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The smartest, funniest, most talked about show on Australian television returns to ABC1 this Wednesday night at 9pm for its third season after 17 months off air.

Catch up on season two, from all the way back in 2007 here.

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Its almost too exhausting to have to defend, but after the Chaser filmed a sketch involving Today Tonight host Anna Coren at Seven’s studios in Sydney.. “there was a bit of a Mexican stand-off with cameras for about an hour and all these Today Tonight executives went berserk and ran off to the Supreme Court” explained executive producer of the Chaser Julian Morrow.

Long story short Channel Seven have obtained an injunction to prevent the footage being aired on tonights episode of The Chaser’s War on Everything. Today Tonight led with this story tonight (first video) in a piece running for 16 minutes (topping an earlier Chaser story they did for 11 minutes). The story is basically one long interaction between Chas and TT reporter Bryan Seymour where he tries to be as offended as possible by the whole thing, while Chas waits to hear from the ABC’s lawyers and continues to point out the enormous irony of the whole situation.

Whatever comes out of this, the fact is that Today Tonight masquerades as a serious news program while doing nothing more then chipping away at our society and culture with the garbage its broadcasts five nights a week. Its understandable then that a show like Today Tonight, the complete antithesis of the Chaser would be so upset by the success of this amazing satire, that so publicly tears apart the role and significance of tabloid television on a weekly basis.

For more on my admiration of this show check out The Simpson’s War on Everything, or download entire episodes right here.

Update: Read the official response from The Chaser and ABC here.

Update 2: Read the interim injuction granted by the NSW Supreme Court here.

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Tonight could very well be the biggest night The Chaser’s War has seen, as the story behind the prank that made international news last week during APEC is explained.

This video is a promo showing the coverage the prank received on CNN. Hear what Chas had to say about the criticism today on 2UE in the audio below;

Download tonights episode from official vodcast here, or download it off me here.

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If you haven’t heard already, The Chaser got themselves in a bit of trouble a few days ago, when they made there way through two security checkpoints and got within a block of where the US President was staying, all the while with Chas Licciardello dressed as Osama bin Laden.

You can read all about it here, but the point of this post is to show the coverage it got internationally, on BBC World, and on its journalistic polar opposite.. Fox News.

Update: Chris Taylor talks about the incident on Triple J (thanks Jaymo).
[mp3]http://beohm.com/radio/christaylor-chaserAPEC.mp3[/mp3]

Update: The Chaser have released some footage, watch it after the jump..

APEC Motorcade Preview

Add to My Profile | More Videos

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The Chaser’s War on Everything returns tomorrow night to the ABC. With 13 episodes left in the season, and a Federal election due sometime during the filming, it should make for a very interesting end of season two. That is, unless Howard holds off calling the election just to avoid getting Chaser’d (although I doubt that would stop them).

Subscribe to the Chaser’s official vodcast here, or download them off me here.

Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues music video gets the Taylor/Hansen treatment in the above promo. Watch the original Dylan video after the jump…

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The Chaser was again lambasted on Today Tonight last Friday over a stunt they did about mobile billboards. It was the lead story on that nights edition, filed by reporter Bryan “funny in a sad way” Seymour, and stirred this moving response from Anna Coren.. “it really is a negative war on everything”.

And last night Chris and Andrew appeared on The Nation to talk about their new musical Dead Caesar among other things.

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This weeks lesson: Stories about The Chaser

Today Tonight had their say earlier this evening about their encounter with The Chaser. Now, of course, its The Chaser’s turn with the latest ‘What have we learnt from current affairs this week?’.

They take a look at the humour current affairs show use, Anna’s snide at those “who think their funny” and of course “double crossing” TT reporter James Thomas (who is apparently quite a good guy, just in the wrong job). With the inclusion of a lot more Peter Meakin references than made it into the Today Tonight piece.

If you missed tonights show, its repeated on ABC2 a few times, or you can just download it here.

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Eleven minutes! They talked about The Chaser on Today Tonight tonight for eleven whole minutes. The story basically “revealed” that some of the show is set-up (oh for reals?, because I figured Anthony Mundine hung around Mosque’s all day).

Anyway, there’s no need to defend The Chaser, no one whose ever watched the show will have learned anything new from the story. And Anna Coren questioning how much the ABC spends on the show is a joke, how much does Seven spend on you Anna?

In summary; it’s Simpsonicaly funny, its on ABC tonight at 9pm, or download it here.

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Update: Watch the Today Tonight story in full here.

Update 2: Watch the The Chaser story in full here.

