Jerky Boys Planning Big Screen Return 30 Years After Debut

The Jerky Boys were a pop culture phenomenon in the 1990s, with a feature film and a legacy built on prank calls. Founder and Orange County, NY resident Johnny Brennan is planning return to big screen.

In the article From Prank Calls to Platinum: The Jerky Boys Legacy I recount the story of my love for the Jerky Boys growing up as a kid. I had always been a big Jerky Boys fan from the very beginning. I can distinctively recall hangin' out in Lake Carmel, NY with my friend Joe Mason at a young kid by the name of Stephen Pileggi's house.

Also See: Popular Landmark Just Outside the Hudson Valley Demolished [Video]

Stephen had a bootleg cassette of the Jerky Boys that had been going around, with all the prank calls. Raw, unedited tape that was captured long before the signing of the comedy duo to a record deal and the initial release of the debut album.

We sat around for hours in Stephen's room laughing hysterically at what we were hearing. I had become such a fan that I would go on to thank the Jerky Boys, among other comedy heroes, in my high school senior yearbook profile. I also saw the Jerky Boys movie when it opened at South Hills Mall in Poughkeepsie.

With characters like the foul-mouthed auto mechanic Frank Rizzo, the Jewish character Sol Rosenberg, and the gay character of Jack Tors, The Jerky Boys was all just "self-deprecating humor featuring a bunch of loveable characters." according to founder and Cornwall, NY resident Johnny Brennan. A new Jerky Boys album, the first in nearly 25 years, was released in 2020. After success with The Jerky Boys, Johnny Brennan would become known for his voice work in the Emmy-nominated animated series Family Guy as the voice of Mort Goldman.

Brennan has lived in the Orange County, NY area most of his life. He moved to the Hudson Valley from the New York City area at age 5, when his parents bought a home in the Salisbury Mills. He's lived in Cornwall since 1993.

Jerky Boys Hudson Valley Roots

Many of the Jerky Boys' calls can be traced back to the Hudson Valley area. The auto mechanic character Frank Rizzo, "I worked on race cars for 18 years!" is an ode to Brennan's days going to the Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, NY for the races as a young kid. Frank Rizzo (the abrasive auto mechanic), Sol Rosenberg (the Jewish guy), and Jack Tors (the gay guy) were just some of the popular Jerky Boys characters. The famous Sol's Civil War Memorabilia call was actually a call from a doctor in the Hudson Valley that was interested in purchasing the items. The Middletown Motel and Taco Bell of Middletown also made it into popular bits. Alto Music in Wappingers Falls was an unsuspecting recipient of a phone call on their newest album.

According to the New York Post, Johnny Brennan is planning to head back to the big screen 30 years after the release of “The Jerky Boys: The Movie,” this time playing his father Tony in a biopic tentatively titled “Don’t Hang Up” about his uncanny rise from New York wiseass to a wisecracking pop culture phenomenon in the 1990s. The planned biopic and even a Seth McFarlane-produced documentary on The Jerky Boys is in the works according to Brennan. “I created something that the people f–king love, they love that s–t, they loved it for decades.” he said.