I remember seeing her advertisement when I was a kid. Actually, the range of 900-number commercials was absurd. Psychics, adult phone operators, televangelists, and partylines were all the rage.
I remember those adult ones for phone s..x . We would stay up at like 4 or 5 yrs to catch those commercials. Closest thing we had to xx, before finding where my parents kept the cassette tapes😂
Every Jamaican 🇯🇲 knew she was not Jamaican lol, she never sounded Jamaican at all. She always made the country laugh. It is amazing how people on these scams though. She was seen as just another hustler.
Everytime I would hear a Caribbean accent in American TV shows it always sounded absolutely hilarious and nothing like any of the many accents from that part of the world 😂🤣😂
@@Parisroam lol... I'm not poking fun at ya'll for not knowing better lol. I just happen to be from the Caribbean so I was able to pickup on it and get a good laugh regardless 😁
My boyfriend (also Jamaican) said the same thing. He said he knew immediately she was not only not Jamaican, but also not Caribbean at all. She fooled my very white ass though hahaha
Yup my white ass was fooled by the accent 🤦🏽♀️. Tbf to me though, I was younger so 🤷🏽♀️. I think I would’ve figured it out now. Since I’m around the accent now (in laws).
I worked for PRN in 1996. I answered a want ad in the L.A. Daily News. The spokesperson at that time was Phillip Michael Thomas ("Tubbs" on Miami Vice). There was a guy who set up a boiler room in his backyard poolhouse in Burbank about 1/2 mile from the Disney studios. I lasted 3 weeks before quitting. There was a girl who got through to me who was extremely distraught. Her life was in tatters and she was looking for a shred of hope. Now, I dabbled in tarot as a hobby and I was honest about what was laid out in front of me; I never blew smoke up somebody's ass. She stayed on for the entire 50 minutes she was allowed. (The computer cut callers off at that time.) I couldn't find any unicorns or rainbows in the cards I dealt, and I told her so. Guess I was doing it wrong. I quit soon after that day. We were told that nobody gets through on the toll-free 800 number, it had a constant busy signal. It was a way of getting people to call the 900 number straight away.
I remember when I lived in Florida, she came on at , like, two in the morning. Not long after I moved back to Arkansas, she popped up on TV there. She followed me wherever I went. I can still hear "Call me now for your free reading" on the wind....
Miss Cleo and TV Evangelists..... some of the biggest shams I have ever seen, and the fact that people believe these con artists just boggles the mind.
I remember being at an Ozzy concert and Ozzy was on the screen in a prerecorded video dressed like Miss Cleo saying "Call me now for your free reedin!"
Miss Cleo was a professional grifter who was the face of an unscrupulous call center. This video does not even scratch the surface. Remember, he said Billion, with a B.
Its the same kinda people who use to believe Harold Camping who was pretty much a false prophet. He told people the end of the world was coming and those stupid fucks ruined their lives listening to him.
You know $450,000 isn't too shabby for 2 years of work, as much of a scam artist she may have been, she was a heck of a character actor. I'd be checking to see if my marriage was valid if she performed the ceremony, just based off her history alone.
We got married in NC, we are from and live in PA. Basically were we filling out paperwork beforehand. We were married in the state's eyes before the ceremony happened
That's typical. The marriage is legal the moment the paperwork is signed. So the vast majority of people are married before the ceremony, or are pronounced married during the ceremony, but aren't yet legally married. Since we didn't like either of those, my husband and I incorporated the paperwork into our wedding. When I officiated a wedding last year, they decided to have the same done. :)
It’s a great salary for most people, but when you’re the main reason your boss made $1billion, it’ll sting a little. Not that I feel bad. She got scammed for scamming people 🤷🏾♂️
One day, after a rainstorm, I was on the phone with a friend of mine, another call started to bleed into our conversation. It was someone talking to Ms. Cleo.
Totally forgot that used to happen... for those of you who are too young, used to be a problem on analog phone lines, probably when the insulation of the lines was bad, and you got one line inducing current in a neighboring line (which turned in to audio).
When he mentioned '96 and '97, my first thought was, "Wasn't she an infomercial star before that?" I guess memory is the first thing to go when you get old.
@@colinp2238 Have you seen the Mitchell and Webb comedic scene/skit called "Greatest Invention Yet" (it's similar to your Edwardian internet"): th-cam.com/video/oa_hiLXLbTc/w-d-xo.html
There are some stories I know already but I just like listening to Simon explain them, and this way I get the bonus facts. So great video, keep up the good work.
*Top 10 Signs You're Seeing a Bad Psychic:* ... and number 1... There is a sign outside the door to the studio, stating that they are temporarily closed due to *unforseen* circumstances. 😅
They fail to tell you to be certain you hang up the phone properly--because they didn't see that you weren't going to, resulting in your $4.99/minute call going on for HOURS and leading to a $40,000 charge. Yes, this actually happened.
So, when I was younger, I messed around with Tarot cards. Its amazing how the imagery of the cards can really apply to anyone. I can tell you for a fact, it was mostly guesswork. I never tried to scam anyone with it though. The most I ever charged was $1, and that was just to help me out a little while I was at Jobcorps. I was also way more accurate with strangers than people I knew. Nowadays, I use it as a party trick just to start conversations and meet people. I make sure, afterwards, that they know it's not real. Also found out that I'm good at reading people because of this, and have learned to trust my gut because of it. As I reached my 20's, I stopped believing in stuff like this, but it can still be fun, as long as you don't take it too seriously.
I was actually a an employee for about 2 1/2 weeks. I was NEVER PAID. I lost my job because the office space was abandoned when my coworkers and I showed up after our day off. Just gone. I feel pretty bad still as I did then because I fed a lot of people a lot of bull. Had a poor east coast mom on the phone for almost 90 minutes because I reminded her of her late grandmother. I would use an Irish accent sometimes and this poor woman’s grandmother was straight from the Emerald Isle. It was the only job I could get at the time and I was young and naive to the ways of companies scamming workers for free labor. We were also supposed to get our checks that day we found the job site abandoned. F that whole company. I’m glad they got taken to court.
