It didn’t take long for viewers of the new film Don’t Look Up to realise that a phone number displayed in the film will get you in touch with a sex hotline.
Without spoiling the movie, Don’t Look Up is a political satire starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, attempting to save the planet from an apocalyptic disaster.
At one point in the film, a Government PSA is shown, urging American citizens to call 1-800-532-4500 for “piece of mind” in the midst of disaster.
Naturally, curious viewers hit up the phone number and were met with an automated message belonging to an American sex hotline.
According to People, the message said, “Welcome to America’s hottest hotline. Guys, hot ladies are waiting to talk to you. Press one now. Ladies, to talk to interesting and exciting guys free, press two to connect free now.”
So I am watching Don’t Look Up with my wife and there is a part where there is a phone number on screen that is supposed to be like a “help line”. Out of shits and giggles we called it….. It is a REAL number and it is for a fricken SEX LINE! What the fuck!?!?!?
— E0Dtech (@E0Dtech) December 29, 2021
Netflix’s most popular series of 2021, Squid Game also featured a phone number that many viewers decided to call. Only instead of directing callers to a business that will help them get their rocks off, the number reached a middle aged man from the Gyeonggi Province in South Korea… but hey, maybe that did do it for a few callers, but the man answering his phone certainly wasn’t too happy.
It’s for this precise reason that the Australian Government has a list of approved fake numbers to include in media publications, which can be found on the Australian Communications and Media Authority website.
It’s yet to be confirmed whether the horny little easter egg was intentional but after viewing the film in all it’s shit-stirring glory, it’s pretty safe to assume that this was no accident.