I weep for today’s youth. With Called ID becoming more and more prevalent, prank calling is becoming a thing of the past.
Gone forever are the days of calling the bowling alley and asking the attendant if he has 8-pound balls (“Holy crap, how big are your pants?”) or calling the KFC and asking the guy if he has chicken wings. (“Must be hard to buy shirts then!”) 
Owning a computer store I once got the following call:
“Do you have Prince Albert in a can?”
“No. This is a computer store.”
“Well, you better… uh… what?”
“I said, ‘No, this is a computer store.’ We don’t sell tobacco.”
“Oh.”
(long pause)
“Do you know anyone who does sell tobacco? Do you have their phone number?”
I’m just amazed that this classic prank call has hung on for as long as it has, especially in America. All of the important referents are nearly unknown to the prank-call target demographic. How many know who Prince Albert was, or have seen a can of loose tobacco, or even know where to find a tobacco shop?
I was wondering if this was the same Prince Albert whom the penile peircing is named for.
They will probably learn to use the extra digits which block the ID, and a retail establishment cannot afford to ignore non-ID calls. They’ll cope.
What strikes me is that I don’t think I’ve heard one of these things that wouldn’t have worked 30 years ago. Surely new types of businesses and merchandise has created new possibilities. Not to mention the survival of some of them long past the passing of the relevent referents, as observed by paperbackwriter.
Actually I just wanted an excuse to add the call to the butcher “Do you have pig’s feet?” - “Well, wear shoes and nobody will notice”.
Yes. The original Victorian Prince Albert, frock coat and all were pictured on the ‘can.’ I think I still have one stashed away somewhere.
Note the double meanings of Prince Albert/tobacco, can/toilet.
It is the double meaning selected by the inquirer and contrary meaning assumed by the smoke shop owner that make the joke.
Smoke shops are alive and thirving in TN USA. Some even carry strange upstart brands such as “Grim Reaper.”
(while stoned)
*Yes, we do, sir! Would you like that with or without Crunchberries?
*I believe the Sara Lee delivery is being stocked right now, sir! Are you interested in pies, cakes, or cookies?
Oh, and BurnMeUp…
Yes.
“Your cow is in my garden.”
“I don’t have a cow.”
“I don’t have a garden.”
Hilarity ensues.
Oh the days of being 7 and Caller ID yet to be invented.
Do you have Grim Reaper in a can?
Just in case anyone is keeping track…
I never heard anyone consider that Prince Albert might be in the toilet. With all due respect, that makes no sense to me whatsoever.
The question “Do you have Prince Albert in a can” is a legitimate question to a tobacco shop. That’s what makes the punch line so funny. Well. At least to bunch of bored third graders. (Not that I’m admitting I ever made that call. 
)
I can understand how this “joke” could be confused over. In fact, I never got the joke up until now either.
Up here where I live (Saskatchewan, Canada), there is a city named Prince Albert, and concequently, I have never heard of or even seen any “Prince Albert” brand cigarettes (even on my many visits to the U.S.).
For years I tried to comprehend what was so funny about the city of Prince Albert being shoved into a can and laughed over :smack:
Prince Albert brand tobacco, that is. Oops.
My favorite is going to the Meat Department where I work
and asking the lady behind the counter:
“Do you have crab legs?”
“Yeah.”
“Well you ought to see a doctor for that.” 
Well, you could use a payphone, I guess.
HEhehe, my favorite was always:
Hello, is do you have John there?
No, I’m sorry, you have the wrong number.
Then where do you go to pee!?
Much yuks.
Prince Albert tobacco-I thought the Prince Albert in question here would be his son, Prince Albert who became Edward VII. Certainly, that’s the guy on the package-it’s definitely a picture of Edward VII and not Albert Sr.
I never associated ‘can’ with ‘toilet’.
As I heard it, the prank line was “You’d better let him out before he suffocates”.
That is, unless one has an airtight loo. Then I suppose either mental image is proper.
“Oh, waiter, do you serve tarts?”
“We serve anybody. Siddown, lady.”
Actually, as should be obvious by now, the joke is told two different ways. Neither makes a lot of sense, but of course this is a joke that is mainly amusing to 10-year-olds.
If you say “Do you have Prince Albert in a can,” you have in mind the Prince being inside the can of tobacco.
If you say “Do you have Prince Albert in the can,” (and this is the way I have mostly heard it) you are counting on the tobacconist to ignore the fact that you said “the” instead of “a,” and you have in mind the Prince being locked in the toilet.
…or…
“What’s leather made from?”
“Hide”
“Why should I hide?”
“No, no…HIDE…HIDE…the cows outside!”
“Well, I’m not afraid of cows…let him come in!”
(Sounds like Burns and Allen, maybe?)
…so, I called my mom. You know-the one who remembers Sears catalogues in the outhouse. She confirms that people did this in the 1930’s.
Next, a column by Walter Winchell in 1945 says:
When I worked at KFC (I don’t really want to admit this) the common prank call was, “How big are your breasts?”