The Chaser's War on Everything: Difference between revisions
Content added Content deleted
m (revise quote template spacing) |
m (update links) |
||
Line 7:
''The Chaser's War on Everything'' was an Australian half-hour comedy show produced and broadcast by [[The ABC]] (the Australian one) and hosted by funny-men Andrew Hansen, Chris Taylor, Chas Licciardello, Craig Reucassel and Julian Morrow, collectively referred to as The Chaser.<ref>Members of the team not usually mentioned are Dominic Knight (who prefers to remain behind the scene as a writer) and Charles Firth (who went solo in 2007).</ref> The show has aired in many countries across the world, from Israel to the UK, Poland to South Korea.
The Chaser began as creators of a satirical newspaper, called ''The Chaser'' (not dissimilar to ''[[The Onion]]''). After a slow start, sales skyrocketed when they published then Prime Minister John Howard's phone number. This got the attention of Australian interviewer and TV star Andrew Denton, who got them a spot on the ABC, Australia's government-funded network; the result was ''The Election Chaser'', a short series covering the 2001 federal election and taking the piss out of everyone involved. They then went on to do the news parody show ''CNNNN'' (Chaser Non-stop News Network), mostly mocking [[CNN]] and Australian current affairs. They followed this with more coverages of elections, a stage show, and then their most famous work: ''The Chaser's War on Everything''.<ref>Rejected names for the show include ''Hey Hey It's The Chaser'', ''The Age of Terror Variety Hour'', ''Thank Allah It's Friday'' and ''The Chaser is Right''.</ref>
The show was more relaxed than ''CNNNN'', extensively used parody and satire, and they didn't pull any punches either. The [[Seven Network]] and the [[Nine Network]], both the 'big' commercial stations in Australia, were frequently poked fun at, particularly with regards to their dubious current affairs reporting. They also mock the ABC, which doesn't seem to mind them poking fun at or criticising material produced or transmitted by them. (This is probably because the ABC is entirely government-funded, so there are no sponsors to offend.)
Line 45:
Well, nothing. There's no such thing as politics. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}DJ-dpSlsOUQ\] }}
* [[Crowd Song]]: The "If Life Were A Musical" segments, always done for real.
* [[Cute Kitten]]: Politics. ''With Cats.''
** Somewhat sadly, that's actually probably the best way to teach people about politics now.
* [[Dead Baby Comedy]]
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: The whole group, but Andrew in particular. "[[Teens Are Monsters|They appear to be...on a porch.]]"
Line 54:
{{quote|'Who are these shows aimed at? A) Bicycles, B) The Sydney Opera House, or C) Morons.'}}
* [[Expospeak Gag]]: The "Detective Superintendent Clive Pugh" segments, exaggerating a police tendency to speak in a verbose and slightly non-committal manner. Parodied up to and including ''an [[The Immodest Orgasm|immodest orgasm]]'' expressed this way.
* [[Fan Disservice]]: All too often. Chas and Andrew once smeared manure all over each other. In the middle of Federation Square. While wearing BDSM outfits.
** Then they made out.
** And [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|admitted to enjoying]] ''[[Norbit]]''.
Line 72:
* [[Improbable Hairstyle]]: Andrew has a different (and even more ridiculous) one every week.
* [[Insane Proprietor]]: The Crazy Warehouse Guy.
* [[Karmic Death]]: Chris in the [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]]. "Fittingly, he died of cancer." Clearly God's reaction to "Make A Realistic Wish" was the same as pretty much [[Dude, Not Funny|everyone else's.]]
* [[Kent Brockman News]]
* [[Large Ham]]: All of them have their moments, but Chas in particular.
Line 81:
* [[Never Speak Ill of the Dead]]: Deconstructed - in song, no less - with "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU17zYt6nBQ The Eulogy Song]".
* [[No Indoor Voice]]: The Crazy Warehouse Guy.
* [["Not Making This Up" Disclaimer]]: The Middle East TV segments carried the disclaimer "All translations independently verified by the ABC" to let people know [[Poe's Law|it]] wasn't a [[Gag Sub]].
* [[Photoshop Filter of Evil]]: Averted and played straight.
* [[Only in America]]
Line 91:
* [[Parodied Trope]]: Note how many examples here are parodies of the trope in question. They ''really'' like to do this.
* [[Rattling Off Legal]]: Parodied. "I'd talk slower than this but my car is parked in a tow away zone."
** Taken further in the election specials in 2007, where Andrew and Chris played voiceover people.
* '''''[[Refuge in Audacity]]'''''
* [[Religion Is Magic]]: Parodied with faith healers who push people over to make them better, and The Secret to get what you want.
Line 104:
** [[Point and Laugh Show]]
* [[Sound Effect Bleep]]: Used in the Eulogy Song; while they probably could have gotten away with actual swearing, the general opinion was [[Too Soon]]. Also, using the sound effect only serves to make the song funnier.
* [[Spooky Photographs]]
* [[Strongly Worded Letter]]: A recurring character in the final season was an angry letter writer continually offended by the show. Ironically, the character debuted in the same episode as the "Make a Realistic Wish Foundation" sketch, but that wasn't the segment he was objecting to.
* [[Stylistic Suck]]: The Making of Politics With Cats, probably to appease [[Fan Dumb|complainers.]] Averted with the caption at the end, which claimed that "6387 cats were harmed during the making of this series."
Line 118:
* [[Viewers are Morons]]: Played straight and [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] many times.
* [[Wall Crawl]]: Andrew during the 2007 opening credits
* [[Witty Banter]]
* [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]]: Season 3 ended with a parody.
| |||