It appears at least one of the Chaser crew involved in the distasteful sketch sending up children dying of cancer is showing no remorse whatsoever.
Andrew Hansen, one of the crew involved in the controversial sketch, has written to me criticizing me for daring to question their distasteful piece and calling his offending piece “a completely unimportant fictitious comedy sketch.”“As a long-time subscriber to Undercover, I'm mystified by a recent article about the Chaser,” he writes. “What's the Chaser got to do with music? And what's with you guys thinking the show's producers accidentally aired a supposedly failed item.
Yesterday I wrote that maybe, "The bigger issue for The Chaser in 2009 is that the show simply is not funny anymore. A skit outside Buckingham Palace that aired on Wednesday failed dismally. The London policeman saw through it immediately and gave the crew a ticket. He then said into the camera “I hope you get a few laughs when this is on TV”. The producers of the segment failed to carry off the gag at all, yet it still went to air."
Sorry Andrew, that sketch fell flat on its arse.
“This moronic review shows a bizarre misunderstanding of how a TV show gets made and a complete misreading of that particular segment”, Hansen moaned. “I wish you'd stop editorialising about sketch comedy shows, and stick to music news”.
So, The Chaser can insult, belittle and ridicule anyone they wish but we cannot do the same to them?
I emailed him back and asked, “What is worse. Me “misreading” writers on a TV show or said comedy writers misreading the Australian public?”
“Well, I don't think either is bad,” he responded. “What's bad is the media engaging in a 3-day furore over a completely unimportant fictitious comedy sketch”.
The Chaser angered the Australian public when it aired the offensive sketch on Wednesday evening. The sketch was removed from the repeat of the show on Thursday night.
On Thursday the ABC issued a piss-poor non-apology on behalf of the show.
On Friday, a caller named Rochelle rang into Ray Hadley’s 2GB show and said how it was based on her real pain from watching her daughter suffering from cancer for two years and that a producer from the show was a family friend and based the sketch on their family.
Late yesterday, the ABC suspended the show for two weeks.
Today, Andrew Hansen still cannot see what the fuss is all about. Grow up Andrew!
