Gotcha!
Whilst doing some errands in the car today I alighted briefly upon the indie rock radio station xfm. I don't know who the DJ was, but it was the afternoon and he may have been filling in for someone else, but he is obviously the type of DJ who does "prank phonecalls." I bring this to your attention only because it was the worst prank phonecall I have ever heard. I don't know if it was live or not. If it was, then everybody involved must have been shamefaced at its failure. If it was pre-recorded, I have no idea why they put it out. The DJ called the Government Passports and Immigration office and asked this question:"If somebody is born on a plane that is flying between two countries, what nationality would they be?"
First up, this is not a promising start to a prank phonecall. The DJ wasn't pretending to be somebody else, he was just asking a question. It's not even a stupid question. It's a fair question. And guess what? The nice woman on the other end of the phone answered the DJ's question patiently and informatively. She covered all variables (if the baby was born to two parents and they weren't married, the child would take the nationality of the mother, and so on) and presented the information eloquently and clearly. When she had finished, the DJ, with seemingly nothing more to add to the merriment, said thanks and put the phone down. What a wag! What satire! That'll show the Government Passports and Immigration department! Ask them a reasonable question and they'll ... answer it.
Honestly. The quality of satire in this country. I turned over to Smooth.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 4:19 PM
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Love him misunderstanding the dubious art of the prank phone call.
Maybe you and Rich could stoop to some phone calls on your podcast rather than prank texts to 118 118. I used to enjoy Rich and Stew's calls on the Fist of Fun radio show.
Prank calls would be great if they were all just reasonably informative and polite.
As you say, not even a stupid question. A better question would have been:
"If somebody is born on a plane that is flying between two countries, would they get arrested at their destination for not having a passport?"
And to ramp it up to Phonejacker level this could be said in the extremely worried (maybe even hysterical) voice of a soon-to-be father about to embark on a flight to Guernsey.
Was it introduced as a prank call? Maybe it wasn't intended to be funny. Maybe it was a Notes & Queries type feature.
Man, I just hate those prank phone-calls and, in fact, practical jokes in general.
Not a whiff of satire...
Dang, I really dislike them too, and not only because chumps like Scott Mills rely on them so much. Even otherwise talented people get in on the cheap laugh act - the prank calls are the main reason I can't listen to Dead Ringers all the way through.
Imagine if you were at work and someone called you up and asked something banal as a joke - bah! Fonejacker took it to the next level of displeasure, by taking advantage of people's paranoia about political correctness. Appaling that he gets on the air when Mr Herrin and Mr Adam & Joe struggle to get airtime with their genuine talent. Bah!
I have looked up the DJ in question and from his profile he does seem to promise wackiness. So I think it was intended as a prank. (I'm not going to name him, as it would seem unnecessarily bitchy, and he is a fellow broadcaster.)
This post made me all nostalgic for the Jerky Boys...
Hey, Jerky! I don't NEED to talk to you!
Ah, the Jerky Boys! The super across the way!
Were you not on XFM a week or so ago on the Danny Wallace show? Or was it Mark Steel?
Deb H
Oh, never mind about Puffball - just seen a trailer for it; looks shit.
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