The Chaser's War on Everything

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The Chaser's War On Everything
Opening sequence from The Chaser's War on Everything.
Genre	Comedy
Starring	Andrew Hansen Chas Licciardello Julian Morrow Craig Reucassel Chris Taylor
Country of origin	Australia
No. of episodes	27, and 2 'Best Of' specials
Production
Running time	26 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC TV
Picture format	576i (SDTV)
Original run	February 17, 2006 – present
Links
Official website

The Chaser's War on Everything is a satirical television comedy series broadcast on ABC TV in Australia. The series is produced by satire group The Chaser. Returning is Chris Taylor (who is also the show's script editor), Julian Morrow (now acting as executive producer), Craig Reucassel, Andrew Hansen and Chas Licciardello. Dominic Knight also returned as a writer, but does not play a major on-screen role. Charles Firth's role is downplayed due to his move to the United States although he still contributes occasional roving reports.

Whilst there are some segments that hark back to CNNNN, The Chaser's earlier TV show, CNNNN's mock news-channel format is not used. Instead the team devised a concept that, as they explained, would allow them to have a longer running series. The show's studio segments are performed panel-style in front of a live audience on a set reminiscent of where the Chaser group used to meet. These segments are interspersed with pre-produced location items and fake ads. The series looks at all issues and attacks a wide range of current topics in politics and the media.

The series carries on The Chaser's trademark technique of staging situationist interventions in real-life events, in which members of the group 'gatecrash' political, commercial and social events and film the results. Memorable provocations in the current series have included the "Surprise Spruiker" and the often shocking public reactions to supposed plans to build a mosque in the middle of Mosman (an upper-class, conservative Sydney suburb) and a large memorial to the 2005 Cronulla riots, where an obelisk was supposedly to be built near the beach, featuring a large video screen that would constantly replay news footage of the violence.

Original names for the series which were rejected by the ABC include 'Thank Allah It's Friday!', 'The Chaser's Age Of Terror Variety Hour' 'The Chaser is Right' and 'Hey Hey It's the Chaser!'.

A DVD of the first thirteen episodes of Season 1 was released on August 17, 2006. A second DVD with episodes 14-26 was released on November 1, 2006.

In December 2006 The Chaser's War on Everything won an Australian Film Institute Award for 'Best Television Comedy Series' and Andrew Hansen won an AFI Award for 'Best Performance in a Television Comedy.'^[1]

The Chaser's War on Everything returned for a second season, starting on Wednesday March 28, 2007 at 9pm.^[2] As part of the promotion for the start of the second series they produced a live webcast of people counting down to the first episode of the season. As well as new segments, they have reworked the opening sequence in a new "James Bond" style. The studio setting for the show's recordings has remained mostly intact.

Contents 1 Recurring segments on the show 2 Controversies and well known stunts 2.1 Julian Morrow's novelty cheque 2.2 Chris Taylor on Sunrise 2.3 Chas Licciardello's Bulldogs incident 2.4 Craig Reucassel's axe stunt 2.5 Julian Morrow's Virgin Blue ticket prank 2.6 Craig Reucassel's Speedos 3 Video podcasting 4 Trivia 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Recurring segments on the show

Some recurring segments on the show include:

