#WANDA SYKES CRANK YANKERS SOFTWARE#

“We just communicate differently than we used to. “It’s not like we don’t communicate anymore,” says Jonas Larsen, Comedy Central’s executive vice-president of talent and development. A format that has always depended on static technology now finds itself grappling with the endless, not-so-funny ways in which it can be subverted. government’s own, actual propaganda chokes news feeds, while swatting, doxxing, and deep fakes are increasing fixtures of online life. Blocked numbers and ignored voicemails are routine. Because honestly: How the hell do you make a prank call in 2019? Things have changed drastically since their 1990s and early 2000s heyday. With a new generation of digital pranksters leading the way, a Crank Yankers reboot on Comedy Central, and a documentary on Colorado underground prank-legend Longmont Potion Castle making the rounds this year, a revival of the humble prank call suddenly seems plausible.īut that assumes prank calls are even still relevant.

#WANDA SYKES CRANK YANKERS SOFTWARE#

Now, those same late-night sessions are conducted over YouTube and Twitch with the aid of voice-changing software that masks the caller’s IP address. “I always wanted him to make the call because it’s more fun to listen in.” Kimmel and Escobedo connected a tape recorder to a suction cup from Radio Shack to make low-quality recordings from their phones, which they would then play back for friends. “I’d sleep over at his house pretty much every night - 30 nights in a row one summer - and we’d spend the whole night just trading off calls,” said Kimmel. Kimmel, who still keeps a few Crank Yankers puppets in a makeshift shrine in his office, traces the beginning of his prank-call obsession to age 10, when he began making them with best friend Cleto Escobedo III (now his bandleader on Jimmy Kimmel Live!) in Las Vegas. “It’s just improv, really, with an unwitting audience of one, and that’s what I love,” says Jimmy Kimmel, Crank Yankers’ co-creator and producer. And yet only a sliver of people have carved a career out of prank calling, and you can probably count them on one hand: the platinum-selling but still underappreciated Jerky Boys, the Crank Yankers crew, and the drive-time jockeys who followed Howard Stern’s career path - mostly raunchy dudes looking for button-pushing, adolescent thrills. But one thing that’s remained surprisingly resilient in the face of technological change is the prank call.Ī practical joke that grew organically out of the first telephone lines more than a century ago, prank calls are as established a format in comedy as stand-up or sketch. The digital revolution has left plenty of once-beloved formats broken and twitching on the floor, from CDs and newspapers to brick-and-mortar retail chains. If you don't get Comedy Central in your area, you can watch clips of the show online at their site.

Shut up old man or I'll drown you! You want me to stick your head under the water? Is that what you want? *drowning sounds* Uh-oh, Grandpa?' I'm sorry, I'm in the middle of giving my grandpa a bath. Niles Standish played by Tony Barbieri 'Kandra? What sort of name is Kandra? Is that Eskimo?'īobby Fletcher played by Jim Florentine 'I'm interested in buying a cellphone. 'Joo down wit Too Puck? Joo betta chick joself foo!'ĭick Birchum played by Love Line's Adam Carolla 'I just picked my 92 Accord from your lot, and there is a HUGE turd in the back seat!'

Special Ed played by Jim Florentine 'I got mail! Yay! I got mail! I got mail! Yay! I got mail! Yay!'Įlmer Higgens played by The Man Show's Jimmy Kimmel Spoonie Luv played by Tracy Morgan of SNL fame.

The show premiered on Comedy Central in late spring, 2002. I admit, I didn't think the show would be very funny when I saw the commercials, but the prank calls are so creative and out there that at times it's difficult to maintain proper bladder control. The premise of the show is simple: Comedians prank call various people and act out the calls with puppets, a la Sesame street. However, it is quite entertaining and hucking fillarious. This, my friends, is not one of those shows. Every so often there comes a television show so unique, so special it redefines the very term entertainment.

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