Cnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

Comedians doing "funny" things involving unsuspecting people sometimes works (think Garry McDonald) and sometimes doesn't. That's the nature of comedy.
The new series of the Chaser (Friday nights) seems to have been trying a bit too hard to generate comedy moments. So hard in fact that in a desperate bid to fill in 27 shows, being "hard hitting" and "controversial" they have over-stepped the mark in two well reported incidents.
The first involved handing over a fake cheque outside the Cole enquiry into the AWB bribery scandal. This matter was handed over to the Federal Police for investigation. Whoops.
The second involved submitting a Michael Leunig cartoon (which was never published) into a pro-Muslim, anti-Semite newspaper "competition" which was in itself in response to the bally-hoo about the Dutch newspaper publishing the anti-Muslim cartoon. The Chaser folk have been forced to apologise to The Age and Leunig publically with both aggrieved parties deciding not to pursue the matter.
Hardly an auspicious start for comedy by surprise. Controversial certainly but not that clever.
In truth I have never found the Chaser lads to be that funny : they appear to be more wrapped up in their own cleverness than anything else. Thus far I'm not inclined to change my mind about this new series either.