Political Prank Calls and Others in Perspective
As Political-Wire reports, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen—a Republican representative from Florida—got a phone call this morning from someone claiming to President-elect Barack Obama. Believing the call to be an "incredible, elaborate, terrific prank" played by a local radio station. She hung up on the caller, only to get another call from a man claiming to be Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, begging her to stay on the line. Again, she hung up, thinking it was another impostor that called. The problem, as it turned out, was that the first caller was indeed Barack Obama, and the second was Emanuel. Embarassing! The gaffe was in large part thanks to the genuine prank call Sarah Palin received during election season from Canada's Masked Avengers, who duped Palin into an 8-minute phone conversation with someone she thought was Nicolas Sarkozy. The call was actually pretty awful, as far as prank calls go. The concept is more appealing than the actual product, which is long, repetitive and sort of tedious—like an unedited Prank-Yankers call.
They get much better than that, they get better than the Jerky Boys too. Going way back in history, 1970's comedy heavyweight John Trubee released a refreshing take on pranks, albeit a little dirty. The high point was probably the early 90s: Take, for example, Neil Hamburger, America's funnyman. Neil Hamburger is known nowadays for his aggressive brand of off-color humor and badly-timed jokes but in his early days (around 1993) recorded a CD of bizarre pranks (Titled Great Phone Calls, link is NSFW) done with a series of unique voices. The album's highlight is a call Neil makes in response to a bass player wanted ad in the local weekly: "You know people think I'm a total asshole because I steal all the other members equipment and steal it for dou-AH just kidding!".
Longmont Potion Castle is also a notorious name in prank calling. Done almost entirely by an anonymous teenager based in rural Colorado, the Longmont discography is 8 CDs and tapes of intensely surrealist and dedicated prank calls. He's put in over 100 calls to the same Orange Julius, asking repeatedly if they serve things like Leprechaun Julius or "extra large food." He's managed to get through to G.G. Allin, Sidney Poitier and (almost) Barbara Walters. Check out this video of an LPC call from the Longbox Option Package for a better idea, also Mark Knophler, who along with Trubee influenced LPC pretty heavily.
Most recently, indie mainstay label Matador put out a record in May from a new act called Earles and Jensen, who take a solid shot at blue-collar comedy and PT Cruisers (another NSFW link, BEWARE). If political prank could match these in sheer weirdness and wit people like Ileana Ros-Lehtinen would have much more to be afraid of when their phone rings.
[Image taken by David Katz with Obama for America and used under a Creative Commons License]