Jim Breuer's Muammar Gaddafi prank call evacuated a mall in the '80s
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The comedian’s joke was a total bomb.
Jim Breuer is recalling the worst he ever bombed as a comedian.
The former Saturday Night Live cast member appeared on the Fly on the Wall podcast with Dana Carvey and David Spade and recounted one of his most treasured memories from his time working in the Sears paint department in the 1980s: a prank call that led to the evacuation of a shopping mall in New York.
The story begins with a cranky new coworker whom Breuer wanted to prank by pretending to be Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on a phone call. "I call up, I can see him, and he picks up the phone and I say ‘Hello,'" Breuer recalled. “He’s all professional, 'John, Sears Hardware, Valley Stream, how can I help you?' and I said, doing the whole accent, 'This is Muammar Gaddafi. I've sent six Libyan missiles to blow up the Sears Hardware Department.' I'm going on and on I'm doing the noises and I and I said ‘Long live paint.'"
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Jim BreuerAbout 20 minutes later, Breuer said, he returned from break to discover that the building was completely empty. "The security guy comes out and he's like, 'Hey man, you gotta get out of here! The new guy got a bomb threat,'" Breuer remembered. "'What do you mean, got a bomb threat?'... I said 'That was me, I said I was Muammar Gaddafi, I said I was sending missiles, what the f---!' I I said, 'I ended with long live paint!'"
Breuer said that the security guard responded, "Well, we had to evacuate this [Sears] and the mall." The comedian clarified that this was the Valley Stream Green Acres Mall in Long Island.
Breuer has told the anecdote in a stand-up routine, detailing how he explained himself to multiple levels of local police and, eventually, federal law enforcement, who all thought the prank was hilarious and told him to become a comic.
The comedian revealed on the podcast that the incident got him a stern talking-to from a high-level Sears manager — but a different employee ended up leaving the store. "He sits me down, he's got a suit and tie, and I come walking in there, and he's like 'So tell me what happened that day in the paint department,'" Breuer responded. "You know, I should have been doing more paint, I apologize, but all my stuff was done…" He then told the story to the higher-up, who chuckled and said, "Alright, why don't you just sell more paint and do a little less phone calls."
It was the pranked coworker who departed the department store after the incident. "That guy quit after five days because everyone would walk by his department going, 'Look out this missile's coming!'" Breuer said.
You can listen to the full podcast interview above.
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