Prank call

A prank call (also known as a crank call) is a telephone practical joke. Prank phone calls began to gain a worldwide following since the invention of telephones, as they became a staple of the obscure and amusing cassette tapes traded among musicians, sound engineers, and media traders beginning in the late 1970s. Among the most famous and earliest recorded prank calls are the Tube Bar prank calls tapes, which centered on Louis "Red" Deutsch. Comedian Jerry Lewis was an incorrigible phone prankster, and recordings of his hijinks, dating from the 1960s and possibly earlier, still circulate to this day.