The Chaser is an
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n
satiricalSatire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods,...
comedianComedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in Ancient Greece...
group, most famous for their television programmes on
Australian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC", is Australia's national public broadcaster. With a total budget of AUD$1.13 Billion annually, the corporation provides television, radio, online and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia, as well as...
. The Chaser originated as
a satirical newspaperThe Chaser was a newspaper, published in Australia by political satire group The Chaser from 1999 to 2005.The newspaper, first published on May 9 1999, was The Chaser team's most famous enterprise. Among other things, they have published Australian Prime Minister John Howard's private, unlisted...
which was known to push the limits as to what it published and for enacting its mission statement, "striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence".
The Chaser
The Chaser’s earliest foundations were Charles Firth,
Dominic KnightDominic Knight is an Australian comedy writer, best known as a member of the Australian political satire comedy group The Chaser, as well as being an independent writer and former blogger for the Sydney Morning Herald...
and
Chas LicciardelloChas John Licciardello is a comedian from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, best known for being a member of satirical team The Chaser...
who went to
Sydney Grammar SchoolSydney Grammar School is an independent, non-denominational, selective, day school for boys, located in Darlinghurst, Edgecliff and St Ives, all suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
together and produced a small satirical school magazine entitled
The Tiger. Later on, Firth and Knight met
Craig ReucasselCraig Bruce Reucassel is a television and radio comedian from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is best known for being a member of satirical team The Chaser.- Early years :...
and
Julian MorrowJulian Francis Xavier Morrow is an Australian comedian and television producer from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is best known for being a member of the satirical team The Chaser...
at the
University of SydneyThe University of Sydney is the oldest university in Australia. It was established in Sydney in 1850. It is a member of Australia's "Group of Eight" universities that are highly ranked in terms of their research performance...
. Firth, Knight, Reucassel, Morrow, Licciardello, and later Chaser members
Chris TaylorChristopher Thornton Taylor is an Australian comedian, writer and former radio host from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. As a member of The Chaser, he is best known for co-writing and appearing on satirical ABC television shows CNNNN and The Chaser's War on Everything...
and
Andrew HansenAndrew John Hansen is an Australian comedian and musician, best known for being a member of satirical team The Chaser...
all went to the University of Sydney. Firth, Knight, Reucassel and Morrow began writing for the University of Sydney student newspaper entitled
Honi SoitHoni Soit is the student newspaper of the University of Sydney, first published in 1929 and produced by an elected editorial team as part of the activities of the Students' Representative Council . The name is short for the phrase "Honi soit qui mal y pense" , the motto of the British Order of the...
. In 1999 the four members began The Chaser and their first newspaper project entitled
The ChaserThe Chaser was a newspaper, published in Australia by political satire group The Chaser from 1999 to 2005.The newspaper, first published on May 9 1999, was The Chaser team's most famous enterprise. Among other things, they have published Australian Prime Minister John Howard's private, unlisted...
. The Chaser members are:
- Charles Firth. Firth decided in 1999 that the founding members should produce a newspaper, in an attempt not to "grow up". Firth was the main person who got the project underway and was at the helm of the newspaper until its collapse in 2005. Firth appeared in The Chaser's television and radio productions until 2004. In 2005, Firth moved to the United States so his wife could finish her PhD. Firth, however became The Chaser's American correspondent for the 2006 series of the The Chaser's War on Everything
The Chaser's War on Everything is an Australian television satirical comedy series broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation television station ABC1. It has won an AFI Award. The cast perform sketches mocking social and political issues, and often feature comedic publicity stunts...
and wrote a book titled American Hoax. Firth did some final stunts in America for the 2007 series in late 2006 and early 2007, before returning to Australia and going solo. Firth then began his own satirical newspaper The Manic Times in 2007, which collapsed soon after and now exists online.
