The Chaser's War On Everything

[Alisso]

Originally Posted by Gutter Monkey

But a few people did bring up the valid point that the segment didn't have any satirical value, it was just Chris scaring people for kicks.

It could be argued that it was a statement about assumptions and judging on appearances? *G* I mean, he was holding both hands up to show they were empty, and kept saying he was just asking about products, but they panicked because of a stocking. Or about observational skills in our society? *g*

Or it could be a demonstration of how low people will go to save themselves, and how quickly they abandon others? *g* As evidenced by the guys who bolted and left the female co-worker behind.



I'm not saying it WAS any of those things, just offering up some possibilities *G*

[Gutter Monkey]

Originally Posted by Alisso

It could be argued that it was a statement about assumptions and judging on appearances? *G* I mean, he was holding both hands up to show they were empty, and kept saying he was just asking about products, but they panicked because of a stocking. Or about observational skills in our society? *g*

Someone over at the Chaser forum mentioned that they recognised the area they filmed that segment in and it was a fairly rough area of town where there's been a fair few armed robberies in stores.
If I was working in a shop in an area like that and a guy with a stocking on his head came in and kept trying to approach me then I wouldn't stop to check what he had in his hands, or whether there was a camera crew behind him. I'd be reaching for a baseball bat.

[op shop girl]

I found the stocking segment absolutely hilarious- but I'm a sad twisted indidvidual.

Julian once said that the Chaser team use people in the real world as props. I'm clinging to this when I say that the shopkeepers in that episode were not necessarily victims. There are several POSSIBLE scenarios to justify this.

1) The shopkeepers may have been warned beforehand: highly unlikely, as we've learnt from the tax-driver segment. The boys prefer to catch real reactions and then bribe them afterwards. But perhaps they were half-warned. For example, Chris may have walked in earlier that day (unmasked) and seeked permission to film there in a few hours, without explaining the concept. The shopkeepers would have been forewarned that something was about to take place, but forget about it in terror. Cruel, yes. But is it still morally wrong?

2) the shops that were selected were highly secure: (this is based on a hazy memory. Anyone with a copy of the segment can disprove me at any time). From what I recall, the shops filmed all had some kind of security measure. The newsagent was protected by the glass. The guy on the phone (aside from the phone) had a backroom to retreat to (was there a barrred door of some kind?). The others could easily have panic buttons to press. And if they'd recently been robbed as people ahve been suggesting, it is highly likely that they would have such a button (easy to reach beneath the front counter.)

3) permission by the owner/manager: (I'm really delving into the unlikely here, but) what if the person in charge of each business wanted to test the reactions of his staff in a real emergency? The Chaser may have approached the head of each business and offered to scare the bejeezes out of the employees to see if they follow company policy on how to react to a hold-up. If this was the case, I don't see any moral difference between this stunt and a fire drill.

Either way, as cruel as it was, I'm confident they stayed on the right side of any legal problems. All their scripts have to be pre-approved by the ABC legal team before they start filming. the footage has to be approved again afterwards. For all we know, what we saw was the watered-down version.

In a vaguely related note, I found the use of porn legally interesting.
'The Australia's Brainiest...' piece was shown to the studio audience two weeks ago. The penises in that episode were dodgy drawings of ejaculating penises. It never went to air.
This weeks audience were shown the same clip with three erect penises behind the podiums. We were told that it was not allowed to go to air because of censorship reasons.
The clip that finally went to air had the same penises at a 'less offensive' angle.

Meh, kept me amused.

[Renee_Turner]

Originally Posted by op shop girl

The clip that finally went to air had the same penises at a 'less offensive' angle.

Well, of course. If a random weirdo flashed you, I'm sure you'd be less offended if he was unexcited by the act...wouldn't you..?

[lily]

So long as it was "no higher than Cornwall"....

[Edward]

I thought the stocking clip was more or less complete dicketry, i.e. "just Chris scaring people for kicks".

