This is all over the place but too good not to reproduce here -- the "Justiciers masqués," hosts on Montreal radio station CKOI (pronounced "C'est quoi?"), prank call Sarah Palin, hard. It is truly a thing of beauty.
I love how they slip in so much francophone fanservice. The call contains references to Johnny Hallyday (the "French Elvis"), Stef Carse (infamous for recording the French-language version of "Achy Breaky Heart"), Richard Z. Sirois (legendary Quebecois comedian and radio host), and the Vanessa Paradis hit "Joe le Taxi." But one thing I thought for sure was part of the joke turned out not to be -- "Franck Louvrier" (i.e., "Frank the Worker") really is the name of President Sarkozy's communications director.
The best writeups on this so far are by the Canadian Press and La Presse (Google-translated version if you don't speak French). The duo spent five days setting up the call and somehow passed a Secret Service background check. That's right -- Canadian comics don't front.
Hmm, well, I wasn't so impressed. That they got through the vetting process, yes, that was something, and there were a few nice touches, but I thought the whole thing could have been a little better constructed. There were a few rapid (and insulting!) phrases purely in French that she was sure to miss, and the names of the Canadian prime minister and Quebec premier were glossed over so quickly that even I might have missed them over the phone with that "oot-rajee-us Frennsch acCENT" (Monty Python fanservice there). The invitation to go hunting was my favourite, also the reference to the Hustler parody video (did she know what he was talking about?) and I thought she handled the references to sex with his wife very graciously.
I would think that the point of one of these things is not to pass for the President, but rather to push the boundaries of satire so hard that eventually the target catches on. How far can one go before the target closes it down? I bet it could have gotten a LOT funnier that way, especially since she didn't seem to be paying all that close attention. As it was, she actually didn't come off all that badly (Look at me, defending Palin! Next I'll be going to bat for Stephen Harper!)
Posted by: cbj smith | 02 November 2008 at 02:33 PM
Hi Chris,
Let me get this straight -- your problem with this prank is that the "Justiciers masqués" did not go far enough?
The beauty of this phone call is that they eventually had to take pity on her and break down and tell her that she was being pranked, because it became apparent that no matter how outrageous they got, Palin wasn't going to figure it out on her own.
Also, I really don't think the problem here was that she wasn't really listening -- although that alone would be damning enough, if she actually thought she had a foreign head of state (a NATO ally, even) on the line but couldn't be bothered to give him her full attention.
Posted by: DJA | 02 November 2008 at 04:00 PM
Yup, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!
This is old now, but THIS is how political pranking is done! (Rick Mercer, Talking to Americans, gets several high-ranking government officials including G.W. Bush, along with some ordinary americans.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seYUbVa7L7w
Posted by: cbj smith | 03 November 2008 at 02:29 PM