Fonejacker
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| Fonejacker | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Starring | Kayvan Novak |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 min per episode |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | E4 |
| Original run | April 2007 – |
Fonejacker is a comedy programme consisting of real life crank calls played on unsuspecting members of the public. A pilot was shown as part of Channel 4's Comedy Lab and lasted for 30 minutes. On 27 December 2006, Fonejacker returned for a ten minute Christmas special. The end of the special revealed that a series is to be shown on E4 in April the next year, as the channel commissioned six 30 minute episodes in October.
The calls are performed by Kayvan Novak who provides many characters and voices, dressed wearing a balaclava and sunglasses to completely disguise himself. Characters include:
- George Adgdgdgdwngo (pronounced apidingatawingo), an African scamster. He asks for victims bank account details and uses phoney excuses for retrieving them, like having the bank vault steam cleaned, or a competition funded by the government, with the prize money being collected by "the one p's and two p's that people forget about". He tried to acquire a man's bank account details for decoration of the bank vault.
- "Doovde Man" is a man who rides a camel who phones many companies (most famously HMV) and confuses them by asking for products and services with initials, and pronouncing them as a word. Many examples include pronouncing "HMV" as "Hoomv", "DVD" as "Doovd" or "Doovdé", "LCD TV" as "Licid Tiv", and "PSP" as "Pisp" or "Poospé". He will also pronounce HMV's official website (http://www.hmv.co.uk) as "hititip.. wooo dot hoomv dot co dot uck". One rare occasion where the chap does something different is when he rang a woman about a car she had for sale. After being told it was still for sale, he replied with "Oh, that's a shame. Thanks anyway". A name has not yet been revealed on the show, leading some fans of the show naming him "Doovdé Man".
- Various characters with speech impediments who's voices are incomprehencable. One was a man phoning a dental surgery, possibly with a toothache. The woman who helps him is unable to understand him properly, thinking he wants to "squeeze" an appointment in, by hearing "I want to squeeze in though", when subtitles at the bottom of the screen confirms the man is saying "I want to squeeze them though", referring to the receptionist breasts. Another call involved Frenchman Jean-Pierre asking about buying a car. Instead of a speech impediment making the victim puzzled, the phone connection kept braking up. In the Christmas Special, another man rang an off-licence asking for Bourbon in a voice comparable to Bill and Ben.
It's Christmas special only included George, "Doovdé Man" and the Bill and Ben-sounding man. It is clear, when compared to clips from the Comedy Lab pilot, that the voices of George and "Doovdé Man" have varied.
