McFeelyFacts: JoyBubbles

To listen to McFeelyFact Number Two, click below (if you have no idea what the hell is going on, feel free to click here and read my explanation):

Follow along with the transcript below:
DAVID: Have you heard of phreaking before?

MAYA: Nooo.

DAVID: P-H-R-E-A-K. It’s, it was a thing where, uh, in
like, the early day–in like, I think it was the sixties or,
I dunno — people like, would like, trick the phone companies
and use like sounds and tricks to get free phone calls and all
kinds of things.

JON: Uh.

DAVID: I just, I can’t remember the guy’s name, but there was a
guy — I think he was blind, who could WHISTLE.

<laughter>

I can’t remember his name, but — you can check it on
the internet in a second, but — he trained himself to
whistle the perfect tone to reset the phone’s
automated system and get free telephone calls.

JON: Wow.

DAVID: Type in phreaking. Type in phreaking in wikipedia.

MAYA: I like “there’s this guy, I think he was blind, and he could whistle.”

DAVID: He could whistle the EXACT note to make the computer –
to make the telephone exchange reset itself.

MAYA: What do you mean ‘telephone exchange’?

DAVID: It was all based on sounds. Yeah, yeah. Joybubbles.

MAYA: Wha — that’s the guy’s NAME? JOYBUBBLES?

DAVID: Yeah. That’s his nickname. Joybubbles.

JON: I wish MY name was Joybubbles.

MAYA: I wish your name was Joybubbles, Jon.

DAVID: There you go. ‘Joybubbles was an early phone phreak.
Born blind, he became interested in telephones at age four…
gifted with perfect pitch… able to whistle 2600 Hz into a telephone.’

MAYA: How do you know this?

DAVID: I dunno.

JON: Cuz he’s been on that PAGE.

DAVID: I dunno! I dunno how I discovered that! I dunno how I
discovered — no, it wasn’t through wikipedia, it was
through a big article about phreaking somewhere.

MAYA: Oh my God! He was ‘sexually abused as a child by one of
his teachers, a nun.’

DAVID: Yeah. If you dedicate your life to whistling into phones
you’re gonna be slightly odd.

MAYA: Listen to this, listen to this. ‘Joybubbles reverted to his
childhood in May of 1988, and has remained there ever
since, insisting that he is five years old.’

JON: Wow.

MAYA: ‘He legally changed his name to Joybubbles in 1991
claiming he wanted to put his past, specifically the
abuse, behind him.’ …whaaaat.

JON: JOYBUBBLES?

MAYA: ‘He’s an ordained minister of his own church of Eternal
Childhood, and runs a one-man nonprofit support
organization for people rediscovering and re-
experiencing childhood — ’

DAVID: Wait, Wait. Can I –

JON: That’s really sad.

MAYA: ‘– called We Won’t Grow Up.’

. . .

[New(ish) McFeelyFacts will be uploaded periodically.]