UCLA campus floods; Louis Slungpue is on the scene

[LongTimeListener]

The footage here is wild -- a water main burst and flowed for hours, pumping millions of gallons of water all over campus. Pauley Pavilion had an inch of standing water. People had to be rescued from the underground garages.

KABC was fortunate enough to talk to a spokesman named Louis Slungpue. At the 1:20 mark, we learn "it was either a cherry bomb or someone took a really large dump."

At the end, anchors say to disregard the call. "Not funny at all."

Oh, I disagree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyN39PY0d4M&feature=player_embedded

 

[The Big Ragu]

That was ridiculous. When they put "Louis Slungpue" on the screen, I laughed out loud.

Worth repeating: "It was either a cherry bomb, or someone took a really large dump."

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

Wow, that's great.

 

[Chef2]

Slungpue.

Classic.

 

[poindexter]

Even during the last seconds of the call, after someone off camera says its a crank call, the dummy female anchor says, "we lost him, we'll work to get him back".

Anyone know the name of the two dummies?

 

[poindexter]

Interview with Slungpue:

http://www.kfiam640.com/onair/gary-hoffmann-11314/reporters-punked-by-fake-dwp-spokesperson-12616765/

 

[Steak Snabler]

Heywood Jablome not available for comment.

 

[DanOregon]

I agree it wasn't funny at all....that a newscast puts an unconfirmed "official" source on live air. Dumb. Hell, check a website, buy a sandwich do some f'kin thing.

But it isn't like there were injuries or deaths. If it's too serious to not make prank calls about, it's serious enough to check your sources.

 

[HanSenSE]

Any chance the folks who put the call on the air worked in the Bay area around the time of the Asiana crash?

 

[DanOregon]

I think the Asiana thing was an internet "joke" sent by a producer by another producer, who thought it was real and ran with it.

Man - I can only imagine what humorless places newsrooms of the future are destined to be. You take away pay, job growth, fellow employees and the dark humor that sometimes makes the job bearable during tough times...

Wait a second...I remember a senior editor came by one night of some breaking local news we were busting our ass on and I sarcastically said "it's been horrible tonight...the cable tv isn't working." He actually quoted me in a staff memo later talking about "appropriate use" of the newsroom TVs. I'm sure if he used my name, people would have realized how much farther out of touch with the newsroom he was than people already knew he was.

 

[User 4332]

Any chance the folks who put the call on the air worked in the Bay area around the time of the Asiana crash?

The guy behind it talked to this radio station and says he's never tried anything like this before. His story is he and some buddies were sitting around and they dared him to call in the tip line, things just went from there. If he's telling the truth, it's a fascinating look at how easy it is to dupe some stations.

http://www.kfiam640.com/onair/gary-hoffmann-11314/reporters-punked-by-fake-dwp-spokesperson-12616765/

 

[Bob Cook]

Any chance the folks who put the call on the air worked in the Bay area around the time of the Asiana crash?

The guy behind it talked to this radio station and says he's never tried anything like this before. His story is he and some buddies were sitting around and they dared him to call in the tip line, things just went from there. If he's telling the truth, it's a fascinating look at how easy it is to dupe some stations.

http://www.kfiam640.com/onair/gary-hoffmann-11314/reporters-punked-by-fake-dwp-spokesperson-12616765/

Don't these stations have caller ID?

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Of course the stupid clam thinks its, "not funny at all." Most people don't find it funny when they are shown to be vacuous morons who can't think on their feet whatsoever.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Any chance the folks who put the call on the air worked in the Bay area around the time of the Asiana crash?

The guy behind it talked to this radio station and says he's never tried anything like this before. His story is he and some buddies were sitting around and they dared him to call in the tip line, things just went from there. If he's telling the truth, it's a fascinating look at how easy it is to dupe some stations.

http://www.kfiam640.com/onair/gary-hoffmann-11314/reporters-punked-by-fake-dwp-spokesperson-12616765/

Don't these stations have caller ID?

Yeah, but it doesn't always do much good. Everyone uses a cell now, so odds are all that will come up is a number that tells you nothing.

I work in TV, so I'm obviously biased, but I generally don't find this **** funny at all. At least this was on a minor spot news event.

I'm generally the one in the control room in these situations, not the one taking the call and sending it to the control room. My first question is always "Did we call them or did they call us?" If they called us, there's very little chance I'll put it on air. The last thing I want is some asswipe screaming "Baba Booey!" on my newscast.

 

[Fly]

 

[DeskMonkey1]

Any chance the folks who put the call on the air worked in the Bay area around the time of the Asiana crash?

The guy behind it talked to this radio station and says he's never tried anything like this before. His story is he and some buddies were sitting around and they dared him to call in the tip line, things just went from there. If he's telling the truth, it's a fascinating look at how easy it is to dupe some stations.

http://www.kfiam640.com/onair/gary-hoffmann-11314/reporters-punked-by-fake-dwp-spokesperson-12616765/

Not exactly the same but I remember reading several years ago about a blogger for a MLB team, a blogger who while he had a decent-enough sized audience, still wasn't one of the elites. Anyway, he posed as lower-level team employee and in the end, had a beat writer for a reputable paper tweeting out "Sources say MLB Team A is trading it's top prospect for Joe Slugger (I dont remember the teams or players involved).

Although it was written straight up with no humor, I found it funny and it's why I always take trade rumors with a grain of salt, even if they come from the big boys.