# Local schmuck interviews French president Jaques Chirac?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-schmuck-interviews-french-president-jaques-chirac/160891>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [March 12, 2003, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-schmuck-interviews-french-president-jaques-chirac/160891 "2003-03-12T18:11:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-schmuck-interviews-french-president-jaques-chirac/160891/1 "2003-03-12T18:11:20Z")

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I’ve got The Kevin & Bean Show playing on 106.7 KROQ. I had to switch to NPR earlier because they were pulling one of their _amazingly lame_ gags: Calling another country and behaving like yahoos.

This morning they had Ralph Garmin do a Jerry Lewis impression and they tried to call French President Jaques Chirac. This was so embarassing that that is when I switched channels. When I went back to KROQ, they basically said “Oops! We really _did_ get the French president on the phone!” They played the tape.

Ralph was still pretending to be Jerry Lewis. “Chirac” said he needed proof that it really was Lewis, and after Ralph did his impression some more he said, “Okay, I recognize the voice.” What followed was not comedy, but an actual interview-format segment. If it was not Chirac, then whoever was doing the voice was playing it very straight. It could be a hoax; but since I don’t know if Chirac speaks English and since I don’t know what he sounds like anyway, it could just as well have been real.

They said they’d play the tape again tomorrow morning since this happened near the end of this morning’s show (i.e., only about 45 minutes ago). I think that [http://www.kroq.com](http://www.kroq.com) has streaming audio, but I’m not sure.

So _did_ Kevin & Bean accidentally get an interview with Chirac? Or was it a hoax/joke, and I’ve been wooshed?

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**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-schmuck-interviews-french-president-jaques-chirac/160891/2 "2003-03-12T18:19:50Z")

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Chirac speaks English, but with a rather heavy accent. Not having heard the segment, I’d put my money on “hoax”, though. It’s not like Jerry Lewis is a name that automatically gets put through to the Red Phone on Jaqcues’ desk. Dubya, maybe, but not Jerry Lewis.

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-schmuck-interviews-french-president-jaques-chirac/160891/3 "2003-03-12T18:54:34Z")

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Well, I can’t find a link to listen to KROQ online. Maybe there’s a SoCal Doper who is familiar with Chirac who could listen to The Kevin & Bean Show tomorrow morning?

If it is a hoax (and it probably is), they did a good job.

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-schmuck-interviews-french-president-jaques-chirac/160891/4 "2003-03-13T17:27:33Z")

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I haven’t had my ear glued to the radio, but I haven’t heard a replay of the “interview”. Either they played it before seven, they played it whilst I was away from my desk, or they didn’t play it again.

FWIW Kevin & Bean mentioned that they have a meeting with their lawyers today, but they’re _always_ getting into trouble so the meeting could be about anything. But I can imagine that Jerry Lewis’s attorneys having some issues with Ralph misrepresenting himself as Mr. Lewis.
