Comedy Central released a short rundown of original programming that it plans to roll out this year, and by the laws of cyclical entertainment, that means that for every handful of fresh ideas we must drag at least one relic from the deepest recesses of our memories and dust it off for a second attempt at relevancy. So, we’re getting a Crank Yankers reboot.
The Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Corolla creation had a very prosperous run from 2002 to 2007, because at the time we as an audience had really embraced a foul-mouthed puppet. The show maintained a format of reenacted prank calls from a revolving door of regular characters voiced by comedic veterans. Per a press release from Comedy Central, the network has ordered 20 episodes of a slightly updated series, which will fold in social media and e-sports platforms because both arenas could definitely benefit from just a little more trolling.
“Crank Yankers has always been my favorite show to make. Nothing is more fun or makes me laugh harder than a great crank call, and I am thrilled that Comedy Central asked us to do it again,” said Kimmel.
It’s been 12 years since the series wrapped, and things have changed significantly in terms of what is and isn’t widely accepted by the modern audience. Kimmel himself has evolved his much larger platform, taking unabashedly political stances for more progressive healthcare reform via Jimmy Kimmel Live!. There is no premiere date as of yet, so we’ll have to wait and see if Crank Yankers 2.0 will find a sweet spot between comedy that cleverly challenges the line of appropriateness and, um… Special Ed.
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I mean, I used to watch it when I was a kid, but…I don’t think I’ll be tuning in this time.
To me it’s all been downhill since the original Tube Bar (Red) tapes. Although the ‘Shut up, Little Man!’ audio verite stuff was pretty awesome in a very, very disturbing way.
stop being such an elite prick, many Jerky Boys calls are fine
First, I prefer the term pretentious Douche bag. Second I don’t disagree in any sense. Now how much can you bench sizzle chest?
To me it’s all been downhill since the original Tube Bar (Red) tapes.
Although the ‘Shut up, Little Man!’ audio verite stuff was pretty
awesome
You sound like you listened to Drew and Mike
No idea who that is, to be honest.
They are radio guys who played the shit out of Ray and Pete and the Tube Bar tapes. Tube Bar guy had his interview with them on his website for a while. Not sure if it is still there.
Someone was playing that insanity on the radio? Get the fuck out. The ‘Shut up, little man’ backstory is fucking crazy. I first heard it on a tape in the 90’s and I remember wondering who the fuck were these lunatics.
Yeah, it was a radio station in Detroit. They were pretty heavily edited.
A fan page has a bunch of the clipshttps://drewandmike.org/clips-drops/ray-and-pete/
I suspect Comedy Central wants today’s kids to watch, not us old timers who remember the good ol’ days of 2002.
Are prank calls still a thing when everyone either texts, tweets or instagrams?
“which will fold in social media and e-sports platforms “ Sounds like they’re accounting for that.
Alright, here’s the pitch: Catfish the Series, but from the POV of the person doing the catfishing and presented as a hilarious goof
Get E. Buzz Miller on the phone!
Like TV Funhouse and Kid Notorious!
TV Funhouse should be legendary. I can’t believe something that incredibly weird and wonderful has been completely forgotten.
Right. I have TV Funhouse on DVD. And Bring back The President Show too!!
I think the target audience for Kid Notorious started and ended at Robert Evans.
I liked it. But I go for that odd random sort of humor. Like, who was looking for Robert Evans in 2002? The fact that I knew nothing about him meant anything they had him doing just seemed fine.
Yeah, I feel like this one hasn’t aged very well. If I want to laugh at puppets I’ll stick with MST3K. As for claymation, I’d welcome a return of Celebrity Deathmatch.
I thought they were rebooting Celebrity Deathmatch.
I could see it being pulled off. Plenty of new celebrities to beat the clay out of each other.
Do kids nowadays even know what a crank call is?
I don’t pick up the phone unless the number’s in my contacts, and even then only if I know they’re outside waiting to be let in.
Businesses stick pick up their phones.
