1997. Three thirteen year old girls all huddled around a telephone, waiting with baited breath. Would my crush answer the call?
“Hello?”
There he was.
[Silence]…[Panic]
“Uhh… is your refrigerator running?”
“What?”
“You better go catch it! HAHHAHAH!!”
[Hangs up immediately]…[Stares at phone]
“I talked to him you guys.”
[Endless giggling]
Prank phone calls. At one time, it was a right of passage to be up late at night with your friends, prank calling classmates or your crush(es)-of-the-hour. Hours of entertainment and, I’m sure, begrudging hours for the poor parents in either household. With caller ID these days, prank phone calls are no longer an anonymous form of entertainment/torture.
That doesn’t mean we can’t reminisce about it. Let’s take a look at some of the finer, and I do use that term loosely, prank phone calls that made their rounds around the teenage universe pre-caller ID.
“This is May.”
“May who?”
“May-onnaise.”
[Call store or bar]
“I’m looking for a friend of mine. Last name Jass. First name Hugh.”
[Hope they haven’t seen the Simpsons episode and say the full name over intercom]
“Hello. Is John in the house?”
“No.”
“Well, where do you go then? In the sink?”
[Call tobacco store]
“Do you have Albert in a can?”
“Yes.”
“Would you please let him out?”
[For those unaware, there was a brand of Prince Albert canned tobacco. Uhh…having to explain it makes it so much worse.]