- Dominic Knight
Dominic Knight is an Australian comedy writer, best known as a member of the Australian political satire comedy group The Chaser, as well as being an independent writer and former blogger for the Sydney Morning Herald...
was one of the founding members of the team. He appeared and starred in the 2001 series of The Election Chaser and the 2005 mini series Chaser News AlertChaser News Alert was an Australian satirical news program which ran in the form of ten 4-minute episodes produced by satire group The Chaser. It aired on ABC2 from September 22 2005 to November 24 and was also available via the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's broadband site.-Episodes:-...
. He also performed in the stage shows. He normally writes and does not perform for The Chaser's television shows.
- Julian Morrow
Julian Francis Xavier Morrow is an Australian comedian and television producer from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is best known for being a member of the satirical team The Chaser...
. He became the executive producer of the television series after Andrew DentonAndrew Christopher Denton is an Australian comedian and Gold Logie nominated television presenter, and was the host of the ABC's weekly interview program Enough Rope. He is known for his comedy and interviewing technique...
left the role in 2004.
- Craig Reucassel
Craig Bruce Reucassel is a television and radio comedian from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is best known for being a member of satirical team The Chaser.- Early years :...
was a founding member of the team.
- Chas Licciardello
Chas John Licciardello is a comedian from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, best known for being a member of satirical team The Chaser...
, who had attended Sydney Grammar School with Firth and Knight, started to work on The Chaser newspaper in 1999, but did not take any credit for his work. However when the newspaper started to go well, he was happy to put his name to his work. Licciardello refers to himself as a writer and not a performer, which is why he does the ‘edgier’ stunts in the television series. He states that he is not very talented and therefore does “lots of dodgy material”.
- Chris Taylor
Christopher Thornton Taylor is an Australian comedian, writer and former radio host from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. As a member of The Chaser, he is best known for co-writing and appearing on satirical ABC television shows CNNNN and The Chaser's War on Everything...
had gone to the University of Sydney but never personally knew the four founding members. He moved to Melbourne under a cadetship with the ABC doing journalism. Taylor approached The Chaser, based in Sydney, and asked if they took contributions and The Chaser accepted them. Taylor spent two years emailing his articles to The Chaser, and then quit his job to do a television series based on the 2001 Australian federal election with The Chaser and became a member of The Chaser. Taylor was the anchor with Reucassel in their television productions CNNNN, The Chaser Decides and The Chaser’s War on Everything and worked as the script editor for the television shows.
- Andrew Hansen
Andrew John Hansen is an Australian comedian and musician, best known for being a member of satirical team The Chaser...
worked with some of The Chaser members at the University of Sydney while studying literature and history, performing in their early revues. Hansen started working with the online Chaser website in 2000 writing columns for his shITe section, which looked at the worst of the internet. After two years, he was considered for a part in the Chaser’s 2002 television series, for the content on shITe. After The Election Chaser in 2001, The Chaser decided they needed a performer in the team. Hansen then joined in the group in 2002.
The Chaser newspaper
The newspaper, first published in 1999, was The Chaser team's first enterprise.
The Chaser only had a limited fan base, with the average sales numbers per issue well under 30,000. When their newspaper was shown as a lead story in all major Australian news broadcasts, not only was the headline widely spread, but the concept and the popularity of the newspaper leapt dramatically.
Founding contributors to the newspaper include
Gregor StronachGregor Stronach is an Australian writer, satirist and comedian. He is best known for his work as a founding member of The Chaser.Stronach's work with The Chaser has moved with the group from the original newspaper in 1999 through a brief stint on Sydney's MMM Radio to the current status of online...
, Johanna Featherstone, Sholto Macpherson, Matt Taylor, David Stewart and Arion McNicoll. Later contributors include Kara Greiner, Richard Cooke, Shane Cubis and
Tim BruneroTim Brunero is an Australian journalist, better known as a contestant and the runner-up of Big Brother Australia 2005.Brunero's pre-Big Brother journalism career was mainly with the NSW Trades and Labor Council's online publication Workers Online...
. Cartoonists Fiona Katauskas and Andrew Weldon drew for the newspaper from its early days.
