Frank Pranks: Dial 'c' for Chump!

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

There are two types of people living in Canada—those who have been
“Franked” and those who are glad they have not. To be Franked is to
receive a phone call from a well-known person or organization, or a
representative of a famous person, and asked to answer a few innocent
questions about a colleague. The next thing you know, your comments are
appearing in Frank magazine and, without meaning to, you have just made
a world-class donkey out of yourself. Frank admits that “[n]o tactic
is too heartless in our continuing mission to expose the guilty, provoke
the greedy and mock the powerful.” Among the victims featured in Frank
Pranks are Farley Mowat, Pierre Berton, Sheila Copps, Elwy Yost, Lloyd
Robertson, Joe Clark, and “most of the membership of the Reform
Party/Canadian Alliance.” Like most great cons, Frank tries to snare
its victims by playing on their weaknesses.

Who else could get Ernst Zundel, notorious Holocaust denier, to agree
to pose nude for Canadian Cosmo magazine “if it is done tastefully?”
When the prime minister was looking to fill the office of governor
general, a Frank prankster posing as one of Mr. Chrétien’s aides
called up actor Al Waxman, singer Rita McNeil, ex-Liberal Jag Bhaduria,
First Nations’ activist Ovid Mercredi, and media personality Adrienne
Clarkson to “sound them out” on whether they would like the job.

Along with the pranks are Frank’s famous computer-enhanced
photographs. If you like your humor rude and crude, Frank has your
number. A topless Queen Elizabeth II, Brian Mulroney in drag, Al
Eagleson in prison togs, and a mock ad pairing comedian Dave Broadfoot
with the caption “He’s not funny. Neither is Gun Registry” are
some examples.

As long as you or someone you love is not the butt of the joke, Frank
can be absolutely hilarious. And yet, because the magazine preys on
Canada’s most rich and powerful people, a Frank prank in this country
is one way of telling you, you’ve made it.