For those who commented on my post please reread the fifth sentence. This job still haunts me. Wasn’t looking for sympathy or a fight and definitely not looking to be called a bitch about this whole post. I was hoping that anyone out there who picked up a phone and I took the call may possibly read this and know we weren’t all bad people. I totally agree with you both Roscoe Patterson and Eric Morang. It’s a lesson learned. It was a hard and craptastic part of my life that I wish to never repeat.
I’m not going to throw abuse at you for it, but I am going to say that I’m glad you feel bad about it. You should. At least, a human being that isn’t a sociopath or a psychopath should feel bad. That means you have society-safe feelings about things. That’s good.
Jace Cavacini I was really young at the time. It was my first job out of high school and I really didn’t know what I was in for. Idk how many times people have tried to get me to do telemarking work and I just can’t take a job like that an not feel shitty. Thanks for not lambasting me.
I was actually in the Summer Rhapsody production with the Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center. She shared her fake accent with one of the excercises that she taught us. She skipped off with everyone's money. Months later she was on tv commercials selling fake advice, and our minds were blown.
This has two likes, including me? That's it? Well, I'm not embarrassed to admit I want to know more. How could I not? The whole scene is just too bizarre. What are the exercises you mentioned? Did it feel shady at the outset? I just had to ask, this is too rare an opportunity.
@@bsadewitz it was a summer program for teens. She was helping us with foreign accents and projecting our voices. She wasn't in the day to day rehearsals, she would just stop in on us.
I remember seeing those Miss Cleo commercials on tv-OMG that makes me so much older than I realized I was. I also remember a newspaper article when charges were being filed and one of the prosecutors was quoted as saying “she should have seen it coming”. I got a good laugh over than one. Too young to die, though.
Golgi Apparatus: I got bad news for you on that front as well. So, unless you plan on being celibate (or take matters into your own hand), expect kids in your future. (I'm a single parent.)
Jack Linde .. I'm a female virgin. Any sex wouldn't accidentally just happen. Not that I don't want a family though. It feels a bit impossible. Its not by choice. But maybe someday..love is more important.
golgi apparatus You robbed him of his MGTOW speech. Tsk tsk. Expect a response about how you can’t be a woman who wants sex and still be a virgin. If so, it’s only cause you’re hideous and your standards are too high. 🙄
Thank you for another interesting video. I remember all of this. There were other physic telephone scams but Miss Cleo, with that accent, was the most fun to imitate. I was suprised you didn't mention Dionne Warwick. ✌💚
I'm thinking it was a write in question, he's British, and more importantly he didn't know how to pronounce Tammy Faye Bakker's name properly. (Basically if you're old enough to remember one, as an American you'd remember both... he wouldn't have that knowledge unless he researched related people).
I worked on one of those phone lines once, about 17 years ago. It was exactly as you described. There are no true psychics. Not at that phone line, not in any of the live shows my coworkers did or the convention circuits they ran in. None.
She made way more than $450,000.... she has/ had a mansion compound in tenino Washington. Just a huge Scam artist. I lived in the area during the late 90's
Eh, I like bonus facts, so I tune out mentally instead of just not watching. I'm far too broke for anything they are advertising but glad that he gets these to pay for his work.
He probably pronounced it that way because it is spelled weird. It is spelled Bakker. And being British, Simon didn't have the benefit of hearing it said on TV news ten thousand times when it was happening.
I'm really glad this was a fair portrait of the person behind this character. We can judge moral turpitude all we want, in the comments; condemn the human being behind this character as fundamentally flawed - but consistently, your videos point out that there is a story behind every life - for better or worse. Thank you for your perspective.
I just wanted to see the video where she loses her accent. I was told the link was in the description. . . . I wasnt told there was going to be 20 links in the description and none would lead to the mentioned video. . . .
Rex Quinton The TMZ link has the video, near the bottom of the page/article. It is a TH-cam clip, so yes it is odd to leave TH-cam to go to TMZ to see a TH-cam video. But, it is amusing, so I guess it was worth the needless extra step.
I’m from Virginia and one of her call centers was in Newport News. When I worked in a call center for UPS (also in Newport News) I found out my supervisor used to work for the miss Cleo company. It was hilarious.
I know the British have some pronunciations that sound foreign to the American ear, but this time you’re wrong. The second “K” in Bakker is silent, making the name rhyme with Quaker. The Bakkers were quite notorious in their downfall and they were in the news quite a bit, here in the colonies. The name is pronounced Baker, like one of the men in the tub.
Simon has a history of saying names wrong, like pronouncing Gene Roddenberry's last name "road 'n' brie". I wonder if he actively tries to make up new ways to mispronounce well-known words.
I feel zero Sympathy for the lady who played Miss Cleo. I knew the whole psychic skit was a scam, should have figured her for a scammer. She got a grant to perform a play and skipped out with the money. Basically denying someone with real talent an honest chance to perform, learn, and contribute to society. So she's a scammer you might say I say tell that to the person who couldn't do real work because of her rip off. A little psychic reading won't do any harm, except to those people we're goleba and prone to believing stuff and spend money needed for other things on something that's totally not true. Liars and cheats are harmful they are dangerous and they should be stopped not humored.
I would just like to thank you for realizing that a good performer contributes to society. Could you please tell that to all the people who have suggested that I contribute by getting a "real" job? I'm not even sure what they mean. All the memorization and late hours rehearsing blocking and choreography all seems quite real to me. Maybe some people don't see it as real work because they know they can't do it?
