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[[File:555number 330 5485.jpg|link=Ghostbusters|frame|Who you shouldn't call?]]
{{quote|''"Act now. This offer is completely fictitious. Call 555-FAKE-NUMBER. That's 555-FAKE-NUMBER."''
|'''[[Stephen Colbert]]''', ''[[The Daily Show]]''}}
Virtually all US phone numbers on fictional programmes are made up of the following:
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Area Code - ''555'' - four random digits
"555" is an exchange number commonly thought to be reserved by the phone companies for use by TV and movies in order to prevent
In the United States and Canada,
As the standard number 555-1212 exists in all Canadian and US geographic area codes (so that directory assistance for a remote or non-local area code is available at 1-area code-555-1212) this has caused telephone companies ''de facto'' to reserve the entire 555 exchange for information numbers in every area code nationwide. While only 555-0100 to 0199 are explicitly reserved for fictional use, most or all of the other possible 555-xxxx numbers are left unused. (Other common North American reservations included 958- and 1-###-959 for test numbers, 950- for access to alternate long-distance carriers, and anything with a leading 0- or 1- in the area code or the seven-digit local number. A '9' in the middle digit of the area code is also reserved for future numbering plan expansion. 555 as an area code, in the format 1-555-NXX-XXXX, is also unused and reserved due to similarity to the information numbers.)
There are exceptions: the exchange prefix 555 ''is'' valid for toll-free +1-800 numbers (e.g. 1-800-555-xxxx, but not any other freephone prefix like 1-888, 877, 866, 855, 844 and 833). The prefix may also be a valid exchange in some other country outside the North American Numbering Plan; this happened often in Australia before that country's local numbers were lengthened to eight digits.
In the days when [[Telephone Exchange Names|telephone exchanges had names]],
Alternatives include "invalid" or incomplete numbers, one of the most famous of these being "Call BR 549" from ''[[Hee Haw]]''. The ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'' episode "Harold's Kitty" does both: Arnold's number is 555-123.
The Nanette Workman song "Callgirl" gives what purport to be Montréal telephone numbers for a sex worker in four languages (French, English, German, Spanish); the German number contains the nonsense word "drufnuf" as one of the digits, the Spanish number uses 203-XXXX at a time when a 0 or 1 in the second digit was reserved for telephone area codes (this reservation no longer exists). The B-side of the B52's single "Rock Lobster" had a song titled 6060-842 with the lyrics "Operator, what's wrong? I dial stupid number all day long. The operator said: your number's been disconnected, your number's been disconnected, your number's been disconnected..." as 606 at the time was not a local exchange but an area code for Kentucky, rendering the number invalid.
Some very enterprising shows have simply bought the relevant numbers and connected them to additional content relevant to the show. This was done for ''[[Scrubs]]'' - for a few weeks, calling Turk's new cell phone number connected you to a phone that was actually on the set, and if you were lucky enough to call when somebody was there, you ran a good chance of getting to talk to the cast and crew. This was used widely in the [[Alternate Reality Game]] promotion for the movie ''A.I.: Artificial Intelligence'', but the practice is far more common for URLs than for telephone numbers.▼
Often, as numbers become scarce, national authorities will change the numbering system - and possibly make what used to be an invalid number become real.
