Broderick Dornell Smiley 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 has starred in sitcom The Rickey Smiley Show, which aired on TV One. He is also a featured columnist on the Fox-produced tabloid nationally-syndicated show Dish Nation. In 2015, Smiley started appearing on Rickey Smiley For Real, a reality television series about his life. Smiley is a member of Omega Psi Phi, having been initiated into its Psi Rho graduate chapter.
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", "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 to take the show nationwide, and The Rickey Smiley Morning Show is now heard on a number of mainstream urban radio stations. Syndication One merged into Reach Media in 2013. 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, 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. 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".
"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 "" ; 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, and who asks for a rundown of the menu 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:
"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.