The Chaser and its writers had its first major controversy when their 21 February 2003 edition published
Prime MinisterThe Prime Minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia, holding office on commission from the Governor-General. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful political office in Australia...
John HowardJohn Winston Howard, AC was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He is the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
’s private home number on its front page with the headline
Howard ignores the people. So call him at home on (02) 9922 6189. The release of the number comes after Howard’s attitude to half a million protesters recently marching for peace. Howard’s number was blocked by the afternoon after receiving many calls in the morning and federal police had been to The Chaser headquarters. The Chaser have stated they received the phone number via an SMS message in 2002.
The Chaser have released five annuals based on
The Chaser newspaper:
- The Chaser Annual 2000: The Little-Read Book
- The Chaser Annual 2001: Bradman, The Cremated Years
- The Chaser Annual 2002: The War on Error
- Embedded with The Chaser: Annual 2003
- The Chaser Annual 2004: Intelligence Failures
After six years of publication, The Chaser decided that due to inability to meet production costs and failing audiences that they would cease publication of the newspaper. The paper, which originally circulated fortnightly, was being released more sporadic and their 91st and final paper was released on 6 February 2005. The Chaser still planned to continue their writing online and to continue write their annuals.
The Chaser has since released four annuals and a "best of" annual which compiled the best of the five preceding annuals:
- The Chaser Annual 2005: By Dan Brown
- 50 Golden Years of The Chaser - 1955-2005
- The Chaser Annual 2006: Burqa's Backyard
- The Chaser Annual 2007: The Other Secret
- The Chaser Annual 2008: The Little Rudd Book
Current writers online are Richard Cooke, Shane Cubis,
Dominic KnightDominic Knight is an Australian comedy writer, best known as a member of the Australian political satire comedy group The Chaser, as well as being an independent writer and former blogger for the Sydney Morning Herald...
,
Chas LicciardelloChas John Licciardello is a comedian from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, best known for being a member of satirical team The Chaser...
,
Julian MorrowJulian Francis Xavier Morrow is an Australian comedian and television producer from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is best known for being a member of the satirical team The Chaser...
and
Craig ReucasselCraig Bruce Reucassel is a television and radio comedian from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is best known for being a member of satirical team The Chaser.- Early years :...
with additional material provided by Scott Dooley,
Lisa PryorLisa Pryor is an Australian journalist and author. Born in Sydney in 1978, she was educated at Ravenswood, where she achieved a TER score of 100, and the University of Sydney, where she graduated in arts and law. She is a journalist and columnist with the Sydney Morning Herald, where she has also...
, David Stewart, Gregor Stronach and
Chris TaylorChristopher Thornton Taylor is an Australian comedian, writer and former radio host from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. As a member of The Chaser, he is best known for co-writing and appearing on satirical ABC television shows CNNNN and The Chaser's War on Everything...
.
The Chaser on television and radio
After two years of their satirical newspaper, which also included various radio roles, the Chaser had attracted the attention of
Australian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC", is Australia's national public broadcaster. With a total budget of AUD$1.13 Billion annually, the corporation provides television, radio, online and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia, as well as...
(ABC) star
Andrew DentonAndrew Christopher Denton is an Australian comedian and Gold Logie nominated television presenter, and was the host of the ABC's weekly interview program Enough Rope. He is known for his comedy and interviewing technique...
. Denton signed them with the ABC and stated about the Chaser “They've got the talent, the work ethic, the fearlessness, the desire”. Denton then helped the Chaser to perform, on
ABC TVABC1 is a national public television channel in Australia. Launched on 5 November 1956, it is the responsibility of the ABC's television division, and is available nationally. As of August 2009, ABC1 has a 19.1% audience share...