Some motion pictures have used telephone numbers starting with '1' as, in North America, real telephone numbers ''cannot'' start with a 1 or a 0, due to technical requirements.<ref>('1' is a common prefix for long-distance dialing)</ref> Sony Pictures Legal Department permits its TV shows to use any area code (except 800 or 888) followed by a "1" or "0" as the first digit of the seven-digit phone number. (e.g., [310] 074-2566, [213] 177-4305) Many major studios share this policy on advice from their lawyers. In contrast, almost ''all'' numbers in many European countries start with 0, which is omitted when one dials internationally.<ref>(This is because in these countries, all area codes start with a 0, allowing the phone system to recognize non-local calls and make the appropriate connections for them.)</ref>▼
▲Some very enterprising shows have instead simply bought
This also appears in [[Easter Egg|Easter eggs]] in various media, where a creator or studio will hide their own number somewhere in a work, {{spoiler|such as the number on a control panel in Monsters Inc, which is Pixar's telephone number.}}
As with domain names, there is the risk that any real phone numbers will be reassigned to someone else once the studio stops renewing the subscription. If the number is in a non-geographic or freephone prefix, it also risks not working at all for international calls. Storing a prerecorded game clue on a [[Break the Fourth Wall|real telephone number]]? When that number goes dead, the whole game is that little bit less playable. For instance, the licensed NES game of [[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]] used a real number for this toll-free message:
:{{quote|"It is shocking the way some neighborhoods are getting. You practically can't walk anywhere without running into stray dogs, cats, and other animals. It makes you wish you carried a piece of meat, a fish bone, or a piece of cheese around with you. The weasel that is guarding Judge Doom's warehouse is the one called Stupid. I've heard that the only thing that'll get him to leave is a quick game of softball. Know anyplace where you could get a baseball in a hurry?"
|Jessica Rabbit offering a clue on [https://www.houstonpress.com/arts/the-last-of-us-video-game-has-a-real-phone-sex-number-in-it-6389009 +1-800-232-3324] before it joined the millions of disconnected numbers [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/porn-company-buys-up-a-quarter-of-1-800-numbers/ cybersquatted by Primetel] for advertising}}
There are US FCC regulations which are supposed to prevent hoarding, brokering and warehousing of numbers. They're not enforced. Disconnect a +1-800 and it will be cybersquatted within milliseconds of it becoming available for assignment to new subscribers. Domain names (where there is no regulation) are just as bad for this, or worse.
▲Some motion pictures have used telephone numbers starting with '1' as, in North America, real telephone numbers ''cannot'' start with a 1 or a 0, due to technical requirements.<ref>('1' is a common prefix for long-distance
One of the things that have been done in Southern California is that a lot of prefixes specifically leave one number in each exchange non-assigned: the number consisting of that prefix followed by "1" and that prefix number, so that a number like 867-1867 would be left unavailable. They may or may not still be following this practice, however; it was used at least once in an episode of ''[[Adam-12]]'' where the guy read his phone number to the officers, and it used the prefix-1-prefix format.
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[http://www.example.com/ Example.com], [http://www.example.net/ example.net] and [http://www.example.org/ example.org] are reserved for "documentation" by [http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2606.txt RFC 2606] but make for useful fake email addresses.
[
Aircraft tail registration numbers [http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=N88892 N88892], [http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=N9748C N9748C] and [http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=N9747P N9747P] are reserved for
A secretary who worked for a supplier to the F.W. Woolworth Co. was asked to make up a fake Social Security card for use in wallets that the company sold. She put her own number on the card. So many people started using it (many probably by accident, thinking it was a legitimate number to use) that the Social Security Administration gave her a new number. To this day, there are hundreds of people (some working under the table) who are working under her original number, [http://www.ssa.gov/history/ssn/misused.html 078-05-1120]. While everyone at the Social Security Administration knows it's no longer a valid number, most people do not. Similarly, a placeholder commonly used in Visa (Chargex) credit card adverts in Canada is the name "G. Raymond", which belonged to a real Visa Desjardins employee and looked the same in both French or English.
An actual invalid US Social Security number would start with three zeros (000-12-3456) or use "00" as the two center digits (123-00-3456). While neither of these or anything similar is valid, a Social Security number ending in four zeros could be valid. Also, no valid Social Security number will start with 8 or 9, although the Internal Revenue Service assigns identification numbers for individuals who are required to pay taxes but do not have valid Social Security numbers using the same format starting with 9 (9##-##-####). Some Railroad Retirement System numbers (private retirement system used by railroads before they dumped their passenger operations onto Amtrak, and before the SSN became a ''de facto'' citizen ID number) did start with 8 or 9, which is why they are never used for Social Security.
