"My first love is stand-up and I tour all over, and I love doing it."

Although Jim Florentine is an Emmy-winning comedian and a stand-up headliner around the world, most people are familiar with Jim through his characters Special Ed and Bobby Fletcher on the hit show Crank Yankers. Now that Crank Yankers has made the jump from Comedy Central to MTV2 for its fourth season, we tracked down Jim Florentine in NYC to see how the show actually comes together, what it’s like to crank call so many people, what guest stars will be appearing on Crank Yankers this season and his voice work on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.

UGO: After pulling pranks and cranks on so many people over the years, are there any consistent patterns with your targets?

JIM FLORENTINE: I’ve just noticed that we have to call areas where people have a little more patience. I remember during the first season of Crank Yankers we were calling a lot of New York numbers and, you know, they don’t have time for anything. If they hear you messing around, they hang up in ten seconds. We started to call down South more often - Georgia, Alabama - where people are a little nicer and will be more patient with us so that we can really get into a good call.

UGO: The upcoming Bobby segment about debt consolidation is hilarious. Are you surprised at how much patience some people have?

JIM: Yeah, he just stayed on the line, man. My thing is to say, "No, don’t go. This is the perfect time," like I never want to get off of the phone. No matter what’s going on, I have to pretend to be doing something, so it’s better to get it done right then. You know, you just play it off like you don’t think you’re doing anything wrong and they start to believe that you’re just an idiot and they deal with it. The patience is surprising. Some calls I actually have to say something really offensive just to get them to hang up.

UGO: What other guest stars will we see this season aside from Dane Cook, Dave Chappelle, and Seth Green?

JIM: I know Lil’ Jon is doing it. He and Special Ed are doing one later on in the season. As well, there’s Steve-O, Good Charlotte, Andy Milonakis, Nick Cannon, Ryan Dunn, and Chamillionaire.

UGO: I’ve heard that you have ten episodes in the can. Is that the complete season?

JIM: I think there’s eight, actually, and the season is done. We did the taping a few months back and they put it to puppets and all of that stuff.

UGO: How do you determine who the targets will be?

JIM: I don’t know exactly how they do that, because they [the producers] usually have a bunch of numbers we can call. I guess they just go on the Internet and get a bunch. If the idea is to call a travel agency and mess around with them, they will get a bunch of travel agencies around the country, figure out what time they are open and other information, and we just dial away. That would be more behind the scenes stuff and I’m not exactly sure how they do that, but we’re not just sitting there with a phone book going through the stuff.

UGO: How many attempts does it usually take to hook someone?

JIM: Anywhere between three and ten. They are really the stars, the people on the other end of the line. They play along, get aggravated, and say some crazy stuff, but sometimes they just play along or they’re not responding and that’s not a good call.

UGO: Since the show is so popular, have you ever bumped into anyone that you’ve crank called?

JIM: Not face to face, but a lot of people know. They say, "Hey this is Crank Yankers. Is this Special Ed? Is this Bobby Fletcher?" It happens to us a lot. It happened in the middle of the second season when the show really started taking off, especially with the college kids. We called a video store and a college kid answered, and he’s like, "This is Special Ed. Holy s**t! I want to be on Crank Yankers." I’m like, "Well, play along."

UGO: When was the last time you were talking to Howard Stern?

JIM: Back in December. I go on the his show every couple of months.

UGO: Are you going to be working on new episodes of Meet the Creeps?

JIM: We just did a pilot for Comedy Central, so I’m waiting to find out what happens with that and whether they’re going to pick it up or not. If not, we’ll try to sell it somewhere else.