Basic Trope: A call that is a joke.
- Straight: Bob calls Alice's Restaurant and asks if their refrigerator is running. Alice says "Yes", and Bob says, "Well, you better go catch it!"
- Exaggerated:
- The President receives a warning that Iran had launched I.C.B.Ms targeting Europe. It is later revealed to be a prank call from the United Kingdom.
- Alice's Restaurant spends an entire episode being bombarded with prank calls about refrigerators running and Prince Albert in a Can.
- Downplayed: Bob makes a joke while talking to Alice privately.
- Justified: Bob finds prank calls amusing.
- Inverted: Bob asks Alice a serious question.
- Subverted:
- Bob actually needs to know if her refrigerator is running.
- Mistaken for Prank Call in general.
- Bob dialed the phone police... Whoops.
- Double Subverted:
- But then he asks for Prince Albert in a Can. That was meant as a joke.
- Charles smiles at having out-pranked another prank-caller with his "Phone police" prank.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: ???
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Alice prevents prank calls by using caller ID and call-blocking features that to block calls from "Private"/"Unavailable"/"Unknown"/"Restricted" phone numbers.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Played for Laughs:
- Bob prank calls Alice... and gets into trouble because he didn't realize that caller ID would get him caught.
- Bob prank calls Alice about refrigerators and Prince Albert in a Can. She gets upset at his using unoriginal jokes.
- Played for Drama: After one prank call too many, Alice threatens legal action against Bob over his nuisance calls.
Back to Prank Call.
