The premise: transcripts of real prank calls are re-enacted, cutting between the rooms of each end of the call (usually with lots and lots of Background Gags going on). It was revived in 2019 for a Season 5 and again in 2020 for a Season 6.
Why puppets? Maybe because the producers of Comedy Central’s Crank Yankers, one of the funniest programs on network television, wanted to comment on the ease with which they can pull people’s strings.- Disclaimer before every episode from season 1 through 4Ĭrank Yankers is a live-action and puppet show that used to air on Comedy Central and also for a brief time on MTV2 co-created by Daniel Kellison, Adam Carolla and the far better-known Jimmy Kimmel. Like the town of Yankerville where the show’s puppets reside, the phone calls may be fake but the embarrassments they elicit are very real. It’s amazing what you can tell about a person by the way they answer and respond to a crank caller, observations the creators of the show brilliantly incorporate into the program’s aesthetic (one particularly hard-assed crankee has a picture of Ronald Reagan next to his phone).Įvery week, the creators miraculously tap into the social problems that separate the caller and the person being called, and every response is a reminder of the way we connect (or don’t) with one another. Some of the cranks may be mean-spirited, but I can’t think of another comedy on television this concerned with testing people’s tolerance levels and compassion for others.
If you can tell a lot about a person by the way they answer the phone, then I wonder what you can tell about a person by what sketches they prefer. My favorite cranks from the show’s first season (in no particular order): the perpetually horny Cammie (Lisa Kushell) toys with a sad and lonely computer nerd after one of her drives goes bust Gladys (Wanda Sykes) accuses a mechanic of having “pinched a loaf” inside her car “Batman’s Nemesis” (Jordan Rubin) asks a clueless New York City operator for the address to Batman’s lair Special Ed (Jim Florentine, a master of comedic timing) calls a computer technician to report that he got mail on his computer a woman at a beauty parlor secretly tells Hadassah (Sarah Silverman) that she can cure her case of the crabs with plain yogurt, advice the cranker interprets as a “a battle of good and evil in my vagina” and Hadassah a phone call to a freaky Oprah fan to leak information about the abuses she and her co-workers incur at the hands of her celebrity boss. In the first season, the creators were clearly trying to figure out the best way to piece the show’s skits together. Curiously, the lame musical performances (from Tenacious D and Ween) that physically bring many of the puppets together less successfully evoke a sense of community in Yankerville than the regular scenic transitions and Laugh In-style non sequiturs, from the Sesame Street potshots to the “Confucius Says” jokes. MTV Entertainment Studios (2021–present)Ĭrank Yankers is an American television show produced by Adam Carolla, Jimmy Kimmel and Daniel Kellison.Though some digital compression is noticeable in parts, the show’s puppets look great-their colors are rich and contrast is top-notch-and sound almost as good (if the people getting cranked don’t sound as good as the crankers, that’s to be expected). It features actual crank calls made by show regulars and celebrity guests, while re-enacted onscreen by puppets for a visual aid that shows the viewer what is happening in the call. The show premiered on June 2, 2002, on Comedy Central. It returned to MTV2 on February 9, 2007, running again until March 30, 2007. On February 11, 2019, Jimmy Kimmel announced on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that the show would be revived on Comedy Central for a fifth 20-episode season and mark the first project on Kimmel's new Kimmelot production imprint. The new season includes pranks on social media and other platforms.
Kimmel's brother Jonathan Kimmel serves as the showrunner and executive producer. The fifth season premiered on September 25, 2019. On March 5, 2020, Comedy Central announced Crank Yankers had been renewed for a 20-episode sixth season.
The sixth season premiered on May 5, 2021.
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