Yes We Canberra

Channel: ABC1
Day & time: Wednesday, 9.45 p.m.
(til the election on 21 August 2010)

Every Australian knows about ‘them Chaser boys’. They’re the pride of political satire in the country, but also the scourge of the politically correct. Last year they suffered from negative feedback for some of their more, well, provocative skits. The Chaser’s War on Everything was removed from air, but guess what, like Hey, Hey It’s Saturday, they’re back.

For the fourth year in a row the Chaser is covering the election, and I couldn’t be less excited. Apparently some people think that they are clever. For the next few weeks leading up to the election, and probably one or two after, they will have a half hour timeslot just before Lateline. The new segment is called Yes We Canberra, a delicious little pun. So what can we expect this time round?

More of the same really, but focused on politics. However, I fear the shtick may be close to snapping. Every politician these days is ready for the boys at any moment, and it really shows. In the first episode there were three separate assaults on innocent pollies as they walked down the street or went to their car. These ‘interviews’ are terribly childish, with one or two Chasers repeating the same questions, or ‘jokes’, over and over and over. There’s no nuance and no subtlety to catch them unaware; the pollies just smile and nod and push their way through.

What Chaser is concentrating on this time are the skits, and I must say they do their skits well. There’s been plenty of ammunition this campaign already, and the boys manage to cram the material into as many sketches or one-liners as possible. For the most part it works, with some damn hilarious scenes. But again there’s no subtlety or finesse, just blunt and blatant laughs.

And I did laugh on a few occasions. They are topical with their discussion of the use of Twitter, and at times they get the audience involved. But the fact is, and I never thought I’d say it; the Americans do political humour with far more style. Stephen Colbert, John Stewart, and The Onion are genuinely ironic without resorting to low-blows. And by low-blows I mean fat jokes. Really? We like this?

So the laughs are present, if sparing and rather crude, but for me it feels like watching a bunch of dorks gleefully trying to prove how smart they are. And failing miserably.

Thomas Wilson