, their first television program
The Election ChaserThe Chaser Decides is a Logie Award-winning Australian political satire based comedy program produced by The Chaser...
which was to be based on the 2001 Australian federal election, and in the format of the national tallyroom. The show broadcasted four episodes and was nominated for the
2002 LogieThe 44th Annual TV Week Logie Awards were presented on Sunday 28 April 2002 at Crown Casino in Melbourne and broadcast on the Nine Network. Wendy Harmer from the Sydney radio station 2Day FM was the Master of Ceremonies.The ratings of the 2002 logie awards averaged around 1,865,000 and ranked at #5...
for
Most Outstanding Comedy Program Denton acted as executive producer and script editor for
The Election Chaser and would also do so for
CNNNNCNNNN was an Australian television show, satirising American news channels CNN and Fox News...
.
The Chaser team have gone on to create other television shows for ABC TV, including the
Logie AwardThe TV Week Logie Awards are the Australian television industry awards, which have been presented annually since 1959. Renamed by Graham Kennedy in 1960 after he won the first 'Star Of The Year' award , the name 'Logie' awards honors John Logie Baird, a Scotsman who invented the television as a...
winning
CNNNN in 2002-3 and
The Chaser Decides in 2004.
CNNNN was a satire of not only the popular American news networks
CNNCable News Network, almost always referred to by its initialism CNN, is an U.S. cable news network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first network to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television network in the United States...
and Fox News, but also incorporated Australian and world current affairs into the programme.
The Election Chaser inspired a similar programme covering the 2004 election,
The Chaser Decides. The coverage, as with all the Chaser productions, was satirical, but a different view on the way the election was covered by the local media. In mid-October 2007 it was announced
The Chaser Decides would air again in 2007 to cover the November 24 election, for two weeks.
In 2004-5 Taylor and Reucassel hosted the
Triple Jtriple J is a nationally-networked, government-funded Australian radio station , mainly aimed at youth...
radio drive programme,
Today TodayToday Today was a drivetime radio show on Australia-wide radio station Triple J, broadcast between 3:00pm and 5:30pm weekdays during 2004 and 2005. The title is a parody of the Australian current affairs program Today Tonight on Channel Seven....
. In 2005 the rest of the team produced
Chaser News AlertChaser News Alert was an Australian satirical news program which ran in the form of ten 4-minute episodes produced by satire group The Chaser. It aired on ABC2 from September 22 2005 to November 24 and was also available via the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's broadband site.-Episodes:-...
(CNA), aired on
ABC2ABC2 is a national public television channel in Australia. Launched on 7 March 2005, it is the responsibility of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television division, and is available nationally to digital television viewers in Australia...
. Episodes of this series were only a few minutes long. July 2006 and January 2007 saw Taylor and Reucassel return to Triple J to host
Bloody SundayToday Today was a drivetime radio show on Australia-wide radio station Triple J, broadcast between 3:00pm and 5:30pm weekdays during 2004 and 2005. The title is a parody of the Australian current affairs program Today Tonight on Channel Seven....
, filling the
This Sporting LifeThis Sporting Life is a 1963 British film based on a novel of the same name by David Storey which won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award. It tells the story of a rugby league player, Frank Machin, in Wakefield, a mining area of Yorkshire whose romantic life is not as successful as his sporting life...
time slot while Roy & HG were on leave from the station. Chas Licciardello and Knight also did a brief fill in show on
Triple MThe Triple M Network is a radio station network owned by media company Austereo, who also own the Today Network.- History :The first Triple M station was 2MMM Sydney which commenced broadcasting on 2 August 1980. Together with then rival station 2DAY , it was the first commercial FM radio station...
called
Chas and Dom from 'The Chaser'Chas and Dom from 'The Chaser was a summer drive-time radio program broadcast on the Triple M network. The program was hosted by Chas Licciardello and Dominic Knight from the Australian satirical comedy group The Chaser. Other members of The Chaser also contributed as guests on the show, which ran...
.
Cirque du Chaser
In March 2005 for the Sydney Big Laugh Comedy Festival The Chaser members, except Firth, wrote and performed with CNNNN collaborator Rebecca De Unamuno a stage production.
Cirque du Chaser, the name a parody of
Cirque du SoleilCirque du Soleil , is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy...
