The phone police joke with Johnny is a thing lost on many younger generations. Until the government forced their breakup in 1984, the Bell System/AT&T was a near-absolute monopoly on phone service in the United States whom also owned the phones provided to its customers and were rented out for a monthly fee. It was rumored that if you tampered with a phone in any way (which was prohibited), the "phone police" would come and get you. After the breakup, people could finally purchase their own phones (often from third party companies) and phones were no longer hard-wired into homes.