History Main / RidiculouslyLongPhoneNumber

* The "new emergency number" in ''Series/TheITCrowd'', complete with EarWorm jingle: That's ♪ [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWc3WY3fuZU 0118 999 881 999 119 725 ...3]] ♪

* Done on ''The D Generation''. A poll on a news show was "Do you think unions have too much power?". The number to call for "yes" was short and the number for "no" was ridiculously long.

-->-- '''Moss''', ''{{Series/The IT Crowd}}''

* The "new emergency number" in ''Series/TheITCrowd'': That's ♪ 0118 999 881 999 119 725 ...3 ♪

** When Homer calls Japan, he dials a ridiculous series of digits (we can't see what he's dialing). At one point, he touch-tones the theme to ''[[Film/TheMagnificentSeven1960 The Magnificent Seven]]''. (Note that it's made to seem longer than it is by Homer looking back to the phonebook after ''every'' digit).

-->--'''Moss''', ''{{Series/The IT Crowd}}''

* Mitch Hedburg jokes about company [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoneword phonewords]] that are much longer than the actual phone number, saying that he always he insists on dialing the words out to the bitter end.
* Dane Cook's rant about car accidents (specifically, when the other guy is an absolute jerk) includes a list of utterly absurd details about the contact information that gets exchanged, such as a 48-digit phone number and a sketch of a monkey screwing a coconut for a name.

** When Homer calls Japan, he dials a ridiculous series of digits (we can't see what he's dialing). At one point, he touch-tones the theme to ''Film/TheMagnificentSeven''. (Note that it's made to seem longer than it is by Homer looking back to the phonebook after ''every'' digit).

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/UncleGrandpa'', [[Music/AndrewWK Andrew W.K.'s]] party hotline's number is [[FiveFiveFive 555-5555-5555-555-555555555-5555-55-5-5-55-555-555-555555-55-55555-55-55.]]

Sort of TruthInTelevision: To dial on a public phone from Tokyo to Guadalajara, Mexico, for example, you have to dial ''0041-010-52-33-XXXX-XXXX'', where 0041 is the long distance carrier,[[note]]In this case, Softbank, and this prefix is actually optional, though it's usually not recommended to omit it for the reason shown below.[[/note]] 010 is the international long distance code,[[note]]If you chose to omit the carrier selection prefix, you will be connected through the default carrier for your phone company, usually NTT, which is well known for its extortionate rates.[[/note]] 52 is Mexico's country code, 33 is Guadalajara's city code, and XXXX-XXXX is the local phone number. Also, any extra digits are ignored once you've finished dialing a full valid number, so sometimes harmless extra letters are tacked on to a mnemonic (i.e. 1-800-BUSINESS-NAME).

* An Alec Baldwin episode of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' had a false ad promoting a new collect-call service:

* The technical support line for the Insan-O-Flex in ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce Colon Movie Film For Theaters''.

* Used in ''YouDontMessWithTheZohan'' to have some Palestinian-Americans call an extraordinarily long number to reach the "Hizballah Phone-Line". It turned out that "terrorist-supply service will resume as soon as negotiations break down".
* In a surreal comedy bit, Music/JohnLennon dials one of these from his below-ground resting area in [[Music/TheBeatles the Beatles' house]] in ''{{Help}}'', to set off Paul, George and Ringo's alarm clocks late at night.

* Inverted in ''LiveActionTV/{{Supernatural}}'', where Crowley's phone number is just "[[NumberOfTheBeast 666]]".

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': "If you're going to be in the UsefulNotes/LosAngeles area und would like tickets to ''[[ThoseWackyNazis Hitler]]'', then call 213-[[GratuitousGerman Du-Werdest-Eine-Krankenschwester-Brauchen!]]" The English translation is "You will need a nurse" in broken German.

