Puppets and the ever-evolving world of crank calls
By Staff -- Playthings, 5/1/2005
Famous crank callers of the early 90s, Johnny and Kamal from Queens, N.Y. (aka The Jerky Boys) paved the way for the new, slew of crank callers, namely Crank Yankers, the prank call series from creators Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla (The Man Show) on Comedy Central. The Crank Yankers, Season Two, Volume 1 DVD, out this month from Paramount Home Movies, Hollywood, Calif., has fifteen, uncensored episodes of the crankers of Yankerville.
At approximately five and a half hours, the cranks, made by comics Wanda Sykes, David Cross, Tracy Morgan and others are made bearable by puppets, who deliver the crank calls as skits in the Comedy Central series. Haddasah, the hippy, hipster calls a woman at a casino looking in the lost and found for anything to be returned to her. Characters Spoonie Luv, confused senior citizen Elmer Higgins, vietnam veteran Dick Birchum, who calls secretaries looking for a job in Episode 1, and mentally challenged teen Special Ed are some of the recurring crankers in addition to some special guests.
The DVD, which sells for approximately $20, also includes Comedy Central Bits from other Comedy Central shows, audio-only prank calls including rapper Snoop Doggy Dog, and an unaired call where late comic Mitch Hedberg calls someone looking for a lead singer.