, was performed to eight sell-out audiences which performed stand up, sketch, live music, and video satire. The Chaser then took the show on a national tour which were also sold out.
Cirque du Chaser gave the team confidence to perform in front of a live audience in their new television show, which would be similar to the stage show. The Chaser filmed a pilot for ABC TV in mid 2005 under the working title
Hey, Hey it’s the Chaser.
The War on Everything
The Chaser team signed a contract with the ABC to produce 27 half hour episodes for 2006, which would be based on news reviews, studio monologues and confrontations with politicians, celebrities, and business leaders. The project would be performed in front of a live audience compared with their previous news format television productions and was named
The Chaser's War on Everything. The first season of
The Chaser's War on Everything premiered on ABC TV on 17 February 2006 at . The series aired late on Friday evenings where it developed a cult following, getting an average national audience of between 591,000 and 821,000 viewers each episode. The last episode of the 2006 season was broadcast on 8 September 2006.
The first thirteen episodes of the first season were released on
DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
on 17 August 2006. The release included commentary by The Chaser and the show's crew and included bonus features and unaired scenes. The second DVD for the first season contained the latter thirteen episodes. It was in the same format of the first DVD and was released on 1 November 2006.
The Chaser's War on Everything returned for a second season on Wednesday 28 March 2007 at 9pm, moving from their Friday night timeslot. It regularly attracted more than a million viewers per episode.
After the June 20 episode of Season Two, the Chaser team suspended the series for ten weeks, so the usual production run time of twenty-six episodes per year did not conclude before the 2007 Australian Federal Election. The second season returned on 5th September 2007.
The Chaser then announced that
The Chaser's War On Everything was on hold during 2008, with a new (10 episode) series in 2009 that began airing on Wednesday the 27th May 2009. In 2008 the team (without Chris Taylor, but plus writer Dominic Knight) toured Australia with a stage show,
The Chaser's Age of Terror Variety Hour, produced in conjunction with Laughing Stock.
On July 29, 2009, the final episode of the War was broadcast.
Public reactions
In July 2006, Licciardello faced charges of "offensive conduct" from the New South Wales Police Force, after turning up at a
rugby leagueRugby league football is a full-contact form of football, played with a prolate spheroid ball by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. Rugby league is one of the two codes of rugby football, the other being rugby union...
football match between the
Canterbury BulldogsThe Bulldogs Rugby League Football Club are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb of the greater Sydney region. They compete in the National Rugby League premiership, as well as New South Wales Rugby League junior competitions...
and the
St George Illawarra DragonsThe St. George Illawarra Dragons are an Australian professional rugby league football club.They compete in the National Rugby League. The club entered the NRL competition in 1999 as a joint venture between the St. George Dragons and the Illawarra Steelers. They officially formed as the game’s first...
on 14 July 2006 dressed up as a Bulldogs fan and attempting to sell fake knives, knuckledusters and balaclavas for a
War on Everything sketch.
In April 2007, a 15 year old boy duped
YouTubeYouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google...
into deleting all clips posted from
The Chaser's War On Everything by claiming to be a representative of the ABC. They were later reinstated.
At the
2007 Logie AwardsThe 49th Annual TV Week Logie Awards were presented on Sunday 6 May 2007 at the Crown Entertainment Complex in Melbourne and televised on the Nine Network. The three key presenters were Adam Hills, Dave Hughes and Fifi Box...
some of the Chaser team were "manhandled" by
Crown CasinoCrown Casino and Entertainment Complex is a casino and entertainment precinct on the south bank of the Yarra River, in Melbourne, Australia attracting on average 16 million visitors yearly, making it the largest casino in Australia. Crown Casino is a unit of Crown Limited.The complex was designed...
security staff on the red carpet before being closely supervised for the rest of the evening.
During
Dick CheneyRichard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 in the administration of George W. Bush....
's visit to Australia in 2007, The Chaser team were included on the official list of terrorists, anarchists and protesters deemed to pose a threat to the US Vice-President.