Frickin - I can see why you would be frustrated, but saying people dont see it as real work because they cannot do it is silly. I do not see myself being an Astronaut, but I do consider it work as an example. I think most people feel like the Arts is a respectable field, but it is not required for life. If we see people from the arts complaining about having no money, we feel like they should work like we do - after all most people in this world are doing something they do not want to be doing, unfortunately. If you choose the Arts, its a choice you made, and people do not want to hear about suffering that stems from choosing that path to put bread on your table. We must all work to eat.
It's an understandability thing. You have to build in think time for your audience. This is one of the odder sounding ways to do it, but it still works.
I remember seeing an interview with a women who believed she was a true physic, and had worked for one of those 900 number companies. She quit after she had a conversation with a client, where she told him, "You are paying me $250 an hour, when the lawyer that you need to talk to would only cost you $107 an hour."
I'll never be able to convince some people I know that psychics aren't real. They'll still just waste their money and say I'm wrong because they knew so much about them. Like how they had money troubles and they had issues with their mother. Oh, such unique issues...
An ex of mine used to call psychic hotlines before we got together and she had ran up over $900 in just one month and finally realized she was addicted to it and stopped. She in total had spent about $1,600 over the course of six months.
I had a friend from the Caribbean in college when the Miss Cleo commercials were at their peak. (I don't remember which island she was from.) My friend would always laugh hysterically at the commercials and was very entertained by them.
"I only made half a million dollars off lying and scamming people, I didn't get most of the billion my employer did so I shouldn't be held accountable for all the harm I caused." -Miss Cleo
@@rogerszmodis It really is though. It is predatory to prey on the weak minded. There are some people whose entire mode of money making is calling up senior citizens and lying to them and confusing them into getting their banking or credit card information and then rob them blind. People who are irresponsible with money and don't know any better need to be protected as well, because scammers are always evolving and looking for new ways to cheat you that can be convincing to some. People need to be held accountable and not given a free pass.
@@TheDrexxus stealing credit card info from old people isn't even kind of close to letting idiots that believe in psychics pay you $5/min. Nobody is forcing anyone to call those numbers.
@@rogerszmodis People with mental deficiencies need some measure of protection from predator companies that prey on their weakness. If you believe in psychics, you have a mental deficiency. You're even calling them idiots, which already indicates to me you are fully aware these people are not all the way there mentally. So how can you justify the exploitation of people with such a glaring issue?
@@TheDrexxus During the cold war, both the US and Russian militaries dumped a lot of money into psychic research programs. None of it turned up anything definitive, but (crude political jokes aside) that's kind of the opposite of, "people with a mental deficiency." The real problem is parsing out the difference between the people who contact a fortune teller because they're looking to experience something novel and be entertained, and the genuinely distraught. I mean, in competent hands, a fortune teller is just a social engineering magic act. That can be entertaining for people. Of course, if you're hiring your "psychics" from newspaper ads for $12 an hour and doing it all by phone, that's going to be a pretty shallow experience.
I worked for the Psychic Readers Network in 96-97, I made $12 an hour, worked when I wanted to, which was from about 10 at night to about 3am, people were more relaxed and wanting to talk more intimately about themselves. I had to do a reading for the supervisor before I got hired and there was no script, if you couldn't read then you weren't hired. The only requirement, and it wasn't even really required was to get names, addresses and email (for advertising purposes), it was PRN Club where they received tracts and pamphlets, we were paid .50 for every Club Member we signed up. They did want an average of 20 minutes per call per week, I always averaged around 50 minutes so I always received about $100 bonus per week. It wasn't a bad gig and I became a hella good reader from that experience. Nothing to do with Cleo but in the same vein.
I had a subsitute teacher in high school who worked for the physic hotline. He admitted when people call up, they would just open a book, point to something and read it to people.
I worked for this company in 1994-1995ish. Made a decent living (but I disliked scamming innocent people/low income/elderly . Many just wanted someone to talk to) it but once my former husband was able to go back to work after an accident I slowly tapered off call times because I had a conscious and only did this job to feed my family. I was grateful for the work. I am very glad these services were finally shut down. I remember there were numerous 1-900 and 1-976 etc from not just “Ms. Cleo” but other psychic “hotlines”. There were sports ones, horror ones, comedy ones etc. I know many children and elderly folks who racked up ASTRONOMICAL phone bills during this time. Was one heck of a scheme!
Got to love ❤️ when recommended videos work out for you. Did one last quick thumb spin scroll before I was going to close TH-cam when a video on Miss Cleo is spotted out of the corner of my eye. Well that was one of the fastest instant click videos I have ever watched and as an added bonus it was worth every second. 👨🍳 💋
I worked as a phone psychic for a few weeks. I'm not sure if it was for the same network. What as sad and despicable business. I ended up telling most of my clients not to waste their money on phone psychics. Oh and I never got paid (I should have seen it in the cards).
Here's the mentioned link for those not familiar with Miss Cleo's work th-cam.com/video/oxopPDMq7rs/w-d-xo.html
FYI... it was Tammy Fae "Baker"(like Bake a cake)... not Backer.
Today I Fo
If she'd died of bone cancer then it may have been her one true prediction. I knew a couple PRN girls back and the day.
The light balance is a lot better now, thank you :)
It's spelled "Bakker", pronounced like "Baker".
She was Jamaican it all up.
Lol. Awesome.
kstricl 😂
That was COOL..
Nice one xx
hahahahaha
I remember seeing her advertisement when I was a kid. Actually, the range of 900-number commercials was absurd. Psychics, adult phone operators, televangelists, and partylines were all the rage.
Remember Dionne Warwick and The Psychic Friends Network?
@@cliff9685 yes. I always saw the commercials when I watched soap operas with my aunt as a kids.
