We're now two episodes into this year's installment of
The Chaser's War On Everything, and that means we've also enjoyed two weeks' worth of media outrage at the ABC comedy team's "controversial" skits.
For the sake of coherence we'll look at them in chronological order (even if it means I begin this blog looking hopelessly behind the eight-ball).
Last week, it was this sketch about the Melbourne Club refusing women memberships:
(Briefly: oh snap, she "doesn't have a woman's name"! You sure showed her, Chaser dudes!)
You might have also noticed in the media (and social media) response to that particular skit that comparisons were rightly drawn between
The Chaser's Bryce stunt and this memorably "hilarious" bit of television "fun and games":
Really, what is the difference, other than that the latter was put together by a band of football oiks and the former claims to be biting, left-leaning satire? But more importantly than their differences, the main thing both sketches have in common is that
neither are funny.
And unfunniness seems to be an emerging trend for this year's
Chaser series - which brings us to the second episode, and last night's "controversial" skit - the "Make A Realistic Wish Foundation". In short: Chris Taylor visits a fake children's hospital where some terminally-ill child actors are requesting "selfish" wishes like "to meet Zac Efron" only to be met with "this stick instead" because "They're going to die anyway".
(ABC online content prevents me from embedding the vid, but you can watch it
here to bring yourself up to speed).
I wonder if
Chaser HQ has a poster-printed list of topics to tackle that are sure to incite a media frenzy? If this year's season (and last year's, too) is any indication, perhaps it goes a little something like this:
People who've just died ✓
Sick kids ✓
Heads of state ✓
Much-loved media identities ✓
Sexual assault ✓
Fluffy kittens (TBC)
The team's rallying cries seem to be the dual concepts of "too far" and "too soon" rather than any desire to make the sharpest comedy possible.
Naturally, the media has worked itself into an absolute lather this morning; the ABC switchboard has apparently been jammed with complaints, and everyone from 3AW to the Prime Minister (okay, the latter is just a hunch, but you can bet your lunch money it'll be proven correct) have chimed in with the usual "axe this sick filth" diatribes.
The thing is, I kinda agree with them - only not because
The Chaser is controversial, or mean, or wrong, but because of one thing and one thing only: it isn't funny anymore.
Once, particularly back in the
CNNNN days,
The Chaser team was close to the best satirical television you could find. I was particularly fond of
The Firth Factor's spot-on lampooning of Derryn Hinch/Alan Jones/every current affairs show ever:
Similarly, this piece - put together for
Australia's Favourite Albums to honour Radiohead's
OK Computer - is one of the funniest things I've ever seen:
But increasingly it seems
The Chaser team are happy just to pick the "hot issues" and do little more with them than demonstrate how 'on the pulse' they are.
Take the Bryce/Melbourne Club stunt, for example: they begin admirably enough, taking a stab at the Club for their archaic refusal to allow women's memberships - but then they end up undoing any possible goals they might have kicked for gender politics by manhandling the Bryce dummy and suggesting she get a sex-change (rather than, you know, The Melbourne Club changing its policy).
The sick kids skit, too, seems geared only towards being "edgy" - and I'm certainly no
Hun-reading talkback caller, but even I can see that poking fun at children with terminal illnesses is a fairly low blow.
More than anything, though, what comes across from the past two weeks of
Chaser material, is that while their ability to cause a media frenzy remains unchallenged, their ability to make anyone not looking at a madly blinking 'APPLAUSE/LAUGHTER' sign laugh seems to be unravelling.
And in the world of satire and comedy, that's the worst crime of all.