The Chaser team gained notoriety and considerable media attention over "The Eulogy Song", written by Chris Taylor and performed by Andrew Hansen on the October 17, 2007 episode of
The Chaser's War On Everything. The song satirised the media's posthumous praise of deceased celebrities, regardless of their behaviour in life, and mentioned among others
John LennonJohn Winston Ono Lennon, MBE was an English rock musician, singer-songwriter, author, and peace activist who gained worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles...
,
Peter BrockPeter Geoffrey Brock
AM otherwise known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain" or simply as "Brocky" was one of Australia's best-known and most successful motor racing drivers...
,
Stan ZemanekStan Zemanek was a right-wing Australian radio broadcaster who presented a popular night time show on 2UE Sydney and which was networked across parts of Australia via Southern Cross....
, Princess Diana,
Steve IrwinStephen Robert Irwin , known simply as Steve Irwin and nicknamed "The Crocodile Hunter", was an iconic Australian television personality, wildlife expert, and conservationist...
,
Donald BradmanSir Donald George Bradman, AC , often referred to as The Don, was an Australian cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time...
, and
Kerry PackerKerry Francis Bullmore Packer, AC , son of Sir Frank Packer, was an Australian media tycoon whose family company owned controlling interests in both the Nine television network and leading Australian publishing company Australian Consolidated Press Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer, AC (17 December...
. The song attracted comment from both the media and politicians including
Kevin RuddKevin Michael Rudd is the 26th and current Prime Minister of Australia and federal leader of the centre-left Australian Labor Party . Under Rudd's leadership, the Labor Party won the 2007 federal election on 24 November against the incumbent centre-right Liberal/National coalition government led...
and
John HowardJohn Winston Howard, AC was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He is the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
, the latter of whom used reference to the song in remarks during a sketch later aired on the programme.
APEC arrest
Morrow and Licciardello were arrested by NSW Police on 6 September 2007 outside the InterContinental Hotel after driving a fake motorcade through the Sydney central business district and breaching an APEC security zone. The Chaser crew entered a secure area by masquerading as the motorcade of the Canadian delegation to APEC. They were arrested by police after Licciardello emerged in
Bin LadenOsama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden is a member of the prominent Saudi bin Laden family and one of the founders of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, best known for the September 11 attacks on the United States and its associations with numerous other mass-casualty attacks against...
costume near the hotel where U.S. President
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
was staying. They were subsequently detained, taken to Surry Hills Police Station for questioning and charged with
entering a restricted area without special justification under the
APEC Meeting (Police Powers) Act 2007. Licciardello, Morrow and the nine other production members were released on bail to appear in court on 4 October 2007. If found guilty, they were liable to serve a maximum 6 months imprisonment, or a maximum 2 years imprisonment if they also had possession or control of a prohibited item with no special justification. The Chaser team issued a statement on September 6 that they had been given permission by police officers to enter the restricted area. Under section 37(2)(b) of the legislation a person has special justification to be in an area if "the person is required, authorised or permitted to be in the area by the Commissioner or a police officer". Subsequently, the hearing was adjourned until 5 December 2007 at the request of
ABCThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC", is Australia's national public broadcaster. With a total budget of AUD$1.13 Billion annually, the corporation provides television, radio, online and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia, as well as...
lawyers. The charges were dropped near the end of April 2008.
The day after the APEC stunt, police questioned Craig Reucassel, Chris Taylor and Dominic Knight and a film crew from the Chaser after they were involved in a second stunt in central Sydney . The three were released by police after being briefly questioned for carrying around black cardboard boxes dressed up as limousines.
The 'Make a Realistic Wish Foundation' skit
On the 3 June 2009 episode, Taylor and Hansen were involved in a skit which was set in a
terminally illTerminal illness is a medical term popularized in the 20th century to describe an active and malignant disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and that is reasonably expected to result in the death of the patient. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer...
children's ward of a hospital, which centered around a spokesman (Taylor) portraying himself along with a doctor (Hansen), from the fictional 'Make a Realistic Wish Foundation' (a
spoofA parody , in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of the real
Make-a-Wish FoundationThe Make-A-Wish Foundation is a 501 non-profit organization that grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions.-History:...
