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Prank call

Not to be confused with Obscene phone call.

A prank call (also known as a crank call, 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 cassette tapes traded among musicians, sound engineers, and media traders in the United States from the late 1970s. Among the most famous and earliest recorded prank calls are the Tube Bar prank calls tapes, which centered on Louis "Red" Deutsch. Comedian Jerry Lewis was an incorrigible phone prankster, and recordings of his hijinks, dating from the 1960s and possibly earlier, still circulate to this day.

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]

  1. ^ "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.
  2. ^ "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.
  3. ^ Cova, Tony de la. "Transcript of Castro's prank call". Retrieved December 30, 2016.

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