Three years ago, college students started passing around bootleg tapes of prank phone calls so weird and raunchy they'd make Howard Stern blush. Before you could say ''Listen up, jerky!'' the duo behind the calls were campus cult heroes with a 900-number (the now-defunct 1-900-AU-JERKY) and a Select Records deal. On Aug. 16, the Jerky Boys released The Jerky Boys 2, their second album, which sold 270,000 copies its first week and landed at No. 12 on Billboard's pop chart-making it the biggest debut ever for a comedy album. In December, we'll have The Jerky Boys, the movie, from Disney's Caravan Pictures. The plot (and we use the word loosely) involves the not-so-merry pranksters choosing the wrong guys to call. The men behind the Boys are two working-class stiffs from Queens, N.Y. Johnny B., a.k.a. John Brennan, 32, is the one who spits out the obscene, rapid-fire punchlines (a mild example: ''Don't make me come over there, fruitcake''). Kamal (Ahmed), 28, is his stoned-sounding partner. The two, who refused to reveal their identities for the first two years (usually appearing with bandannas over their faces-''to keep the myth going,'' says a Select spokesperson), have come clean in anticipation of impending movie stardom. We talked to them-by phone, natch-as they happily chuck the myth for the vulgarities of fame. EW: How do you pick your phone victims? Johnny B.: We just pick up the Help Wanteds and call. I've done a lot of jobs in my life, so it sounds like I know what I'm talking about. I sound educated, but I'm a f -- -in' idiot.
EW: Who are your comic influences? Johnny B.: For me, Jonathan Winters. Kamal: John Wayne he's hysterical. I loved him in The Quiet Man.
EW: Did you guys go to college? Kamal: I turned down Harvard. Johnny B.: I used to go to college to make hot chocolate. I used to go in, make hot chocolate, and leave. It made me feel good about myself.
EW: What's your advice to college students? Johnny B.: Get a nice degree, spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, and go back and live with your parents.
EW: How do you like being called ''working-class heroes''? Kamal: It's a lot better than working.
