Chappers hosts the American Phone Book Game, calling up unfortunate souls with amusing names from US directories—this time connecting with Ben D Wanger and Harry Minge, much to everyone’s delight.
The American Phone Book Game returns to Radio 1, a feature that mines the US phone directory for people with accidentally hilarious names. As always, Scott and the team warn listeners with young children that the humour relies on surnames that sound rude, and the callers themselves are often reluctant to confirm their names down the line.
Today’s calls include Ginger Bush, who confirms her name despite Scott struggling to keep composure, and Randy Bender, whom the team reaches while looking for an “Andy Mender”—though the call goes slightly awry when Randy realises it’s a wrong number. The familiar dynamic plays out: the awkwardness of the callee realising they’ve been caught out, and Scott’s barely-suppressed laughter at the other end of the line.
The feature trades on the innocent surprise of real people in the American phone system discovering that their perfectly legitimate surnames sound outrageous to a British radio audience—a staple of the show’s humour that never quite gets old, no matter how many times it’s repeated.
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