Comedy: prank phone call genre except that this time it’s the caller that’s being pranked, the callers in this case being the universally hated telemarketer. Brilliant and side-splittingly hilarious most of the time as Michael Gross takes on various personas and drives the telemarketers to the brink. But in the end its easy to feel for the callers, realizing that they do indeed have a shit job. At one point a caller thanks Gross for being “the most interesting call I’ve had all day”. Its then that you realize how many of the callers are probably on to Gross but are so jaded that they seem oblivious. Regardless, some of these rank up there with the best of the jerky boys etc.

Noted tracks:

1) drives the telemarketer nuts by continuing to say “slow down”
2) feigns illness including horrific barfing sounds
4) this one (along with take 2, track 19) is the best: Gross pretends to consult his “friend” in a foreign language that is so hilariously false and made up
7) pretends to be from france, complete with stereotypes and a genuinely duped hic telemarketer
9) rather abstract: the telemarketer asks various questions to which Gross answers with Shakespeare text, strange
11) pretends to be a “songwriter” and ad libs a song based on the telemarketer’s pitch
18) makes annoying sounds and drives the caller crazy
19) see number 4