Crank Yankers

This is one of the few Comedy Central shows I like. There's no rhyme or reason to this program, except to bug people with prank calls. Unlike the prank calls you might make, these guys are actually talented and skilled comedians, and the characters they have crafted are memorable. This stuff is far superior to the prank call phenomenon that likely inspired it, "The Jerky Boys." My favorite is, of course, Special Ed, whose voice and mantras are simply hilarious. Other good characters include the perverse yet exaggeratedly upper-crust Niles Standish, the old man Elmer, and Birchum, the Vietnam vet. Kimmel, Carolla, Sarah Silverman, Wanda Sykes, and even "Family Guy's" Seth McFarlane lend their voices to these roles. All of these guys are gifted mimickers and put their acting talents to the fore for a simple childish game of prank calls. If you want to watch a funny Comedy Central show, watch this.

This show is funnier than you would think it would be. Real phone calls with some well known comedians with real people on the other end of the line. It is one of the funniest shows I have seen in a long time! The puppets they use to animate the callers are hilarious. Comedy Central scores another hit in their line-up of shows. You have to watch it to see just how great it is!

This would have to be one of the worst shows I have seen in my life. Saw the intro, still wondering what the hell this was. Was expecting Sesame Street on crack. What followed was an absolute disappointment. The calls weren't funny, the puppeteering was terrible and out of sync with the dialogue and the between sketch animation was just not right. Avoid at all costs. 1 out of 10

IT'S ABOUT TIME someone made a crank-call show. The Jerky Boys have been around since the early '90s and it's taken this long to put the premise to a show. Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Corolla have pulled it off brilliantly. Using puppets to add visualization to the phony phone calls is a stroke of genius. This way, the producers can add to the "story" by personifying the victims and extrapolating possible reactions to the calls, or simply by poking fun at the "prankee". I can't stop laughing every time I watch this show. I especially enjoy the varied "celebrity yankers" who make the calls. It's interesting to try to put the voice to a name, and see if you were correct at the end of the show when they list the "yankers." Bottom line: if you liked The Jerky Boys albums, you will love Crank Yankers.

How can someone not find this show funny? The complaints about "lack of plotlines" are just ludicrous. Since when are crank calls supposed to have plots? The whole premise of the show is a wide range of comedians call up unsuspecting individuals and crank call them in a variety of hilarious ways, these calls are then acted out with puppets playing the roll of the cranker and the crankee. Some of the bits are funnier than others of course, but the same thing happens with any type of comedy program with sketches, and it doesn't stop the funny sketches from being fall-on-the-floor-hold-your-buns-in-place funny. Some of the crankers are completely hysterical in their dead-pan delivery of the crank calls. Kevin Nealon's performance as a man suffering from OCD who is looking to join a dating service and Wanda Sykes who calls someone to try and free her ass from her toilet are two of my personal favorites. One has to wonder if the people who received these calls ever heard themselves on Comedy Central afterwards and slapped their foreheads in agony. Crank Yankers definitely isn't for someone who has a problem with low-brow humor, as most of the jokes do hinge around making fun of other people or toilet humor. But if you're someone who enjoys a good laugh, even if it's at the sake of someone else, give Crank Yankers a try.