# Bugging the ever-living sh\*t out of a bigot **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 28, 2004, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugging-the-ever-living-sh-t-out-of-a-bigot/242487 "2004-04-28T15:00:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugging-the-ever-living-sh-t-out-of-a-bigot/242487/21 "2004-04-29T10:46:24Z")
> [@John Carter of Mars](#): > > **Queen Tonya** : You and several others here have posted that these guys are known for falsifying news as a prank. They whooshed people with the Britney Spears thing. Then you say you don’t think this is a whoosh. > > I’m not usually TOO dense about things. Why do you think this is real, when the guys are known pranksters? It would be very simple to have someone pose as “Mr. Bigot” on the other end of a phone call with both parties using scripted material . > > Help me, _someone_? If it is a whoosh, then it’s even less funny, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![smoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@smoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smoke)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugging-the-ever-living-sh-t-out-of-a-bigot/242487/22 "2004-04-29T13:07:09Z")
> [@Libertarian](#): > > If bigotry is cause for this sort of harassment, then the bigots are right to be what they are. Thanks, **Lib**. That’s pretty much the point, **Miller**. The guy may be a bigot and a racist, but he’s not actively seeking people out to harass, unlike these radio douches. Just because someone’s a racist doesn’t give people the right to harass him. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugging-the-ever-living-sh-t-out-of-a-bigot/242487/23 "2004-04-29T15:21:35Z")
Ok, now that I’ve had a chance to sleep on this, and more importantly get to work where the T-1 connection will download audio in less than 45 minutes: For the following reasons I’ll bet $100 this thing is a hoax. 1. Mr. Burgess is said to be in Greenville, Mississippi. Could be, but anybody that listens to “Mr. Burgess” and has spent any time in the South would know immediately that his accent is all wrong. His phraseology isn’t correct and his responses aren’t consistent with this part of the U.S… South Florida would be the only part of the South that Mr. Burgess could have spent considerable time in. 2. The radio guys are known pranksters. 3. _Nobody_ is likely to stay on the phone that long with an annoying caller. 4. See the reference to FCC regulations and the Fidel Castro situation, posted above by **Beauty Personified**. To clarify, I don’t mean that the OP or any other poster here is trying to whoosh anybody. I do believe this stuff is being aired over the radio station. It’s the station that is whooshing their listening audience. I don’t think there is a real “Mr. Burgess”. The whole thing is being scripted and recorded in the radio station, by employees of that station. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugging-the-ever-living-sh-t-out-of-a-bigot/242487/24 "2004-04-29T15:29:19Z")
He may be faking it, but he really did a convincing act IMHO. He _really_ sounded a like a person going ballistic to me. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugging-the-ever-living-sh-t-out-of-a-bigot/242487/25 "2004-04-29T15:35:00Z")
My quick counterpoints: 1. I lived in North Carolina for 7 years, and never got an accent, and strongly resisted any “local lingo”. So he could very well be living in Mississippi - no one said he was born and raised there. 2. The guys referred to in your 3) are also known pranksters - and their prank on Fidel (now _that_ was funny) was 100% genuine. 3. Some people are belligerent AND hateful, and will voice their opinions - the madder they are, the more likely they are to keep spewing their crap. 4. The Fidel pranksters only recently got fined, while the prank happened quite a while ago - it’s possible the FCC just hasn’t caught up to these two yet. And if they do, these two will probably love every second of it. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugging-the-ever-living-sh-t-out-of-a-bigot/242487/26 "2004-04-29T15:45:06Z")
I think a few people are missing the point of why it’s funny - to me, at least. They’re not hassling him because of his opinions, or to expose them, nor to ‘educate’ or expose the guy - they’re just using them to set him off like a firework. The humour here is in the guy’s extreme reaction and litany of cussing - the bigotry is an added bonus. Yup, they’re using stereotyped accents; yup, they’re being gratuitous; yup, they’re being nasty and horrible; and that’s why it’s funny. It’s the humour of cruelty (for a really extreme example of this qv. the chapter on the horses in _Death in the Afternoon_). I should note that was a little disturbed that they spoke to the child and revealed her full name (if she is in fact real). But the rest of it tickles my funnybone. The only thing that would spoil it for me is if **John Carter** is right. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugging-the-ever-living-sh-t-out-of-a-bigot/242487/27 "2004-04-29T15:48:25Z")
Forgot to say, other examples of this are the famous sound files doing the rounds of guy who lost everything on his hard drive, and the English guy going bananas after he got a telemarketing call from British Telecom despite delisting his number. I love the Jerky Boys too, but their victims aren’t quite as spectacular as this dude. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugging-the-ever-living-sh-t-out-of-a-bigot/242487/28 "2004-04-29T15:50:33Z")
I forgot point #5: Perhaps most importantly, it would be a helluva lot easier to stage a shocking performance in the radio station than to get it done IRL. I’m not saying it’s impossible that this is legit. I just give it a less than 1% probability of being so. ---
