Tag: Chaser

Adventures in TV

We caught Lawrence Leung’s Choose Your Own Adventure last night on the ABC (post Gruen Transfer). It made me laugh until I cried. It’s Safranesque – and produced by the Chaser team.

If you missed it you can watch it here thanks to the magic of iView.

Very funny. I’ll never be able to pick up a copy of the Queensland Presbyterian newspaper, New Directions, again without catching subliminal messages.

One of my favourite bits was when his mum told him what he was doing (trying to track down the object of his grade 3 affections) was creepy.

Here’s the trailer. It uses lego. He’s also a Rubiks Cube master. And used that to get a girl’s phone number. Chicks dig guys with skillz.

March 26, 2009

My quest to get the Wiggles blacklisted

The Chaser ran a story from America on a fundamentalist church group outraged at the US’s refusal to outlaw homosexuality. They picket the funerals of US soldiers killed in Iraq and do all sorts of other extreme things that give the rest of us normal Christians a bad name. The church is so rabidly anti-gay that they provide their followers with a list of good and bad musicians based on gayness. The bad list includes obvious candidates like Elton John and George Michaels – plus Morrissey as a bracketed “questionable” – blacklisted bands can be simply gay sympathetic rather than gay gay. Marylin Manson makes an appearance despite his failing marriage to a burlesque dancer. Anyway, while they are crazy looneys, this whole band blacklisting thing is interesting. I figured that the site’s administrators would not be completely on top of the music situation downunder in li’l ol’ OZ, so I emailed the site’s administrator who is always on the look out for bands to ban because:


“One of the most dangerous ways homosexuality invades family life is through popular music. Parents should keep careful watch over their children’s listening habits, especially in this Internet Age of MP3 piracy. “

Here’s the bands I suggested they look out for – or immediately add to their list. Feel free to suggest more.

Hi from downunder…
Here’s a few gay friendly Australian bands to add to your list:
The Wiggles (men in rainbow coloured shirts singing supposedly harmless children’s songs with gay undertones)
Hillsong
The wunderpants band
Oli goes over
Protruding Dinosaurs
Herbie and the artic adventurers

I may have made up all but the first two – but look out for Hillsong and the Wiggles to be blacklisted by these crazies.

I’ve been contacted by a second Nigerian scammer who wants me to help him deal with an inheritance problem he’s had since his boss, Andreas Schanner was killed in a plane crash back in 2000. Here’s a clip from the email he sent:

“The total amount involved is Sixteen million Seven Hundred Thousand United States Dollars only [$16,700.000.00] and we wish to transfer this money into a safe foreigners account abroad. But I don’t know any foreigner, I am only contacting you as a foreigner because this money can not be approved to a local person here, but to a foreigner who has information about the account, which I shall give to you upon your positive response.

I am revealing this to you with believe in God that you will never let me down in this business, you are the first and the only person that I am contacting for this business, so please reply urgently so that I will inform you the next step to take urgently.At the conclusion of this business, you will be given 25% of the total amount,70% will be for us, while 5% will be for expenses both parties might have incurred during the process of transferring. I look forward to your earliest reply through my yahoo email edwardnka@yahoo.com PLEASE, TREAT THIS PROPOSAL AS TOP SECRET.
Best Regards,Edward Nkanga.”

To help him settle the issue I’ve created Tobias Walther Schanner, a long lost heir to the Schanner family fortune – I sent him this email complete with an authentic deed poll document.

“Edward – it is so coincidental that you choose today to write to me. I have friends who knew closely the pilot of that plane crashing on July 25. I would be very happy to help you out but being a professional business investor I need more information to establish your bona fides. Be sure that I treat your correspondence with all the seriousness I can muster when presented with figures of that amount.

In order to demonstrate my willingness to go through with the transaction I have changed my name by deed poll to Tobias Schranner – thus allowing me to pose as an undiscovered heir to the fortune. I have attached a scan of the deed poll document which I suggest you destroy once you’ve seen it. I hope this makes proceeding further an easier deal and I’m happy to share the fortune at the proportion you suggest – although perhaps a greater share should go to me due to the trouble I’ve taken. I leave this up to you for your decision.
Tobias.”

February 2, 2007

Humour me

It seems the rise of the individual’s participation in what can loosely labelled the new media has been coupled with the rise of the humourless new media critic – incapable of reading between the lines and willing to take offence on behalf of those wronged in an attempt at comedy or satire. I’m not sure where these people were before – but looking through the news in recent weeks I have to wonder – where did the great Australian ability to laugh at oneself or the misfortune of others go. Even cruelty to animals is now frowned upon. Even if the animal is a cane toad.

A judge in the Sutherland local court is to be commended for finally upholding common sense and a common sense of humour in her decision on The Chaser case. While the side line nay sayers were up in arms over the audacity of the Chaser team after they turned up at a Bulldogs game hawking fake supporters kits stocked with fake weapons – the judge in her conclusion said that the majority of people would have realised it was a joke – and that a reasonable person should not have been angered or outraged by it. Now certain people may be prepared to accuse the Chaser team of having an underdeveloped sense of propriety and may also suggest that they lack maturity – but surely a certain level of impropriety and immaturity is allowable for humour’s sake. There’s a reason that toilet humour still elicits laughs from movie audiences. Some people have lost touch with their inner child because they’re all to eager to jump on the politically correct bandwagon and condem the actions of others on behalf of an innocent third party.
If I choose to take a quote or comment out of context and take the taking out of context to its unnatural extreme (ala yesterday’s post) please don’t feel the need to condemn my actions on the basis that I have done so – instead see it for what it was – I was at work with very little to do, I had a silly conversation which amused me, and I posted it on my blog.
So in conclusion – unless I directly and purposefully offend you, please don’t take offence. Turn that frown upside down.

January 23, 2007