Chaser Case Dropped

[Matilda]

"The APEC-related case against members of ABC TV's The Chaser's War on Everything has been dropped.

Eleven people associated with the popular program were arrested last September for breaching an APEC restricted zone without justification."

.....

"What was undeniably the greatest moment in political satire last year, which the ABC has always been very proud of, has been found to be just that - great political satire," Kim Dalton, director of ABC TV, said."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/28/2228926.htm


"Taking the mickey" is an Australian tradition - dare we hope that this makes a return to normality
after the fear and loathing campaigns of the Howard years?

[canetoad]

1. Hehehe

have a look on the ABC website, where a pompous arse is flaying the weary old nag of 'taxpayers dollars'.

"All that matters not – apparently, comedy is far more important than national security. And taxpayers money should be spent hand over fist so that we, as a nation, can have a good laugh at ourselves. Like the grinning idiot who doesn't realise he's the butt of the joke, the Australian public is lapping it all up – "Good on them!" came the rallying cry of the chattering classes when the boys breached containment lines.

Little did those not in the know realise that they were paying through the nose for the stunt."
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2231962.htm

Then scroll down for the comments.

[Matilda]

2. Who the hell is Gregor Stronach when he's at home?

"Never mind the fact that it made Australian security forces look like a bunch of bungling Keystone Cops." What an unfortunate analogy to choose;
it was probably the only thing he got right in the whole article.

[Esra Star]

3. Matilda, it turns out "Gregor" is one of the Chaser writers

or so he says................
gregor :
05 May 2008 5:58:53pm

Okay... I guess maybe now it's time to confess.

yes. the article is a pisstake. Yes, I write for The Chaser.

No, I haven't had a fight with them.

No, I'm not jealous of their success in the pervasive medium of television. (much)

I'm just a satirist with an axe to grind and a soapbox to stand on: A writer with a well-intentioned but strangely over-developed desire to place cats among pigeons, and laugh along at the results.

So - I expected the feathers will fly. And they did... a quick read through the comments here, as far as I can tell, have it about 50/50.

Half of you loved it, half of you hated it.

a fraction of you tumbled to the gag - that it was a piss-take.

most of you didn't. And that's fine. not your fault, probably mine, mea culpa for making it too subtle, etc etc.

but thanks everyone for reading it. and commenting.

next week: who knows? maybe something serious. maybe not. but still, in the end, there will be debate about the topic on which I wrote, and that is the desired result: whether by being satirical or serious, that there is a dialogue of sorts opened up on the topic, and everyone who chooses gets to have their say. and that, as they say in the classics, is a Good Thing.

...........
There's more at the ABC site.
I didn't read much of it...........I may later.

[canetoad]

4. Funny that.

He writes like Andrew Bolt's less literate brother.

[Matilda]

5. I guess that the worst we can say then,

is that he'll give the right-wingers some fuel.