I remember those adult ones for phone s..x . We would stay up at like 4 or 5 yrs to catch those commercials. Closest thing we had to xx, before finding where my parents kept the cassette tapes😂
@@travismiller89 I remember those🤭. Now there's Only Fans.
Every Jamaican 🇯🇲 knew she was not Jamaican lol, she never sounded Jamaican at all. She always made the country laugh.
It is amazing how people on these scams though.
She was seen as just another hustler.
Everytime I would hear a Caribbean accent in American TV shows it always sounded absolutely hilarious and nothing like any of the many accents from that part of the world 😂🤣😂
Everything is terribly stereotypical here in the states 😂 we are sorry. The accent could have fooled me💀
@@Parisroam lol... I'm not poking fun at ya'll for not knowing better lol. I just happen to be from the Caribbean so I was able to pickup on it and get a good laugh regardless 😁
My boyfriend (also Jamaican) said the same thing. He said he knew immediately she was not only not Jamaican, but also not Caribbean at all. She fooled my very white ass though hahaha
Yup my white ass was fooled by the accent 🤦🏽♀️. Tbf to me though, I was younger so 🤷🏽♀️. I think I would’ve figured it out now. Since I’m around the accent now (in laws).
I used to tell my friends, if she's truly psychic, then she'll call me.
Sea kelp hahahaha. True...maybe ...u do know she's dead now , right ???
Sea Kelp 🤣
That's what Robin Williams said 20 years ago lol...
😂
"... no word on whether she saw it coming."
Whoa holy shit, Simon. Got her. Savage.
zeroDOTjon , savage. But we’ll-deserves.
Well, was it bone cancer? Because she did say....
@@jasonsanders8797 just making sure someone else mentioned this. She either saw it coming or she had it coming.
0:16 - When I hear "turn of the century" 1900 is still the year that comes to my mind first, not 2000. I can't be the only one.
Turning 1900 and 2000 was a turn of the millennium anyway soooo….
Y2K, anyone? I think there's a 1-900 number you can call to order a free CD-ROM with special software to debug your 486.
She had the nerve to write a book called ‘Keeping It Real’ with all those aliases?! 🙄
Should be called "Keeping it REAL FAKE"
When keeping it real goes wrong...
Everything about her was fake.
I worked for PRN in 1996. I answered a want ad in the L.A. Daily News. The spokesperson at that time was Phillip Michael Thomas ("Tubbs" on Miami Vice). There was a guy who set up a boiler room in his backyard poolhouse in Burbank about 1/2 mile from the Disney studios. I lasted 3 weeks before quitting. There was a girl who got through to me who was extremely distraught. Her life was in tatters and she was looking for a shred of hope. Now, I dabbled in tarot as a hobby and I was honest about what was laid out in front of me; I never blew smoke up somebody's ass. She stayed on for the entire 50 minutes she was allowed. (The computer cut callers off at that time.) I couldn't find any unicorns or rainbows in the cards I dealt, and I told her so. Guess I was doing it wrong. I quit soon after that day.
We were told that nobody gets through on the toll-free 800 number, it had a constant busy signal. It was a way of getting people to call the 900 number straight away.
Someone get this man's comment to the TOP!!
I worked for them too! The line was re-damn-diculous!! I had to quit because of the level of desperation of the callers. smh.
Philip Michael Thomas was pretty pathetic. Didn't manage his Miami Vice money, I guess?
Don't be hatin on Tubbs,still had a Damn good life,Don't be Petty....
@@MadameLa78 that is so sad. There are more credible intuitives and counselors they could contact.
She knew you would ask this.
I like that haha
@Daniel Appleton as she knew of this conversation and post. Why she didn't get stock in google and such is beyond me. .... or did she?!
Chad Freiling aaaaaaaaaahh
Chad Freiling @
I remember when I lived in Florida, she came on at , like, two in the morning. Not long after I moved back to Arkansas, she popped up on TV there. She followed me wherever I went. I can still hear "Call me now for your free reading" on the wind....
Miss Cleo and TV Evangelists..... some of the biggest shams I have ever seen, and the fact that people believe these con artists just boggles the mind.
Ernest Angley(sp?) Was the greatest holy roller healer on TV (back in the 80's) Best comedy ever.
some tv evangelists
The seuthesayers
No, there is no "Some TV Evandelists" to it, all of them are fake. All, of, them.
The psychic hotline never saw bankruptcy coming...
I remember being at an Ozzy concert and Ozzy was on the screen in a prerecorded video dressed like Miss Cleo saying "Call me now for your free reedin!"
Miss Cleo was a professional grifter who was the face of an unscrupulous call center. This video does not even scratch the surface. Remember, he said Billion, with a B.
If you actually called ms Cleo, you deserved to get got
Especially when it was college students reading a script while telling the callers that she is on vacation.
Its the same kinda people who use to believe Harold Camping who was pretty much a false prophet. He told people the end of the world was coming and those stupid fucks ruined their lives listening to him.
@@ThePlayfurCinema damn
@@ThePlayfurCinema Well, Jim baker needed someone to buy his doomsday food buckets. Why not team up with Camping?
I used to watch that shit as a kid and laugh my ass off.
We had basic cable and late lights where boring...
Cleo”Call me an I’ll tell yah ya future”
People “what do you see in my future”
Cleo “ ya bill gonna make me rich”
😂😂😂😂💀💀💀💀
BOYEEE!!!! LORD HAVE MERCY!!!
No Black person ever thought she was Jamaican
Um, there were a few.
Lincoln TANKsley my mom wanted to call her. We didn’t even know she was supposed to be Jamaican and we are Jamaican. Imagine our surprise 😁
My family is Jamaican. Even as a kid I knew she was fake 🤣🤣🤣
FACTS!
@@jamaicanice1522 AN ACCENT...STUPID.
"she died of cancer....lemme tell you about squarespace"
😂😂😂😂 call it creepy but I actually like the way he delivers the fact because all he does is give us facts.