A variant exists for postal addresses; when a real street is used for a character's address, the actual house number usually doesn't exist. This is much less noticeable than a fake telephone number because only a viewer who's very familiar with the city in question will pick up on it.
There are also fictional TV channels (at least in North America): [[wikipedia:Channel 37|Channel 37]] has never been issued to any real-life TV station, since its frequency (608-614 MHz) was given over to radio astronomy in 1963. (In addition, channel 1 was removed in 1948 and channels 70 and up were removed in the 1980s
[[I Thought It Meant|Not to be confused with]] [[Kamen Rider 555|A Kamen Rider of similar naming.]] [[wikipedia:555 timer IC|Or a popular timer IC of the same name]]. Also, not to be confused with [[Number of the Beast|666]].
{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==▼
▲== Advertising ==
* A liquor brand once ran a series of billboards that resembled personal ads, complete with real phone numbers. Those who called heard a recorded message about the product.
* There was a television ad in the 1980s about an old guy who drove a very old, reliable car. The point was that this brand of car would last forever if you serviced it fastidiously. If you didn't believe that, you were invited to call the old guy at his real phone number.
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* LifeLock, a company offering identity theft protection, not only offered a $1 million guarantee that your identity would not be stolen, but also dared thieves to do so in its advertising. Todd Davis, the owner, placed his real Social Security number (457-55-5462) in commercials, averting this trope. Inevitably, within days of the commercial airing, [http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2008/06/securitymatters_0612 someone was able to take out a $500 payday loan in his name].
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[Initial D]] Fourth Stage'', the URL of the racing team Project D is "<nowiki>http://project.d</nowiki>". ".d" is not a valid real-life top-level domain.
* Manga in general place symbols like Xs and triangles over some of the phone numbers displayed outside a business or an address book. Same can go for license plates since Japanese plates are mostly numbers.
== [[Comic Books]] ==▼
* Comedian Mitch Hedberg had a variation in his act. "I would like the phone number 222-2222. Whenever someone asked about it, I could just say, 'Press 2 for a while. When I answer, you'll know that you've pressed 2 enough.'▼
* In the stage show of the British comedy series ''[[Bottom]]'', they reveal the character's phone number to be 444-4444.▼
** These are actually both totally legitimate phone numbers in the US and Canada. Oddly enough, they have both been used by pizza delivery places in my hometown.▼
*** A law firm in [[Milwaukee]] uses this long number, but after their original ad announcer retired the new guy has given up on the continuous repetition and just said "Dial 414, then all fours".▼
* Then there's the [[Incredibly Lame Pun|incredibly lame bilingual pun]]: A German boy asks an English-speaking girl for her phone number. She replies, "999-9999". The German boy says, "All right, don't tell me then."'▼
** [[Don't Explain the Joke|"Nein," pronounced like "nine," is German for "no".]]▼
* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' did a BBC album of some of their TV sketches in 1970, with the "Mouse Problem" sketch among them. What was added that wasn't on TV was the telephone number of Mr. A ("Although his ''real'' name is George Jackson, 32A Milton Avenue, Hounslow, Middlesex. Telephone 01-246-2847.")▼
▲== Comic Books ==
* In the "Sam Spayed" story in ''[[Garfield His 9 Lives]]'', he once has to call the number 555-1234. (He's not good at remembering numbers.)
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* [[Calvin and Hobbes|Calvin's]] parents' phone number, as shown in ''[[Calvin and Hobbes:
==
▲* [[Calvin and Hobbes|Calvin's]] parents' phone number, as shown in ''[[Calvin and Hobbes: The Series|Calvin and Hobbes The Series]]'', is apparently 555-7186.
* ''The [[Last Action Hero]]'' [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this trope when Danny pinpoints it to convince Jack Slater that they're [[Trapped in TV Land|inside a movie]]. Naturally, it doesn't convince him.
{{quote|'''Danny:''' "See? All the phone numbers start with 555!"