• "What Have We Learned from Current Affairs This Week?" -- which pokes fun at programs Today Tonight and A Current Affair, keeping scores for every story matching a category such as "Menace To Society", "Old People Screwed Over", "People Cheating The System", "Oddballs & Cranks", "Greedy Councils", "Society Gone To The Dogs", "Fatties" and "Youth Gone Wild". Each segment features a 'lesson' on their reporting techniques. Subjects covered so far include how to spot 'dodgy' guys (they are shown in slow motion); a guide to identifying different types of experts (including those who "flip pages", "hand files to receptionists" and "click mice"), and the all-important art of network cross-promotion. They also make fun of both shows' tendency to label things as "evil". In the final episode of season 1, they presented the "What Have We Learned From Current Affairs This Week Awards" including "biggest overstatement of the year" (a woman saying that school soccer balls landing on her roof was like living in Beirut). They also presented A Current Affair with the "Slightly Less Crap Than Today Tonight Award".
• "Surprise Spruiker" -- where a shop "spruiker" (Andrew Hansen) attempts to help various institutions sell things, such as Giorgio Armani suits, WorkChoices or Dell laptops, by turning up outside with a microphone and speaker and spruiking out of his own generosity. His wireless speaker is generally carried out of range of the microphone by security, and he is escorted away.
• "Pursuit Trivia" -- in which Julian Morrow tests the general knowledge of a politician or celebrity by asking a Trivial Pursuit question from a game card in his hand at an interview or press conference. As yet only two people, Kevin Rudd and Shannon Noll, have successfully answered a question. In a deleted scene on the DVD release of the show, Alex Lloyd repeatedly asked for more questions, until he also got one right.
• "Scenes from the Life of the Crazy Warehouse Guy" -- in which a stereotypical announcer (Andrew Hansen) from carpet warehouse fire sales uses his unique speaking style in everyday situations such as buying McDonald's, asking bystanders for the correct time, asking for help in a public library, or talking on a mobile phone in a crowded tram. In the August 11, 2006 episode the Crazy Warehouse Guy appeared in the studio, playing the piano and singing a duet with Emily Taheny from Comedy Inc. The song was modified version of George Gershwin's Let's Call the Whole Thing Off. In the final episode of the series, the Crazy Warehouse Guy met with the Surprise Spruiker (Andrew Hansen's other recurring character) at the Rug Warehouse arguing with each other.
• "Are You Being Shagged?" -- A parody of Are You Being Served? and shows of a similar nature, the segment takes the form of an ABC promo. It features 'single entendre' comedy, often chosen to be of a highly cliched nature.
• "Firth in the USA" -- Charles Firth, now living in America, files a report on an aspect of American news, life, or culture. The segment usually features an attempt by Firth to infiltrate an event or organisation (such as Yale University's 'Skull and Bones' secret society), or to break a record (such as being thrown out of more corporate headquarters in one day than Michael Moore in his entire career). In one show, he approached a demonstration by the Christian fundamentalist organisation, the Westboro Baptist Church, and flirted with one of the male demonstrators. He also investigated in Kenya as to whether Mrs Macs 'World Famous' beef pies really are world famous at all.
• "Mr Ten Questions" -- Andrew Hansen shows up at a press conference and proceeds to ask 10 questions (which vary in degrees of relevance) without letting the interviewee speak until he has read out the list. So far Anthony LaPaglia is the only person to successfully answer all the questions - Kerri-Anne Kennerly attempted them all but got several wrong, and others usually brush the questions aside.
• "The Ad Roadtest" -- where the team recreate situations shown in advertisements to see if they would work in real life, such as the confidentiality of Oral-B dentists, if Lynx 'Clix' deodorant really does attract more girls the more you spray on, if Telstra appreciates fruit-soccer in their stores as shown in their World Cup period ads, seeing whether a dog actually stays on the roof of a moving Ford Focus in real life as seen in an ad featuring radio host Jackie O, or if Godfrey's vacuum cleaners really can lift up bowling balls, as has been shown for many years.
• "Famous Face Off" -- Where two masters in a particular field compete to be the best in an endeavour such as in tongue-twisting newsreading or in "blocking" reforms in the Senate.
• "A Message From Osama Bin Laden" -- Where an existing video of the infamous terrorist Osama Bin Laden is subbed with incorrect and humorous subtitles, often declaring a Jihad on various people for arbitrary irritations. Videos of Saddam Hussein ("Another Saddam Outburst"), Abu Bakar Bashir ("Everybody Loves Abu") and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ("Meanwhile In Iran") have also been subbed in a similar manner.
• "The 2:30 Report" -- Which looks at content on television after midnight, such as The Up-Late Game Show and Quizmania, as well as Christian programming.
• "Citizen's Infringement Officer" -- Where Julian Morrow would give fines to people that he didn't like, for example giving fake fines to parking inspectors, people with "wanker" number plates, bad mobile phone ringtones and inappropriate baby names.
• "The Fixers" -- A new segment for the 2007 season where the Chaser team "solve problems for people whether they have asked us to or not".

[edit] Controversies and well known stunts

Some of the events on the show have received news coverage.

[edit] Julian Morrow's novelty cheque

On February 8, 2006, before the first episode of the show had screened, Julian Morrow approached Australian Wheat Board executive Charles Stott with a fake novelty cheque, made out to Saddam Hussein, and asked Stott to sign it. Stott's lawyer said his client felt intimidated by the stunt,^[3] and the footage of the stunt was not shown in the first episode as scheduled due to "legal reasons". In the first episode to go to air, Julian Morrow responded, by raising the point that Charles Stott has done business with Saddam Hussein, one of the most frightening and powerful dictators on Earth, yet he is intimidated by a large novelty cheque. The footage of this stunt does appear as a bonus on the show's first DVD.