I know, right? Distasteful.
😂 😂
Hilarious* you mean. It's okay; everyone has made a typographical error.
"somewhere, somehow, something bad is going to happen" ~Robin Williams on Miss Cleo
Not Jamaican?
So Jamaican't?
Jafakin is the term you use in the rap/reggae scene
Ohhhhh!!!!!☺
Take my thumbs up =) lol
Nah. She Jamaican, but she Jamacain't Jamaican.
Omg, no more internet for you LOL jk
Dave Chapelle's impression is the best and expose's everything we already knew.
Meadow Flowers first thing I thought of too.
Call me now for a bumba clot reading
You know $450,000 isn't too shabby for 2 years of work, as much of a scam artist she may have been, she was a heck of a character actor. I'd be checking to see if my marriage was valid if she performed the ceremony, just based off her history alone.
We got married in NC, we are from and live in PA. Basically were we filling out paperwork beforehand. We were married in the state's eyes before the ceremony happened
That's typical. The marriage is legal the moment the paperwork is signed. So the vast majority of people are married before the ceremony, or are pronounced married during the ceremony, but aren't yet legally married. Since we didn't like either of those, my husband and I incorporated the paperwork into our wedding. When I officiated a wedding last year, they decided to have the same done. :)
It’s a great salary for most people, but when you’re the main reason your boss made $1billion, it’ll sting a little. Not that I feel bad. She got scammed for scamming people 🤷🏾♂️
One day, after a rainstorm, I was on the phone with a friend of mine, another call started to bleed into our conversation. It was someone talking to Ms. Cleo.
Wiccan Wanderer how does that happen? I've never had a call do that. (I do use cellphones though, so maybe that's why it hasn't happened to me.)
Totally forgot that used to happen... for those of you who are too young, used to be a problem on analog phone lines, probably when the insulation of the lines was bad, and you got one line inducing current in a neighboring line (which turned in to audio).
Or probably a cordless phone from back in the day. They were terrible
@@ReshiLuna cellphone errors are were worse. You could get your call and another call switched and end up on a call with a stranger mid call
I've had that happen too! Wow old school cordless phones were fun right?! 😂
When you hear "turn of the century" and think... She's not that old! .. Then realise OH he means THIS century!
I was thinking about that the other day, turn of century usually meant 1890's to 1900's. (Getting old...)
When he mentioned '96 and '97, my first thought was, "Wasn't she an infomercial star before that?" I guess memory is the first thing to go when you get old.
I was trying to imagine the Edwardian internet, all I could think of was flocks of pigeons.
I must be getting old because I got his meaning straight away.
@@colinp2238 Have you seen the Mitchell and Webb comedic scene/skit called "Greatest Invention Yet" (it's similar to your Edwardian internet"): th-cam.com/video/oa_hiLXLbTc/w-d-xo.html
There are some stories I know already but I just like listening to Simon explain them, and this way I get the bonus facts. So great video, keep up the good work.
*Top 10 Signs You're Seeing a Bad Psychic:*
... and number 1...
There is a sign outside the door to the studio, stating that they are temporarily closed due to *unforseen* circumstances.
😅
PA TV
Hack.
They fail to tell you to be certain you hang up the phone properly--because they didn't see that you weren't going to, resulting in your $4.99/minute call going on for HOURS and leading to a $40,000 charge. Yes, this actually happened.
That is freaking hilarious
Lolllll! Srsly tho, that's pretty good.
Very funny, I didn't see that coming 😆
Simon has more jobs than a Jamaican.
"In Living Color" shout out.
Ya lazy bone.
"TWO jobs??? Ya lazy coconut!"
My lazy "only got 3 jobs" son
HEY MON🤣🤣🤣 #HATTLEYS
You knew Miss Cleo was a fake you also knew she was phony but you still had to watch it when she was on TV
Just like the WWF. You knew it was cake as hell, but damn it was entertaining!
Jazzy Moni the mankind Mr socko attack- highly rated
Jazzy Moni and the Spinarooney by Booker T Washington
cmandc301 Yup!
cmandc301 Especially when it’s late night that’s when she got you 😂
Sooooo she pretended to have cancer to swindle money out of people....then died of cancer? Wow if THAT isn't karma then I don't what is!
You work so hard, thank you for providing content like this so regularly. Simon Whistler & Crew, you guys are heroes.
The ad underneath the video description is for a psychic reader offering a “free reading” 😂
ur ads reflect u
So, when I was younger, I messed around with Tarot cards. Its amazing how the imagery of the cards can really apply to anyone. I can tell you for a fact, it was mostly guesswork. I never tried to scam anyone with it though. The most I ever charged was $1, and that was just to help me out a little while I was at Jobcorps. I was also way more accurate with strangers than people I knew. Nowadays, I use it as a party trick just to start conversations and meet people. I make sure, afterwards, that they know it's not real. Also found out that I'm good at reading people because of this, and have learned to trust my gut because of it. As I reached my 20's, I stopped believing in stuff like this, but it can still be fun, as long as you don't take it too seriously.
Hey you sound like me! Keep on keeping on!
Now I want to watch some of those old Ms. Cleo ads from my childhood
8:57 🤣🤣😂😂🤣😂 "And there's no word of whether she saw it coming" hahaha
I was actually a an employee for about 2 1/2 weeks. I was NEVER PAID. I lost my job because the office space was abandoned when my coworkers and I showed up after our day off. Just gone. I feel pretty bad still as I did then because I fed a lot of people a lot of bull. Had a poor east coast mom on the phone for almost 90 minutes because I reminded her of her late grandmother. I would use an Irish accent sometimes and this poor woman’s grandmother was straight from the Emerald Isle. It was the only job I could get at the time and I was young and naive to the ways of companies scamming workers for free labor. We were also supposed to get our checks that day we found the job site abandoned. F that whole company. I’m glad they got taken to court.