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'''Slater''': "That's why we have ''area codes.''" }}
** Of course, even if they did use area codes, only 10 million people could be serviced with only the 555 prefix, which isn't enough to cover the LA metro area, let alone the rest of the country. If any area code-prefix-suffix combination is used, the North American phone system has a 10 billion number capacity.
** The same issue would arise if the North American Numbering Plan were legally required to issue the local number 867-5309 to every subscriber with the name "Jenny" or "Jennifer". It'd break the entire system.
* ''[[Live Free or Die Hard]]'' used the Class C private IP version (192.168.x.y).
* In the 2008 TV film based on the 1959 play ''A Raisin in the Sun'' (and set in that time period), the for-sale sign outside the Youngers' new home lists the phone number as "KL 50148".
* ''[[Back to The Future]]'' has the distinction of using ''both'' versions. In 1985, the number for Jennifer's grandma is "555-4823". In 1955, "Doc" Brown's number is "KLondike 5-4385".
* ''[[Bruce Almighty]]'' was a particularly interesting case. In the original theatrical version, the number left on Bruce's pager was a real seven-digit number. While +1-716-776-2323 does not exist in Buffalo NY, the number was displayed as just the seven local digits,
** There was some shock and laughs when some called the original number and connected with a church in North Carolina reportedly tended by a pastor named Bruce, as well as other churches in Georgia and the private cell number of a pastor in Wisconsin.
* Avoided in ''[[Sneakers]]'', where the NSA operative gives her phone number as "273-9164, area code 415". (At the time this was a real number for the San Francisco office of the [[Intimidating Revenue Service|Internal Revenue Service]].)
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* A typical example appears in ''[[The Ref]]'' when Gus gives Lloyd's number to Murray.
* Monument Taxi in ''[[True Lies]]'' has 555-2439. Another 800 number is written on their cars, too, for some reason.
* The ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' showed the same 555 number in their in-universe commercial (seen in this page's image) that Jim Rockford had on the TV series ''[[The Rockford Files]]''.
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* [[Junie B. Jones]] on Telephone Numbers: "Its name is 555-5555. It's hard to remember, because I keep forgetting the 5."
* [[Warren Ellis]]' novel ''[[Crooked Little Vein]]'': When told to call (555) 555-5555 for help, Mike demonstrates his detective skills by pointing out that the number won't work, as it's only used by Hollywood. To which the Chief of Staff responds, "We gave it to them. It works for us."
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* [[Nero Wolfe]] lived on West 35th Street, Manhattan; the number varied, but consistently put his house in the river.
* The [[Babysitters Club]] could be reached at KL5-3231.
* ''[[The Dresden Files
=== [[Periodicals]] ===
* A dating columnist once put her real phone number on the cover of a [https://web.archive.org/web/20090104075552/http://www.timeout.com/newyork/articles/features/26283/call-julia magazine.]▼
* [[Nickelodeon]] magazine has a format for E-mail addresses and domain names for their pranks: they use the .not suffix as an [[Incredibly Lame Pun]] on .net, e.g., whatever@wherever.not or www.fakecompany.not.▼
== [[Live
* ''[[iCarly]]'': 1-555-SEND-ME-A-SACK
* The "Broom Cupboard" episode of ''[[The Unit]]'' features a foreign phone number containing 5555
* ''[[24]]'' once used the illegal IP address version.
* A "KL5" phone number can be seen on a background poster in ''[[Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide]]'', raising the question of how many members of the target demographic would even ''recognize that as being a phone number''.
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* The KACL studio number in ''[[Frasier]]'' is 555-KACL.
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'': The Doctor's mobile phone number 07700 900461 was given out, causing thousands to [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1032510/Dial-doctor-2-500-Dr-Who-fans-try-ring-Time-Lords-mobile.html try contacting him using it].
* The ''[[Law &
** Subtly lampshaded in one episode when the detectives themselves have this one pulled on them. The detectives have had a suspect's vital information given, and it lists an address. When an officer reads that address off to Detective Briscoe, he says a line to the effect of "The middle of the Hudson River."
