The problem with the Chaser's brand of comedy is that it mainly relys on stunts to be funny. When it works it can be very funny but there comes this expectation that each time the stunts will be bigger and better. It's almost impossible to maintain.

What is easy to do is to continue to push the boundries, to shock people under the guise of comedy. It really isn't hard to come up with skits that will offend people and it doesn't take a great deal of talent. The real joke behind the skit then becomes 'Wow, I can't believe they said that (or got away with that).'

There is nothing clever or innovative about this style of humour, but it can work and it does have its place. Certainly, people will become offended and often justifiably so. It becomes a matter of how many offended people is concidered exceptable? Is it really okay to poke fun at 'everything' or should some topics be off limit.

Prehaps the real talent is deciding what is exceptable and what is bad taste.

Let's not forget the businesses posing as charities who are making a hell of a lot of money and employing people and boosting the false economy who are doing very well out of pulling at the heartstrings.

We are talking about black humour, here. Maybe it shouldn't have been allowed on; but the 'outrage'shown by people (other than families concerned) was laid on a bit thick.

"Who would dare to criticise the playing on our emotions or the exploitation of our guilt by an organisation which brings a little happiness to the life of a terminally ill child? No one much; with the result that very few will say - what Suresh Viswanathan wrote to the Sydney Morning Herald (June 5) - that what a dying child wants is two things: to get better and to go home; it would be much better for people to donate to the research which has found cures for many formerly terminal illnesses."

Suresh misses the point that not all kids are going to get better and go home - not now and maybe never. Having a child with terminal or potentially terminal illness puts enormous strains and restraints on families. While not an avid contributor to Make a Wish or similar organisations, I am supportive of the aim to provide these kids and immediate family with memorable experiences - of the better sort.

As an aficionado of black humour I generally enjoy Chaser but found the 'realistic wish' totally unfunny. The guys and girls at ABC can do better than that and should. Some subjects are never going to be suitable fodder for the humour mill and this is one.

'The Chaser" hasn't been muzzled and the sky isn't falling in. It is unusual for a senior bureaucrat to be held accountable for a poor decision, but may there be more of it in the future. Certainly when bonuses are being handed out there are no complaints.

The ABC has done itself a very big favour in showing that it may not be, as some would claim, elitist and unaccountable. Many will applaud what could be a new Age of exciting and creative programs where the ABC has regard for what its broader audience wants and models the accountability it expects of others.

The ABC has shown it is completely spineless.

99% of the complaints were not by people who have lost children, but by busy bodies who thought that it might offend someone that should be protected from all negative thoughts.

Has anyone actually done a poll on what the parents of terminally ill kids really thought? I dare to suggest that they were far less bothered than the 1000s from the blue rinse busy body brigade that want to sanitize our thoughts.

I didn't find it funny, so I changed the channel. Duh.

Shadow Minister,

You've got it right. "Busybodys" is a good word to describe the protesters.

Shadow Minister - I doubt whether too many of the 'blue rinse set' would stay up to watch Chaser nor could I imagine it being their preferred genre of TV program.

The sketch was as you say - not funny. The subject was completely unsuitable for lampooning. I've not lost a child to terminal illness but have been around long enough to see it happen to people within my circle of friendship and acquaintance. I did not complain but was disgusted by the complete lack of intelligence, thought or professionalism that went into making this episode.

Perhaps for the next series they could round in on Aboriginal child abuse or victims of violent crime or mental illness perhaps? Then again maybe not .....

The Chaser people should stick mainly to taking well aimed swipes at politicians, political situations and correctness. They generally do that with considerable wit, cleverness and OTT antics all of which have earned them a fan base of people like myself who enjoy satire and black humour. It's a shame to have had such a lapse of judgement by the authors of the show.

Many people who passionately defend freedom of speech assume that freedom has only one trajectory - and that is to keep pushing the boundaries of expression.

But there is another side to freedom of speech - and that is the freedom to express your outrage at something you deem to be offensive or at a behaviour/attitude that you feel could be detrimental to certain members of society or to society as a whole if allowed to continue unchallenged and unremarked.

What is important is that in a healthy democracy, these two opposing forces play against one other to create a system of balances and checks. It doesn't matter all that much who 'wins' these controversies - they mostly end in stalemate anyway and rarely ever require a third-party intervention. The important thing is that we live in a society that can accommodate both sides.

The popularity of the Chaser and it's tendency to highlight absurdity seems to have attracted a bunch of snotty sticky-beaks that obviously do not enjoy edgy comedy, nor appreciate free speech.
I cringe, occasionally I laugh, but I thank them for having a go and keeping alive the dream of a "free country".
I wonder why Mikey Robbins on GNW does not receive as much bagging? Just as "offensive" I would have thought but I guess he hasn't government and police look silly lately.

I think that the Chaser live in a tougher world for comedy than the one they left two years ago - the self serving "bad" politicians such as Bush & Howard have been replaced by Rudd and Obama, the greedy financiers have had their cumuppance, and I'm optimistic in thinking that the slowdown might lead to a kinder, more environmentally friendly and less materialistic world.

Good Chaser style comedy depended on a deserved victim. Their increasing rarity means that we have had some shows where the humour has been predictable and strained, the often big budget stunts have flopped, and the victims not necessarily deserved.

The Chaser guys are smart and I'm betting that their satire will evolve with these challenges. BTW, the Billy Connolly impression was absolutely brilliant!

optimist92169 - 'BTW, the Billy Connolly impression was absolutely brilliant!'

Wasn't it though? Ditto the Holocaust meets My Left Foot at the Oscars and Edmund Capon's totally deadpan take on the gambling dogs art series. By the time the Make a Realistic Wish sketch came on, my sides were already splitting and the sudden plunge into such tragic subject matter just hit me like a dead fish.

However, I agree that the boys are a resilient and intelligent bunch - arguably the best comedy group Australia has produced. I look forward to their 'Make a Realistic Sketch Foundation' sketch.