# Is your refrigerator running?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [September 12, 2022, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411 "2022-09-12T02:24:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2022, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411/1 "2022-09-12T02:24:20Z")
Well you better go catch it! Ha ha. AFAIK, the original Bart Simpson type telephone prank. The only other one I’ve heard is: “Do you have Prince Albert in a can?” “Well, you better let him out!” or something like that. Were there any others? Prince Albert was a brand of tobacco.
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### Author:  [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2022, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411/2 "2022-09-12T02:37:31Z")
These sound like Dad jokes. I think all the Bart phone pranks would ask if [pun person] was in the bar, in order to get Moe to shout out the name and sound stupid. Subverted when Hugh Jass was in the bar and came to the phone.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me7o3IAD8uw)
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2022, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411/3 "2022-09-12T02:38:18Z")
Maybe not quite the same thing, but back in high school, if we knew a fellow student was out and about late on a weekend night, we would call their house and say we were Detective So-and-So, and their kid had been arrested. We needed a parent to come get him.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2022, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411/4 "2022-09-12T02:41:16Z")
Now they make that call from overseas. And want gift cards.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2022, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411/5 "2022-09-12T02:50:27Z")
Some of the earliest prank calls were similar to the ones Bart made to Moe’s - with a twist.
_By the early 1900s, pranksters were using “While You Were Out” slips to trick people into becoming prank callers themselves. They’d leave a message saying that a particular person had telephoned, and how that person supposedly could be reached. When the victim returned the call, they’d find themselves asking for, say, a Mr. Train at Union Station, a Mr. Fish at the New York Aquarium, or—in Providence again—a Mr. Graves at the North Burial Ground._
> **[The First Prank Calls Were Surprisingly Morbid](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/first-prank-call-ever)**
>
> Some things never change.
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2022, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411/6 "2022-09-12T03:02:30Z")
“Is Joe Wall there?”
“No.”
“Is Frank Wall there?”
“No.”
“Are there any Walls there?”
“No.”
“Then what’s holding your roof up?”
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2022, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411/7 "2022-09-12T03:11:18Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> if we knew a fellow student was out and about late on a weekend night, we would call their house and say we were Detective So-and-So, and their kid had been arrested. We needed a parent to come get him.
As memorialized by Blink-182;
> [@](#):
>
> Then later on, on the drive home
> I called her mom from a payphone
> I said I was the cops and your husband’s in jail
> The state looks down on sodomy
>
> And that’s about the time that bitch hung up on me
> Nobody likes you when you’re twenty-three
> And are still more amused by prank phone calls
> What the hell is call ID?
> My friends say I should act my age
> What’s my age again?
> What’s my age again?
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2022, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411/8 "2022-09-12T03:12:04Z")
“ Hello. Is John in the house?”
“No.”
“Well, where do you go then? In the sink?”
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### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2022, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411/9 "2022-09-12T10:59:46Z")
My favorite as a kid:
“Is Joe there?”
“You have the wrong number.”
_…two minutes later:_
“May I speak to Joe?”
“No, you must have the wrong number.”
_…two minutes later:_
“Can I please speak to Joe?”
“I keep telling you, you have the wrong number!”
_…two minutes later:_
“This is Joe, did I get any calls?”
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### Author:  [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2022, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411/10 "2022-09-12T11:21:44Z")
We tried a couple based on the name of the person we were calling.
Looked in the phone book for someone with the last name of Green.
It was something like.
Is this Mr. Brown.
No, it’s Mr, Green.
Sorry, wrong color.
And based on the response we were not the only ones who called a family with the last name of Christmas and asked for Mary.
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### Author:  [@TheCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheCuse)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2022, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411/11 "2022-09-12T11:37:37Z")
We used to call a bowling alley. And when the guy answered, I’d ask “do you have 16 pound balls?”
If he said,“yes,” I’d then ask him: "How in the hell do you walk?
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2022, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411/12 "2022-09-12T11:40:54Z")
> **[Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for September 27, 1986 | GoComics.com](https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1986/09/27)**
>
> Calvin: Hell, Calvin speaking. I'd like to order a large anchovy pizza. Voice on phone: What? I...?? Calvin: Oh, I'm sorry. You must have dialed the wrong number. Goodbye. I try to make everyone's day a little more surreal.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2022, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411/13 "2022-09-12T11:45:13Z")
> [@TheCuse](#):
>
> We used to call a bowling alley. And when the guy answered, I’d ask “do you have 16 pound balls?”
>
> If he said,“yes,” I’d then ask him: "How in the hell do you walk? -
“With a wheelbarrow, why?”
“Your mom gives me a hand.”
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### Author:  [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2022, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411/14 "2022-09-12T14:54:39Z")
> [@cochrane](#):
>
> “Is Joe Wall there?”
> “No.”
> “Is Frank Wall there?”
> “No.”
> “Are there any Walls there?”
> “No.”
> “Then what’s holding your roof up?”
Shortly after I moved here (which was quite a few years ago) I answered the phone and heard a young voice on the phone ask something that sounded like:
“Is Mr. Walzenflors there?”
Me, giving them accidentally a perfect leadin: “No, sorry, no Walzenflors here.”
Voice, in a chorus of giggles: “Then what’s holding your roof up?” Click, they hung up.
I giggled too.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2022, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411/15 "2022-09-12T16:41:22Z")
> [@cochrane](#):
>
> Is Joe Wall there?”
No, but Joe Mama is here.
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### Author:  [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2022, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411/16 "2022-09-12T18:17:43Z")
Do you have Prince Albert in a can? You better let him out.
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2022, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411/17 "2022-09-12T21:47:58Z")
No, but I have Old Grand-Dad in a bottle.
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### Author:  [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2022, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411/18 "2022-09-12T22:37:42Z")
Do you have Queen Elizabeth in a box?
Too soon?
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2022, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-your-refrigerator-running/971411/19 "2022-09-18T21:31:22Z")
Not quite a phone prank like these others, but it did involve a phone. I’ve detailed it on the Board before:
One year right after Christmas back in high school, a friend and I thought up calling the local newspaper and putting an ad in the classifieds that said: “Don’t throw your Christmas tree away. I’ll buy it!” And gave a friend’s phone number. It was pure chance that we called the ad in on a Friday, meaning it ran all weekend before their offices reopened on Monday to cancel it. The lady who took our ad said she was dying with curiosity about what we were going to do with all those trees, and thinking fast I said: “Uh, I, uh, I’m going to resell them for firewood.” “Oh! That’s a great idea! I never would have thought of that.” We called the friend’s house ourselves posing as someone with a tree to sell, and his mother said there must have been some sort of mix-up at the paper and that their phone had been ringing nonstop all weekend. The friend kept absolutely silent about it at school the next week, waiting to see who would break and mention it. We never did, and he never brought it up. So, Steve, if you’re out there somewhere reading this right now, it was me and Robert (you know Robert who).