Which is one reason I grew to really dislike prank call shows, I’ve spent too long working in retail and customer service to think those calls are funny. Even if you’re 90% sure the person on the other end is fucking with you, you can’t call them out or hang up if you want to keep your job. There’s still a slim chance it’s either a legit nutty customer or a secret shopper or something. Hearing some comedian hassle the bored employee at a mattress store kind of lost its appeal when you realize the employee knows they’re being fucked with but they don’t really have a choice.
Yeah, there is absolutely no way to win for some poor sap who’s just trying to get through their shift at Dunkin’ Donuts corporate or whatever it is and probably has a hundred actually important jobs to do before they get yelled at by some manager who’s probably getting yelled at by someone above him, all so we can laugh at something most people grow out of doing by age sixteen.
I have a weak spot for crank call comedy. The best ones for me were the ones Jim Florentine did where it was screwing with unsolicited calls and not calling businesses and hassling them. That’s fair game to me. And Florentine’s were particularly creative at times with weird word play and such. See “Let Me Put My Brother On”.
Definitely lowbrow comedy but… On the rare occasion I stumbled upon it (usually drunk) I remember laughing. I cannot remember a single piece from it though. Forgettable but vaguely funny is the memory. So sure, why not bring it back. I doubt nyone remembers it well so it’s basically new programming.
I want to agree with this but I still chuckle when someone talks about caulk. “Do you have black caulk?”
It’s also possible for the new show to employ actors as the “victims” of the calls. Honestly, no one if going to be able 100% tell the difference judging by how many people don’t realize so-called reality shows aren’t scripted/staged. I’m looking at you “House Hunters” fans. Of course, there’s no way to be certain whether the original “Crank Yankers” employed actors as victims either.
9 simple words:“Hold on while I transfer you to the manager”
Buzz Killington over here.
When I first got a cell phone, I was working at a movie theater, and I would sometimes make prank calls to my friends working in the box office when business was slow. We didn’t have Caller ID on our business lines and I’m pretty good at doing a variety of voices, so they usually didn’t realize it was me, until it got around that I was doing it. I also worked the other end of that line, so I had a good sense of what the usual “crazies” would call about, and could hew close to that profile but push it a little further to comedic effect.But, the distinction from randos making crank calls is that my goal was always to entertain my friends as much as myself, so I never took on a role of a mean or angry customer. More like, “How much would it cost to get two tickets for Cocoon?” when it’s 2002 and that movie came out in the 80s, then act confused and flabbergasted when I was told they weren’t showing that movie. In that example, I might be playing an elderly customer and accuse them of being ageist, but that’s about as “cruel” as it would get.I did actually use a modified version of this prank in a malicious way once, but in that case I was targeting a manager who was a real piece of work and had been harassing my wife, and used it to trigger a real-world outburst by him to his bosses to get him fired. I’d give you more details but I’m actually currently working on the pilot to a TV show based on my years working at a movie theater, and I’ve adapted that story into an episode of the first season, so if you’re interested, keep an eye out for Popcorn Pushers, hopefully releasing in 2020.
…waiting to be let in…in to your heart…?
Do they know what puppets are?
Well, I mean some of their parents voted for one….. oh, I thought you said muppets.
Mahna mahna . . .
I feel sorry for the fraudsters, because once enough people report their number, Google automatically has the whole screen turn scary red and the words “POTENTIAL FRAUD!” come up whenever they ring.
The new show will be called Crank Texters.CT: Iz ur fridge running?Victim: Who dis?CT: Gotcha! #crankedIt will be boring and pointless and the kids that made Logan Paul rich will absolutely love it.
Not in the traditional sense but I just assume they repurposed it to mean ‘dick pics’.
There’s a sub-community online dedicated to it with overlapping groups that stream and post recordings of the calls. The more dangerous prankers hide in “safe spots” where they can control things. And by dangerous I mean people who call businesses and convince them to pull fire alarms, break windows, and give out customer info so they have an In with the victim. And very few of them are kids.
Is this a funny thing?
Are they going to call about your credit card or electric service?
Crank Yankers was worth it for giving me and my brother “Bruce Batman” to giggle over to this very day.