First it was A Current Affair with their puff piece about The Chaser’s War on Everything. Now, it looks like Today Tonight are about to get nasty. The video is a teaser for tomorrow nights story exposing what Anna Coren calls The Chaser’s “fake street cred”.

Today Tonight asked The Chaser if they could shoot a story by coming along with them for a stunt. However, when everything didn’t go how the TT reporter James Thomas hoped for, it would appear they’ve decided to take this angle for the story.

I will post the story in full here after it airs tomorrow night, along with what The Chaser have to say about it on their show too.

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Jennifer Byrne talking porn with Richard E Grant and the gang from The First Tuesday Book Club. I’m all for the analysis of popular culture, and mainstream texts, I guess I just thought television would be ahead in line to pornography.

This is the kind of Chaser stuff I love, and while I doubt we’ll be seeing this show on the ABC anytime soon, I think any accessible critical discussion about media or culture, be it literature, television or porn, is a good thing.

Download the whole episode from the official vodcast or just get it off me.

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The lesson in this weeks ‘What have we learnt from current affairs’ may have been the “desperate angles” journalists go to to make a story out of nothing, but the real lesson was; How to not act like Naomi Robson… by Anna Coren.

Coren welcomed Chas and Andrew into the Today Tonight studio, made fun of cheque book journalism, and took with good humor the jabs they made about the show. And while this doesn’t make Today Tonight any less a waste of prime time television, it makes Anna Coren look a little more human. Download the whole episode here.

Update: Chas clarifies some stuff in the comments.

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With former Lateline host Maxine McKew and former weatherman Mike Bailey both leaving the ABC to run in Labor party seats against the government, the Chaser took it upon themselves to see who else they could recruit from the national broadcaster to run for government.

Starring Kerry O’Brien, Monica Attard, the cast of Play School, Antony Green, Myf Warhurst, Adam Spencer and Tony Jones, its a cavalcade of that left wing, liberal media destroying our country. Download the whole episode here.

> Download the full size JPEG (7.8mb) or the wallpaper size JPEG (1.1MB)

I’ve been reading Watching with the Simpsons by Jonathan Gray over the past few days, and its helped me further appreciate The Chaser’s War on Everything. Gray talks about “parody’s potential to mock, make us laugh, and teach us all at once”, and I think that sums up the incredible power of good television, and good media in general.

Parody, whether it be on The Chaser, The Office, or Arrested Development, uses our cultural literacy, or asks us to expand our cultural literacy to “get” the joke.

I may have gone to university, but it was Triple J, the ABC, a bunch of downloaded television and Wikipedia that made me the person I am today, which is kind of scary, but also why I think a smart and challenging media, from television to the internet, is for a lot of people a really accessible way to make us all a little smarter.

Update #1: I was at the taping of last nights episode, the Chaser guys displayed The Simpson’s image on the monitors in the studio for everyone to see. Chris was concerned he was portrayed with a bit more of a stomach than he deserved and Chas was grateful to be the tallest one in the group for once. They knew I was in the audience, and got me to explain the picture, everyone seemed to get a laugh out of it, it was a very cool night.

Update #2: The Sydney Morning Herald picked up on it too, if you have the print edition check out page 22.

Update #3: Turns out it got a mention on Triple J too. Download the MP3 here.

Update #4: The Herald Sun wrote something on it today too, if you have the print edition check out page 25.

I commissioned Nattalia Alonso to create the image for me, thanks Natt!

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This week’s lesson: Useful advice

Anzac Day sensitivities, taking up Pauline Hanson’s offer, loud sex and another Anna Coren segue. Apart from Chris Taylor sitting in for a “detained” Andrew Hansen it was your usual WHWLFCATW.

Download tonight’s episode from the official podcast, or get it right here off me.

(4m18s / 1.01mb) From WSFM 101.7 at 7:55am. Download the MP3 here.

Craig talks to Amanda and Brendan this morning on WSFM about tonights episode, the difficulty in shooting, and their intention to stay at the ABC as long as possible.

[mp3]http://beohm.com/radio/090507spencer702.mp3[/mp3]

(3m31s / 828kb) From ABC 702 Sydney at 5:51am. Download the MP3 here.

Also, Adam Spencer does some spruiking for tonights episode talking about their Logies hijinx over the weekend, and playing a segment from tonights episode where Hansen tries to auction off Qantas.

[mp3]http://beohm.com/radio/090507firth774.mp3[/mp3]

(4m25s / 1.03mb) From ABC 774 Melbourne at 1:55pm. Download the MP3 here.