** Another perp's home address was the Police Academy. One even had the gall to use the business address for One Police Plaza as his address. Sometimes, criminals ''do'' think of these things.
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** Producer Chuck Lorre even discusses this trope, and the difficulty in getting the phone number on air, in his essay-like [[Vanity Plate]] at the end of the episode. CBS would eventually censor it from broadcast due to the number he [[Take That|gives to the idiots who dial all these numbers]] as well as the [[Executive Meddling|executives]], 555-382-5968, which reads {{spoiler|FUCK YOU}}.
* ''[[I Love Lucy]]'' took place in an apartment building whose address was 623 East 68th Street, which would be in the middle of the East River.
* Tying in with the 5/6/10 episode of ''[[The Office]]'', the website for the [https://web.archive.org/web/20131008110621/http://www.schrutepi.com/ Dwight Schrute Detective Agency] was put online complete with Phone (570) 555-0698, Mobile Phone (570) 555-0698 and Fax (570) 555-0245.
* ''[[Breaking Bad]]'' averts this trope almost entirely - not only do the characters reference actual Albuquerque area codes, a real ABQ street became the basis for one of the [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|best moments]] of Season 3.
{{quote|'''Walt:''' 6353 Juan Tabo, apartment six. Yeah.}}
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* As noted above, for quite some time it was subverted with ''[[Scrubs]]''. Calling Turk's new cell number actually brought fans to a phone on the set, giving fans a chance to provide feedback or even just have a friendly chat with the cast and crew of the show.
* ''[[Earth: Final Conflict]]'' had ''several'' domains bought out and fake websites assembled with background data and character notes. As the show was made during the late 90's, it was one of the first to make extensive use of this, but considering the [[Gene Roddenberry|family]] behind it, it's not too shocking.
* ''[[Married... with
* ''[[Cold Case]]'' has 215-555-0196 in the episode ''Saving Sammy''.
* A Terry Gilliam-animated "commercial" on ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' features Shrill Petrol with the new miracle ingredient GLC 942-4075 (after 6 PM, 942-4047).
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* 165 Eaton Place, the Bellamys' house on ''[[Upstairs, Downstairs]]'', doesn't exist. For the exterior scenes in the show, the producers used the real house at 65 Eaton and painted a "1" next to the address (as well as the adjacent houses).
==
▲* A dating columnist once put her real phone number on the cover of a [http://www.timeout.com/newyork/articles/features/26283/call-julia magazine.]
▲* [[Nickelodeon]] magazine has a format for E-mail addresses and domain names for their pranks: they use the .not suffix as an [[Incredibly Lame Pun]] on .net, e.g., whatever@wherever.not or www.fakecompany.not.
* Renowned Russian rocker [[Boris Grebenschikov]] has a song about the phone number 2-12-85-06, which was a fake number... until the Russian area code system was changed and "2-" was added to a lot of numbers. There is now a washhouse in St. Petersburg that keeps getting calls from B.G. fans all over the country.
* [[Soulja Boy]]'s song "Kiss Me Thru The Phone"
* AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" averts it mentioning the phone number 36-24-36.
** [[Bob Rivers]]' parody "Dirty Deeds Done With Sheep" replaces this with "Don't call 976-B-A-A-A, that kind of love's a crime". In many area codes, +1-NPA-976-XXXX numbers are high-premium.
* [[De La Soul]]'s "Ring Ring Ring" averts this: "You wanna call me? Take my number down. It's 222-2222. I've got an answering machine that will talk to you." The number is usually blanked out in TV and radio broadcasts of the song and its music video, because it's actually used by the ''Chicago Tribune'', among others. In Winnipeg, it's the pizza hotline.
* The video for [[Genesis (band)|Genesis]]'s song "Jesus He Knows Me" featured the (parodied) televangelist's contribution hotline as '1-555-GEN-ESIS'. Area code 555 is reserved
* The incomplete form used for a website name in the ''Animainiacs'' song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpzuIDPwEU4 "LA Dot"]"You can find me on my webpage spot w w w dot dot dot
* Glenn Miller's song "
* The phone number in the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWNaR-rxAic music video] for [[Carly Rae Jepsen]]'s "Call Me Maybe".
