Screwing Around on the Phone

It has been a while since I’ve been on either end of a prank phone call. Caller ID changed everything. Not that I was into doing that sort of thing in my adult life, but it all seems like something from the distant past.

I was reminded of the masters of the prank call recently while watching the Simpsons. Bart and Lisa are often seen pranking Moe the bartender, but few realize that their pranks are deeply rooted in New Jersey prank call history.

In the mid-1970s, two young men, John Elmo and Jim Davidson, began calling a bar named the Tube Bar which was located in Jersey City, New Jersey. The Tube Bar was owned by Louis "Red" Deutsch, and most of the time, Deutsch was the person who answered the calls. During each call, the callers would ask Deutsch to call out fictitious names, which, when said aloud, sounded like something else entirely (for example, "Al Coholic" = alcoholic, or "Cole Kutz" = cold cuts). Most of the time, Deutsch would call out the names, unaware that he was being subjected to a prank. Sometimes, however, Deutsch would catch on to the prank, and when he did, he responded with extreme hostility, shouting at the caller with profanity, obscene sexual references, usually involving the caller's mother, and threats of physical harm.

My personal favorite is one that the Simpsons did. They called Moe asking for Amanda Huginkiss. Moe shouts out to the people drinking in his establishment, "I need A Man ta Hug and Kiss," and then he realizes what he was really saying after announcing it twice. He had been pranked...again. Too funny! By the way, the Red recordings are still available.