On
November 1, 2008, American
vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin
fell prey to a prank call by the Masked Avengers, a Canadian
radio comedy
duo, who tricked Palin into believing she was talking to French
President Nicolas Sarkozy.
During the conversation, the fake Sarkozy talked to Palin about
foreign policy, hunting, and the
2008 U.S. presidential
election. After it was revealed to Palin that the call was a
prank, she handed the phone to one of her assistants who told the
comedy duo "I have to let you go" and hung up.
Both the McCain and Obama campaigns released light-hearted
statements about the prank. However, a McCain campaign advisor said
that behind the scenes, aides and advisors to the campaign were not
happy that the pranksters were able to lie their way up to Palin,
or with the publicity Palin received because of the call.
Background
The Masked
Avengers, a Canadian radio duo from Montreal
, Quebec
, had become
notorious for making prank calls to celebrities. Disk jockeys and comedians Sébastien Trudel and
Marc-Antoine Audette had previously pranked celebrities like
business mogul
Bill Gates, golfer
Tiger Woods, singer
Britney Spears, and French president
Nicolas Sarkozy.
Sarah
Palin was the Republican governor of
Alaska
. On August 29, 2008, John McCain announced
that she would be his running mate in the 2008 presidential
election against
Democrats Barack Obama and
Joe
Biden. Critics of Palin voiced their concern what they saw as
her lack of foreign policy experience, especially after an
interview with
Katie Couric of the
CBS Evening News where
Palin was criticized by many for her answer to a question about her
"foreign policy credentials".
Preparation
Marc-Antoine Audette said that it took the duo about four or five
days of calls to Palin's staff to finally be able to talk to her.
They claimed that they started by talking to low-level people in
Alaska and made their way up through Palin's campaign staff.
Audette said that at first they didn't think their prank would
work, calling it a "mission impossible". He claimed that "after
about a dozen calls", the duo "started to realize it [the prank
call] might work, because her [Sarah Palin's] staff didn't know the
name of the French President. They asked us to spell it." Audette
and Trudel credited their ability to make their way up through
Palin's staff to sounding convincing during the first few calls,
always arranging to place the call at a set time, and not leaving a
contact number. The four days of calls needed to talk to Palin was
quicker compared to some of their other pranks. Audette and Trudel
said that it took them two months to talk to
Paul McCartney and one to talk to
Bill Gates, but only two days to prank
Britney Spears.
Conversation
Finally, on November 1, the Masked Avengers were able to talk to
Palin. The call began with Trudel, who claimed to be an aide to
Sarkozy named "Frank l’ouvrier", talking to an assistant to Palin
who identifies herself as "Lexi". Lexi puts Palin on the line, who
says "hello" only to realize that Trudel is still on the other
line. Trudel tells Palin to hold on for a moment while he gives the
phone to Sarkozy, who is really Audette. Palin can be heard talking
to someone in the room about when to hand Palin the phone. Audette
then begins to speak.
At this point, Palin leaves the phone and can be heard in the
background telling her aides that the call was "just a radio
station prank". Audette is still on the line and jokes that "if one
voice can change the world for Obama, one
Viagra can change the world for McCain." One of
Palin's assistants picks up the phone and says "I’m sorry, I have
to let you go. Thank you."
Notes
Reaction
In an e-mail, Palin spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt wrote that "Governor
Palin was mildly amused to learn that she had joined the ranks of
heads of state, including President Sarkozy, and other celebrities
in being targeted by these pranksters. C'est la vie." When asked by
reporters about the conversation, Palin said that she would "keep a
sense of humor through all of this, just as we [the McCain
campaign] did with
SNL [parodies of her], too." She added
that "you've got to have some levity in all this."
Barack Obama senior advisor
Robert
Gibbs jokingly said in an interview that "I'm glad we [the
Obama campaign] check out our calls before we hand the phone to
Barack Obama."
The Masked Avengers received a sudden burst of fame from the prank.
They gave
more than 300 interviews about the conversation, and were even
flown to New York
City
by CBS to appear on The Early Show. In an interview,
Marc-Antoine Audette and Sébastien Trudel said that they found it
"pretty disturbing to see that idiots like us can go through to a
vice-presidential candidate", and claimed that they were just "two
stupid comedians with a bad French accent." The Masked Avengers
also admitted that the call was "probably the biggest [prank] we've
ever done."
When recalling the experience, Audette said that "once we [Audette
and Trudel] started making jokes, she didn't seem to mind, and she
didn't seem to be aware of the fact we were making jokes", which
according to Audette was when "we were like 'Oh my God this [call]
is gonna be long'". The duo also said that they weren't trying to
make any political statements with the call, they just like to take
high-profile people to task.
Impact
After McCain and Palin were defeated in the general election, a
Republican campaign advisor told
The New York Times that the McCain
Campaign was not happy about the prank, which caused friction
between McCain and Palin. McCain and his advisors were allegedly
upset that Palin did not tell them beforehand that she planned to
speak with who she thought was
Nicolas
Sarkozy. McCain strategist
Steve
Schmidt called a meeting and demanded to know who let Palin
talk to the fake Sarkozy without checking with senior advisors
first.
Steve Biegun, one of Palin's aides admitting
to vetting the call without speaking to campaign advisors or the
U.S.
State Department, told the Los
Angeles Times that "No one's going to beat me up more than
I beat myself up for setting up the governor like
that."
See also
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