Charles Firth talked to Richard Stubbs at lunchtime today in Melbourne about tonights episode, and the Logie’s experience.

Watch the show tonight at 9pm, podcast it, or just download it off me.

- Many continued thanks, Naomi.

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Another jab at Fox News, with a look at questionable maths, attempts at being hip, yelling matches, and an incredibly sensitive Bill O’Reilly talking about Shawn Hornbeck.

Tonights episode is available for legit download here, and not not so legit, but uncut/higher quality download off me here.

(3m05s / 2.8mb) From ABC 702 Sydney at 7:40am. Download the MP3 here.

Julian talks to Adam Spencer this morning on ABC Sydney 702 about tonights episode, Snoop Dogg, and the ghost of Mark Latham.

[mp3]http://beohm.com/radio/020507taylorMMM.mp3[/mp3]

(4m16s / 3.9mb) From Triple M Brisbane at 8:35am. Download the MP3 here.

Also, Chris talked to ‘The Cage’ this morning on Triple M Brisbane about tonights episode, they struggle to figure out the start time, talk about that ACA story, and play the ‘Gas Guzzler’ song that will air tonight.

Watch the show tonight at 9pm, podcast it, or just download it off me.

- Thanks again, Naomi

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This week’s lesson: Menaces to Society, and segues.

This week they ponder the masterful journalism that can produce such a graceful segway segue from a story about an abused Ukranian swimmer to a story about a lettuce grower.

If you missed the show you can podcast it, or just download it off me.

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Does this happen in other countries? Or is it an Australian specific thing. Is the looming threat of a popular show on a public broadcaster switching to a commercial network something that happens outside of Australia?

There’s been talk, albeit from A Current Affair that The Chaser’s War on Everything was being targeted by commercial networks to make the switch from the ABC. This video shows how The Chaser envisage their show might look on the Nine Network..

Hopefully its a pretty clear sign they have no intention to leave the ABC.

(10m47s / 5.9mb) From ABC 891 Adelaide at 1:15pm. Download the MP3 here.

Chris talks to Carole Whitelock on ABC Adelaide 891 about tomorrow nights episode, the rumours that they’re selling out, and of course Big Brother.

Watch the show tomorrow at 9pm, podcast it, or just download it off me.

- Thanks Naomi

The Chaser’s War on Everything airs Wednesday nights at 9pm on ABC1, Thursday nights at 8:30pm on ABC2, or you can watch it anytime on-demand through ABC iView, on-the-go through the official podcast, or you can even buy the new season as it airs on iTunes.

But if none of those take your fancy, then feel free to download from here.

The videos are encoded in H264/AVC at 640×360, which means they’re iPod/iPhone compatible, but also high enough quality to watch full screen on your computer or television. As mp4′s you’ll be able to play them in Quicktime, iTunes, or something like VLC.

To download videos: right click + save as.

29th July 2009: Episode Eight: The Finale (268mb *.zip)

22nd July 2009: Episode Seven (250mb *.zip)

15th July 2009: Episode Six (252mb *.zip)

8th July 2009: Episode Five (246mb *.zip)

1st July 2009: Episode Four (237mb *.zip)

27th June 2009: Episode Three (253mb *.zip)

3rd June 2009: Episode Two (243mb *.zip)

27th May 2009: Episode One (259mb *.zip)

5th December 2007: The Chaser’s War on 2007 (551mb)

The Chaser are finishing the year with a one hour best-of episode. From the ABC’s program guide;

After a relatively obscure year out of the public spotlight, The Chaser team returns to Australian screens in a desperate bid for attention with a shameless recycling of their previous work.

Read the rest of the description here. Or just download the episode above.

The Chaser did a two episode run of The Chaser Decides with episodes on November 21 and November 28 in coverage of Australia’s 2007 Federal Election.

28th November 2007: The Chaser Decides Part 2 of 2 (263mb)

21st November 2007: The Chaser Decides Part 1 of 2 (271mb)

14th November 2007: Episode Twenty-Four (262mb)

7th November 2007: Episode Twenty-Three (320mb)

31st October 2007: Episode Twenty-Two (279mb)

24th October 2007: Episode Twenty-One (272mb)

17th October 2007: Episode Twenty (271mb)

10th October 2007: Episode Nineteen (273mb)

3rd October 2007: Episode Eighteen (281mb)

26th September 2007: Episode Seventeen (272mb)

19th September 2007: Episode Sixteen (271mb)

12th September 2007: Episode Fifteen (271mb)

