The Chaser's War On Everything

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Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has slammed Chasers for a sketch about terminally ill children. The Chaser's War On Everything sparked a storm of protest over a scene about a fictional ‘Make-a-Realistic-Wish Foundation’ which berated patients for making ‘selfish’ and ‘extravagant’ wishes as they were ‘only going to die anyway’. Broadcaster ABC was forced to issue an apology, and said it will edit the segment out of repeat and online screenings of the show, which is more famous for outrageous stunts.

Rudd said: ‘I actually don't mind The Chaser taking the mickey out of me or any other politician at any time or any place, that's fine, that's fair game. But having a go at kids with a terminal illness is really beyond the pale, absolutely beyond the pale. ‘These guys collectively should get up and hang their heads in shame, it's just wrong.’ The ABC said: ‘We acknowledge the distress this segment has caused and we apologise to anyone we have upset.’

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The episode will be available to watch above in a few hours

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that's episode 3 added. I've no idea why they had a few weeks off between episodes 2+3. Ahh, here we go... it seems the whole dying kid sketch caused almost as much hoo-ha (yeah, hoo-ha! haha) as the Jonathan Ross/Russell Brand bollocks from last year. Well fucking done to those idiotic bastards who decided to be offended after the event!

The Chaser team, from left, Andrew Hansen, Chas Licciardello, Chris Taylor, Julian Morrow and Craig Reucassel.
No laughing matter
June 25, 2009
theage.com.au

The impact of the recent Chaser controversy is still ricocheting through the TV comedy industry. Nicole Brady and Bridget McManus report. As The Chaser's War on Everything went to air last night there was hope in some quarters that the sorry saga of the "Make a Realistic Wish" sketch was almost over. But the reality is the waves created by the sketch and, more precisely, by ABC management's response to both it and the vociferous public and political response it generated, are still running strong and deep.

Within the independent comedy-making industry — the entertainers, writers and producers whose satire and risky programs have made us laugh (and gasp) and helped the ABC establish itself as the Australian home of edgy, comic television — there is still a lot of debate and disquiet about what has unfolded.

Green Guide has spoken with senior members of this program-making group, few of whom would speak on the record as they hope to keep working with the ABC. Discussion has moved on from the sketch to concentrate on the aftermath and implications for the industry. The prevailing sentiments are: concern management went too far in suspending The Chaser for two weeks; fear individuals within the network will be less brave about the comedy and satire they are prepared to approve; and anger that Amanda Duthie, who lost her job as head of comedy as a result, was made a scapegoat.

To recap, Thursday fortnight ago, the day after the skit aired, ABC managing director Mark Scott reacted swiftly. He went on ABC radio's Sydney drive show to offer an apology for the sketch, admitted the ABC had made a mistake in airing it and promised a review of internal processes. Late the next day he went further, announcing the suspension of the series for two weeks — though it was not until the following Tuesday that the ABC was able to clarify that meant the 10-week series would be cut short by two episodes. That same day Scott also announced the ABC's head of arts, entertainment and comedy, Amanda Duthie, had been stripped of her responsibility for comedy. This, the statement explained, was because she had reviewed the segment but did not "refer it up" to the next in command as policy dictated she should have.

Yes, she made a mistake, one producer says, "but I am worried about the precedent here. What happens to the next person who makes a mistake or what happens to the next person who wants to push it? "Removing somebody from their job, or taking a show off air, is not a very good precedent. People need to feel safe."

This producer emphasised the dismay comedy creators feel at their perception the ABC has not backed its talent. "Writers need an environment where they feel safe and this doesn't feel very safe … it just feels as if there wasn't any back-up." There is a feeling that while the ABC has been delighted to reap the kudos of being home to the high-rating satire, when the show ran into trouble management at the broadcaster was too swift to satisfy a tabloid desire for punishment, rather than keep a level head and respond with moderation.

Sources within the ABC say anger still exists internally about what happened to Duthie. She is regarded as talented and a great people-person who has nurtured a lot of young careers. "She's enormously popular and there is a fury that someone who has been such a mentor to so many people has been so harshly punished," one says. In regards to the video apology that aired on The Chaser's website, the source says: "They ate shit and that was a huge thing for them, it was such an unnecessary addendum for Amanda to have lost her job as well."

