Crank Yankers
| Crank Yankers | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Created by |
Adam Carolla Daniel Kellison Jimmy Kimmel |
| Starring |
Tony Barbieri Adam Carolla Jim Florentine Jimmy Kimmel Tracy Morgan Kevin Nealon Sarah Silverman Wanda Sykes Biz Markie |
| Theme music composer |
Adam Schlesinger Steven Gold |
| Opening theme | Adam Schlesinger, Steven Gold |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 70 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 21–22 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network |
Comedy Central (2002–05) MTV2 (2007) |
| Original release | June 3, 2002 – March 30, 2007 |
| Website | |
Crank Yankers is an American television show produced by Adam Carolla, Jimmy Kimmel and Daniel Kellison that featured 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.
The performers are given a basic outline of a premise by the writers, and call telephone numbers from a list of selected targets (known as "marks"). 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 (including previous material from Jim Florentine and the Touch-Tone Terrorists), 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 (i.e., the caller), 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. Adam 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 puppets are then constructed based on the various marks' voices, and, along with a series of stock characters (such as "Niles Standish", "Bobby Fletcher", and "Special Ed") based on the performers' character voices, the calls are re-enacted for the skits.
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