Phone Pranks Played on Famous People

Before the advent of shock jocks, prank phone calls were the bailiwick of twelve year old boys like Bart Simpson (Yeah, I know. He's supposed to be eight). In fact, Bart's fictional obscene phone calls to Moe's Bar are based on a series of real-life phone pranks placed by "the Bum Bar Bastards" to a real-life gutbucket Jersey City bar. These were recorded and gained cult status in the eighties.

In recent years, phone pranks have become more sophisticated and more high-tech; their gullible targets being more high-profile, including the Queen of England, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and even Pope John Paul II.

Queen Elizabeth II

In 1995, notorious Canadian prankster deejay Pierre Brassard posed as Jean Chretien, the Prime Minister of Canada, and called Buckingham Palace. To his radio audience's amazement. he managed to get through to the Queen and they had an amiable 15-minute chat regarding subjects including Quebec separatist proposals.

Pope John Paul II

Again posing as Prime Minister Chretien, Pierre Brassard called the Vatican and got through to Pope John Paul II. In the course of their conversation, "Chretien" suggested that the Pope affix a toy propeller to his beanie.

Prime Minister Tony Blair

In 1998, London deejay Steve Penk called Number 10 Downing Street and got through to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. He posed as political opposition leader William Hague. In the course of their on-air conversation, "Hague" offered Blair a copy of a Cher exercise video.

Unlike the more gullible Queen, Blair immediately knew that he was being punk'd because the real Hague would always call him "Prime Minister" in conversations. The deejay addressed him as "Tony."

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez

In 2003, two Cuban-American pranksters from Miami station, Radio El Zol, were able to reach controversial Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, best known for being the world's highest profile admirer of Cuba leader Fidel Castro. The pranksters used taped excerpts of Castro's voice taken during a private conversation with Mexico's President Vicente Fox. After a lengthy "conversation" with "Castro", the Miami radio station pranksters revealed their true identities to Chavez. They then began hurling insults at the Venezuelan President, who immediately hung up the phone.

Fidel Castro

A few months after the Chavez prank, the Radio El Zol shock jocks called Castro at his private phone number. They pretended to be Chavez. When they revealed their true identities to Castro, he told them to "Go to Hell!"

Soundboards

Phone pranksters, like the Radio El Zol duo, often use soundboards as part of their repertoire. To be more exact, a soundboard is a device where a series of brief clips of celebrity voices are recorded and then mixed together in a specific order using Macromedia Flash software.

For example, a group called "The Jackulator 9000" has created a monster soundboard featuring 11,000 Jack Nicholson voice clips taken from his movie roles. Due to the large number of clips, the pranksters have been able to assemble seemingly "real" jack Nicholson conversations mostly with the likes of pizza delivery workers and other customer service operators.

SOURCES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prank_call

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/618065.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2637395.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundboard_%28Flash%29

http://www.cracked.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1154

http://www.nbc6.net/entertainment/2277374/detail.html