* [[Defied Trope|Defied]] in Tommy Tutone's 1981 song "[[wikipedia:867-5309/Jenny|867-5309/Jenny]]", which caused that particular phone number to be valued by businesses that ''want'' people to call them.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* Aversion: The newspaper comic ''[[Dilbert]]'' once had a story line about a "Date-a-Dilbert" service. The cartoonist thought it needed a real phone number, so he put his own number in the strip. It got hundreds of calls, mostly from women who really wanted to date a Dilbert.
* In ''[[Ginger Meggs]]'', one of Ginger's friends has a poster up saying "Missing since 4:00PM Ph: XXXX XXX XXX". The phone number is of a colleague of the cartoonist.
== [[Radio]] ==▼
▲== Radio ==
* [[Douglas Adams]] used a seven-digit number for a measurement of probability in ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]''. Due to the Infinite Improbability Drive, the number turned out to also be the phone number of the Islington flat where Arthur met Trillian at a party. Unfortunately, Adams averted the trope and used the number of his own flat, also in Islington. The official script book contains a footnote that the tenant who lives there now has nothing to do with ''Hitchhiker'', and doesn't appreciate prank calls.
** In some editions of the five-book trilogy, Adams writes about how the whole story came to be. The anecdote concludes with a section called "How To Leave Earth." Adams suggests calling (in order) NASA, The White House, The Kremlin, and The Vatican, giving working phone numbers for each, averting the trope.
== [[Recorded and Stand Up Comedy]] ==
▲* Comedian Mitch Hedberg had a variation in his act. "I would like the phone number 222-2222. Whenever someone asked about it, I could just say, 'Press 2 for a while. When I answer, you'll know that you've pressed 2 enough.'
▲* In the stage show of the British comedy series ''[[Bottom]]'', they reveal the character's phone number to be 444-4444.
▲** These are actually both totally legitimate phone numbers in the US and Canada.
▲*** A law firm in [[Milwaukee]] uses this long number, but after their original ad announcer retired the new guy has given up on the continuous repetition and just said "Dial 414, then all fours". Another law firm has the number (444-4444) in Syracuse.
▲* Then there's the [[Incredibly Lame Pun|incredibly lame bilingual pun]]: A German boy asks an English-speaking girl for her phone number. She replies, "999-9999". The German boy says, "All right, don't tell me then."'
▲** [[Don't Explain the Joke|"Nein," pronounced like "nine," is German for "no".]]
▲* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' did a BBC album of some of their TV sketches in 1970, with the "Mouse Problem" sketch among them. What was added that wasn't on TV was the telephone number of Mr. A ("Although his ''real'' name is George Jackson, 32A Milton Avenue, Hounslow, Middlesex. Telephone 01-246-2847.")
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Uplink]]'' does both of these. It uses random phone numbers in almost all ranges (02, 05, 06, 07, 08 and 09 from memory) - the avoiding of 01 is almost certainly to force an appearance of non-residential numbers (the only use of telephone numbers is for individual people's voicemail systems). It also uses bogus IP addresses all the way down to 0 and up to 999. It does get one IP address right, though - your own gateway is at 127.0.0.1, the local host loopback IP.
* In the licensed NES game of ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]'', a clue tells you to call Jessica Rabbit at a certain 1-800 number. (Of course, [[No Fourth Wall|this was an actual number that you, the player, were expected to call in Real Life so you could receive the necessary clues to continue the game]]. Many players, not knowing this, spent hours searching for an in-game phone that the characters could use. [[Guide Dang It]] indeed.)
** If someone were to try calling
*** When you consider
* In the ''[[Nancy Drew (video game)|Nancy Drew]]'' computer games, all of the numbers you can call from Nancy's cell phone start with 555. Even the alphanumeric numbers for the 1930s telephone in ''Secret of the Old Clock'' convert to 555.