5th September 2007: Episode Fourteen (275mb)

20th June 2007: Episode Thirteen (278mb)

13th June 2007: Episode Twelve (277mb)

6th June 2007: Episode Eleven (279mb)

30th May 2007: Episode Ten (272mb)

23rd May 2007: Episode Nine (279mb)

16th May 2007: Episode Eight (277mb)

9th May 2007: Episode Seven (279mb)

2nd May 2007: Episode Six (282mb)

25th April 2007: Episode Five (272mb)

18th April 2007: Episode Four (279mb)

11th April 2007: Episode Three (287mb)

4th April 2007: Episode Two (289mb)

28th March 2007: Episode One (279mb)

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A Current Affair’s lead story tonight was about the success of The Chaser’s War on Everything, it kind of felt like your grandfather explaining YouTube to you, and expecting you to be impressed.

It was a nothing piece that alluded to the show being offered money to switch to a commercial network. I’m all for it getting more publicity, but I think it can do without the ACA crowd.

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If you’re watching this show, we know your probably a typical latte sipping, ‘i love public broadcasting’ sort of person

No current affairs this week, but the Chaser’s War on Everything did delve into the seedy world of cable television to take a look at what $100 a month gets you from Foxtel. And although I am a ‘i love public broadcasting’ sort of person, I do pay $100 a month for cable, and can’t imagine television without it.

On a side note, a 15 year old has been forging infringement notices from the ABC and successfully getting clips of the Chaser’s War removed from YouTube. The SMH reports that the ABC has since had the videos reinstated and that they want “to get our content out there on as many platforms as possible, run by as many different operators as possible”. So, is the ABC saying I should post more Chaser videos here?

Read the email I got from YouTube below.

Hi there,

This email is to inform you that your video(s) belonging to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, have been reinstated. Australian Broadcasting Corporation has informed us that the individual submitting the copyright infringement notification was not authorized to act on their behalf. If your account was terminated as a result of this action, it has now been reinstated and the incident will not count against your account’s standings.

YouTube strictly enforces the content removal provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. All takedown requests must be accompanied by a statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. This request fulfilled these requirements and the content was removed accordingly.

Individuals submitting takedown notifications to YouTube are also informed that under Section 512(f) any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity is infringing may be subject to liability.

We are constantly working to improve the safe guards in our copyright program and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Sincerely,

The YouTube Team

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This week’s lesson: Humiliation

I’m the treasurer of the Pussycat Dolls fan club

Blame, dignity and a little incest, all in a days fun for the Chaser. Their continued and brutal attacks on A Current Affair and Today Tonight undermine the entire genre and with special appearances from Chas’ parents, some of the funniest five minutes on television.

Catch the whole show from the Chaser’s website or through their iTunes link.

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The Chaser no doubt still have years of parody to get out of Today Tonight and A Current Affair, but I guess there is no time like the present to go after the mother ship of questionable journalism… Fox News Channel (and by association; Chuck Norris).

With cameos from Kerry O’Brien and Monica Attard, its enough to make any ABC geek giddy, and probably explains further why the show is such a hit with those snobby, wealthy, educated or employed OG1 + 2 demographics (ie. you and me, the definition is pretty broad).

Tonights episode is already available for legit download here.

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The Chaser’s War on Everything returned last night, and while I can tell you it beat out House, Cold Case and Heroes in Canberra, you’ll have to wait for someone else to tell you how it did in metro Australia, but I think its fair to say it probably did pretty well.

It was a complete return to form, and my favourite of all segments, What have we learned from Current Affairs this Week was just brilliant, with a special tribute to Naomi.

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Ten’s new idents got a serving last night for their love of imported content.

Download last nights entire episode right now from the ABC here.

(3:20s / 4.6mb) Recorded from Triple J 101.5 Canberra. Download the MP3 here.

With just hours to go until the return of The Chaser on ABC at 9pm here is Craig Reucassel stuck in Canberra talking to Triple J giving the show one last plug.

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Continuing with the rental of the world’s cheapest billboard gag that started on the Chaser’s website, the ABC has turned them into some coming soons for the show, which if you didn’t know already returns March 28th at 9pm.

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If the details of the press release, the countdown to the countdown or the hilarious rental of the world’s cheapest billboards haven’t quenched your thirst for new Chaser stuff, then maybe this promo for the new series will.

For some of the best bits from last year, check out the Videos: Chaser’s War category of this blog, and in case you forgot, it returns Wednesday the 28th of March at 9pm to the ABC.