This is terrible television
Earlier tonight, I was watching a TV report on a show that is part of what I like to call “tabloid television”. Tabloid Television is a tabloid newspaper in TV format; sensationalist stories and plenty of rumor-mongering, whilst perverting popular culture. It’s disgusting and a blemish in our society. Anyway, this show is called Today Tonight. It’s in a popular position, the 6:30 slot, which competes primarily with another tabloid programme, and the most popular Australian SOAP on TV, Neighbours. Therefore, the stakes are high.
On Today Tonight, they did a report on The Chaser’s War on Everything. The Chaser’s War On Everything is a satirical TV show that pulls pranks and makes political jokes, much in line with The Chasers previous work, such as CNNNN. It’s hysterically funny and gloriously entertaining, and is something I look forward to each week. Therefore when I heard about this report, I was greatly interested, as a show I loathed for a long time (Today Tonight) attempted to take a shot at a show I adore (The Chasers). Recently a rivalry of sorts has sprung up between the two shows, starting on Logies night (Logies are an Australian awards ceremony, like the Oscars for TV shows) in which The Chasers used as an opportunity to pull a myriad of tricks. It was then continued when The Chasers began pulling pranks at Channel 7’s (the network that runs Today Tonight) studios. This report was evidently going to be another retaliation. Congratulations on having to resort to being a child, Channel 7. Jerks.
Onto the report. Some guy, who is one of the grunt reporters (read: nobody knows nor cares about his name, as I never saw it mentioned), was given the task of doing an “expose” on The Chasers (expose is the favourite word of Tabloid Television). He was supposed to expose that some of The Chasers’ outrageous stunts were set up. Look out, Chasers! The truth shall be revealed.
This reporter went outside and lo and behold, there were The Chasers, waiting outside for a certain Channel 7 exec (the grunt’s boss), in order to outline the exec’s alcohol abuse (I suppose I’ll find out the whole story when I watch The Chasers tonight). I won’t outline the entire report, that would take too long for such a worthless piece of trash, but I’ll give you the gist.
Basically, the reporter spoke to Chas about the stunts they had set up. He admitted that the bed stunt and the open house stunt were set up. He also admitted that the Sheik stunt was set up, where Anthony Mundine came out of the Mosque to fight Julian Morrow. Wow, what a surprise that stunt was set up. Well, it wouldn’t be a surprise to the viewers of The Chasers if they had read the credits, where under Guest Stars was the name Anthony Mundine. Yet, I didn’t hear public outcry. Is that because the fans don’t actually care that some of their stunts are set up? Perhaps it is because The Chasers are still amazingly entertaining regardless.
The reporter also asked some Australian names, such as H.G. Nelson and some columnist for The Herald Sun. Nelson said that The Chasers setting up stunts was “pathetic”. The columnist said that it was like The Boy Who Cried Wolf, which I think was his poorly worded way of saying “hypocritical”. But why? That’s like saying fantasy novels and video games are pathetic and hypocritical, just because they aren’t real. The Chasers are hilarious and entertaining, despite the reality of their stunts.
The guy was a halfwit, half-baked reporter who was always on the defensive during his report, commenting several times that he was being very wary about how much control he was going to let The Chasers have over the situation. Perhaps he was trying to make The Chasers seem like intimidating people to be feared, but if that was his aim, he was shooting the wrong bullets. Anybody who has watched even 5 minutes of their shows would know that The Chasers are some of the friendliest guys in Australia. In fact, I’d say their “larrikin” (a word I detest but has never been better applied) spirit embodies Australianism better than any people currently alive.
It was a terrible report, and this guy deserves nothing for it. It was just a cheap retaliation by Channel 7 in a bickering war. While I do think Channel 7 should be above this, I don’t think The Chasers should stop taking the piss out of Channel 7. The Chasers is a comedy show. If you can’t take that, then go cry in the corner (or write a blog?), especially if you’re not just one person, you’re a huge television network. Get over it.
UPDATE: Just watched The Chasers War On Everything. They covered the situation in their usually hilarious way, revealing more footage of the scenario than was shown on Today Tonight, which revealed the reporter (James Thomas) as even more of a bumbling idiot. He was in their van while they were staking out the Channel 7 exec, and the guy was absolutely shitting himself. Real or not, you have to give it to The Chasers. They're good at their job.
The episode was very entertaining.