). The premise of the skit was that if the terminally ill children are only going to live for a few more months before passing away, it is not worth spending money on lavish gifts for them. The one minute long sketch featured Taylor giving one girl a
pencil caseA pencil case or pencil box is a container used to carry pencils. A pencil case can also contain a variety of other stationery such as a pencil sharpener, pens, erasers, a stapler, and a calculator....
instead of a trip to
DisneylandDisneyland is an American theme park in Anaheim, California, owned and operated by the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts division of The Walt Disney Company. It was dedicated with a press preview on July 17, 1955, and opened to the general public July 18, 1955...
. Then along the same lines, Hansen gave another girl a
stickA stick generally refers to a long, slender piece of wood, usually a branch from a tree without the leaves that may be refined. It also makes a good weapon and early records have shown that they were used for hunting.Stick may refer to:...
instead of a meeting with
Zac EfronZachary David Alexander "Zac" Efron is an American actor and singer. He began acting professionally in the early 2000s, and became known to young audiences after his roles in the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical, the WB series Summerland, and the 2007 film version of the Broadway...
. The skit concluded with Taylor stating "Why go to any trouble, when they're only gonna die anyway". A similar skit had already been performed in sketch titled "A Reasonable Request Foundation" aired on comedy show The Mansion on Foxtel last year.
The reaction to the sketch from media commentators was almost universally negative. Among widespread disapproval from the public, especially from the families that the Make-a-Wish Foundation has helped,
Prime MinisterThe Prime Minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia, holding office on commission from the Governor-General. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful political office in Australia...
Kevin RuddKevin Michael Rudd is the 26th and current Prime Minister of Australia and federal leader of the centre-left Australian Labor Party . Under Rudd's leadership, the Labor Party won the 2007 federal election on 24 November against the incumbent centre-right Liberal/National coalition government led...
stated that The Chaser team "should hang their heads in shame". He went on to say that "I didn't see that but it's been described to me...I actually don't mind The Chaser taking the mickey out of me or any other politician, at any time and any place....But having a go at kids with a terminal illness is really beyond the pale, absolutely beyond the pale." That morning, the Chaser team along with the ABC managing director Mark Scott apologised for airing the skit, with Scott stating that "We have unreservedly apologised for airing that skit,...It's very clear today from the reaction that it's caused considerable offence and distress, particularly to parents of children that are seriously ill....I've spoken to Julian Morrow from The Chaser and my understanding is that certainly wasn't the intention of the script, but that's the consequences of it." The ABC will now change their procedures for reviewing episode content which gets broadcasted. Scott continued, "We're going to look at those processes ... I mean we all know that The Chaser push the edges and it's a tightrope that we walk, and I suppose there are many, many skits that they've put to air that have offended someone along the way - that's part of the nature of the satirical and black comedy that they do," The episode was initially unavailable for downloading or online viewing from the official website while the skit was edited out of the episode. The skit has also been cut from any further television airings. The ABC announced on Friday that The Chaser's War on Everything will be suspended for 2 weeks. This was relayed via a message by The Chaser on their website, who stated that whilst they disagree with the decision to suspend the show, they apologise for making the skit, acknowledging that it went too far.
ABC's Managing Director announced on 2009-06-10 that the ABC's Head of Comedy, Amanda Duthie, had been removed from her position after a review of the process which led to the skit being broadcast. He was quoted as saying, "The segment should not have been broadcast. We recognise that it caused unnecessary and unreasonable hurt and offence to our viewers and the broader community and we have apologised for this," adding, "This was an error of judgement."
Ms Duthie will continue to be responsible for Arts and Entertainment programs.
In the 24 June 2009 episode, the Chaser team acknowledged they had made a mistake by broadcasting the skit. Later on in the show they recreated the skit but, instead of targeting sick kids, they make fun of Kevin Rudd's anger-management issues.
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