** Dial 1-555-MYSTICO and prepare to [[Easter Egg|be amazed]]!
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* The [[Manic Miner]] cheat code "6031769" is said to have been author [[Matthew Smith]]'s (Liverpool) telephone number at the time.
* In his ending in ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom 3]]'', Taskmaster [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check|advertises his mercenary training academy]] with the number given as 555-TASK. He still gets lots of signups though, as in the next 'panel' he's rolling in money. Presumably these numbers work in the Marvel universe.
* Somehow averted in ''[[Ripper]]'' - [[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony]] points this out.
{{quote|Spoony: For those of you playing at home, try calling these numbers and see who picks up!}}
* In the cult NES game ''[[Nightshade]]'', the hieroglyphs in the villain's hideout allegedly say, "Are you reading this? Then so are your customers! Contact Sutekh at [[Card-Carrying Villain|555-EVIL]]"
== [[Web Animation]] ==▼
* Parodied in the ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' episode "[https://web.archive.org/web/20131104135542/http://www.homestarrunner.com/senormortgage.html Senor Mortgage]" with the number 555-55-55855-55-5-SENOR-MORT-GAGE-TODAY.▼
▲== Web Animation ==
▲* Parodied in the ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' episode "[http://www.homestarrunner.com/senormortgage.html Senor Mortgage]" with the number 555-55-55855-55-5-SENOR-MORT-GAGE-TODAY.
** An early version of an early Homestar cartoon advertising a (fake, at the time) album of Strong Bad's greatest hits featured a real phone number, 1-800-BAD-SONG. The Brothers Chaps had assumed that no one would actually try to call it. They changed the cartoon shortly after a limo company complained that people were calling trying to purchase the album. The new phone number is 1-800-555-SBSINGS.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/comic.php?current=1259 Ishmael's mother's number] in ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]''.
* [http://www.viruscomix.com/page400.html This] ''[[Subnormality]]'' comic: As North American area codes can't have 9 as a second digit, the number it uses [(590) 238-1665] isn't valid.
* ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'' goes all out: [http://www.drmcninja.com the main site] for this webcomic currently features his fake phone number (301-555-4982), fake fax number (301-555-4983), fake address (23 Haunted Wood Drive), but then subverts the trope by taking place in the very real Cumberland, Maryland. (After teasing readers to figure out where the doctor practiced, future stories featured the doctor purchasing an MTO sandwich from Sheetz and noting that "The real mayor of Cumberland gave my family a dog once.")
** [[Write What You Know]]: Although the 555 exchange is obviously fictional, 301 is indeed the area code for Cumberland, Maryland.
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* In ''[[Girls with Slingshots]]'' unlucky guy Jim gets a number from a girl which contains area code 555. He doesn't realize that it's a fake.
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
▲== Western Animation ==
* A ''[[Rugrats]]'' Christmas episode had the phone number 555-NOEL. Confused, Angelica just typed in 555-5555... and actually got someone.
** Also, the episode where Angelica thinks she's going to get a baby brother. She calls in to a psychology-type show using the number 555-5555 (again).
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' also parodied this trope by having Chief Wiggum receive a lead in a case: a telephone number. "555- aw, geez, that's gotta be phony."
** Note that they got this number by using police equipment to ''trace the call.'' There's a reason that this man is the father of [[The Ditz]].
** Another episode featured Marge making a call to Chief Wiggum, which resulted in him getting mad and demanding to know where she lived so that he could arrest her - Marge then slowly comes up with the address 123 Fake Street. This turns out to be an aversion, however, since later in the episode Bart and Milhouse try to hide out from some people at...123 Fake Street. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
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** '''Kl'''ondike 5 was used as Homer's number when working as Mr. Plow.
* Used in ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' in the episode ''The Ultimate Enemy''. Mr. Lancer is making a phone call to Fentonworks and dials "555-1221".
