The Lost Art of the Prank Call

A good prank call used to be so easy. In college, we would call dorm rooms pretending to be the local Chinese delivery restaurant, “Best around, you order 100 egg roll.” This would often turn into an argument of who made the order and who would be paying for it. They would think a friend screwed them over rather than the call being a joke.

Before caller ID, we would go through the yellow pages and call random companies. My friend Jeff was the best. One time we called a Denny’s restaurant pretending to be a bus driver. Most restaurant chains will give the driver a free meal if they know the driver is bringing in a load of passengers. The twist was that our haul was a nudist group from east Texas. Through twenty minutes of smooth talking, he had a section of the restaurant roped off and ready for our group, nudists and all, one free meal included.

Another memorable moment was the conversation with a company specializing in emergency garage door opening. This call came from a husband who was in a domestic dispute. His wife had locked him in the garage and he needed a way out.

Another friend, Joel, has hours of tape from local radio and cable access shows in Austin. They would call in to see how long they could last on-air before getting kicked off the phone. They practiced a lot, they honed their skills, and have more than 20 hours of tape.

Over time, this evolved into AIM pranks. My roommate and I had a two-week relationship brewing with one of our best friends, pretending to be his fraternity brother’s mom. At the point he was about to drive three hours for a meeting, we broke the news.

Perhaps that’s why I found Catfish to be the most unsurprising farce I’d ever witnessed. In today’s world of technology, how could anyone be fooled like this? With Google image search, databases of information, user histories… how could anyone be duped like this?

I understand how the Australian DJ’s could have lasted a few minutes on the phone to reach Kate Middleton, but the Manti Te’o story is rich. This was a long-term relationship that developed over time… I honestly didn’t think that something like this could happen any more.

I congratulate the masterminds behind this, and hope that they stay hidden. The best jokers don’t need to take credit, or even watch their work play out… they simply sit back and bask in the glory, knowing the confusion they have caused.