the chaser

While I was in Australia last year, I became addicted to one particular show, The Chaser's War on Everything, and - hooray! - the Chaser has just come to New Zealand TV too. The Chaser are five comedians who basically, er, make war on everything. It's very funny. They take on politicians, corporations, Joe Bloggs on the streets, with song and dance routines and cameras conveniently placed to capture their random-as scenarios. I mentioned them in a blog post last year when they made international news by somehow getting past the hefty APEC security dressed up as Osama bin Laden.

I've been loving watching them on TV again and also looking up favourite or new segments on Youtube, and wanted to share some of the best with you. A lot of the Chaser's stuff only makes sense in Australia because of specific politics/sports/celebrity details etc, but this stuff is universally hilarious.

One of my favourite segments is called If Life Were A Musical, in which they appear before unsuspecting civilians with a song and dance routine that wouldn't look out of place in a musical. Here's one of my favourites: a rainy day umbrella routine. And if you like that, here's four of the best.

Another hilarious alter ego who turns up a lot is Crazy Warehouse Guy. I don't know if these ads appear outside New Zealand and Oz - the man who shouts that he's gone completely crazy and all the prices are down 95% etc etc?? Anyway, Andrew Hansen, my favourite Chaser, has perfected this character, and a fantastic example is in this remake of a Gershwin duet.

Possibly my favourite Chaser episode is this video, in response to current events at the time. Death metal band Cannibal Corpse were banned from touring Australia because of their extremely violent lyrics. So Andrew Hansen decided it would be funny to make a lounge music version of their song "Rancid Amputation". Hilarious.

Another thing the Chaser likes to do is present mock ads or news clips as if they're the real thing - here's one of future Winter Olympic athletes training.

Finally, one of the Chasers, Julian Morrow, does a segment called Open Mic. In this particular video, he goes into random shops, commandeers their public announcement microphone, and gives out a community service announcement. My favourite is the last shop in this video, where he announces a minute's silence.

There are so many more I wanted to share, but if you liked these, just look up "The Chaser" on Youtube, or on their website, and there are many, many more clips to be found. I think their current project is a stage show touring Australia, which I wish I could see.