I'm Irish that was Karma bitch
No sympathy, sweetheart. You got what you deserved for screwing people over.
For those who commented on my post please reread the fifth sentence. This job still haunts me. Wasn’t looking for sympathy or a fight and definitely not looking to be called a bitch about this whole post. I was hoping that anyone out there who picked up a phone and I took the call may possibly read this and know we weren’t all bad people. I totally agree with you both Roscoe Patterson and Eric Morang. It’s a lesson learned. It was a hard and craptastic part of my life that I wish to never repeat.
I’m not going to throw abuse at you for it, but I am going to say that I’m glad you feel bad about it. You should. At least, a human being that isn’t a sociopath or a psychopath should feel bad. That means you have society-safe feelings about things. That’s good.
Jace Cavacini I was really young at the time. It was my first job out of high school and I really didn’t know what I was in for. Idk how many times people have tried to get me to do telemarking work and I just can’t take a job like that an not feel shitty.
Thanks for not lambasting me.
I was actually in the Summer Rhapsody production with the Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center. She shared her fake accent with one of the excercises that she taught us. She skipped off with everyone's money. Months later she was on tv commercials selling fake advice, and our minds were blown.
This has two likes, including me? That's it? Well, I'm not embarrassed to admit I want to know more. How could I not? The whole scene is just too bizarre. What are the exercises you mentioned? Did it feel shady at the outset? I just had to ask, this is too rare an opportunity.
@@bsadewitz it was a summer program for teens. She was helping us with foreign accents and projecting our voices. She wasn't in the day to day rehearsals, she would just stop in on us.
A fool and his/her money are soon parted.
I remember seeing those Miss Cleo commercials on tv-OMG that makes me so much older than I realized I was. I also remember a newspaper article when charges were being filed and one of the prosecutors was quoted as saying “she should have seen it coming”. I got a good laugh over than one. Too young to die, though.
In this case, "Bakker" is pronounced as "Baker" rather than "Backer"
therealxunil2 Sooo “Barker”, “Berker”?
"Wonking" The act of purposefully mispronouncing common words and names in a TH-cam video in order to generate comments and thus game the algorithm.
Aubergine Bellen you mean he’s British and therefore unfamiliar with fringe American religious figures?
Aubergine Bellen lmao you’re hilarious! Thanks for the laugh.
Don't get me started on "controversy".:D
I may have been a kid when these ads were on; but man I will never forget Miss Cleo and that forever changing accent 😂
Ahh miss Cleo! I feel so old at 28
Just wait till you have kids. They'll make you feel a lot older. I know, because I'm a lot older... :(
Jack Linde.. i might not have a choice but be single forever.
Golgi Apparatus: I got bad news for you on that front as well. So, unless you plan on being celibate (or take matters into your own hand), expect kids in your future. (I'm a single parent.)
Jack Linde .. I'm a female virgin. Any sex wouldn't accidentally just happen. Not that I don't want a family though. It feels a bit impossible. Its not by choice. But maybe someday..love is more important.
golgi apparatus You robbed him of his MGTOW speech. Tsk tsk. Expect a response about how you can’t be a woman who wants sex and still be a virgin. If so, it’s only cause you’re hideous and your standards are too high. 🙄
Love the presentation. You look comfortable conveying the information whilst sitting! Thanks for all you do!
Thank you for another interesting video. I remember all of this. There were other physic telephone scams but Miss Cleo, with that accent, was the most fun to imitate.
I was suprised you didn't mention Dionne Warwick.
✌💚
that girl in okc I hope they make an episode on Warwick. The fact that she had so many famous connections never hurt her either
Psychic*****
I'm thinking it was a write in question, he's British, and more importantly he didn't know how to pronounce Tammy Faye Bakker's name properly. (Basically if you're old enough to remember one, as an American you'd remember both... he wouldn't have that knowledge unless he researched related people).
or Michael Jackson's sister, LaToya Jackson. She was the fave of a "tele-psychic" thing too, wasn't she?
and her psychic friends network
I worked on one of those phone lines once, about 17 years ago. It was exactly as you described. There are no true psychics. Not at that phone line, not in any of the live shows my coworkers did or the convention circuits they ran in. None.
"There's no word on whether she saw [death] coming."
Pure. Gold!
She made way more than $450,000.... she has/ had a mansion compound in tenino Washington. Just a huge Scam artist. I lived in the area during the late 90's
I was thinking that the "she claims" is not the whole truth. Like she is queen of scams and is gonna tell truth about her earnings 😂
Even if she did make 450k they’re making it sound like that isn’t a lot for 2 years of making up bullshit😂
I've had a vision just for you, right there, reading this comment... You didn't watch the whole shoutout to Squarespace, and you don't plan on either.
That's amazing, you read my mind.
But I did watch it!? -you are wrong bad psychic-
Uncanny! =-D
I call it you fraud, I did damn it because I was writing a comment so I couldnt skip, lol
Eh, I like bonus facts, so I tune out mentally instead of just not watching. I'm far too broke for anything they are advertising but glad that he gets these to pay for his work.
Love your stuff, but Jim & Tammy Faye's last name is pronounced with a long a, as in bake, or cake.
He said "Backer"
I caught that too....decided to check the comments before correcting him myself!!
He probably pronounced it that way because it is spelled weird. It is spelled Bakker. And being British, Simon didn't have the benefit of hearing it said on TV news ten thousand times when it was happening.
I’m ok with it 👍
@@SunstateUS Not Simon's fault Baker can't spell his own name.
My sister and I still mock her til this day.
I'm really glad this was a fair portrait of the person behind this character. We can judge moral turpitude all we want, in the comments; condemn the human being behind this character as fundamentally flawed - but consistently, your videos point out that there is a story behind every life - for better or worse. Thank you for your perspective.
