The Lovers Telephone Revenge

The Lover’s Telephone Revenge

The Legend

Deep within the simple plot of "The Lovers Telephone Revenge," one discovers a rich story woven from countless threads of creativity, each imbuing the narrative with distinct hues and textures. While these myriad iterations, adaptations, and versions diverge in numerous ways, they remain intrinsically linked by the enduring essence of the story that has transcended the boundaries of time. The general story told by “The Lovers Telephone Revenge” begins with a fighting couple, who are on the edge of separation specifically due to the husband's constant anger and quick temper, talking about how the husband wants his wife out of his house by the time he gets back from his business trip. Upon his departure, the wife unleashes her fury, wreaking havoc on their abode and disconnecting the telephone from its pedestal. As destiny would have it, the husband returns to a demolished home and a seemingly innocuous phone reattached. Oblivious to the sinister twist, he restores the phone to its rightful place, only to discover an exorbitant bill – a consequence of the clandestine overseas broadcasts that the phone surreptitiously intercepted during his absence. These wayward broadcasts invariably culminate in a staggering phone bill, often exceeding a thousand dollars or the equivalent currency in the tale's locale. Such is the enduring essence of "The Lovers Telephone Revenge."

History

The origin of "The Lovers Telephone Revenge" is shrouded in obscurity, with historical records providing scant insights into its inception. Indeed, the genesis of this peculiar legend remains an enigma, lost to the annals of time. My quest for its historical roots led me down a winding path, where few breadcrumbs of information were to be found.

In the course of my investigation, the earliest known manifestation of this tale emerged in the form of an episode from the acclaimed British sitcom, "Only Fools and Horses," which originally graced television screens in September of 1981, on the twenty-ninth day of the month.

Adaptations

There are probably hundreds or thousands of iterations that I probably have no clue exist, but in the first iteration of “The Lovers Telephone Revenge” that I read involved a couple in Bristol. The legend begins with, again, a bickering couple in a failing and crumbling relationship where most of the fault is that of the husband due to his constant anger and general lack of anger management skills. The husband is about to leave for a business trip and tells his wife that he is done and that he wants her out of his house by the time that he comes back. Feeling deeply angry and resentful towards her now previous one and only, the wife unleashes her unyielding fury upon her old lover's place of residence. When the angry husband returns to his abode he finds it in ruins and shambles. While cleaning the remains of his trashed home, he takes notice of the phone hanging from its hook, where it had previously been placed, and originally thinking nothing of the condition of the telephone. After a considerable amount of time has passed since the incident, the husband receives his quarterly phone bill, he notices that the bill totals in thousands and thousands of pounds. When he calls up the phone company, they inform him that his telephone had been used to listen to the speaking weather report in Australia for the three entire weeks that he had been away on his business trip.

The second version I read involved a couple from Hollywood when the boyfriend told his girlfriend that he wanted her gone by the time he came home from his business trip. When he arrived he had not noticed that anything was amiss, except for the phone hanging off its hook. The boyfriend put the phone to his ear to hear incoherent babbling from the other end, which prompts him to end the phone call. When he got his phone bill he found out that he had been listening to the current time in Japanese for the duration of his trip. This particular phone call, lasting the entire duration of his business trip, ran him eighty thousand dollars.

Analysis of Adaptations

Within the tale of “The Lovers Telephone Revenge” there is a theme of an angry working man being rude to his partner. It felt as though these stories were made to critique and shed light on how men treated the women they lived with in these time periods. There are also a few unrealistic things that happen in this legend. For example, your average business trip only lasts three days or under a week. The math for the phone bills aren't accurate either as it costs about twenty two cents a minute which would give you a grand total of around six and a half thousand dollars.

Works Cited

1. Flynn, Jack. “25+ Essential Business Travel Statistics [2023]: How Much Do Companies Spend on Business Travel.” Zippia, 28 June 2023, www.zippia.com/advice/business-travel-statistics/#:~:text=The%20average%20length%20of%20a,trip%20is%205-6%20days.
2. Mikkelson, David. “FACT CHECK: Long Distance Bill Revenge.” Snopes, Jan. 2000, www.snopes.com/fact-check/long-distance-bill-revenge.

1. Part I - People.Ucsc.Edu, people.ucsc.edu/~jhgonzal/100a/files/hw1.doc. Accessed 12 Oct. 2023.