[edit] Chris Taylor on Sunrise

On the ninth episode of the show, Chris Taylor announced that he planned to break-up with his girlfriend, but he didn't want to ask her "the usual boring way," but do "something special, something she'll remember". The segment shows several of Taylor's attempts to "pop the question," including hanging a sign over a freeway, and "proposing" on a big screen at the Tropfest film festival. For the finale, Taylor introduces the interview of him on the morning television program, Sunrise. In the interview, Taylor asks the host if he can send a quick message to his partner, he then proceeds to tell her to "Get the fuck out of my life." This finale from the segment has recently been leaked onto the internet, and has been widely distributed by email. Many viewers believed the segment was actually real but Taylor admitted on national radio station Triple J that it was set up, was actually filmed after Sunrise went to air and shown on The Chaser's War on Everything only at this time. The hosts of Sunrise also admitted it was a set up. Sunrise replayed a censored version of the clip on August 21, 2006 when they had the Chaser team on the show promoting their new DVD.

[edit] Chas Licciardello's Bulldogs incident

On July 14, 2006, Chas Licciardello was charged with offensive conduct after attempting to sell fake Canterbury Bulldogs merchandise outside an NRL game.^[4] The merchandise included plastic knuckledusters and balaclavas in the Bulldogs' colours, and was supposed to satirise recent violent clashes between rugby league fans. Several Bulldogs fans took offense and attempted to attack Licciardello, and as a result he was charged for offensive behaviour.^[5] On the broadcast following his arrest, Licciardello appeared onstage in handcuffs and within an iron cage. On that same episode, he apologised for his actions, claiming to understand why the Bulldogs fans were offended: because Canterbury Bulldogs fans much prefer to use their fists. This statement was accompanied by footage of Bulldog's supporters assaulting opposing team supporter's during a match. After appearing in court with co-star Julian Morrow, Licciardello pleaded not guilty and the matter was adjourned.^[6] On January 23, 2007, Licciardello was found not guilty of the offensive behaviour charge.^[7]

[edit] Craig Reucassel's axe stunt

On 2 August 2006, Craig Reucassel responded to a news story about a private school student who had hugged Prime Minister John Howard while holding a screwdriver during one of the PM's morning walks. To test the Prime Minister's security arrangements, he approached John Howard during a morning walk and asked for a hug while holding a large plastic battle axe. Reucassel did receive the hug, but a later approach while holding a running chainsaw was not so successful. There was much debate surrounding whether or not to turn on the chainsaw and whether they would be shot at for doing this.^[8]

Cut out from this segment was the attempt between the axe and the chainsaw, in which Reucassel was holding a four-point-star mace. He did not achieve his hug on that occasion, either. Anybody who watches the DVD commentaries of the Chaser's War on Everything will know just how difficult it was for them to actually find John Howard at all.^[9]

[edit] Julian Morrow's Virgin Blue ticket prank

On 16 August 2006, Julian Morrow purchased two airline tickets on the Virgin Blue airline under the names "Al Kyder" and "Terry Wrist", checked in using the automated check-in, and then did not show up for boarding, so that the names would be read out in a final boarding call over Sydney Airport's public address system.^[10] The prank was acknowledged by Virgin Blue who later in the day put out a press release saying that if the Chaser wants to spend $300 on jokes like that then that's fine.

[edit] Craig Reucassel's Speedos

On March 19, 2007, during a campaign appearance for the State Election, New South Wales opposition leader Peter Debnam was confronted by Craig Reucassel wearing nothing but Speedos and a baseball cap ^[11], making fun of Debnam's campaign appearances in the swimwear. When TV cameras remained focused on Reucassel rather than Mr Debnam, he said, "Sorry, I'm not Peter Debnam, he's over there. Just because I'm wearing this doesn't mean I'm Peter Debnam". Reucassel stuck around for the press conference but failed to draw a response from the opposition leader, and was again ignored when he went to shake Mr Debnam's hand.

[edit] Video podcasting

On July 27, 2006 the ABC announced that entire episodes of The Chaser's War on Everything, along with jtv, would be made available for download via a vodcasting system.^[12] Just days after appearing on the Australian iTunes podcasting directory, the show took the number one position.

[edit] Trivia

• During the Audio Commentary from the 27th episode of The Chaser's War on Everything (25th without including the two 'Best of shows') it was stated thirteen times that this was 'the worst episode in the world', eleven times by Chris Taylor and twice by Chas Licciardello, primarily because of their intake of the Famous Face Off for that episode.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• ABC TV: The Chaser's War on Everything
• The Chaser's War on Everything at the Internet Movie Database

The Chaser
Charles Firth - Andrew Hansen - Dominic Knight Chas Licciardello - Julian Morrow - Craig Reucassel - Chris Taylor
Productions:
The Chaser (newspaper) - The Chaser Annual The Election Chaser - CNNNN - The Chaser Decides Cirque du Chaser - Chaser News Alert - The Chaser's War on Everything Today Today - Bloody Sunday - Chas and Dom