* Gigi's number in ''[[Harvey Birdman, Attorney at
* In the ''[[Family Guy]]'' episode "Three Kings", when Richard Dreyfuss gives Roy Scheider his phone number, he starts off with 555. At which point Roy just tells him that if Richard doesn't want to give him his real phone number, don't lie.
** Don't forget [[Alan Rickman]]'s answering machine: "Hello. You've reached Alan Rickman at 555-0122."
* In ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'', there is an episode where Joker says that after his laughing gas, people are even laughing at a phonebook. Harley Quinn proceeds to read a few entries; all the numbers, naturally, start with 555.
* ''[[The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron]]'' had the number for turning in convicts be 555-555-5555.
* In the original 1987 ''[[DuckTales (1987)|DuckTales]]'', the Beagle Boys advertised a teleporting gas as insect repellant with a commercial giving the number 555-5-555.
* In ''[[King of the Hill]]'', Nancy Hicks-Gribble works for Channel 84, the joke being that prior to the 1980s, the highest channel that was
* Interestingly averted on an episode of ''[[Futurama]]''. The writers didn't want to use a 555 number, so they made a number with one of the digits a Greek lambda (784-36λ9). It also made it seem more futuristic.
* In ''[[Regular Show]]'' all the telephone numbers in the episode "
* In ''[[Steven Universe]]'':
** Fish Stew Pizza's phone number is 443-555-0156, as shown in "Keeping It Together".
** Mystery Girl's number is 301-555-0189. In real life, the 301 area code covers part of Maryland, though not the part on the Delmarva peninsula.
** In “A Single Pale Rose” we see a lot more phone numbers Pearl has stashed away, all of which include 555.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Cartographers have always had to worry about others plagiarizing and reselling their maps - the problem being that it's very difficult to legally prove if someone copies their work, and (thankfully) it's also not possible to copyright reality or facts (which is what maps are ultimately based on). [https://web.archive.org/web/20081013203855/http://apb.directionsmag.com/archives/4513-Times-Change-No-More-Fake-Streets-in-Rand-McNally-Maps.html There used to be] a clever solution - the mapmakers would deliberately add a fake street in a nondescript area of the map. A fake street ''can'' be copyrighted, and if another map had the same fake street, it would give the original mapmaker solid proof of copyright infringement.
** It's still in use - Google Maps occasionally includes a one-way street that you can't drive onto, such as [https://www.google.ca/maps/place/45%C2%B026'36.0%22N+75%C2%B038'14.7%22W/@45.4418391,-75.6380798,17z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d45.443333!4d-75.637415 this one].
** One infamous example: [[wikipedia: Agloe, New York|Agloe]] originated as a mapmaker's prank at a small drafting company preparing maps for Esso (Exxon) petrol stations. Two of their workers scrambled their own initials and dropped them on some random gravel crossroads. The road was later paved and someone built a real store, named the Agloe General Store because the name was on the Esso map. The county then added the crossroads to their maps because of the store, and Rand McNally updated their maps to match the county map. The original drafting company sued Rand McNally, claiming copyright infringement, and lost because Agloe had become a real place. Eventually, the store closed and was torn down; Agloe then disappeared from the map, for real. Agloe went on to be featured in the fictional work ''Paper Towns'' by John Green.
* Zig-zagged: circa the 1960s, the telephone number of WCBS in New York City (excluding area code) was 765-4321.
** A few places request this number deliberately to make it easy to remember. In [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?|Springfield]] it's a [https://web.archive.org/web/20200421140248/https://www.springfieldrona.com/ hardware store]; in Prince Albert it's a [https://www.questclinic.ca medical clinic].
* The IP blocks 192.0.2.*, 198.51.100.*, and 203.0.113.* (2001:db8::* in IPv6) are reserved for examples in documentation.
* As of early 2017, telephone scammers and spammers have been spotted using spoofed caller ID numbers starting with "555". This may be intentional on the part of the
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[[Category:Phone Tropes]]
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