In anticipation of April 1st, we’d like to introduce you to the newest member of the Outside Open team: Say hello to Lenny!
Like everyone we get a lot of unsolicited sales calls. Some of the callers have been incredibly persistent so we thought we’d have a little fun with them. A couple of years ago we created the Rickroll line, an extension in our office that plays the Rick Astley hit Never Gonna GIve You Up. When a telemarketer called, we’d transfer them to the Rickroll extension. That was good fun but few were deterred by Mr Astley’s dulcet tones. (You can reach our Rickroll hotline at (805) 364-4511)
Lenny is an automated bot – a set of recordings of what sound like an older antipodean gentlemen responding to random questions
While searching for some fun to be had with phone systems, we came across Lenny. Lenny is an automated bot – a set of recordings of what sound like an older antipodean gentlemen responding to random questions. The bot starts out with a friendly greeting and then whenever there is a silence, a new question or comment is played – simulating a wonderfully obtuse conversation. He rambles on about his family, home, and finances, doing his best to never answer a question directly and to keep the caller on the line.
All are welcome to send telemarketer calls to Lenny, there’s even a subreddit devoted to recordings made by others.
Transfer your own April Fools victim to Lenny at [Number redacted]*
Using our Asterisk phone system we created a new extension that forwards to the Lenny hotline. All calls sent through this extension are played a brief announcement that the call will be recorded, then connected to Lenny for a circuitous chat. Our personal Lenny record is 13.5 minutes of Lenny talking to a telemarketer – stop by the OO office and check out our Best of Lenny recordings or call him yourself at – [number redacted} (*Somehow our Lenny DID ended up on Reddit and our server was getting hammered. One of these days we’ll set up a dedicated Lenny Asterisk server but, until then, Lenny is visiting his eldest daughter in Antepodea.)
Thanks to our own Matt Key for creating a perfect portrait of Lenny.
We have some amazing recordings of Lenny in action, ask for the password next time you run into one of the team.
