The Jerky Boys

The Jerky Boyswere an American comedy act fromQueens,New York City,New York, whose routine consisted ofprank telephone callsand other relatedskits. The duo was founded in 1989 by childhood friendsJohnny BrennanandKamal Ahmed.After Ahmed left the act in 2000, the Jerky Boys continued on as a solo act featuring only Brennan, before going on a 19-year hiatus after the 2001 release of the franchise's penultimate album,The Jerky Tapes. Brennan released a follow-up album of new material in November 2020.
The phone calls were made by calling unsuspecting recipients, or in response to classified advertisements placed in localNew York–based newspapers. Each call was made in character, usually with over-the-top voices influenced by the duo's family members.Many compilations of the group's work have been released onto albums. According to the act's currentrecord label, Laugh.com, the Jerky Boys have sold over 8,000,000 albums since their 1993 debut.
Brennan began making and recording prank telephone calls in the 1970s, and teamed up with Ahmed, in the late 1980s/early 1990s in theirQueensneighborhood.The duo made a number ofbootleg tapesof their recorded phone calls that eventually were obtained byNew York–basedradiopersonalityHoward Stern, who played the duo's tracks on the air.
The English rock bandRadioheadnamed their debut album,Pablo Honey(1993), after a Jerky Boys sketch in which the caller poses as the victim's mother and says: "Pablo, honey? Please come to Florida."Asampleof the sketch appears in the song "How Do You".The Radiohead singer,Thom Yorke, said: "The notion of phoning up people cold is so nineties. It's just the ultimate sacrilege – turn up in someone's life and they can't do anything about it."
The Jerky Boys gained notoriety from their exposure onThe Howard Stern Show, and released their first album,The Jerky Boys, in 1993. The album topped theBillboardHeatseekers chartand was eventually certified platinum by theRecording Industry Association of America. The duo released the platinumThe Jerky Boys 2in 1994, followed byThe Jerky Boys 3in 1996,The Jerky Boys 4in 1997,Stop Staring at Me!in 1999, andThe Jerky Tapesin 2001.
In 1995, the duo starred inTouchstone Pictures'The Jerky Boys: The Movie. The movie was filmed in 1993–94, and it was almost universallypanned by critics. Kamal became an independent filmmaker in 1997.
In 2000, tension between the two developed.The duo appeared in thePsychopathic RecordsfilmBig Money Hustlas, but because Brennan and Ahmed were unable to get along with each other, they did not share any scenes in the film; Brennan played a supporting role as the police chief, and Ahmed appeared in a cameo as Frank Kissel, an audience member at the strip club.By the end of the year, Ahmed passed a note down to the manager, who passed it to Brennan: Ahmed had decided to quit the group.
Ahmed released a solo album,Once a Jerk, Always a Jerk, in 2000.
On March 20, 2007, Brennan, who is now the only constant member of the group, kept the Jerky Boys name and released a solo album,Sol's Rusty Trombone, a collection of mostlyring tonesand skits.On March 5, 2010, Brennan, in conjunction withInner Four, released two apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch platform: The Jerky Boys Prank Caller, and The Jerky Boys Pinball. In late 2011, Brennan started a weekly podcast titledThe Jerky Boys Show with Johnny Brennanin which he discussed the history of the calls, how the characters came about, and other hijinks. The podcast also gave the opportunity to fans to speak to Brennan directly. The podcast ran for 17 episodes and then abruptly ended in November 2012.Brennan announced a subscription for new calls being regularly released each month but this never occurred.
He recorded new prank calls for aRolling Stoneretrospective in 2014.
Other minor characters include:
Rolling StonecitedPaul Feig,Amy SchumerandSeth MacFarlaneas examples of comedy influenced by the Jerky Boys.