Chaser's War on APEC

I decided not to blog about this yesterday as it all came out but since I'm still laughing today I changed my mind. I'll also use any excuse to write something, anything, at the moment.

The Chaser boys are well known in this country and people tend to either love them or hate them. Their "War on Everything" provides a certain kind of comedy and satire which can be hard to find these days and has given them (and the ABC) a regularly top rating TV show. Wednesday's show gave a taste of the humour during the lead up and the beginning of APEC with this:

A few days ago they pulled their first stunt during the APEC summit in Sydney by showing up at a student protest dressed as a horse and copper. A fairly ordinary joke at the expense of not only APEC but the apparently dire state of our equine community (due to a horse flu outbreak) which led to the police being unable to use their horses as part of security.

Yesterday, however, they took it to another level and were rewarded for their efforts. The boys hired three "official looking" cars and a couple of motorbikes and formed their own motorcade. Dressing the cars in Canadian flags and flanking them with guys in suits they headed towards the restricted zone of the city to see how far they'd get. They included in their "disguise" their own "Insecurity" APEC ID badges which were clearly labelled "Chaser's War" and "Joke". There has been $250 million spent on security this week, some of which I spoke of a couple of posts ago. But, as it turns out the fake motorcade was waved through the first police checkpoint and then the second as well. When the team reached the third and final checkpoint just a matter of metres from President Bush's accommodation they decided to turn around. Before they did Chas stepped out of one of the motorcade's cars dressed as Osama bin Laden and stated that he was a powerful world leader and wanted an invite too. It was only at this point that police realised they'd been had and swarmed the motorcade and arrested all 11 people involved.

The publicity is more than The Chaser has ever had before, managing to be among the top stories for both yesterday and today. A poll on a newspaper website asked if the prank was funny and after 28,000+ votes almost 90% said yes. But predictably not everyone has seen the humour, most notably the top dogs in the police responsible for the security this week. They have said today that the comedians were lucky not to be shot by snipers, to which Julian Morrow responded that "lucky it was us and not al-Qaeda". A fair point in my opinion. I found Today Tonight's story last night on the prank rather amusing in itself and even more so when I caught a little of the show tonight too. Since the public has been overwhelming in their support of the Chaser guys TT changed tact and the boy's went from "dangerous fools" to the next big thing. Several "media experts" saying the team could make millions by jumping ship to a commercial station and one going as far as saying the boy's could make it even bigger in Hollywood.

There are a couple of things about the security breach which should be worrisome, not least of which is the fact that the Canadian PM was not yet even in the country. On a day when there was 92 motorcades travelling through the inner city within just a few short hours I would have thought the security actually on the ground would at the very least know which countries delegates were running around the place.

The team were all released on bail last night and are due to face court next month and could face a maximum of six months jail. That didn't stop another three of the Chaser's crew filming in the city again this afternoon. This time they dressed with black cardboard cars, with paper plates for wheels but still adorned with Canadian flags, and kept their "motorcade" out of the restricted zone. The police again took them in for questioning though this time had to let them go without charge. You can't help but give The Chaser some credit!

Just as an aside, a couple of other quick observations to do with APEC:

1) I've been incredibly impressed with Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd so far during the summit. Yesterday during a meeting with the Chinese President and various officials and big business representatives Rudd took to the microphone after Bonsai and welcomed the Chinese in fluent Mandarin.

2) Is it just me or does Bush's slip of the tongue this morning thanking Bonsai for his hospitality during the "OPEC" meeting seem a little Freudian? I mean he corrected himself rather quickly but after telling everyone how important the oil is to Iraq etc etc the other day it just seems to me he has a little too much oil on the mind. Yet not one media outlet has said anything along those lines...

3) For two countries who have NOT ratified the Kyoto Protocol it seems more than a touch hypocritical for Bush and Bonsai to now be claiming climate change is among their top priorities. Another blatant election campaign move by Howard is his attempt to make CC top of the pile for this summit.