Earles & Jensen
Just Farr A Laugh Vol. 1&2: The Greatest Prank Phone Calls Ever!

[Matador; 2008]

----
Styles: prank calls... and nothing else
Others: The Jerky Boys, Kirpal, Ned & Mason, Crank Yankers
Links: Earles & Jensen - Matador

They were the pride of first-year college students and the scourge of convenience store clerks. They pushed millions to laughter and millions to the brink of laughter. Yes, prank calls were a veritable coming-of-age institution for generations until the popularization of caller ID virtually destroyed anonymity. Since then, prank calls have become providence of lukewarm radio personalities and odd stand-up.

The Jerky Boys, perhaps the most famous prank callers, enjoyed about a year of mainstream success between the release of their eponymous platinum debut in 1993 and the poorly received film Jerky Boys: The Movie. Every album they released did increasingly worse on the Billboard charts, and since 2002, they seem to be non-existent in pop culture. The Comedy Central show Crank Yankers brought prank calls back into fashion with puppets for about four years starting in ’02, but it has never truly been a fad like the hula-hoop or mullets. Bart Simpson never calls Moe anymore, and creator Matt Groening said not one fan ever told him it was a favorite bit. It’s just one of those things that pops up every now and then, like herpes.

Way out of leftfield, Matador decided it needed to take a stab at the comedy market. Instead of going the touring stand-up route like Sub Pop, Matador decided to reissue the out-of-print albums from well-traveled columnist Andrew Earles and former member of the terribly poor Star Spangles, Jeffrey Jensen. Just Farr A Laugh is an exhausting two-and-a-half hours of prank calls without pause. And many of them are funnier in theory than in execution. For example, Ed Asner’s assistant calls up a restaurant to have his picture taken off the wall because it’s next to the San Diego chicken, and the owner of the joint is as accommodating as humanly possible. That one goes on for eight minutes.

The fact it’s on Matador makes sense with the number of music references they bring in. John Bonham’s son calling up Electric Lady Studios to arrange some jam time (it doesn’t really go anywhere); Isaac Hayes calling a grocery store to complain about a kid in the parking lot claiming he was on Vampire Weekend’s debut (it looks funnier on paper); Christopher "Fucking" Cross calling up a studio to get them to extend their tour hours, mentioning several times his three Grammy awards (this one’s pretty funny). Phil Collins, Psychedelic Furs, Big Bopper, Primus, Dire Straights, Tim McGraw, Kurt Loder, Morris Day (without The Time), Van Halen, Soul Asylum, and many more receive name drops and/or impersonations. In fact, if you don’t have a working knowledge of music history, a good half of this album will miss you.

Filling out the other half is some average character work. A fat, short, black man named Bleachy tries to join the army and raise the price of the Big Buford; a young adult calls in to work to apologize for taking acid before coming in the day before; and a guy calls several tattoo parlors to get quotes. Sadly, the marks handle the calls well and rarely get flustered or seriously involved. Most of them come off as very nice, patient people. There doesn’t seem to be much point in it, and it goes on for two straight hours. Some skits, music, or anything to break up the monotony would’ve gone a long way. Ned & Manson balanced this perfectly on their only album Everybody’s Free To Smoke Marijuana. As is, Just Farr A Laugh Vol. 1&2 is merely The Jerky Boys refreshed for the small cross-section of the MySpace generation that remembers Mary Tyler Moore and the MASH television series.

1. Gamemasters 2. Introducing Bleachy: Poised To Sweep The Nation 3. Taco Bell Dog and Taz Tattoos 4. Morris Day Is On His Way 5. Honey, Tiger Woods is On the Phone, Quit Fiddle-Fucking Around 6. Waking Up Alone On the 4th of July (Live On the Radio) 7. Jazz Jermaine: Ru Paul’s Personal Assistant 8. Barbara: A Realistic Portrait 9. Barbara’s Husband Clears the Air 10. Attitudes - A Bar w/ a Bunch of Dumbasses Hanging Out 11. Bedroom ETA - A Jermaine Stewart Cover Band 12. Morris Day Has Worked Up an Appetite 13. A Really Big Day For Mom 14. I Should Hope So 15. Bleachy And The .99 Cent Big Bufords 16. Tim Butler, An Old Flatmate of David J.’s 17. Trish Calls Beastie From Soulcracker (Live on WFMU) 18. Chauncy Gardner, Gallagher’s Personal Assistant 19. Just Farr A Laugh: The Yogurt Machine 20. Change it Into Kenny 21. Bleachy Tries To Join The Army... Again 22. The Bewildering Funnies 23. Man With Confusing Array Of Things To Sell 24. KFC Mashed Potatoes and Gravy Flavored Doritos 25. Bleachy At T.G.I. Fridays 26. Waking Up Alone On The 4th Of July, Part II 27. Danny Aiello And Son Would Like To Come In For Some Eggs 28. Isaac Hayes Was Verbally Assaulted Today 29. I Took Acid At Work Yesterday 30. Christopher Fucking Cross 31. Howie Mandell’s Brother 32. Unsensible Shooz 33. Bleachy Is Back In Town, Look Out 34. That’s Hilarious! A Street G Would Never Like These Movies!! 35. Ed Asner-related Strongest Idea on CD, Part I 36. Ed Asner-related Strongest Idea on CD, Part II 37. Avenging Imogene 38. Murphy’s Romance!?!?!?! What A Frame of Reference!!!! 39. Room-Silencing Religious Call 40. Bleachy’s Been Injured on the Job 41. Incident in the Wave Pool 42. T-Mobile Employees Fuck Off on the Clock 43. Kurt Loder Has Lost His Mind 44. Michael Anthony’s Solo Album, The Beard Is Back 45. The Brand New Isaac Hayes Call is Two and One Half Years Old! 46. The Party Doctor 47. The Younger Girls Call Me Mom 48. Everyone Loves a Good Bootleg Garfield the Cat 49. I’m Being Abused at Work 50. A Table for One at Arby’s 51. Tackleberry the Dog 52. Vanilla Hotbox Grits 53. Required Jamie Farr-Themed Call 54. Need a Cooler Up There? 55. My Friends Call Me Ditchweed. Don’t Ask. Ok, Go Ahead and Ask 56. I Ate an Entire Sheet of Acid 57. Bleachy Wants to Watch Murder, She Wrote 58. On The Wings of Love