Crank Yankers
Crank Yankers is an American television show produced by Adam Carolla, Jimmy Kimmel, and Daniel Kellison that features actual crank calls made by show regulars and celebrity guests and re-enacted onscreen by puppets for a visual aid to show the viewer what is happening in the call. The show premiered in 2002 on Comedy Central and returned to MTV2 on February 9, 2007, running again until March 30, 2007. The show screened in Australia on SBS Television and The Comedy Channel between 2003 and 2008.
On February 11, 2019, Jimmy Kimmel announced on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that the show would be revived on Comedy Central for a fifth 20-episode season and mark the first project on Kimmel's new Kimmelot production imprint. The new season will include pranks on social media and other platforms. Kimmel's brother Jonathan Kimmel will serve as showrunner and executive producer. Season 5 premiered on September 25, 2019.
On March 5, 2020, Comedy Central announced Crank Yankers had been renewed for a 20 episode sixth season.
Behind the scenes
The performers are given a basic outline of a premise by the writers, and call telephone numbers from a list of selected targets. Using the basic premises, the performers improvise most of their lines, playing off of the responses of their marks, with the intention to keep them on the phone as long as possible.With the exception of a few outside sources, all the calls are made from Nevada. The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 makes it illegal in most states to record telephone calls without both parties' consent. Under Nevada law, only one of the parties has to give consent, so prank calls can be recorded without the consent of the prank victims. One result of this was the series' schedule of creating and airing new episodes was fairly sporadic due to most of the celebrities living in Los Angeles, having Los Angeles-based jobs, and so were only periodically able to go to Las Vegas to make calls. Carolla, for example, took his radio program to Las Vegas once or twice a year, and while there would record new calls for the program.
The puppet designs were drawn by artist Todd James before being constructed based on the various marks' voices, and, along with a series of stock characters based on the performers' character voices, the calls are re-enacted for the skits.
The main character puppets for the first season were constructed by Bob Flanagan's company Den Design with additional puppets built by BJ Guyer, Carol Binion, Rick Lyon, Ron Binion, Jim Kroupa and Artie Esposito. An in-house puppet shop was set up for the following seasons to accommodate the fast-paced schedule of the show and the sheer volume of puppet characters required for each episode.
The puppets are puppeteered by Ron Binion, Rick Lyon, BJ Guyer, Victor Yerrid, Paul McGinnis, Alice Dinnean-Vernon and Artie Esposito.
Originally, the show was titled Prank Puppets; it was renamed after Comedy Central lawyers deemed that it implied malice.
Regular characters
- Karl Malone : Kimmel's impression of then-NBA star Karl Malone. He regularly refers to himself in the third-person. "Don't hang up on Karl Malone."
- Gladys Murphy : A boisterous black woman who makes embarrassing announcements, generally of a scatological or sexual nature. Her many children do things like gluing her buttocks to the toilet and stealing money from a malfunctioning bank machine.
- Niles Standish : The British Earl of Yankerville, a rich and eccentric middle-aged pervert with homosexual tendencies. He frequently calls various services and asks for their price, then orders them to "double it". He has an assistant named Cavendish.
- Giles Standish : Niles' deformed twin brother.
- Special Ed : Bobby Fletcher's mentally challenged younger cousin who constantly repeats himself, makes random comments and shouts his catchphrase "Yay!" until the other caller gets frustrated. He makes a cameo in one of Bobby's prank calls, "Let Me Put My Brother on the Phone". In two prank calls of his own, Ed reveals that his favorite film is Air Bud. In the video-store call, he works in several references to The Shining. Ed is not present in the 2019 revival due to the character being deemed too offensive for modern audiences.
- Dick Birchum : A psychotic Vietnam War veteran whose hobbies include carpentry, Shotokan karate, spying on women in their beds or bathrooms by drilling holes or a hidden camera, and gun ownership. He has a 600-pound wife, a large 8-year-old son, and conjoined twin daughters. He lost part of his right leg in the war and 3 right-hand fingers in a carpentry accident. He frequently refers to his time in Vietnam and "smoking hash out of a human skull".
- Jimmy : A Kimmel-based grown man who lives with his mother. He also has two young children who swear and play juvenile pranks.
- Bobby Fletcher : Ed's stoner underachieving older cousin. He is known to belch uncontrollably into the phone, which he uses to his advantage in order to annoy the victims of his prank calls.
