Tough Call: Hard-Hitting Phone Pranks [Paperback]

Mike Loew (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 18, 2000

`Hi. This is Mike Loew - I`m calling from Los Angeles...` Mike Loew terrorises innocent phone victims in this hilarious collection of phone pranks. Outrageous but true, these transcripts of real phone conversations follow Mike taking on various verbal disguises to torment his befuddled victims. Targets vary from the Council on Drug Abuse which he rings for advice on how to deal with his pot-smoking eight-year-old, to NASA, whom he rings up posing as a 900-pound man in need of a zero-gravity system for his home. Mike will do some calls in England specially for this edition of the book.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this odd book, Loew, an editor for the satirical online magazine Onion, presents what are purported to be transcriptions of actual telephone conversations with representatives of a variety of agencies, businesses, and organizations. These conversations, recorded under the guise of investigative reporting, are intended to reveal the unbiased truth about such issues as adolescent drug use, health aspects of eating meat, and sexual incentives used by U.S. Navy recruiters. Taken as a whole, the book amounts to a hodgepodge of questionably funny dialogs, leaving the reader wondering what the point is. This reviewer even questions the veracity of what Loew claims are "real conversation, carefully transcribed to print." A look at the Onion web site archives reveals a different transcription of the same conversation with the Council on Drug Abuse than the one published here. Unlike Our Dumb Century, a best-selling Onion spin-off, this book is destined for early retirement to the remainder rack. Not recommended.AJoe Accardi, Northeastern Illinois Univ., Chicago
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Mike Loew is an editor on The Onion editor and co-author of the New York Times --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (May 18, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312264003
• ISBN-13: 978-0312264000
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,700,904 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's funny, but it's no Onion book...., July 28, 2000

By 

Nate Goyer (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tough Call: Hard-Hitting Phone Pranks (Paperback)

The front of "Tough Call" says that the author, Mike Loew is "Contributing Editor to The Onion and one of the authors of the ...Our Dumb Century". And that was good enough for me. I really love the Onion books and their website.

But this book is something entirely different than what I've become accustomed to with The Onion series. "Tough Call" is just a scribe detailing alleged prank phone calls that Mike Loew has made. But in the development of this book, one thing seems to be overlooked; Transcriptions of phony phone calls are not nearly as funny as hearing them. The joy of a phone prank is to hear the reaction o the other person on the line while they're being confused by a calm and scheming prankster. The Jerky Boys have a good system for making prank phone calls, but when you read the text, it's not nearly as funny as hearing a recording of the actual conversation.

Mike Loew is obviously a funny guy, just to think up this stuff, but writing a book of phone call translations is a prankster's equivalent to telling a fishing story; we're skeptical about the details and have no way of knowing where the embellishment is in the story.

It's still a pretty funny book, but if you think you're buying another Onion-style and humor quality book, think again.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A book about phone calls....?, November 6, 2001

By 

Daniel V. Reilly (Upstate New York, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Tough Call: Hard-Hitting Phone Pranks (Paperback)

As a big fan of both the Jerky Boys and The Onion, I decided to give Tough Call a try. On the plus side, there are some really funny transcripts in this book, especially the finale where Mike tries to set up an arms deal with a Brazillian weapons dealer. The minus side is this: It's not as funny in print as it could be in an audio format. The book is pretty slim, so I'd advise prospective readers to check out the sample pages above to see if it's their cup of tea.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Book!, April 27, 2000

By 

"annieliz" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tough Call: Hard-Hitting Phone Pranks (Paperback)

It's hard to describe how funny this book is. Sometimes it's subtle, sometimes it's blaring - but the tone is always perfect for the situation. Loew's questions have a way of steering people in a hilarious direction. Great book, great read! Makes you realize that most people are inherently stupid - but heh, they're great fun to laugh at!