Fonejacker is a British sketch comedy television show aired on E4, featuring prank phone calls made by various characters, all voiced by British-Iranian actor Kayvan Novak. The show debuted in May 2006, with its popularity leading to a full series in 2007.
In 2005, Kayvan Novak and Ed Tracy created, wrote and directed Fonejacker, a prank call show, as part of Channel 4 Comedy Lab. After making the pilot together they were given a Christmas special and a six-part series which began airing in the UK on 5 July 2007 on E4 and lasted 6 episodes. They went on to make a second series which began airing on 17 September 2008 on E4, and started on Channel 4 on 6 November 2008. Kayvan Novak said that he was "not sure there will be a third series of Fonejacker" but despite this, several websites reported in October 2009 that a third series would air in May 2010.
In November 2009, the third series was officially announced, with the news that it would be called "Fonejacker 3D" and feature Kayvan Novak portraying both old and new Fonejacker characters face-to-face in the public domain. Renamed Facejacker, the new show began airing on 16 April 2010.
Fonejacker won the BAFTA award for the "Best Comedy Programme" in 2008. Novak plans to create a film based on the show's characters, and is currently in talks with Film4 and Hat Trick Productions.International Business Times. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
Synopsis The show features a masked prank caller (Kayvan Novak) who phones unsuspecting members of the public under various guises, in an attempt to confuse or 'wind up' the recipient. The audio is accompanied by on-screen imagery, consisting of pictures of people with crudely animated moving mouths, or by undercover filming in which Novak is in a street calling a company nearby, usually from inside a public phone booth or from a rickshaw. Occasionally short videos with actors are used instead of images; examples include a sketch where a man is robbing a bank, or one where men in hazmat suits are removing a pigeon from a bank vault. Novak is always seen wearing a red and white balaclava (black in the pilot) and sunglasses. In a new pilot for series 2, he is seen wearing a woolly hat with the initials G.P.R. and a black Mitre Premier League coat. Although Novak's appearance is not seen as the Fonejacker, he appears during Mr Doovdé's calls as a model advertising various items.
Each episode begins with "fonejack" and the definition, to seize control of a telephone conversation by farce esp. to divert it from reason and logic, usually followed by Novak calling Directory Enquiries as Mr Doovdé on an American pay phone. The rooftop where the pre-title sequence fonejack takes place is on top of Guy's Hospital, in Central London.
The final episode of the first series revealed that Novak does not inform all victims that their calls were pranks. Two separate victims had made contact with Novak for the second time both reporting calls. One called Novak back after being fonejacked by George Agdgdgwngo, where he guised himself as Terry Tibbs, and the second incident occurred when a detective character rang a man informing him of an African scammer (George), and "coincidentally" the man reported a call from George. This also implies that not all calls are broadcast, as the people had not been seen in previous episodes. This was further established when on Soccer AM, Kayvan was interviewed on the show, and revealed that he tried a prank with Kidderminster Harriers in the guise of Terry Tibbs, but as the prank did not work due to the chairman being unavailable, the call was not broadcast.
Broadcast The show began as a pilot for Comedy Lab, a Channel 4 show that showcases new comic talent, in 2006. After much popularity, it was given a six-part series in October 2006 which was initially intended for broadcast on E4 in April in the following year. It was also given a Christmas special that was broadcast on 25 December 2006 entitled Fonejacker's Christmas Message which was a five-minute short version of the pilot. The end of the show displayed Fonejacker: Coming April 2007 – Don't Pick Up The Phone.
In March, a teaser trailer started to air on Channel 4 and E4, which consisted of clips of the pilot put together into a thirty-second advert, ending with e4.com/fonejacker, which redirected users to the Fonejacker MySpace page. However, for undisclosed reasons, the show was put on hold, and wasn't aired in April. New trailers aired in June which saw the Fonejacker in his own flat performing various calls, and a television tuned into the news reporting "new sightings of the Fonejacker". The advert ended with the catchphrase "Don't Pick Up The Phone" and finished with the same E4 website. This was followed a couple of days after by a newer alternative advert.
Hours before the show's first broadcast, Novak called into Big Brother's Little Brother as Terry Tibbs, talking to contestant Jonathan about distinctive eyebrows. However, there was no mention of Fonejacker as presenter Dermot O'Leary seemed puzzled. As part of the advertising for the show, "Fonejacker Tonight 10.30" was displayed throughout the night under E4's on-screen graphic.
A 2007 Christmas special was broadcast on 20 December 2007 and a second series for 2008 was commissioned.
DVD releases FoneJacker Series 1: The DVD of the first series of Fonejacker was released on 8 October 2007 and includes features such as behind the scenes, outtakes and character interviews. It also includes the pilot episode and the E4 Christmas Message.
Fonejacker Series 2: The DVD of the second series released on 27 October 2008 and includes an interview with Kayvan Novak, unseen footage, E4 Christmas Special Episode and commentaries.
A "Fonejacker Series 1 and 2" box set has also been released. It was released on the same date as Series 2.
A "Facejacker" series one DVD has been released, boxed with series one and two of "Fonejacker".
