The Jerky Boys are a long-running comedy act, specializing in the time-honored art of the Prank Call. The original duo consisted of Johnny Brennan and Kamal Ahmed, childhood friends from Queens who enjoyed making and recording prank calls together. They kept at it through the 1980s, making bootlegs and working hard to Keep Circulating the Tapes. They would get their big break when their work was discovered by Howard Stern, who would play their calls on his wildly popular radio show. After that, an official album was inevitable and would be released in 1993.
They achieved surprising mainstream success at first, with their first two albums going platinum and the third going gold. They even managed to get their own Big Damn Movie, with Brennan and Ahmed playing themselves. The movie was lambasted by all but their most die-hard fans, and began the duo's downward spiral both professionally and as friends. Things got so bad between the pair that they refused to share any screen time together in the Insane Clown Posse movie Big Money Hustlas.
By the year 2000, the duo had split for good. Ahmed released a solo album to little fanfare, while Brennan would keep the official Jerky Boys name and has released solo albums periodically over the years, also to very modest success. With their commercial heyday long gone, they are mostly remembered as a fun bit of 90's nostalgia. Brennan is probably best known now as a voice actor for Family Guy, whose character Mort Goldman is essentially Jerky Boys stalwart Sol Rosenberg in animated form. Ahmed has gone on to become an independent actor and filmmaker.
The pair built up a small stable of popular characters over the years. The characters are more archetypes than anything, with specific details about them changing due to whatever fits the call best or, of course, Rule of Funny. Some of them include:
- Frank Rizzo, a blue-collar ball of Brooklyn Rage. (Or Queens Rage, if you prefer.) A five-star Sir Swears-a-Lot and probably the character most people associate with the act.
- Sol Rosenberg, a Jewish and Nerdy guy whose voice will remind many of Woody Allen. Poor Sol is neurotic to a fault and a classic Butt-Monkey who always seems to have some new ailment or calamity befalling him.
- Jack Tors, a Camp Gay caricature who is typically engaging in bizarre sexual activity, or equally bizarre dance routines or other live performances because Queer People Are Funny.
- Tarbash, the Egyptian Magician: theoretically a Stage Magician, but he seems to spend most of his time either attacking people (or being attacked) by his collection of dangerous animals.
Just put the tropes right down here, rubberneck!
- The Alcoholic: Frank, who calls to get help with it on the recommendation of his family on "Drinking Problem," but decides in the end that he likes being an angry drunk.
- All Gays are Promiscuous: Jack Tors. If one of his calls isn't about his bizarre stage performances, it's probably centered around this trope.
- Ambiguous Situation: The strange call "Security Service," where Jack calls asking for help for dealing with his raging insecurity, up to and including sporadic beatings to keep him in line. Instead of the expected reaction, the "victim" seems completely up for it and says he'll gladly do it, charging $100 a session for that kind of "therapy." Either the guy is an amazing actor that is playing along on the spot without so much as a change in voice, or he's completely serious.
- Amusing Injuries: A major source of humor for the Jerkys. Beatings, falls, animal attacks, getting hit in sensitive places with line drives or boiled potatoes, medical mishaps, and many, many more.
- Ass Shove: The theoretical plan for the tennis ball machine in "A Little Emergency," which is loaded with lubricated boiled potatoes. It results in the exact injuries you'd expect, plus a dose of Eye Scream when someone turns around to see if the machine is lined up properly.
- And again in "Angry Camper's Dad," where Frank's kid claims to be getting beaten up on the baseball field before the other kids lick the bat and... well, you get the idea.
- Beware of Vicious Dog: Frank's Rottweiler in "Piano Tuner," although it's of little surprise given that Frank admits to constantly kicking it around the apartment, making this The Dog Bites Back in literal form.
- Blind Without 'Em: Sol, as per the "Sol's Glasses" call.
- Depraved Dentist: The call "Dental Malpractice" features a dentist who assaults Ali Kamal for no discernible reason before putting him under sedation, where Kamal wakes up with his pants unbuttoned.
- Disproportionate Retribution: "The Home Wrecker" features a guy named Jocko Johnson whose wife just let him, so he asks a demolition company to smash her house down in response. (For what it's worth, he at least schedules it while she's not at home.)
- Dreaded Kids' Party Entertainer Job: Averted by "Sparky The Clown," who would clearly rather do a kid's birthday party then get involved with whatever kinky madness Frank invites him to.
- Enemy to All Living Things: Frank, who seems to treat his dogs even worse than he treats people. Also Jack, who has an act where he brings small animals out on stage before beating them senseless. Inverted with Tarbash, who uses his animals to terrify and maul both the crowd and his assistants instead.
- Ethnic Magician: Tarbash. According to him, acts like stabbing people in the eye with a saber and mauling people with jungle cats are considered magic in Egypt. The woman on the other end doesn't question any of it, likely writing it off as him just being a harmless Funny Foreigner.
- Eye Scream: "Pet Cobra" sees Tarbash being bitten in the eye by the aforementioned cobra.
- Fake-Hair Drama: Sol goes through this after losing his toupee (and some of his teeth!) during a brutal assault he suffers on "Ball Game Beating."
- Fingore: "Firecracker Mishap" sees poor Sol get his hand obliterated and reduced to a "nub."
- Frivolous Lawsuit: Attempted in "Punitive Damages." Sol, feeling like the lawyer he's talking to isn't giving him enough help regarding a motorcycle accident HE caused, declares that he's going to sue the lawyer in turn as punishment. Then he'll sue the lawyer's clients. It eventually snowballs to where he decides he'll just sue everybody, before finally giving up.
- Groin Attack: Jocko Johnson mentions getting hit by a line drive to his crotch on "Trains."
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Frank, whose temper by his own admission is "always flarin' like a pack of hemorrhoids."
- Iron Butt Monkey: Sol, who has somehow survived the relentless falls, beatings and health issues that have come his way.
- Naked People Are Funny: "Sol's Nude Beach" reveals that, shockingly, the normally-timid Sol wants to join his friend Jim at a nude beach, all of which he reveals to the poor guy's very confused mother. Of course, it being a Sol call, he still mentions being tied to the pier and being dragged behind boats against his will at his previous beach, as is his lot in life.
- Nervous Wreck: Sol, although given his constant misfortune he might just be Properly Paranoid at this point.
- The Nicknamer: Frank, who constantly doles them out at random to the point of it being a Verbal Tic. Common ones include 'rubberneck,' 'liver-lips,' 'fruitcake' and 'tough guy.'
- Noodle Incident: In "Car Salesman," Frank (although Brennan uses the name Paul in a moment of confusion) mentions to a potential employer that he had some differences with his boss, forcing him to find work in an entirely new area. At first he says he doesn't want to get into it, but Frank being Frank, the trope is then averted when he admits to threatening and assaulting customers to help make a sale to someone he's calling for a job interview.
- Shout-Out: From Radiohead of all people, whose album Pablo Honey is named after a Jerky Boys call.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Frank is the standout, but most of their characters are pretty foul-mouthed.
- Toilet Humour: By the carload.
- Unsatisfiable Customer: A staple of both the Jerkys in particular and the Prank Call in general. Absurd requests, relentless browbeating of innocent customer service people, and everything else you'd expect. See "Irate Tile Man," "Fava Beans" and many others.
- Yellowface: Well, the audio equivalent, where Ahmed plays an extremely unconvincing racist caricature of a Japanese sushi chef. It has aged exactly as badly as you'd expect.
