Music Reviews

Crank Yankers

The Best Uncensored Crank Calls Volume 1

Comedy Central

I admit it: I watch this show on Comedy Central and I laugh my ass off. It’s just crank calls, with Muppets acting out the scenarios, but it’s still really funny, because they use some of the funniest people in the entire world: Dave Chappelle, Sarah Silverman, Tracy Morgan, Steven Colbert, Denis Leary, and series masterminds Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Corolla. Gotta turn it off when the kids are up, of course, with evil-minded Muppets and all, and it’s low-brow as all hell, but it’s still funny.

This CD contains 17 different cranks from the show, all of which I’ve seen before, but it’s still really hilarious. If you’re all like real sophisticated and stuff, you won’t like it one bit: bits about homicidal monkeys and blind strippers just aren’t exactly Oscar Wilde. But I like this, just like I liked some of The Jerky Boys’ stuff, and I still laugh, even without the puppets.

Some of the best bits on here belong to Morgan’s Spoonie Luv character, ordering flowers for his two-timing girlfriend and trying to get the woman at the shop to write, “You’re nothin’ but a stupid ho,” and Chappelle trying to book space at a Christian bed and breakfast for The Wu-Tang Clan. (I think Chappelle is one of the funniest men in America; you have to admire the gentle way he charms and flirts with the woman while still scaring the shit out of her).

Lisa Kushell turns in two incredibly sexy performances, especially her turn as a woman getting off on the voice of a nerdy tech support guy. And Sykes’ complaint to a car shop about someone having left a huge dump in her backseat could have actually made my junior high principal laugh. And on her other bit, she gets to say, “If it is nine dildos, tell him we’ll throw in a butt plug.” Brilliant.

Sure, there’s some crappy racism (Billy West’s “Moo Shu” character is not funny at all), and no one who likes the “I’ve Got Mail” thing can be trusted. But that’s why the good deity invented the skip button. Repeat the good parts, skip the bad, laugh your ass off.

Comedy Central: http://www.comedycentral.com


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