At my job the other day I got a call and the ID read “Boatman, Robin” and I was like “damn this dude is one letter away from greatness.”
I hope I’m getting the quote right, but I remember when Jon Stewart came on a talk show hosted by Tucker Carlson, and they started arguing about the latter’s journalism malpractice, and Carlson tried to deflect the accusation by saying that Stewart wasn’t a responsible journalist, and Stewart yelled “I follow a show about puppets who make prank phone calls!”
All I know about this show comes from Jon Stewart.
It’s a great segment and worth watching in full:
“It’ll be hard to top this group, in terms of absurdity”Oh my sweet summer child.
Crossfire, it was one of the events that lead to that shows cancellation.
Yep that was how I had heard of it as well 🙂
Stewart ripping Carlson apart on Crossfire is one of the best things TV has ever produced.
But Comedy Central also renewed The Other Two, so it’s not all bad news.
I am really loving that show so far.
If they’re gonna bring back a show with Jimmy Kimmel on it, I’d rather it be Win Ben Stein’s Money.
I dont think his and Ben Steins political views would mesh well nowadays.
Probably not, but it at least has a better chance at coming back than The Man Show.
I think it’s safe to say they are both dead in the water..
Oh, I’m under no delusion that either have a chance in hell of happening.
At this point I’d just be happy with WBSM popping up on Buzzr.
Split the difference, “Win Ben Stein’s Healthcare”. If you win they enroll you in Medicare.
Ben would be real upset that Jimmy’s given up doing blackface.
That show was much more enjoyable before I knew anything about Ben Stein except that he was in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Ben Stein’s too busy bitching about how creationists and conservatives are being oppressed by that big bad liberal education system. Or he might be busy being dead, I’ve been ignoring him ever since that “documentary” so I don’t know if he kicked the bucket.
Yeah, he should have stuck to his wheelhouse.
Oh wait he was a trickle-down economist working for the Reagan Administration.
Never mind.
That’s not fair. He’s also defending Nixon’s antisemitism.
Didn’t he fund that intelligent design “documentary”?
I don’t know if he funded it, but he definitely starred in and championed it.For those who don’t know what we are talking about:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expelled%3A_No_Intelligence_Allowed
God that show was stingy with the prize money. If you won, $5K was the max.
What about a 2019 take on The Man Show that spends most of it’s time explicitly dealing with toxic masculinity in a satirical way? They could use clips from the previous versions, Carolla and Kimmel’s fratty entitlement and Rogan and Other Guy’s aggro scumbag vibes are different enough that I think you could find enough material for basically any related topic(I’m mostly joking, but I actually would probably watch this is if it was done well)
They could bring it back without bringing back Benjamin Stein. The British version had the late Jeremy Beadle. All that’s necessary is to have someone who can sort of co-host but also play the game, preferably with a bit of a professorial or pompous air about him. Ken Jennings would probably work.
Eh, a big appeal of the show was the specific chemistry of Ben and Jimmy. I don’t think Jennings will be able to replicate that.
Finally! A program that speaks to MY GENERATION, my dudes. This program is gonna be so awesome, my dudes. Cool beans.
DOUBLE it!
Couldn’t they just bring back “Let’s Bowl”?
Damnit people, I keep telling you: it’s not enough to just cut off the head of shows like Crank Yankers, you have to bury it at a crossroads at midnight and cover the spot with a wooden stake.
Don’t forget to purge with fire and salt!
Yeah I get it. Lowbrow comedy. Still, it’s funny.
That’s My Bush! will get brought back aaaaany day now, mark my words. It’s following UK style programming, where you get six episodes every twenty years or so.
Capitol Critters!
And bring back re-runs of Saturday Night Live from the 80’s and 90’s era.
Sometimes I think that I had a fever dream of watching a laugh-tracked sitcom about a sitting president which featured an aborted fetus puppet. Nice to run across a comment that affirms it may have actually been real.
It sounds predetermined that (with any luck) the new “Crank Yankers” will crash headfirst into the 24-7-365 all-woke-all-the-time sensibilities of the Univision AV Club.
The commentary on the show will definitely be more entertaining than the show itself.
