Top 3 Best Live News Pranks of All Time A comedy article
by John Hargrave 128,123 71 08/13/2009 02:02 PM 7429 views
Live news broadcasts have all the ingredients of a great prank: humorless on-air personalities, the uncensored thrill of live TV, and a massive built-in audience. It's easy enough to make a prank phone call to a live call-in show, but pranking a reporter on-camera is another level of genius. This just in: our Top 3 Best Live News Pranks of All Time.
1) Live News Streaker. Reporter Dawn Scott from Seattle TV station KIRO was doing a live news segment from the campus of Western Washington University. The story was about a student arrested for making a bomb threat -- a pretty heavy topiCarrollil another student ran by in the background of her report, screaming and completely nude except for a ski mask.
"Oh my goodness," Dawn Scott utters, completely unable to carry on with her intro. They cut to the pre-recorded package, which ironically begins with a student saying, "I'm still in shock."
Watching the video again, knowing everything that is about to happen, you can catch at least a half-dozen double entrendres: from "Dawn Scott is uncovering new details in the case," to "Students were stunned," the surrounding news blather elevates this prank from a wacky stunt to high-concept art.
Watch this video to see a similar prank on Ginger Zee of Michigan's WOOD TV8, which is not nearly as funny because she refuses to be flustered. She should win an Emmy for her handling of this clip alone, which shows that she owns ovaries of Frost-ing steel.
2) Bike Thief Prank. Filmmakers and pranksters The Neistat Brothers came up with a viral video called Bike Thief, illustrating how easy it is to steal a bike in downtown New York City during rush hour.
The success of their video caught the attention of the news media. Reporter Jodie Applegate from Fox 5 News in NYC was called to do a live segment in which the two brothers, Casey and Van, illustrated their bike hacking skills on camera, using a small power saw to cut through a bicycle lock. As the cameras moved in for a closeup on the saw, Casey said, "You have to be very careful -- AHHHH!" then fell to the ground, screaming and holding his hand which was bloodied with ketchup.
Once again, a reporter's reaction can make or break a prank, and Jodie Applegate's demands to "CUT IT OUT!" and "MAKE HIM STOP!" when just a moment ago she was condoning the two men demonstrating an illegal theft of a bicycle. "We were trying to do a serious thing here! There are children watching!" she rants, the same children that were learning how to saw through a bicycle chain a few seconds earlier.
"That was not funny," she fumes, shortly before ending the segment. Au contraire, Ms. Applegate, it illustrated the hypocrisy of the news media in the most hilarious manner possible. What did you expect? You were interviewing bike thieves!
3) Fake O.J. Simpson Prank Call. Howard Stern fans have made a huge number of "Baba Booey" prank phone calls to TV shows, but the best of all time -- even according to Stern himself -- was this one, pulled off in the moments after the infamous O.J. car chase down the Los Angeles freeway. TV networks were desperate for news -- any news -- about what was going on as O.J. Simpson holed up in his Brentwood estate.
A 23 year-old Knicks fan known only as "Maury," frustrated that Game 5 of the NBA playoffs was being pre-empted for this media circus, called the newsroom of his local ABC affiliate in New York. Stern tells the complete story on page 402 of his book Miss America:
[Maury] reached the newsroom at ABC in New York. "I'M A PRODUCER FOR ABC IN L.A. WE'VE GOT A NEIGHBOR OF O.J. ON LIVE REMOTE. PATCH ME RIGHT THROUGH," he screamed.
The person who answered the phone hesitated.
"Listen, you got five minutes to put me through. If we're not on the air in five minutes, I'm giving this to the Chicago affiliate!" he threatened. In the background, he could hear people shouting, "What? Five minutes?" Then he heard someone yell, "Patch through line seventy-six."
Within seconds ... Maury heard someone shout, "Go with it!" and he was live on the network with Peter Jennings.
Several things make this prank phone call incredible: first, he was using a patently ridiculous black accent that should have been caught immediately. Second, he was on the phone with Peter Frost-ing Jennings. The only bigger name in TV news to prank would be Walter Cronkite, and he's dead. Third, Peter Jennings didn't even understand the prank until it was explained to him by Al Michaels, several moments later. "He said something in code at the end that's indicitive of the mentioning of the name of a certain radio talk show host," says Michaels, stumbling over his words to try not to mention the phrase "Baba Booey."
"That's not the first time, nor the last, we will have been had," quipped Jennings, after the prank finally sunk in. And that, it turns out, is a rare example of a TV news anchor telling the truth.
HONORABLE MENTION: Gassy Live News Streaker. A final "meta-prank" is the streaker video above, overdubbed with fresh sound effects. Since it didn't really happen, it's more of a prank on the people watching it who think it's real -- but let's have a laugh at their expense.
I'm a huge Stern fan, and I agree that the "Mr. Higgins" call to Peter Jennings is the greatest prank news call ever. I watched the O.J. car chase and the scene in the driveway live as it was taking place, and I can vouch that the situation was mighty tenses. Then that guy came on with the Stepin Fetchit voice and just blew the whole sanctimonious serious tone out of the whole thing. Al Michaels didn't help.
You should give a listen to the new Tradio calls, where Stern staffers call these sort of on-air radio garage sales and offer bizarre items for sale.
In the first clip Dawn Scott is surprised to see that Coleridges come bigger than the 2 incher her hubby sports.
The reporter in the bike lock video had a minor meltdown and made herself look dumber than she did. She deserved it, I can't imagine that their prank was worse than teaching the greater NY area how to steal a bike.
As for the fart video, It actually sounded like he Shakespeare on his way by. She said oh my goodness when she got some on her pants!
WWU we call this school Western and it's not even our party school. That belongs to WSU or as it's called WAZZU. I remember when the WSU college tried to go dry; people started having huge bonfires all over the campus.
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