I remember the commercials, I was a teenager then. I thought is was a load of bullshit. Turns out I was right.
I just wanted to see the video where she loses her accent. I was told the link was in the description. . . . I wasnt told there was going to be 20 links in the description and none would lead to the mentioned video. . . .
Rex Quinton
The TMZ link has the video, near the bottom of the page/article. It is a TH-cam clip, so yes it is odd to leave TH-cam to go to TMZ to see a TH-cam video. But, it is amusing, so I guess it was worth the needless extra step.
MY HERO!!! You truly helped me avoid the heartache
LOL. Yep. They do it to us every time. I don't even bother anymore.
I’m from Virginia and one of her call centers was in Newport News. When I worked in a call center for UPS (also in Newport News) I found out my supervisor used to work for the miss Cleo company. It was hilarious.
She said she's a shaman? Try shyster.
If Miss Cleo was alive, she would use squarespace.
Baker === Backer? That's an odd one to mess up :)
Well, it's spelled "Bakker." If you'd somehow never heard it pronounced, that'd be a good guess.
Yeah, I wonder if Simon calls the people who make bread and cakes "Backers" as well.
David Goodner Good eye. I’d forgotten that it was spelled Bakker and that’s how you would pronounce it with 2 k’s. It’s not Baker. LoL
I know the British have some pronunciations that sound foreign to the American ear, but this time you’re wrong. The second “K” in Bakker is silent, making the name rhyme with Quaker. The Bakkers were quite notorious in their downfall and they were in the news quite a bit, here in the colonies. The name is pronounced Baker, like one of the men in the tub.
Simon has a history of saying names wrong, like pronouncing Gene Roddenberry's last name "road 'n' brie". I wonder if he actively tries to make up new ways to mispronounce well-known words.
Ironically, there is a ribbon ad for Psychic Chat...
I remember seeing her all the time on tv as a kid. She honestly scared me. lol
She scared me too. So loud and outspoken, it just seemed too fake and outlandish to me...not natural.
Loud mouth ass use to wake me out my sleep with the bull..key reminder to get in the bed from the couch
@@TheAverageServant 😂😂😂
I feel zero Sympathy for the lady who played Miss Cleo.
I knew the whole psychic skit was a scam, should have figured her for a scammer. She got a grant to perform a play and skipped out with the money. Basically denying someone with real talent an honest chance to perform, learn, and contribute to society.
So she's a scammer you might say I say tell that to the person who couldn't do real work because of her rip off. A little psychic reading won't do any harm, except to those people we're goleba and prone to believing stuff and spend money needed for other things on something that's totally not true.
Liars and cheats are harmful they are dangerous and they should be stopped not humored.
I would just like to thank you for realizing that a good performer contributes to society. Could you please tell that to all the people who have suggested that I contribute by getting a "real" job? I'm not even sure what they mean. All the memorization and late hours rehearsing blocking and choreography all seems quite real to me. Maybe some people don't see it as real work because they know they can't do it?
sorrowdusk like all "psychics", her "visions" were vague, so she got the cancer right, just not what type
just to make sure here....goleba=gullible?
@@exidy-yt I think so...
Frickin - I can see why you would be frustrated, but saying people dont see it as real work because they cannot do it is silly. I do not see myself being an Astronaut, but I do consider it work as an example.
I think most people feel like the Arts is a respectable field, but it is not required for life. If we see people from the arts complaining about having no money, we feel like they should work like we do - after all most people in this world are doing something they do not want to be doing, unfortunately. If you choose the Arts, its a choice you made, and people do not want to hear about suffering that stems from choosing that path to put bread on your table. We must all work to eat.
Why... are..... you... talking... like.... William. ...... Shatner. ....
Lol!
Is this your first TIFO video?
It's becoming
noticeably worse
with recent videos.
It's an understandability thing. You have to build in think time for your audience. This is one of the odder sounding ways to do it, but it still works.
That's why I go 2× speed.
Miss Cleo should have seen all this coming
My horoscope roll said that I would learn something new today, who knew.
Broken Eyes I read horoscopes too. (Are they real? Because I follow them.)
kaity kline if they resonate with you
I remember her. Oooh I didn't know she past away. Thanks 👍 Also the bonus info was wow !
I remember seeing an interview with a women who believed she was a true physic, and had worked for one of those 900 number companies. She quit after she had a conversation with a client, where she told him, "You are paying me $250 an hour, when the lawyer that you need to talk to would only cost you $107 an hour."
I'll never be able to convince some people I know that psychics aren't real. They'll still just waste their money and say I'm wrong because they knew so much about them. Like how they had money troubles and they had issues with their mother. Oh, such unique issues...
Omg my friends and I would laugh until we almost peed ourselves watching her!
Her and girls gone wild were hot in the 90s early 2000s
An ex of mine used to call psychic hotlines before we got together and she had ran up over $900 in just one month and finally realized she was addicted to it and stopped. She in total had spent about $1,600 over the course of six months.
If she wasn't Jamaican, then why was she wearing that hat?
Sadpants McGee lmaooooo @ the half baked reference
I busted out laughing at work when I read that comment. Great half-baked reference. Did she stay right near the beach?? Lol
DAVE CHAPPELL IN HALF BAKED.
Right near da beach, BOI!!!!!
Lol!!!!
"The Cards Don' Lie"(But this ad sure did!)
Simon, belated Congratulations on your wedding!! 🎉🎉 Good wishes!! 😊
Haha! I see what you did there, Fox D! Kudos to you 😀
Something I really wanted to know, but didn’t know I wanted to know!
U cute
Ms Harris was from a Catholic Afro-Caribbean family.
Also: it's Tammy Faye and Jim Baker, like the profession.
RIP Ms. Cleo. I didn't even know that she had passed away. 53 is young for a woman.
