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Captain Janks, born Thomas Michael Cipriano, is a personality recognized for his prank calls to live television broadcasts and news networks, serving as an unofficial media critic regarding journalistic verification practices.
Radio personality, contributor and regular guest on the Howard Stern Show since 1989.
Released a collection album of Janks' phone-call pranks, titled King of the Cranks, on compact disc and cassette tape.
Released a collection album of Janks' phone-call pranks, titled King of the Cranks, on compact disc and cassette tape.
Thomas Michael Cipriano, professionally known as Captain Janks, was born on March 28, 1966. He began his career in the late 1980s by making prank calls to local Philadelphia television shows and gained wider recognition by submitting recordings of these calls to The Howard Stern Show. His alter ego, “Captain Janks,” derived from the name of an army captain during his military service from 1985 to 1988, eventually became a recurring persona on Stern’s program. Cipriano’s prank calls typically involve him posing as a credible source to news outlets, only to make a reference to Howard Stern, thereby highlighting what he perceives as a lack of journalistic integrity and source verification in live broadcasts.
Over the years, Captain Janks has successfully targeted a wide array of prominent news and entertainment platforms, including Larry King Live, CNN, ABC News, NBC News, Fox News, C-SPAN, and ESPN. His prank calls became a commentary on the media’s pursuit of breaking news, often leading to hurried and sometimes unverified reporting. Notable incidents include a 1992 call to CNN impersonating an earthquake witness, a 1999 call to ABC News regarding John F. Kennedy Jr.’s plane crash, and a 2003 call to ESPN’s SportsCenter where he impersonated Steve Bartman after a significant baseball incident. In 1996, a collection of his prank calls was released on a compact disc and cassette tape titled “King of the Cranks” by Atlantic Records and Ozone Music.
Cipriano’s activities continued into the 2010s, with pranks on KUSA during coverage of the 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting, and on MSNBC during the 2014 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shootdown, where he again highlighted media vulnerabilities. As of 2014, he works as a truck driver and resides in North Wales, Pennsylvania. In 2010, Cipriano faced legal issues, pleading guilty to charges of theft by deception and deceptive business practices related to failing to appear at paid events, attributing these actions to an addiction to prescription painkillers. He was sentenced to eight years of probation and ordered to pay restitution. After years of public activity, in 2014, he revealed on The Howard Stern Show that he is gay.
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