As a comment on judging people by their appearance I'm not quite sure what it was saying - was it "If a person comes into your shop in a dodgy part of town with a stocking over their head you shouldn't judge them, just hang around and see what happens", or was it "Clearly judging people by their appearances is entirely appropriate in some circumstances, so it's okay to pre-judge people of middle-eastern appearance"? I'm sure there's some entirely reasonable third option that I haven't thought of.

Other than that I thought the show was really good.

[Gutter Monkey]

Originally Posted by Edward

I'm sure there's some entirely reasonable third option that I haven't thought of.

I wouldn't bet actual money on that.

The Chaser boys seem to base a lot of their show on assholery and smartassery, but they usually have at least a slight point to make. Occasionally the point is very slight indeed.

So we get glorified highschool pranks put to air, but Jon Safran's 'Media Tycoon' and 'Master Chef' got shelved. How depressing.
If you want to see the pilots for those two Safran shows you can apparently download them here. be warned that 'Master Chef' contains scenes from an abbatoir and 'Media Tycoon' contains scenes with Ray Martin.

Originally Posted by Edward

Other than that I thought the show was really good.

Yeah, the rest of it made me laugh.

[unfrufru]

well i don;t know whether it was just the sleep deprivation but their "ad test" last week almost killed me.

for those who didn't see it they re-enacted the "No Gary No" smoking campaign (i think its nicabate or nicorette). even had a crack at it with politicians. scary part was - peter costello joined in.

they are on a break for 2 weeks so its the highlights package time!!!

[Puppy]

Someone put the video of what Unfrufru's talking about on youtube

here

[Mythor]

Forgot to mention this earlier in the week - The Chaser's War On Everything is now available via video podcast. Just go to abc.net.au/chaser and click the video podcast link.

"Or just do what you've been doing all year and pirate it on BitTorrent!" - Craig Reucassel

They ripped on Rove's "What The...?" in tonight's episode, which I'm guessing was a response to Rove[live] "stealing" the "boneheading" "idea" from Chaser.
And most politicians, including Howard, seem to have cottoned on that playing along with them gets a better response from the public than acting like dicks, which is kind of sad.

[susanjacobs]

Originally Posted by Mythor

"Or just do what you've been doing all year and pirate it on BitTorrent!" - Craig Reucassel

Husband and I had a good laugh over that. After the segment, husband turned to me and said, "I have seen it many times on BitTorrent lists."

[geoffl]

Originally Posted by Mythor

Forgot to mention this earlier in the week - The Chaser's War On Everything is now available via video podcast. Just go to abc.net.au/chaser and click the video podcast link.

"Or just do what you've been doing all year and pirate it on BitTorrent!" - Craig Reucassel

They ripped on Rove's "What The...?" in tonight's episode, which I'm guessing was a response to Rove[live] "stealing" the "boneheading" "idea" from Chaser.
And most politicians, including Howard, seem to have cottoned on that playing along with them gets a better response from the public than acting like dicks, which is kind of sad.

i must have missed them rip on rove ! is the bit on the chaser website video highlights?

its a pitty you cant dowload all the episodes i have 22 & 23 so far.

my brother got some free mp4 videos from his mobile provider one being the "sniffer dogs" from the chaser lol so i stole it off him

[Mythor]

The video podcasts seem to be the entire episode so if you get the episode from last week you should be able to see it.

[Dom Romeo]

I am very pleased to say I just received a review copy of The Chaser's War on Everything on DVD in the post today. It consists of episodes 1-13 of Season 1, and includes the team taking turns to provide commentary for all the episodes, plus 'unseen bits that were too shithouse to put in the original show' (according to the blurb on the back) and an 'ultra-confusing DVD menu system'.

Although, there is a glitch in initial copies: when you play the commentary track, you can't hear what's going on in the episode underneath it that they're referring to; so when they're not talking in the commentary track there's just silent images. But, if you buy a copy that plays like that, you'll be able to exchange it for one that works properly, according to Craig, who says they're fixing the problem now.

[Laney]

if you haven't already read about it, looks as if the chaser boys are in a little bit of trouble again...

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/...407997552.html

fairly stupid prank, but i still laughed.

you can check out what the did before it gets to the tellie tonight
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/chaser/war/video/default.htm