Rickey Smiley
Smiley in 2019
Born (1968-08-10) August 10, 1968
Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
Alma materAlabama State University (BA)
Occupations
  • Stand-up comedian
  • television host
  • actor
  • radio personality
Known forComedy
Children4

Broderick Dornell Smiley (born August 10, 1968) is an American stand-up comedian, television host, actor, and radio personality, known for his prank phone calls. The calls feature Smiley disguising his voice and carrying on a conversation with the recipient of the call. He is the host of the nationally syndicated Rickey Smiley Morning Show based in Atlanta from its flagship affiliate WHTA "Hot 107.9". Smiley starred in a sitcom, The Rickey Smiley Show, which aired on TV One. He is also a featured columnist on the Fox-produced tabloid nationally-syndicated TV show Dish Nation. In 2015, Smiley started appearing on Rickey Smiley For Real, a reality television series about his life.

Career

Smiley appeared as the host of the 2000 season of BET's ComicView program. He has also appeared on Showtime at the Apollo, HBO's Def Comedy Jam, HBO's Snaps, The Nashville Network, Uptown Comedy Club, and Comic Escape. His original comedy routines often feature the role-play of fictional characters such as "Bernice Jenkins" (also known as Granny Swims, Ms. Johnson or Mrs. Francis), "Lil' Daryl", "Rusty Dale" and "Beauford". Bernice Jenkins has a grandson named Rufus, who's a stereotype of the modern-day "Gangsta". He is referenced in "Two Of My Toes Fell Off" and another prank phone call where Smiley calls a pharmacy.

Smiley became the morning show personality for radio station KBFB in Dallas, Texas in April 2004. The show features the trademark prank calls, as well as news, information and the latest hip hop music. In 2008, Smiley signed a deal with Syndication One (a syndicated radio division of Radio One) to take the show nationwide, and The Rickey Smiley Morning Show is now heard on a number of mainstream urban and urban adult contemporary radio stations. Syndication One merged into Reach Media in 2013.[1]

He has also released several humorous songs based on his bits, such as "Roll Tide" featuring his redneck character Buford, and "We Miss Robert", based on a routine of his in which a friend of a deceased drug dealer performs a rap song called "We Miss Robert" at the funeral, which is actually a song about a woman, performed in hopes of landing a record deal.

Smiley had a starring role in Ice Cube's Friday After Next.

He also appeared in All About the Benjamins as an informant of Ice Cube's character, Snitch Mitch. His appearance can be viewed in a deleted scene in the special features of the DVD.

Prank calls

Some of Smiley's most notable calls include:

  • "Buried Alive" - Smiley plays a narcoleptic who works at a funeral home and "fell asleep in one of these caskets" who calls a cemetery claiming that "they done buried me alive" and insists he is calling from inside a casket on his cell phone. He then requests that someone come and "dig all these graves open".
  • "Come Over" - in a bit of a reverse prank (similar to the ones the Jerky Boys innovated), a hapless caller known as "K.D." calls a Smiley character named "Gina", a woman who initially entices him with statements like "I'm just 'bout to go crazy over here" and "I want you to come over and hurt me" before revealing she is a hermaphrodite ("that means I got both genitals"). K.D. assures Gina he is "still comin'", which prompts her to up the stakes by announcing that "my grandmama over here too...she a real freak." K.D. then speaks to the grandmother who demands "I want you to scrub my head to the white meat" and wants to know "what kind of draws you got on."
  • "Uncle Melvin" - Smiley prank calls his uncle, as a man who believes his girlfriend has left him, and who punctuates every remark with the word "dawg" ("Is my girl over there dawg...tell her I love her, dawg").
  • "Churches" - Smiley plays two characters in this call, both of whom call Church's Chicken. One is an elderly lady who mistakes Church's for a "church" (e.g. wants to know "what time do y'all start service" and asks "who is y'all's pastor", and "well when d y'all have Sunday school?"); when informed that she has called a restaurant, asks "Don't the chicken belong to the church?" The other caller is "Willie", who claims to be a heavyset man with a thyroid problem ("I can't get out the house no more"), and who asks for a rundown of the menu ("Is y'all okra fried, or is it all slimy in the pot, like grandmama used to make") and who constantly requests delivery of food to his house.
  • "Pray For Me" - Using his "Granny" voice again, Smiley calls "Miss Ola Mae Benton Carter Jackson Glenn", and asks her to pray for a member of her church, who had been:
    • stabbed
    • involved in an ambulance crash
    • hit by a train
    • had a leg cut off by the Jaws of Life
    • shot "in the right eye"
Smiley then gets the woman to lead her in several verses of "Walk With Me, Lord", each verse increasing in silliness.
  • "She P-E-E-D" - Smiley prank calls an elderly woman using his "Granny" voice; the aftermath of the call causes the woman to laugh so hard that she ends up urinating on herself.
  • "Is My Daddy Over There" - Smiley plays Lil' Daryl and his brother Brandon as they call a lady claiming their father was supposed to return home with milk for their cereal. The brothers ask the lady what she has cooked for dinner over there as she ultimately hangs up on them in frustration.
  • "Whose Funeral is Today?" - Smiley uses his "Granny" voice and calls a funeral home, asking for her deceased neighbor named Wilbert Smith. She learns that he was cremated and she was oblivious to his death, screaming out in agony when the funeral director repeats that he was cremated. The lady then asks who they are burying this week and offers to go to that funeral to make up for missing Wilbert's. The man tells her that the person they are burying is Hattie Mae Barkley, as she screams out again in agony as it is another person she knows.

