Jack Stratiff: Master of the Papa John's Prank Call A comedy article
by John Hargrave 128,123 71 10/13/2009 12:56 PM 6555 views
One of the masters of the reverse prank phone call is a Canadian prankster named Jack Stratiff. Ten years ago, Stratiff had a phone number that was one digit off from a local Papa John's pizza restaurant. After months of enduring wrong number pizza orders, he started pretending he was Papa John's, slowly infuriating people who don't realize they've walked into a prank.
Just imagine the opposite of this.
What's funny about Stratiff's calls is the attention to detail: when first answering the call, you catch a fragment of a pizza-related conversation with another employee. Then he puts the caller on "hold" by placing a cheesy computerized noisemaker next to the phone. By making his prank phone calls just as annoying as ordering a pizza in real life, he convinces his callers that they're talking with Papa John's -- with hilarious results.
Here are three of his best.
1) "Sit and Wait On It." After a woman calls to find out why her pizza hasn't been delivered, Jack rudely asks her why she's in such a hurry. "What's so important?" he barks. "Why can't you just sit and wait on it?" As the woman grows more flustered, asking to speak to a manager (also played by Jack), she translates this as, "Can't you just sit on it and wait?" which somehow makes it even funnier.
2) "Five Topping Deal." This is a "best of" compilation of Jack Stratiff, with all his tricks crammed into one glorious yank. After a young woman calls to ask for delivery, he convinces her she should "get off her ass and come get it herself." He complains at length about a stomach virus and liquified diarrhea, and manages to ask her some completely inappropriate questions before she finally hangs up.
3) "The Mother." Prank calls work best when the person on the other end goes ballistic, but here's a great example of the caller remaining calm, while Stratiff goes insane. After a woman states she can't pick up the pizza because she doesn't have a car, he goes on a nonsensical rant: "You've got some nerve, wanting delivery and not having the avavilability to come pick it up if that's not available!"
Jack comes on as the manager, fires the original "employee," then proceeds to go even more psychotic, screaming hilarious threats to the woman like, "Year delivery block on your account! Just like that! Click of a button!" And, "I'll put your son over my knee and spank his ass until it's red. BEET red! Like a pepperoni pizza!" A Stratiff classic.
One thing's for sure: the local Domino's should probably give Stratiff free pizza for life, in exchange for all the business he drove their way.
I've posted this before but since search sucks I will lather rinse and repeat.
My phone number right out of college was one number off from Dominos back when they had their 30 minute or free guarantee. For months we answered and explained that no, we were not Dominos and dutifully gave the correct number.
Our answering machine said "leave a message for Chickens or Ted but not for Dominoes".
Then we got drunk and started taking orders. We decided to wait the appropriate 20 minutes to make sure nothing could be delivered on time then would call their order in. Lame, I know, and it was pranking the wrong people. Not the innocent corporate store, but should have been the retards who couldn't get the number typed in right.
Not to be satisfied with lame, we began sending double anchovy pizzas to every person that called us.
Our regular Saturday night special was Fromunda Cheese Pizza's, two for one, extra large only. For those who dont know the old joke, that's fromunda cheese, as in the cheese you dig out fromunda your ballsack after a particularly nasty night. People ordered XX Fromunda cheese pizzas all the time, much to our drunken joy.
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