To celebrate its lifespan, here are ten unique examples of the phone booth.

1.

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Upon viewing the photo above for the first time, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was fake and that no payphone on earth would be situated in the middle of a body of water. But it’s real. Found on Lake Victoria in Uganda, this very unusual payphone is a in fact a solar-powered, GSM phone – and therefore wireless – used by locals just as any other payphone would be.

2.

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Above: an incredibly extravagant payphone situated in the body of a decorative leopard. This booth can be found in Brazil, a country where payphones are known as ‘orelhões’ (’big ears’) and very often take the form of animals. More examples of this striking art-form can be found at the Lost Art website.

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This chilling, fully-functional phone booth can be found in Fairbanks, Alaska, and is one of many that have been carved from solid ice as part of Ice Alaska, an annual Ice Art Championships that draws crowds from across the globe. Should you be dressed in normal attire and wish to stay unstuck, it’s probably advisable to stay standing when taking long calls.

4.

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One of the most famous telephone kiosks on earth at the peak of its fame, the Mojave Phone Booth at one point became so renowned that a movie was produced in its honour. Now removed, the booth became famous in the late 1990s when its isolated location – the Mojave desert – was discussed at length online, at which point the number was also circulated. People from around the world began to call the booth, and many travelled to the area specifically to photograph it and answer the phone. It was removed in 2000, much to the dismay of its many fans.

5.

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The Aquarium Phone Booth was unveiled in Lyon last year as part of the Lyon Light Festival and instantly drew crowds. The booth’s designers, Benoit Deseille and Benedetto Bufalino, explained the inspiration behind the re-purposed call-box:

“With the advent of the mobile telephone, telephone booths lie unused. We rediscover this glass cage transformed into an aquarium, full of exotically coloured fish; an invitation to escape and travel.”

6.

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Recently introduced in Finland are these modern equivalents to the telephone booth; essentially a comfortable, semi-secluded seat in a public space, provided purely for the benefit of mobile phone users. Supposedly introduced in order to offer the caller a quiet place to make a call, but more likely a polite and entirely reasonable effort to cordon off those seemingly intent on airing their private calls in public, loudly. A development I wholeheartedly support and one which hopefully will seep into all corners of the world.

7.

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Developed by Michael and Susan Katzev, the underwater phone booth seen above was designed in order for divers to be able to contact people at the water’s surface by phone; in turn negating the need to physically resurface should contact be necessary. The booth, which takes the form of an air-filled acrylic hemisphere, also makes it possible to change or fix faulty equipment whilst remaining on the sea bed.

8.

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In 2006, the red phone box in the photo above appeared overnight and ‘landed’ in Downtown Los Angeles, to much speculation. It wasn’t long before famous street artist Banksy was identified as the brains behind the stunt; a fitting tribute – we think – to a cultural icon that will soon be a distant memory.

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Spotted in Gendron, Belgium last September, this greenery-covered example is surely one of the most dilapidated telephone booths on earth and a stark sign of the times. Sights similar to this are becoming more common by the day and in fact, as early as 2004, Jordan became the first country to remove all public phone booths due to some not being used for years.

10.

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Above: a solar-powered telephone booth in Australia. Just one of many now found in hotter climates around the world.

1. Upside Down Pizza Man

More than 200,000 people have listened to a recording of a Welsh man complaining to a supermarket call centre worker that he has been left without dinner because he has been sold a pizza base without a topping.

Minutes into the call, his complaints turn to severe embarrassment as he realises that the pizza is upside down. After admitting, “I look like a fool”, he complains that the packaging should have been marked with instructions on how it should be opened.

Click to listen to the call

2. Liver On My Pizza

With over 1.6 Million views this is one of the most popular telephone pizza pranks on youtube.

This is a prank calls from the U.K. Radio Presenter – Scott Mills and it is class. After the obvious Bart Simpson–esque “Anita Gofradump,” there’s some great little play on words.

Click to listen to the call

3. Sit On It and Wait

This poor lady rang the wrong number and got pranked by someone pretending to work at the pizza restaurant. After the lady explained that she had waited 50 minutes the prankster asked her what was so important about her pizza and “can’t she just sit on it and wait.” Hilarious!

Click to listen to the call

4. Jewish Girl Rings Home

A Jewish girl living away from home at college, prank calls her parents and tells them she started dating an Italian guy. The father threatens to kill the guy and the mothers comments are priceless -“Their Not Kosher!”

Click to listen to the call

5. Can You Demolish My School

This prank involves a cute little Irish girl who rings a demolition company to ask if they can demolish her school.

“Blow it up that would be better, and can you make sure that all my teachers are in there when you knock it down!”

Worth waiting for the classic line “Give me a ball park finger…”

Click to listen to the call

6. Double Chinese Takeaway

Another prank from UK Radio 1 host – Scott Mills. He orders one Chinese takeaway then gets that person to repeat the order to another Chinese takeaway. It sounds really confusing but it’s hilarious.

Click to listen to the call

7. Wendy’s Prank Causes $20,000 of damage

The following prank went horribly wrong for both the victim and the prankster. Markle decides to prank his local Wendy’s resturant, posing as member of Wendy’s corporate head office. He told the restaurant worker to test the fire-suppression system (after informing him that it had been disabled on his end.) The restaurant worker followed the instructions which led to the restaurant filling up with foam.

Markle then told the restaurant worker that the foam was toxic and that they should all evacuate. Once the staff were outside, he told them to break the windows to improve air flow. Staff then started to break the windows with bricks they found in the car park.

The incident cost the Wendy’s restaurant $20,000 and Markle was arrested after he posted the recording on Youtube.com.

Source : news article

Click to listen to the call

8. Telemarketer Rings A Murder Scene

This telemarketer rings the wrong guy. The prankster explains to the telemarketer that he has rang the scene of a fatal shooting and that he might be a suspect. By the end of the call I really feel sorry for the telemarketer…

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9. Prank to Win Kanye West Tickets

This was part of a radio show competition.

A woman contestant has to call her husband and explain to him that their 9 year old son is not actually his. If her husband says I still love you after she has confessed, then she will win the tickets for Kanye West. You wonder if a pair of Kanye West tickets are really worth telling such a lie!!

But the best part is when the husband makes a confession of his own…its worth waiting for.

Click to listen to the call

10. Another Wife Prank Goes Horribly Wrong

This time a husband pranks his wife on her birthday. The presenter pretends to be her husbands boss and says that he has been fired as they caught him doing his secretary on an office desk.

Again the best part is right at the end when his wife tells a little home truth.

Click to listen to the call