Whatever happened to crank calls?

[toomuchtooold]

I was just telling DH (foreigner) that when I was a kid in the 80s it wasn't uncommon to get a crank call. A favourite round our way was this:
Them: is that Mrs Walls?
You: no, there's no Mrs Walls here
Them: well what about Mr Walls?
You: no, sorry
Them: no Mr Walls? Is there any Walls there?
You: no
Them: well what's holding up the bloody roof then ahahaha (slams phone down).

DH was killing himself laughing. Apparently this is not a thing in Switzerland (what a surprise). But when did it die out in the UK? Did the internet remove the need to troll people in person? And do you remember any others?

Caller ID killed the calls asking for "Mr Butts" yeah "Seymour".

Still a regular on the Simpsons though, no caller id at Mo's

I think caller ID put a stop to a lot of them. I don't pick up the phone to numbers I don't know or private numbers on either my mobile or the landline.

Ha, x-post Women

Haha I remember working in a bar and someone called and asked to speak to a Drew Peacock, imagine my 19 year old embarrassed self when I shouted this out in a crowded bar!

Remember being in the bingo hall and the caller asked for a Jenny Taylor (genitalia we reckoned someone was trying to get him to say)

simpsonswiki.com/wiki/Bart%27s_prank_calls

Cannot believe there is a simpsonswiki! Too funny

Hey LemonRedwood remember when caller id meant the freedom of turning the tv down and putting on your sick day sore throat voice to speak to your boss?

Ah the joys of modern technology.

This is outing but I often call up my friend and leave voicemails for her in a famous dead persons voice. So they still exist in my juvenile world.

DH used to work in a noisy factory. They had a tannoy system. The favourite prank was to get new receptionists (they had a steady stream of them over the years) to announce "Has anyone seen Mike Hunt?"...

Me and my friend once pretended to be a local radio station and got a work colleague to sing Nelly the elephant down the phone thinking she was going to win a prize!

When I was a kid we used to phone 0800 numbers (a new thing in them days) from the payphone outside school and speak urgently in shit French to see if we could convince anyone that we were some poor French person in distress. The giggling probably gave us away though. We also pretended to be doing surveys for school projects and would then ask increasingly bonkers questions about whatever the company was. It was amazing how long they'd stay on the line with us too, I think that was in the days before call centre workers had call targets...

Worked in a golf club ... Mike Hunt got frequent calls ... “ can you just ask if anyone has seen Mike Hunt” ... Jog on twat !

Shit I know a Jenny Taylor !

www.thepoke.co.uk/2019/02/14/kids-pranked-stadium-announcer-classic-kind/ Kids are still doing it