Patterico's Pontifications

11/1/2008

Prank Calls and Political Comedy

Filed under: 2008 Election — DRJ @ 5:12 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

A Palin spokesperson confirmed GOP VP-candidate Sarah Palin received a prank call from a Canadian comic pretending to be French President Sarkozy:

“The Masked Avengers, a radio pairing notorious for prank calls to celebrities and heads of state, notched its latest victory Saturday when it released a recording of a six-minute call with Palin, who thought she was talking with Nicolas Sarkozy.

Throughout the call, which was making the rounds in U.S. political circles by day’s end Saturday, Palin and the pranksters discuss politics, pundits, and the perils of going hunting with Vice-President Dick Cheney.

“We have such great respect for you, John McCain and I, we love you,” Palin gushes, evidently unaware she’s speaking to an infamous Quebec comedian named Marc-Antoine Audette.

At one point, Palin even comes close to confirming her intention to one day run for president, when Audette slyly remarks he can see her taking over the big desk in the Oval office.

“Maybe in eight years,” she replies with a nervous chuckle.”

Palin responded with good humor after learning of the prank:

“Over the course of the interview, Palin doesn’t seem to realize she’s being tricked until Audette comes clean near the end of the call.

“Ohhhh . . . have we been pranked?” she says, in her inimitable style. Seconds later, Palin’s aide can be heard taking the phone before the line goes dead.”

The Canadians were delighted with their coup, bragging that they had to get past the Palin handlers and the Secret Service. They’ve also successfully pranked Sarkozy himself (by impersonating Prime Minister Stephen Harper), former French president Jacques Chirac, Britney Spears, Mick Jagger and Bill Gates.

British and Canadian humorists enjoy prank calls to politicians but I prefer melding politics and comedy on shows like Saturday Night Live. So enjoy this recent Sarah Palin SNL appearance and stay tuned for tonight’s show when John McCain is rumored to be a guest.

— DRJ

12 Responses to “Prank Calls and Political Comedy”

  1. Back in the old days (when many still had dial phones), I was one of the best prank phone callers in the Philadelphia suburban area, and the old original Don Imus (ca. 1971) was my model (We could get his WNBC broadcast faintly in Philly, if the weather was right).

    It is absolutely amazing what you can do with a confident tone and a minor grasp of a few facts. Glad she took it well. Does anyone have Putin’s home number? I need some vodka.

    driver (56cdca)

  2. I expect what you really prefer is your chosen candidate not being so DUMB/STUPID/IGNORANT/SELF-ABSORBED

    Larry Reilly (d11f9a)

  3. Larry Reilly,

    What I really, really prefer is courteous commenters who make intelligent or entertaining points. So far, I’m batting 500 on this thread.

    DRJ (cb68f2)

  4. Hey, Larry.

    YOU DON’T NEED TO SHOUT AT US.

    We are conservative and we pay attention.

    By the way, what difference do you perceive between ‘Dumb’ and ‘Stupid’? Or do you? Perceive, I mean.

    BlacquesJacquesShellacqes (7058ae)

  5. Feh. After having her uterus publicly discussed, analyzed and DNA samples demanded from, I really don’t think she broke a sweat on this. If anything, it probably gave her a well needed chuckle. She’s not a hothouse flower. If she couldn’t take a joke, she would have bowed out when she first met Biden.

    Dana (dadfd3)

  6. I see Mawy got into her parent’s medicine cabinet again. Too much Nyquil, but it tastes so good to Mawy!

    Dmac (e30284)

  7. When I was in college (a looong time ago) we used to do prank person-to-person calls to celebrities. Once we called Nikita Khruschev person-to-person and got as far as a man who said the Chairman was asleep. The calls cost nothing as the charges did not begin until the connection was made. The Khruschev call lasted about 20 minutes until we gave up.

    This is relatively harmless although the left wing blogs think this is a coup of some sort.

    We will see who is laughing on Wednesday morning.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  8. This was funny. Even funnier is that she was too dim to notice the joke, or to notice the wrong name of the Canadian PM. By the way, why is she the only candidate not to release medical records? Ah who cares, 3 days from now, Landslide Sarah will return to obscurity.

    jack (3669e6)

  9. I guess Sarkozy and Chirac and all of the other famous people were dim too.

    The guy has an accent and speaks quickly, especially with names, as you will notice. Steph Carse was the name given instead of Stephen Harper. Throw in the accent and the quick talking and tell me you would catch that without a doubt.

    Oh, and Baracky has not released his full medical records yet, has he? Just a medical summary. In fact, McCain has been the most forthcoming with his medical records. But why the interest? Still think Bristol is Trig’s mom? I guess if you believe that, you believe that fire doesn’t melt steel too…

    SAZMD (0949b6)

  10. At Tuesday night’s AFL-CIO forum in Chicago, Obama was asked if he would scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement as president. The senator from Illinois said, “I would immediately call the president of Mexico, the president of Canada, to try to amend NAFTA, because I think that we can get labor agreements in that agreement right now.”

    The only problem is Canada has a prime minister, not a president. (http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/08/07/obama-slip-on-canada/)

    Greg (a00b88)

  11. Too bad the clearly superior armchair intellectuals commenting here who have never managed to become Governor of their own state much less mayor of the city they live in can explain how all those Ashton Kucher Punked celebs for Obama would never have been fooled by this ruse?

    Ryan (a00b88)

  12. Obama thought Canada’s system was like our system where their leader is the president. They are in a parliamentary system. Their leader is the prime minister. Canada’s leader for the last 140 years has been the prime minister. Canada has been in a parlimamentary system for 140 years. Talk about hypocracy. Obama is on the TOP of the ticket and made this gaffe at a debate last year. What hypocracy from Obama supporters.

    What ever you do Obamabots don’t take the time or effort to discover the 50 or so other leaders and politician’s around the world these guys also punked. It would highlight your hypocrisy even more.

    Sandy (a00b88)


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