There is no doubt that with the coming of St. Patrick’s Day (Monday, March 17) the next few days will see an increase in DUIs: Dialing Under the Influence.

As bad as we feel for those cell phones that have to go through the abuse of drunken drops and beer damage, the people receiving those calls of stupor are the ones really in for a ride. Whether it is a call to your ex or to your boss, on St. Patty’s, beers and cells don’t mix.

But that’s not what a Montreal man, who goes by the simple moniker of Dups, thinks. In fact he believes that drinking and phones mix so well that he has started the St. Patrick’s Day International Drunk Dial Competition. Dups first thought of the idea four years ago while he was celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in Edmonton, Alberta. You see, Dups and his friends were known for drunk dialing and just wanted to have a number to call.

We spoke to Dups about this one-of-a-kind competition and about the tech tools that make drunk dialing possible.

What inspired you to start and maintain this global drunk dialing competition?
I am, unfortunately, an infamous drunk dialer. When St. Patrick’s Day came around a few years ago, I decided to set up a small competition for my friends to call me and I would judge who was the drunkest. Word kind of spread and now this year is the fourth one and the first to go out to the public via a Web site and a public phone number. I also liked that you can call this telephone number instead of calling said person when you are drunk. It can help people avoid calls to exes, the mother’s of their exes, or anyone else you have ever drunk dialed.

Do you have a particular drunk dialing experience that you think was your best or worst?
Honestly, I can’t remember half of them!

So how do you take submissions for the competition?
We have set up the Web site (www.stpatsdrunkdial.com) and have a telephone number on the site. Save that number in your cell phone and when you are ready to make a drunk call, just leave a drunk message at that number. It is actually a SkypeIn number with a digital voicemail. The competition starts tonight at midnight and people can leave messages until March 18. Then the judging begins…

How will you judge?
My friends and I will sit around a pint at a pub and come up with a winner. I think it is the only way to do it properly. We do hope to get all the entries up on the site by the end of next week. They will be in a .wav format for people to listen to.

And the reward?
We say on the site that we will give away up to $1,000 in ad revenue from the site. But I have to share that last I checked the site had only brought in like $3 in Google ad dollars. So some lucky person may just be getting $4 for the best drunk message. Our goal is to make this competition really big though. On the fifth year we would love to make enough out of the ads to actually give the winner the ability to fly into Montreal for the St. Patty’s parade. The winner also gets a bottle of Screech Rum.

Any plans for a drunk texting competition?
I think it’s interesting because mobile phones have been so key to the success of drunk dialing. I mean almost all the phone calls we have gotten in this competition are made through cell phones. And I think sooner or later drunk texting will replace dialing. Drunk texting is almost funnier than drunk dialing. From a simple phone with a 9 number key pad and predictive text you can get some pretty amazing messages that come out not at all how the person intended it to read.

Is there a certain phone you recommend for drunk dialing?
I think this is the place to say that we are not promoting people getting drunk and using their phones. We just know it happens. I can just see the Mothers Against Drunk Dialing forming and coming after me.

Understood. And as for that telephone?
Well my friend did want to build a phone that had a built in Breathalyzer and that wouldn’t let you call certain numbers if you were over a certain limit. But, that didn’t happen. I’d like to see how the iPhone works for drunk dialing. They released the SDK; maybe we can see a specialized app for drunk dialing. But honestly, all phones are perfect for drunken dialing. We are phone agnostic here at the St. Patrick’s Day Drunk Dial Competition. All we encourage is a phone line of some sort . VoIP, smart phone, regular cell phone, telephone booth, anything will work.

For all the contestants out there, what do you advise them?
This is all just supposed to be good and fun. So be yourself and drunk dial us away! Last year’s winner pretended to be the Queen of England. And she did a fantastic job. You can listen to it online at our site.

Laptopmag.com readers, we want to hear your drunk dial or texting stories here. Sound off in the comments!