Crank call vs Prank Call

What is the exact difference between the two? When and how to use them on specific occasions?

After doing some research, my answer would be: it depends on who you ask.

Wikipedia says that crank call is another name for prank call:

A prank call (also known as a crank call) is a telephone practical joke. Prank phone calls began to gain an American following over a period of many years, as they became a staple of the obscure and amusing cassette tapes traded amongst musicians, sound engineers, and media traders beginning in the late 1970s.

The Urban Dictionary says that crank call is used synonymously with prank call, but that started as a mondegreen:

crank call A term that was created when someone misheard the expression prank call.

UD also mentions that the term has persisted since the television show Crank Yankers debuted, a show which is described at IMDb as:

A show with real 'crank' phone calls to real victims. Puppets are added as the 'actors' to give visual support to what is happening in the phone calls.

There's an exchange at this Wordreference language forum where one user gives a clear-cut differentiation between the two, but another who chimes in has always used the two interchangeably:

foxfirebrand Senior Member
A prank call is a practical joke made by a child or childish person, usually out of boredom. There's some humor involved -- though not always for the person targeted.

A crank call is a type of prank call where the person is old enough to have better ways of entertaining himself, or is motivated by pathology of some sort. Crank calls aren't funny, and usually they're intended to be scary -- or antagonize in some way.

A kid making a prank call will target no one in particular, usually, and ask a setup line like "is your refrigerator running?" If you're duped into saying yes, you just made his day -- and he says "well you better go catch it!"

A stalker or malicious gossip making a crank call usually knows who he's calling, and doesn't like that person.

drei_lengua Senior Member
I have always known these words to be interchangeable but I guess they aren't.

foxfirebrand Senior Member
Well, it's like I say -- there's a grey area between the two. Also, the difference can be one of degree, with the prank call being the more general or normative term and the crank call being a more extreme form. But people who draw a sharp distinction between harmless "humor" and the malice of telephone harassment would see the two in terms as I just explained them.

la grive solitaire Senior Member
Although I'd differentiate between the two, I've often heard prank/crank call used synonymously.

The wiki at Answers.com agrees with that dividing line:

Is it Crank Call or Prank Call?
Answer:
Prank like a joke!
A Crank call is made for the purpose of annoying, upsetting, or threatening someone.

as do some dictionaries; from dictionary.com:

crank call noun
a hostile telephone call (from a crank)

from Macmillan:

prank call noun [American]
a telephone call in which the caller lies to or tricks the person they called

So, it seems like some would use the two terms interchangeably, while others would make a use the two terms to differentiate between childish and threatening phone calls. This same mix-up persists in a conversation at The Straight Dope. Some contributors see a clear distinction between the two; others have regarded the two as synonymous:

KneadToKnow Charter Member
When I was growing up (1970s, South Carolina), we called them "crank calls." I never heard "prank call" until much later.

Wendell Wagner Charter Member
It's not even clear to me that the two terms mean exactly the same thing. A crank call is a call made by a crank (i.e., an eccentric person). The implication is that such a call could only be made by someone who's a little bit crazy. A prank call is one made as a prank (i.e., a mean joke played on someone). The implication is that such a call could only be made by someone with a nasty sense of humor.

An Gadaí Guest
I remember when I was 10 yrs old getting corrected when I said "Crank Call" by one of my peers. Up to that point I had not heard "Prank Call". This thread makes me feel slightly vindicated!

After doing all this research, if I was speaking, I would use crank call to allude to threatening calls, and prank call to describe the classic "Is your refrigerator running?" call. However, if I heard someone use the terms, I'd be more careful to listen to the context, to see if they meant prank call when they said crank call, because many people seem to regard the two terms as synonymous.

Incidentally, I had always regarded the two as interchangeable until I started researching this question. It might be regional.

There isn't really much connection between the two, other than that they are both calls. A crank is

an eccentric or odd person, esp someone who stubbornly maintains unusual views

and a crank call is a call from such a person, in which that person expounds their views, typically at great length and little logical consistency.

A prank, on the other hand, is

A mischievous trick or practical joke.

So in this case the call is made for the amusement of the caller (and possibly others).

TL;DR the prank call is a joke; the crank call is from someone who believes it.