Personal life

On July 6, 2020, Smiley announced that his daughter, Aaryn, was shot during a road rage incident the previous weekend.[2]

Smiley is a member of Omega Psi Phi, having been initiated into its Psi Rho graduate chapter.[3]

On January 29, 2023, Smiley announced his 32-year old-son, Brandon Smiley, had died after being found unconscious in his Birmingham apartment.[4] Brandon committed suicide with a combination of drugs, including fentanyl.[5]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
2002 Friday After Next Santa Claus
2003 Sweet Hideaway Ducktape
2008 First Sunday Bernice Jenkins
2010 Stomp the Yard: Homecoming Finale MC
2013 Baggage Claim Calvin
2015 F**K Child Support Himself TV movie
2019 Iron Grit Interviewee
2021 Miracles Across 125th Street - TV movie

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1992 Def Comedy Jam Himself Episode: "Episode #3.9"
1995 Snaps Himself Episode: "Episode #1.1"
2000 Showtime at the Apollo Himself Episode: "Goodie Mob/Rickey Smiley"
2003 Players Himself Episode: "Less Than Jake, Fred Savage, Jason Sehorn"
2004 ComicView Himself/Host Main Host: Season 13
Super Secret Movie Rules Himself Episode: "Sports Underdogs"
2006 Comedy Central Presents Himself Episode: "Rickey Smiley"
2008-09 1st Amendment Stand Up Himself Recurring Guest
2011-19 Dish Nation Himself/Co-Host Main Co-Host: Season 1-8
2012 Let's Stay Together Steve Episode: "Fear Factor"
Are We There Yet? Salesman Episode: "The Expensive Purse Episode"
2012-14 The Rickey Smiley Show Rickey Smiley Main Cast
2013 Trumpet Awards Himself/Co-Host Main Co-Host
2014-16 Stellar Awards Himself/Co-Host Main Co-Host
2014-18 The Real Housewives of Atlanta Himself Guest: Season 6, Recurring Cast: 7 & 10
2015-17 Rickey Smiley For Real Himself Main Cast
2017 Star Himself Episode: "Code of Silence"
2017-20 Black Music Honors Himself/Co-Host Main Co-Host
2018 Unsung Hollywood Himself Episode: "Ray J" & "Rickey Smiley"
2021 Super Bowl Gospel Celebration Himself/Co-Host Main Co-Host

Special

Year Title Role
2003 Latham Entertainment Presents Himself
2011 Rickey Smiley: Open Casket Sharp Himself

Discography

To date, Smiley has released six albums of his prank calls:

  • The Best of Comedian Rickey Smiley Vol. I
  • Rickey Smiley: Prank Calls Vol. II
  • Rickey Smiley: Vol. III
  • Rickey Smiley "Off The Hook Volume 4"
  • Rickey Smiley: Vol. V
  • Rickey Smiley: Vol. 6

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Syndication One To Consolidate With Reach Media". All Access. Retrieved 2019-03-15.
  2. ↑ "Road rage shooting victim is comedian Rickey Smiley's daughter". ABC 7. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
  3. ↑ "Chapters".
  4. ↑ Respers France, Lisa; Johnston, Chuck (January 30, 2023). "Rickey Smiley mourns the death of his son Brandon". CNN. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
  5. ↑ Hodgin, Mary Scott; Short, Cody (September 13, 2023). "Opioids are killing more Black men — largely due to the spread of fentanyl". NPR. Retrieved September 13, 2023.
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