It's 1:30 AM and I'm watching shit about Miss Cleo...
Takes me back to high school...
I had a friend from the Caribbean in college when the Miss Cleo commercials were at their peak. (I don't remember which island she was from.)
My friend would always laugh hysterically at the commercials and was very entertained by them.
It's amazing what you can do simply by telling people what they want to hear.
i worked for miss cleo psychic line as a tarot reader! the employee was 100% right on
What kind of psychic gets themselves "into some real bad contracts?"
lol. The idiom is supposed to be "queer as a 3 dollar bill", not "gay as a 2 dollar bill"
There are a bunch of soundboard prank calls based on Ms. Cleo.
Before internet porn, there was MTV and 1-900 numbers to entertain us. Good times.
"I only made half a million dollars off lying and scamming people, I didn't get most of the billion my employer did so I shouldn't be held accountable for all the harm I caused."
-Miss Cleo
It's not her fault stupid people are irresponsible with money.
@@rogerszmodis It really is though. It is predatory to prey on the weak minded.
There are some people whose entire mode of money making is calling up senior citizens and lying to them and confusing them into getting their banking or credit card information and then rob them blind.
People who are irresponsible with money and don't know any better need to be protected as well, because scammers are always evolving and looking for new ways to cheat you that can be convincing to some.
People need to be held accountable and not given a free pass.
@@TheDrexxus stealing credit card info from old people isn't even kind of close to letting idiots that believe in psychics pay you $5/min. Nobody is forcing anyone to call those numbers.
@@rogerszmodis People with mental deficiencies need some measure of protection from predator companies that prey on their weakness.
If you believe in psychics, you have a mental deficiency. You're even calling them idiots, which already indicates to me you are fully aware these people are not all the way there mentally.
So how can you justify the exploitation of people with such a glaring issue?
@@TheDrexxus During the cold war, both the US and Russian militaries dumped a lot of money into psychic research programs. None of it turned up anything definitive, but (crude political jokes aside) that's kind of the opposite of, "people with a mental deficiency."
The real problem is parsing out the difference between the people who contact a fortune teller because they're looking to experience something novel and be entertained, and the genuinely distraught. I mean, in competent hands, a fortune teller is just a social engineering magic act. That can be entertaining for people.
Of course, if you're hiring your "psychics" from newspaper ads for $12 an hour and doing it all by phone, that's going to be a pretty shallow experience.
Thanks, Simon- I remember Miss Cleo from those late night insomnia attacks. Interesting topic!
Dionne Warwick would mop the floor with Miss Cleo.
"mop the floor"? Is that what you call it? Here when two lesbians get together, we call it "licking the carpet"
Baby baby I get down on my knees for you.....
@@PawStreetProwlers Lol... He ain't talking bout sex lmao
@@PawStreetProwlers 😳 🙈🙉🙊
I worked for the Psychic Readers Network in 96-97, I made $12 an hour, worked when I wanted to, which was from about 10 at night to about 3am, people were more relaxed and wanting to talk more intimately about themselves. I had to do a reading for the supervisor before I got hired and there was no script, if you couldn't read then you weren't hired. The only requirement, and it wasn't even really required was to get names, addresses and email (for advertising purposes), it was PRN Club where they received tracts and pamphlets, we were paid .50 for every Club Member we signed up. They did want an average of 20 minutes per call per week, I always averaged around 50 minutes so I always received about $100 bonus per week. It wasn't a bad gig and I became a hella good reader from that experience. Nothing to do with Cleo but in the same vein.
This is funny- when I started learning to read tarot cards several years ago my friends started calling me "Miss Cleo," lol!
I like the new "sit down" format of these videos, Simon. Good work. 👍
Robin Williams mentioned Miss Cleo in his Broadway act in 2002 XD
I had a subsitute teacher in high school who worked for the physic hotline. He admitted when people call up, they would just open a book, point to something and read it to people.
I was just talking about this lady lmao..
I love this channel! Good shit guys! 👍🏽
MAYBE Simon is psychic
I worked for this company in 1994-1995ish. Made a decent living (but I disliked scamming innocent people/low income/elderly . Many just wanted someone to talk to) it but once my former husband was able to go back to work after an accident I slowly tapered off call times because I had a conscious and only did this job to feed my family.
I was grateful for the work. I am very glad these services were finally shut down.
I remember there were numerous 1-900 and 1-976 etc from not just “Ms. Cleo” but other psychic “hotlines”. There were sports ones, horror ones, comedy ones etc. I know many children and elderly folks who racked up ASTRONOMICAL phone bills during this time.
Was one heck of a scheme!
She also voiced Auntie Poulet, the Haitian gang leader in GTA: Vice City.
Forreal??
It's wild to me that she wasn't in more things. She was super-famous for a while there.
8:49 "and there's no word on whether she saw it coming...." hurt my heart right there
It's bay-ker. As in butcher ,baker, candlestick maker. Lol. Oh, Oh, Do Theresa Caputo (the Long Island Medium). 🤣🤣🤣
Got to love ❤️ when recommended videos work out for you. Did one last quick thumb spin scroll before I was going to close TH-cam when a video on Miss Cleo is spotted out of the corner of my eye. Well that was one of the fastest instant click videos I have ever watched and as an added bonus it was worth every second. 👨🍳 💋
I'm surprised she hasn't made guest appearances in all kinds of things over the years. She was a household name
Well she's dead... so there's that
I worked as a phone psychic for a few weeks. I'm not sure if it was for the same network. What as sad and despicable business. I ended up telling most of my clients not to waste their money on phone psychics. Oh and I never got paid (I should have seen it in the cards).
How about a history of diet pills and the like?
omg yes,I remember dexatrim
"there's no word on whether she saw it coming" fucking savage lol
" If she saw it coming"🤣🤣