* ''TalkSoup'' had a gag like this, but it was intentionally parodying 10-10-321 (formerly 10-321) and a host of other similar ads that were advertised at the time, especially on E! network. The chain ended with "...and pi, then press 1, and then the number you want to dial!"
* ''TheAmandaShow'' did this for each of its "When ______s Attack!" sketches; for example: "1 (500) I-Just-Saw-the-Brady-Bunch-Attack-Some-Person-and-Now-I'm-Calling-This-Number-to-Report-What-I-Saw".

* ''SheepInTheBigCity'' had one episode where they cut to commercial as a character picked up the phone. When it returns, the character is still dialing, and the narrator comments, "[[LampshadeHanging If you're wondering why he's still dialing, he's calling one of those really long collect call numbers]]."

* In an episode of ''UncleGrandpa'', [[Music/AndrewWK Andrew W.K.'s]] party hotline's number is [[FiveFiveFive 555-5555-5555-555-555555555-5555-55-5-5-55-555-555-555555-55-55555-55-55.]]

* An Alec Baldwin episode of ''SaturdayNightLive'' had a false ad promoting a new collect-call service:

* In a surreal comedy bit, JohnLennon dials one of these from his below-ground resting area in [[Music/TheBeatles the Beatles' house]] in ''{{Help}}'', to set off Paul, George and Ringo's alarm clocks late at night.

->''"[[IdiotSavant Well, that's easy to remember]]: ♪ 0118 999 881 999 119 725 -{{beat}}- 3 ♪"''

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** Another example comes from "Poppa's Got A Brand New Badge", where Homer creates his own security agency. He implores customers: "don't dial [=911=], dial 636-[[FiveFiveFive 555]]-347-2."

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* StuartAshen once did a fake promotional message to support Sad Onions (long story). The Website/YouTube comments were quick to jump on the fact that the long phone number he recites is different from the number that scrolls along the bottom of the screen. Someone put the "promo" into its own video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax7qU-Y2nGQ here]].

* StuartAshen once did a fake promotional message to support Sad Onions (long story). The Website/YouTube comments were quick to jump on the fact that the long phone number he recites is different from the number that scrolls along the bottom of the screen.

* Played with in Ralf König's graphic novel ''Hempels Sofa''. As the psychotherapist protagonist Silke Hempel comes to her office in Berlin, her Cuban cleaning-woman is using the office phone, but when confronted, Conchita claims she was only making a local call to her husband. Silke then presses the redial-button, which is followed by three panels of the phone going "tickertitacka tickertitacka tickertick tacktick tickertackerticktick tickertacktik tickertacktick tackertickertack tickertacktack tacktick tickertick tickertackertick ticktacktick tackerticktacker tackertick" until she finally hears the beeps and a Spanish-speaking voice saying "aló?" (Conchita's mother in Cuba).

** Another example comes from "Poppa's Got A Brand New Badge", where Homer creates his own security agency. He implores customers: "don't dial [=911=], dial 636-555-347-2."

* ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'': Recurring villain Dr. Jacques von Hamsterviel's phone number is, in one episode, given as "5550198293434533655882".

* ''TalkSoup'' had a gag like this, but it was intentionally parodying 10-10-321 (formerly 10-321) and a host of other similar ads that were advertised at the time, especially on E! network. As I rememeber, the chain ended with "...and pi, then press 1, and then the number you want to dial!"

Sort of TruthInTelevision: To dial on a public phone from Tokyo to Guadalajara, Mexico, for example, you have to dial ''0041-010-52-33-XXXX-XXXX'', where 0041 is the long distance carrier,[[note]]In this case, Softbank, and this prefix is actually optional, though it's usually not recommended to omit it for the reason shown below.[[/note]] 010 is the international long distance code,[[note]]If you chose to omit the carrier selection prefix, you will be connected through the default carrier for your phone company, usually NTT, which is well known [[AnArmAndALeg for its extortionate rates]].[[/note]] 52 is Mexico's country code, 33 is Guadalajara's city code, and XXXX-XXXX is the local phone number. Also, any extra digits are ignored once you've finished dialing a full valid number, so sometimes harmless extra letters are tacked on to a mnemonic (i.e. 1-800-BUSINESS-NAME).