Have to agree, Grace, those "play a joke on another person" calls can really
upset me. Some can be funny, but they tend to be a test of proffesionalism
of a person at work rather than anything on a personal level. Dealing with
awkward customers is part of the job, and radio stations can use that to
their advantage.

However, some are very personal and disturb me greatly. But the one that had
me in tears (and not of laughter) was when they rang someone who was
withholding their rates (land taxes) from the local council because they
believed the council was not supplying the services that the rates were
meant to pay for. The "joke" was that the council had taken his dog in part
payment of the rates. Understandably the 'victim' was incredibly upset about
the kidnapping of his dog and as the call went on. It is *terribly* unmacho
for a blokey man to cry here in Oz, but the poor guy eventually started to
cry, and ended up threatening to kill anyone who laid a had on his dog.

The thought of Fluffy being taken away by strangers and sold to cover my
debts would upset the life out of me as well. She's not "just a dog", she's
*our* Fluffy and we are *her* humans. Knowing how upset she gets when she's
in a strange place even when both Joel and I are there makes me utterly
nauseus to think how she'd feel to be taken to a strange place with
strangers. And yes, I think *I'd* probably threaten to kill anyone who hurt
her as well - she's my baby.

So I couldn't find the man's reaction to the emotional torture the radio
station put him thorugh even remotely funny.

Now ringing up a take-away place to complain that there was an elephant in
your burger, that could be considered funny. But it still wastes people's
time. It does waste innocent people's time, but there it can hardly be
considered personal in the way kidnapping someone's dog certainly is.

Yowie