DJS’ prank ‘unethical,’ comic says

Montreal comic duo Les Justiciers masqués (The Masked Avengers) are famous for their prank calls to highprofile personalities like Bill Gates and Sir Paul McCartney. When news broke this week of the prank phone call by Australian DJs to the London hospital where Kate Middleton was being treated, some observers initially thought it had echoes of a Justiciers masqués-style stunt.

But on the phone Friday, Marc-Antoine Audette — one-half of Les Justiciers masqués — said he didn’t condone the Australian DJs’ actions at all.

The two disc jockeys called the King Edward VII hospital to ask how Middleton was faring. The Duchess of Cambridge, who is pregnant, was being treated for extreme morning sickness. Jacintha Saldanha, the nurse who took the call, then passed the pranksters onto another nurse who revealed private information to the DJs about Middleton’s condition.

Saldanha was found dead on Friday. Police are calling it a suspicious death and they’re examining the possibility that it’s a suicide.

“The plan was to have the nurse give out medical secrets about the prince’s wife,” Audette said from Les Justiciers masqués.

“I believe they should not have done that. They took someone at the bottom of the ladder and tried to get information from her. They acted like bad tabloid journalists. It’s totally unethical and is bad journalism.”

Audette, who works with fellow funnyman Sébastien Trudel in Les Justiciers masqués, said their prank calls are all about the laughs, and he noted that the vast majority of the people they’ve pranked aren’t even upset at the end of the call.

“The people we call, we just want to see how they react to our stupid questions,” Audette said. “We never go on air with anything that’s personal. Everything we do is in the public domain. Our motive is to be funny.”

You can hear Les Justiciers masqués shows on their website: justiciers.com