There is a belief the ABC board, and the chairman Maurice Newman, in particular, was very influential in determining the organisation's response. "I think the internal politics with the board figured a lot more than has been reported," one source says. "And the reality is the board is stacked with actual enemies of the ABC and there is never much sense in trying to placate your implacable enemies."

One independent source says the fact Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was so quick to add his negative opinion to the debate would have impacted strongly on the board. "I've been involved in enough corporate structures to know that if board members hadn't already called the managing director, his phone would have rung off the hook that day with: 'Have you seen this, this has been mentioned in Parliament, what are you doing about it?"' the source says.

Which leads to the point of one comedy producer: In such an environment, who is going to put their hand up to replace Duthie? "If they advertise that job, who with any experience or credibility would take it, knowing that despite any relative triumphs in recent times in your portfolio, if you make one mess-up, substantial or otherwise, you get put out in the town square to be pelted with stones and humiliated?" the producer says.

The producer fears the outcome of the ABC's review of its approval process may result in a "taste monitor" and "lawyers all over every script".

"The sad thing is the established comedy writer/producers and performers will probably be OK but none of the smoke signals read that the ABC now stands to create the next Chaser. Or if you were the next Chaser sitting out there in a university somewhere, are you going to feel like the ABC's going to be the first port of call? I suspect not."

Relations between the Chaser team and the ABC are understood to remain strong, with both sides believing they will be able to continue making the sort of risk-taking satire the show is in part structured around. After all, while this was a big firestorm, it is not as though the two parties are strangers to controversy.

But it will not be until the show gets back into its weekly groove that the relationship can truly be tested. While the director of ABC television, Kim Dalton, says there is no new requirement for Chaser scripts to be put on his desk each week for pre-approval, only time will tell whether or not a comedy-by-ABC-committee situation unfolds.

It is the whiff of possibility of this scenario eventuating that independent producers worry about most. "I hope it doesn't come true but if that happens, you stand to get soft comedy, and nice comedy, and I wouldn't have thought that's what the ABC has been most proud of in its long and wonderful track record of creating great Australian comedy," an independent program-maker says.

Comedian Wil Anderson, who hosts The Gruen Transfer on the ABC, says the very nature of satirical comedy requires a safety net. "Your job as a performer is to push it as far as you can, particularly if you're trying to make edgy comedy," he says. "Now sometimes the only time you know when you've gone over the line is when you look back over your shoulder and go: 'Oops! There it was."'

He says no approval process can ever be fail-safe and that sometimes the only way to know what works is to put it to air. On a recent episode of Channel Ten's Good News Week, Anderson made a rehearsed joke about Austrian "dungeon dad" Josef Fritzl, which didn't raise an eyebrow, while an offhand remark about masturbation went on to light up the switchboard.

Nick Murray of Cordell Jigsaw Productions, which made Stupid Stupid Man for TV1 (and later sold it to the ABC) and The Ronnie Johns Half Hour for Ten, says audiences are tougher on locally made (and funded) programs than those the ABC buys from overseas. "Most comedy shows will offend people," he says. "English comedy shows that come out of the BBC and Channel 4, some of those shows are really, really edgy - Nighty Night (which has screened here) is set in a nursing home with dying elderly people and mentally disturbed people. The question is, does that show pass all the censorship tests of offending people? And if there's going to be censorship of comedy you've got to work out what the test is, because if the test is, 'Will it offend some sections of the community?', then that's very dangerous. "'Does it offend the prime minister?' is not a good test as to whether something should be censored or not."

The ABC has never been the home of Two and a Half Men. It has been the network prepared to chance ratings ignominy as it trials fresh talent and programs. There is no doubt it will continue to do that but the concern is the message the response to this incident sends out. Will ABC managers still be prepared to take risks and make mistakes? Or will its people lose just a little of their nerve? These are questions only time can answer. Watch and wait.