**Author:** ![Padmaraga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@Padmaraga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padmaraga)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugging-the-ever-living-sh-t-out-of-a-bigot/242487/29 "2004-04-29T16:22:58Z")
> [@John Carter of Mars](#): > > South Florida would be the only part of the South that Mr. Burgess could have spent considerable time in. I’m tending to agree with most of what **John Carter of Mars** says, but I do want to nitpick on one little point: South Florida isn’t part of the South. To expand on that, neither is Orlando (where the broadcast takes place) a part of South Florida. North Florida, Central Florida, and South Florida are really separate sub-regions of Florida (culturally), and Orlando is part of Central Florida. - A Former Central-Floridian ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugging-the-ever-living-sh-t-out-of-a-bigot/242487/30 "2004-04-29T19:36:54Z")
> [@Padmaraga](#): > > I’m tending to agree with most of what **John Carter of Mars** says, but I do want to nitpick on one little point: South Florida isn’t part of the South. To expand on that, neither is Orlando (where the broadcast takes place) a part of South Florida. North Florida, Central Florida, and South Florida are really separate sub-regions of Florida (culturally), and Orlando is part of Central Florida. > > - A Former Central-Floridian I just love a friendly compromise! I’ll agree that culturally, you are 100% correct. Geographically, all of Florida is part of America’s South. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugging-the-ever-living-sh-t-out-of-a-bigot/242487/31 "2004-04-30T00:35:37Z")
Do you really think they would give the guy’s name out, over the radio, and not a single person would have tried to call schmuck and let him know he was being had on-air- or call him and drive him even more crazy? Plus - as mentioned, most people are pretty quick to hang up on telemarketers. I doubt this dude would spend 2 seconds talking to a Gay man, or a black man, let alone banter back and forth. Yeah…big time whoosh on the part of the DJ’s. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugging-the-ever-living-sh-t-out-of-a-bigot/242487/32 "2004-04-30T00:45:49Z")
> [@John Carter of Mars](#): > > I just love a friendly compromise! I’ll agree that culturally, you are 100% correct. Geographically, all of Florida is part of America’s South. 😉 Except for the part that belongs to the Cubans… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugging-the-ever-living-sh-t-out-of-a-bigot/242487/33 "2004-04-30T18:15:18Z")
> [@jjimm\[/quote](#): > > They’re not hassling him because of his opinions, or to expose them, nor to ‘educate’ or expose the guy - they’re just using them to set him off like a firework. > > The humour here is in the guy’s extreme reaction and litany of cussing - the bigotry is an added bonus. Yup, they’re using stereotyped accents; yup, they’re being gratuitous; yup, they’re being nasty and horrible; and that’s why it’s funny. It’s the humour of cruelty (for a really extreme example of this qv. the chapter on the horses in Death in the Afternoon). I still don’t see the humor. Purposefully harassing a guy just to listen to him explode. And doing to a known bigot by playing up to the stereotypes on which he’s based his bigotry. Nope. Don’t get it. Not funny to me. ---
**Author:** ![Hugh\_Jass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4da419/32.png) [@Hugh\_Jass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hugh_Jass)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugging-the-ever-living-sh-t-out-of-a-bigot/242487/34 "2004-04-30T18:57:35Z")
A slight hijack: Have any of you heard the Tube Bar tapes? These are among the original prank phone calls, and the basis for the Bart Simpson phone calls to Moe on the Simpsons. Hilarious stuff, and it’s all real. These guys called this man named Red who owned bar in NYC called the Tube Bar, and asked him if Pepe Roni or Al Coholic were around. Red would explode and cuss them out. I think the abuse occurred over a period of years. I think it’s time to listen to that again… ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Tonya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/4491bb/32.png) [@Queen\_Tonya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Tonya)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugging-the-ever-living-sh-t-out-of-a-bigot/242487/35 "2004-04-30T23:14:59Z")
> [@John Carter of Mars](#): > > I’m not usually TOO dense about things. Why do you think this is real, when the guys are known pranksters? It would be very simple to have someone pose as “Mr. Bigot” on the other end of a phone call with both parties using scripted material . > > Help me, _someone_? Well, yeah, I hadn’t actually thought of it like that, you’re probably right. They loved stirring things up when they were on-air here, pranks like someone accidentally shooting themself in the foot on-air, them walking out of a broadcast pretending to quit, phone scams, etc. The thing that made it successful, ie kept tons of fans freaking out and falling for the joke every single time, was that many of them _were_ real, not faked. WKRK had lots of legal finessing to do during K&T’s entire run here, although ironically it was a much tamer duo on that station that was smited by the holy wrath of the FCC, after K&T left for Florida. I work with some mouth-breathers that’d make Mr.Bigot sound like a poster child for Prozac, they never back down from their indefensible idiocy but go all Jerry and just out-shout the opposition, so it originally rang true for me. I think your idea makes more sense, though. Either way, I’m glad Detroit doesn’t have to deal with these two anymore. 🆒 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugging-the-ever-living-sh-t-out-of-a-bigot/242487.md?page=1)