Prank on a Belgian call center (with captions in English)

Probably the most elaborate prank of its kind ever, it was a huge hit on ° VRT (Belgium) television January 10, 2011. To share it with the rest of the world, English subtitles were a must. Enjoy!

To see the captions, click on the YouTube text bubble.

Mathieu, the security guard, became a folk hero overnight for his friendly demeanor.

Program link: http://www.een.be/programmas/basta
Original clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efLCvx...

Mobistar commented after the broadcast that their call center problems had been temporary, and that more people had since been hired to shorten wait times.

The music choice is brilliant as well:
Background: "Green Leaves of Summer" from John Wayne's 1960 epic "The Alamo", and also used in "Inglorious Basterds".
'On hold' song: "Hello, is it me you're looking for?" by Lionel Richie.

Update:
The Basta guys are unstoppable. On Jan 17, they unveiled a 6 month undercover operation on the producers of nightly call-in "quizzes". This demonstrated what everybody suspected for years, i.e. that they are a scam. The authorities weren't able (or willing) to ban them. The day after Basta's broadcast , the games were cancelled.

On Jan 24, they went after SABAM, a Belgian artists rights and copyright collective.

If you understand Flemish / Dutch, you can see all the episodes at: http://www.een.be/basta

• Category

  Comedy

[BelRiose2000]

So, what was the reason they sat inside the container? They could have done it from anywhere. And the synthesizer was not needed, since the tune kept playing even when the guy had his fingers off the keys.

[Petanque America]

You are so right! You are brilliant!

If you had not commented, the world would be a worse place ...

[ollemunk]

Brilliant.

And impressive how patient and even polite the security guy remains. Flemish are nice people.

[Excentner]

Why had a security man to sorrow for bad customer service?

[hiuwo]

Because it is the point of the company, to make containers that can be used as portable work stations

[vveolia]

It was so fun. Nice prank.

[spellindenaam]

agreed :P mobistar is fcked up (zeker hun customer service. ksen blij dak er weg ben)

[missinghome456]

As an ex mobistar customer, I think Mobistar sure deserves it.

[Luuk Vermei]

It's called fun and entertainment. Some people find this kind of nice. You could take a look at the page about it on wikipedia. BTW what's the reason you are reacting right now? Definetly not needed.

[f0xmuld3r]

Jammer dat je een deel mist qua vertaling met de enquete...