning". NPR. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
- ^ "Russian Pranksters Claim to Have George W. Bush as Latest Victim". Newsweek. May 18, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
- ^ "Prankcast Help". Prankcast Support. April 11, 2022. Retrieved July 11, 2022.
- ^ Beck, Julie (April 1, 2016). "The Decline of the Prank Call". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
- ^ "Candycall.io - AI Voice Prank Calling". Candycall.io. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
- ^ "India-born nurse's death: Watchdog finds radio station guilty". The Times of India. Archived from the original on September 27, 2013.
- ^ "Perth, Australia bomb threat hoax". Archived from the original on May 4, 2007.
- ^ Telephone Terrorist The Smoking Gun, August 3, 2009
- ^ Andreas Tzortzis (January 21, 2000). "Caller Prompted Mutilation, Police Say". Sun-Sentinel. Ft. Lauderdale. Archived from the original on December 10, 2015. Retrieved September 29, 2014.
- ^ The Associated Press (November 15, 2000). "Defendant sentenced to 20 years". Billings Gazette.
- ^ Supreme Court of Montana (December 20, 2002). "STATE of Montana, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Joseph SHERER, Defendant and Appellant. No. 01-191". FindLaw.
- ^ Frank Garrett (Aka Duncan) has died July 3, 2011. Archived from the original on December 20, 2021.
- ^ Glover, Michael (February 23, 2010). "Angry, threatening calls alarm Sugar Creek". The Examiner. GateHouse Media. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
- ^ "Caller Threatens to Blow Up HPD". Fox 26 News. April 26, 2011. Archived from the original on February 2, 2014. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
- ^ Pulley, Mary (December 9, 2014). "Man makes repeated threatening, obscene phone calls to people in Independence". Fox 4KC. Retrieved September 3, 2017.
- ^ Gordon Rayner (December 8, 2012). "'Cruel' hospital hoax still playing on radio". The Daily Telegraph. London.
- Stuff.co.nz. Associated Press. February 2, 2013. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
- ^ "ReadyToPrank". YouTube. ReadyToPrank. Archived from the original on December 20, 2021. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
- ^ PrankCallsByReV. "Prank Call ReV Calls (Pawn Stars) Rick Harrison Cellphone # "Battletoads"". YouTube. Archived from the original on December 20, 2021.
- ^ "Prank Website". OwnagePranks. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
- ^ Good, Owen S. (June 27, 2015). "Rare Replay does offer 10,000 Gamerscore — from a certain point of view". Polygon. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
External links
- Prank Calls at Curlie