Release dates DVD TitleDiscsYearNo. of Ep.DVD releaseNotesRegion 2Complete Series 112006–200778 October 2007Includes Comedy Lab pilotComplete Series 212007–2008727 October 2008Includes the 2007 Christmas specialComplete Series 1 – 222006–20081427 October 2008Includes the Comedy Lab pilot & the 2007 Christmas special
Other appearances
Kayvan Novak had two interviews under the cover of his characters on the night show of Kerrang Radio, and then for what was believed to be a UK first, spoke out of character about various things.
On 6 September 2008, he also appeared on Sky Sports football show Soccer AM.
On 15 September 2008, he appeared on Kiss 100 radio station.
On 13 November 2008 Kayvan Novak appeared on the Channel 4 show 8 out of 10 Cats.
On 28 December 2008, Kayvan as the Fonejacker wearing his trademark balaclava provided on video the answer to a question, regarding Jeremy Clarkson publishing his bank account details in a newspaper, on the Channel 4 show The Big Fat Quiz of the Year.
Kayvan rang into the Big Brother fanzone show (Big Brother's Little Brother) in 2007 portraying his character of Terry Tibbs.
In 2010, Fonejacker took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, filmed live at the O2 Arena in London on 30 March.
On 6 May 2010, during Channel 4's Alternative Election Night, a series of Fonejacker clips were made for the show, mainly his Sajnu character phoning people on who they would like to vote for or trying to get them to vote for a party.
As of June 17, 2021 Fonejacker returned in the form of a podcast featuring all new prank calls, bringing back Kayvan's classic characters such as Terry Tibbs, Brian Badonde and Irish Mike. The initial release included 8 episodes, each running 10–14 minutes long.
Characters There are many characters on Fonejacker, some who make multiple appearances. Below is a list of the characters that have appeared on the show so far:
Recurring cast
Mr Doovdé is a camel riding aficionado of electrical goods who constantly misinterprets initialisms as acronyms, believing that they represent how the terms are pronounced and not spelt, e.g. 'Hoomv' (HMV), 'Doovdé' (DVD), 'Joovc' (JVC), 'Poospé' (PSP), 'USBÉ' (USB) and 'bosom' (BSM). He is completely oblivious to the confusion he causes as a result of this. At the beginning of most episodes, he phones Directory Enquiries and asks for places in the same way as he does for the electrical goods. Examples that have been shown so far are: 'Duhfs' (DFS), 'Pük World' (PC World) and 'Doovlah' (DVLA). In the E4 Christmas Message, he asks about putting the 'hututupuh' (http) and woo.hoomv.co.uhk (www.hmv.co.uk). As he tells the sales people what he wants, Japanese, Indian or Bollywood-style adverts appear on screen that features Kayvan Novak himself. He appears to be riding his camel in front of inner-city Jerusalem. On some occasions he has also been used to phone various places asking the name of a tune (e.g., phoning a hotel to ask what music was played in the bar). He then sings the tune to the person on the phone, though due to his accent the tune sounds like an Arabian song. These segments are done using live action and a hidden camera, as opposed to animation like when he phones direct inquiries or stores. First appearance: Comedy Lab pilot
George Agdgdgwngo (pronounced Ag-dug-a-dug-gwengo) is a very polite Ugandan scammer. He opens nearly every conversation with "Goooooood afternoon sir/madame!" and tries to trick people into believing that all electronically stored bank account money in fact physically exists in personal vaults. He tries to obtain people's bank account details in a variety of ways, such as needing the details to obtain access to a bank vault due to it being steam cleaned or decorated for Christmas, a man suffering cardiac arrest inside, or to remove a pigeon infected with bird flu. He claims to be a representative of several companies including Money Removal Plc, Bank Festive Redistribution Plc, Eastern Union Money Transfer (a word play on Western Union, often used by scammers) and British Gas. He is usually unsuccessful in obtaining people's details, believing one man's sort code was "fuck off". One man did give a number, although it transpired he was reading yesterday's lottery numbers out of a newspaper and the answer to his security question was "Jimmy Savile", who he claimed was his uncle. Another method George uses is to tell people they have won a cash prize or CPM aka "Cash Prize Monies!" that needs to be transferred to their bank account, but it is always a very small sum of money. George often quotes the amount in Ugandan dollars before converting to sterling on his vintage computer, which is next to a photo of Chris Eubank, although this was later replaced with Robert Mugabe along with George being pictured inside a security hut wearing a suit as opposed to an African hair salon wearing traditional African dress. The fictional 'Ugandan dollar' supposedly trades at about Ug$4,900 to £1 sterling (the genuine currency of Uganda, the Ugandan shilling, has a similar exchange rate). He usually opens with the line "Goooooood morning/afternoon/evening sir/madame!" regardless of who answers the phone or time of day. He is wanted by the Zimbabwe telephone fraud prevention unit. When asked by a victim how the money he has been rebated will be sent to them, he explains that it is transferred electronically ("wired") to them directly by his cousin Benson. Benson is portrayed by a real actor when he appears on-screen, whereas George himself is an animated illustration (although a live-action version of George when he was a child in the early 1980s has been shown). He is apparently 6′4″ in Detective Horace Van Khute's telephone identity parade. First appearance: Comedy Lab pilot