Filed under: General
There’s been a lot said about The Chaser’s “Make a realistic wish foundation” gag .
I initially wondered what people would have thought of it were it a “Little Britain” bit.
Well, after pondering for a while and watching the said sketch a few times, here’s my thoughts.
It was full-on gallows humour, in bad taste.
Macabre humour.
Killing the Sacred Cow.
Black Comedy at it’s blackest.
And it was funny.
It was funny because dying children are NOT FUNNY AT ALL.
If you’ve ever laughed at a joke that involves an Aboriginal/A dead baby/the holocaust/disabled people/Asians/Women/Jews/Muslims/anyone that’s not you – then don’t be mad about this joke, because it’s the same.
Humour allows us to address things that otherwise can’t be said.
Satire uses humour to challenge paradigms otherwise too sacred to talk about.
It was funny.
Funny in the way that I laughed because it made me so uncomfortable.
Uncomfortable because it addressed the unspoken, that no-one dared to address.
THAT is the Chaser simply DOING THEIR JOB.
Being the guys who are brave enough to make gags about things you or I find uncomfortable to even ponder in polite society is what they do for a living.
Let me put this on the table: The gag was about the specific charities that revolve around helping sick kids have an experience to look forward to, to remember, to get them and their families away from the heavy atmosphere of punishing daily treatments, the smell of sickness in the hospital, and out to have time together as a proper family.
These are charities that I have worked with, been involved in, and participated in by getting face-to-face with sick kids and their families in hospitals. I, however was lucky enough to go home at the end of the day.
I have seen these kids, their families, the amazing challenges and brutal life expectations that they are dealt – and I still laughed.
I laughed because when face to face with the unimaginable challenges I’ve seen families face – the horror of having your only child operated on weekly to remove cancerous cells that want to take over her body, when playing on the swing set with a kid who has a a zipper scar on his skull from all the constant brain surgery, from speaking to families who don’t know how they’re going to choose between paying the mortgage or travelling back and forth to a capital city with their family to keep a support group around their terminally ill child – the only reaction you can have is one of immense grief. I have tears in my eyes just typing this thinking about the kids and families I have met with and will continue to meet with when doing this work. It’s completely heart breaking stuff.
To be honest, the laughter is a welcome respite from it.
And I’m not even a Dad myself yet.
Speaking of Dads, I grew up as the son of two Doctors. Both my parents used this kind of humour to relieve pressure at the end of a day when they may have had to tell two people that they were going to die, to tell another 18yr old guy that he has Herpes, and tell another man that he’ll have to lose a foot, and sometimes to even lose a very sick patient on the operating table.
The jokes around the dinner table did not diminish the seriousness of their amazing work or the grief of their patient’s families, it simply helped them deal with what would otherwise put a normal human on their arse for weeks – because they had to get out of bed and do it all again tomorrow.
So before you go abusing the Chaser, think about the nature of what humour is.
You either makes jokes about everything, or you make jokes about nothing.
It’s your intention with the humour that defines you.
x aa
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Andrew, very well said.
It’s nice to get some reason piercing through the fog of default damnation that seems to clog the media after something like this.
The name of their show is ‘The Chasers War on Everything‘. And by definition, they were just doing their job on Wednesday night, and proving that they are very good at it.
Again, you were right, it was bad taste, but seriously how could you not chuckle when he handed the kid a stick? C’mon!
In all honesty, the Chaser does political comedy a lot better than this sort of ‘shock-comedy’, and I think they might have to aim a little higher in future, but I am not going to stop watching them, and hopefully neither will the public at large, because we need people like the chaser to make us stop and watch and look at things that most people are too scared to mention.
Cheers for the blog.
I have the utmost respect for you Andrew and you are entitled to your opinion and your right to express it but I disagree with you on this one. I know you will respect my right to express mine also.
Telling a joke is one thing but to dress healthy chidren up with bandanas on thier heads and dark rings around their eyes as dying children and broadcast it to the public at large in the name of humour is a totally different thing.
Life is full of degrees and this is an example of gallows humour taken too far off the scale of decency. Im not saying that there isn’t a place for Chaser and their edgy comedy style. It is confronting and does go where others would dare not and that is good. I believe there has to be a limit where respect for others suffering wins out.
We lost a family member, a six year old boy to cancer. The grief of such a young and innocent spirit being taken away at such a heartbreakingly tender age and in such a horrible way will never end.
I read your recent interview where you said one of the most precious photos you will ever take is the one of your first born opening their eyes for the first time. Imagine then that very same child closing their eyes at the age of six for the last.
Hi Andrew
Thanks for one of the most sensible commentaries I’ve read on this topic. I agree with you – humour is important, and it is also subjective. The Chaser guys push the envelope, and I don’t always laugh, but I know that they are trying to get us to think, and there isn’t much on television any more that makes us think!
Like you, I have spent time in hospitals with children who are sick and suffering. I am always blown away by their sense of fun and humour. Children are hard to offend, because they appreciate imagination. They seek the funny side of things. The skit was in poor taste, but so are many of the jokes I’ve heard from children in hospital, about their own condition!
As a side note, I’ve been somewhat amused by the number of friends who think the guys went into a hospital and played this out to a real, sick kid. As I said in my response to you on Twitter yesterday… have people lost the ability to tell the difference between a sketch and a prank?
ChellesW x
Thanks for the feedback guys.
Debate is always good.
x aa
I have to be honest when I saw someone link to this post and say “Andrew G the voice of reason” and think “What the hell? Andrew G??” And they were right. People get so horrified at things *gasp* think of the children.
Obviously there will be people for whom this will bring up sad memories, but I think those people would have had those memories triggered by other things too..
Keep up the honesty.
xx
Laughter is necessary, even moreso when life gets grim. But there’s a difference between laughing with someone in tragic circumstances and laughing at them. I’m not sure the Chaser guys came down on the right side this time around.
Gotcha Chosha, I can see how the fine line would have been crossed for some. I appreciate the emotions this would have caused.
Well said mate.
At voice of reason amid the mass media-driven hysteria.
yeah finally someone in the media that will go against the population, and not just kick someone when they’re down. you raise a MAGNIFICENT point about little britain. but what about ricky gervais? and many other comedians. they all use shocks and things that aren’t said in society to get laughs. for gods sakes i googled ‘little britain cotroversy’ and it came up with an incontinence charity complaining about a little britain sketch where a women urinates un controllaby. it seems like the chaser have been a target since there return to tv, as they usually bag the media in there shows.
Andrew,
I think the example of your doctor parents joking about sensitive experiences in their daily work is only valid if they did it in front of their patients or patients families. I am sure it is good and probably necessary therapy for them amd dosn’t diminsh in any way how they feel about the people they help in such awful circumstances.
It is ok for you to laugh but if it was about somebody you loved and cared about, who was suffering as much as terminally ill children, I think you would find it much more difficult to enjoy the humour.
Interested in your reaction.
Regards Graham
I see your point Graham, and thanks for making it.
I don’t entirely agree.
There’s no-one who’s reading this that hasn’t had a family member or friend encounter a horrible terminal illness, me included. I still found it funny – because terminal illness is far from funny. And that’s why for me, it was funny. A laughing release from the awful reality.
For me it was not only what the gag was about that bothered me, it was also the fact that there was massive condemnation of the show without any room for debate or reason. It’s ok to disagree (as we do here), and yet still respect the other. The name calling/death threatening behaviour that followed removed any chance of actual debate, which was a pity. It’s one thing to feel viciously right, it’s another to have your opponent come around to see your point of view.