- Elmer Higgins : A crabby, elderly man. He makes complaint calls and frequently goes off on unrelated, long-winded tangents about his younger days and various irrelevant subjects. He sometimes mentions his brother Charlie, as well as his gay grandson, Terrence Catheter.
- Helen Higgins : Elmer's beautiful wife of over 60 years, she is an elderly woman who likes to proposition young men. Her son gave her a pet parrot who is well-versed in profanity. In a late-in-the-series sketch about Elmer wanting driving lessons, he mentions that she has died.
- Landalious "The Truth" Truefeld : A former football player who likes to rap.
- Spoonie Luv : A smooth-talking African American hip hop-type character who makes lewd and suggestive comments. He often refers to himself as "Spoonie Luv from Up Above". In one particularly noteworthy prank call, he attempts to sell a video store tapes of himself masturbating.
- Hadassah Guberman : A Jewish female college student who works various part-time jobs, including conducting surveys for O magazine. She frequently asks intrusive questions and makes veiled passive-aggressive insults. Her sexuality and sanity seem highly questionable.
- Terrence Catheter : Elmer Higgins' grandson is an effeminate redhead who acts as spokesperson for various celebrities, such as Tom Cruise, Bill Cosby, Jared Fogle, J.K. Rowling, Mr. T and the Olsen twins. He calls various places of business to book appearances and asks them to comply with the celebrities' ridiculous demands.
- Tony Deloge : A loud-mouthed, fast-paced politician who calls random people to pander for votes as "district selectman". He occasionally tries to use his political power to get things for free.
- Cammie Smith : A nymphomaniac, she is a somewhat conceited, condescending 23-year-old exotic dancer.
- Boomer and the Nudge : Two obnoxious morning-radio disc jockeys who call people to make "on-air dares".
- Junkyard Willie : An obstructionist in the form of a gravelly-voiced black man who is actually an import from the Touch-Tone Terrorists where he is a regular character. He appears in two sketches as a supervisor at YPS.
- Jim Bob the Handicapped Hillbilly : A mentally challenged hillbilly who works with Junkyard Willie at YPS.
- Sav Macauley : The overly enthusiastic host of a phone game show, "The Phone Zone", where he calls people and asks ridiculous random trivia questions for cash prizes and interjects his own sound effects.
- OCD Ken : An accountant with obsessive-compulsive disorder who prefers cleanliness and even numbers. He often requests people to press the pound key as part of his disorder.
- Danny : A man who repeatedly gets nervous or disgusted causing him to vomit over the phone. The vomit is depicted as an Exorcist-like liquid shooting out of the puppet's throat.
- Chip Douglas : A Mexican immigrant who is perpetually building a house with minimal supplies and poor command of the English language. He makes two prank calls to newspaper offices, one to attempt to sell cartoons and the other to inform a Spanish-language newspaper that he has not received that day's edition.
- Katie : Kimmel's then-12-year-old daughter made occasional appearances from 2003, initially with a few short lines but later making entire crank calls herself.
- Kevin : Kimmel's then-10-year-old son made occasional appearances from 2003, including as Elmer Higgins' great-grandson.
- Foreign Guy : A nameless immigrant who calls various places looking for assistance or to purchase something.
- Gene Winterbuck : A paraplegic young man, who calls libraries requesting books with titles referring to disabilities in an offensive manner, such as "Johnny NoodleLegs".
- Lou Vilman : An easily impressed guy who responds "Wow!" to everything.
- Dick Rogers : He'll often call to complain about issues that would make someone from the 1940s uncomfortable, such as being hit on by men at a gay bar or getting a haircut from a female hairdresser. He also calls the YMCA for help with his alcohol problem.
Spinoff
Performers
The voices of the characters are provided by:Chief artists working for the show include:
Episodes
Season 1 (2002)
Season 2 (2003–04)
Season 3 (2004–05)
Season 4 (2007)
Season 5 (2019–20)
DVD releases
There are currently no plans for a DVD release for seasons 3 & 4, aka the MTV2 season of Crank Yankers.CD releases
- The Best Uncensored Crank Calls, Volume 1
- The Best Uncensored Crank Calls, Volume 2
- The Best Uncensored Crank Calls, Volume 3