Fri 23 May 2008
From Now (I was unaware of our growing audience amongst feminists!) Magazine (written by Tim Perlich):
When my buddy Mike (1) told me he was putting out a new collection of prank phone calls some dudes from Memphis (2) had put together, the concept of a Southern Jerky Boys getting their yuks at some unsuspecting store clerk’s expense didn’t seem like a side-splitting threat (3).
To my surprise, the Just Farr A Laugh disc was quite funny without resorting to a Crank Yankers-level of lowbrow vulgarity or ruling out mockery altogether. Instead, Andrew Earles and Jeff Jensen successfully subverted the whole prank call format (4) by creating a cast of believably bent characters and then employing their arcane knowledge of pop culture to concoct stoopidly clever set-ups that are always funnier than the responses (5). Listen to some sharpie trying to unload an entire run of the Smith & Smith (6) TV series on Betamax tape and a Jackson Browne “Lawyers In Love” painter’s cap on a serious antique dealer on the two-disc Just Farr A Laugh, Vols 1 & 2 (Matador) anthology and you’ll get the idea (7).
However, two and a half hours of RuPaul’s personal assistant, Michael Anthony’s whiskey-bottle bass and David J’s old flatmate might be too much of a goofy thing (8). www.matadorrecords.com.
-Tim Perlich
1. Who?
2. One dude from Memphis, one dude from Brooklyn
3. Understandable.
4. Why thank you! And yes, we did!
5. No, no, no, not always.
6. “Simon and Simon”
7. Get a little closer to the idea by going HERE, then ADD US!!!
8. We can AGREE TO DISAGREE on that one, sir!!