Does anyone (except for obnoxious comedians) even make prank calls these days?
The best thing that show has ever given us is Jon Stewart telling Tucker on crossfire, “The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls. What is wrong with you?”
The Jerky boys but with puppets wasn’t funny the first time around. I mean the Jerky boys werent really funny once you aged out of their 13 to 14 1/2 year old demographic either.
YOU’RE FELCHING UP THE WRONG TREE
I don’t think they’ll be mentioning more progressive health care on this one.
I would watch a show about prank callers who incorporate progressive politics into their calls.
The better have Wanda.
Yes! My wife and I have been laughing at that since we started dating. I remember hunting down the audio somewhere and loading it to her iPod as a birthday gift “I’m gonna do it all. To show you how it feels.’
Beautiful.
Call me when they bring back Dr. Katz.
You know what the music meant.
i want a return of Night After Night with Allan Havey. Or Higgins Boys and Gruber.
I think it is back, as a podcast now. Not joking.
https://news.avclub.com/dr-katz-is-back-in-the-healing-business-with-new-audio-1798261673
It does! They’re on Audible! Guests include Maria Bamford. It works very well since the episodes were barely animated.
I’m glad you posted this because this had passed me by.
I’m holding out for new episodes of Duckman.
and Home Movies
Why do I get the feeling the US will declare war on Mexico after Kimmell rings the White House and asks Trump he knows where Mr Wall, or any other Wall, is?
Give me fucking strength.
If studios started taking more chances on original concepts rather than reanimating ancient nonsense that nobody asked for in the first place, maybe we’d have more shows like The Good Place and fewer incarnations of this bullshit.
what, did they reunite for those anti-vaping ads and then get all excited about getting the band back together?
I’d like them to use some Richard Christy calls
I’m surprised that avclub would want crank Yankees back due to all the “harmful stereotypes” and “problematic “ characters, there would be so many complaints nowadays as everyone one is too sensitive
With the massive success of The Happytime Murders, how could they not renew it?
You know, I saw that movie, and it wasn’t that bad.
I’ll admit to having not seen it because it seemed like it was going to be terrible. The reviews and audience response were enough to convince me I was correct.
We’re never getting more Firefly, are we?
Well, half the cast has passed away now…
Ha ha! It’s funny to be mean to people!
Guess everyone forgot about the whole being shut down by the Feds thing. For recording calls made to states that don’t allow recording at all or without notifying at the start of the call. The show used to call from Vegas hotels over a few days for every season. Originally, every comedian who was part of a call to a state where it was a violation to record without permission first faced federal charges.Taking the show off the air was a part of getting the charges dropped.
Supervisor Willie kills me every time.
Comedy Central released a short rundown of original programming that they plan to roll out this year…we’re getting a Crank Yankers reboot.
How soon we forget when a nation, still reeling from the shock of 9/11, came together in 2002 to finally laugh once again at a man pretending to be a developmentally disabled puppet.
Journalism is hard, I know, but it’s CAROLLA, not Corolla. A simple Google search would have helped you there.
yALL tHiNk ThEy GoN bRiNg BaCk EMINEM? dAtS sUm FuNnY sHiT yO!
I have a friend that was on the receiving end of a crank yankers call. He was a tech support guy on the episode where the grandpa calls about gay porn. What was a five minute or less segment on television was in fact a phone call that lasted over an hour in real life. It ruined his shift apparently.He was not even aware it was going to be a thing that ended up on television until he recognized the call on TV several months later. He resents Jimmy Kimmel for this to this day.
I was asking my OB what the scar would look like after my c-section, and she told me about an episode of Crank Yankers where a guy was calling to order up a hooker and one of the requirements was “must have c-section scar.” lol She was fun.
Is this anything to do with the Crank Prank Time Phone?We never got this in the UK.
Next year: a new season of Drawn Together!
For all you Buzz Killingtons out there talking about how this is a terrible idea, or it won’t last, or any other sort of nay-saying, tell me Dave Chappell calling as the representative for the Wu Tang Clan trying to book a B&B isn’t the tits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1YJdTNcK8s