The Chaser's War on Everything (2006–2009) User Reviews

ABC's best decision ever was giving these guys a time slot

[BlairMcLovin · 10/10 · 20 August 2006]

The chaser's war on everything is a weekly show from the guys that brought you CNNNN and the chaser decides where each week the 5 chasers and Firth break down the issues that we didn't know were important.

This show goes beyond the mere satirizing of politics and television by not being afraid to take the mickey out of anyone whether it be a counter-girl at subway or even the prime-minister of Australia and although this may be familiar ground in say American television it has never been this well executed.

The Chaser's war on everything is the smartest, funniest and overall most entertaining show on Australian television and if you haven't seen it you seriously owe it to yourself to give it a watch.

Gets better each week

[thecosmicjester · 8/10 · 29 April 2006]

Lets face it, Australian TV is for the most part terrible, but this is a real diamond in the rough that not enough people are watching. The Chaser crew who do the satirical newspaper and CNNN try something new by mixing live comedy, pre-recorded skits and political satire into one show filmed in front of a live audience, sorta like Rove, but funny. They love causing controversy and this causes some of the shows funniest moments, especially Chris telling his wife to "f-- off" live on breakfast television and Julian handing a novelty cheque signed by Saddam Heusein to the head of the AWB. It has to be one of the funniest Aussie shows since the Micallef Program.

Wow- What a freaking awesome show!!!!!!!

[Alligator_80 · 10/10 · 19 August 2006]

For comedy to work, there are many factors involved:

1. Don't be afraid to take risks. 2. If anyone or anything deserves to be poked fun at, do it and continue to do it,

...but most of all:

3. BE FUNNY!!!!

"The Chaser's War on Everything" succeeds in all those three things. In fact, the show proved to be so popular and so funny that already only months after it's first episode, a DVD of the first season was released. I picked it up within days of it being released and hit the floor laughing and had so many fu#@ing tears in my eyes- It's that well, good!

In short and to save me blabbing on about the show- watch it, buy it, podcast it, whatever will make you watch the fu$#ing best show in the world!!!!!

Go the CHASER!!!!

This show Is so funny it hurts when I laugh

[Ajspeed_1 · 10/10 · 23 September 2006]

No matter what country your In you have to buy this show, Sure It is Australian and if you ever seen any attempt of our comedy's they pretty much suck but with the chaser's they aren't boring forty year old men making bad puns they are a team of people who talk about current affairs (pretty much in Australia) make fun of our crap ads, make fun of our politicians and so on.

The guys also had a show in 2002 called Cnnnn which was not as successful as the War which had only started this year so everything they talk about is current news which is really good considering no matter how boring or tragic it is they try to shine some humorous light on things.

Best Show On TV. A Must Watch. Every Wednesday at 9

[damnyouvilewoman15 · 10/10 · 15 September 2007]

This show is non Stop hilarity. the first joke will make u wet your pants. And thats probably the weakest joke of them all. I started watching it when the second half of season 2 started airing. and straight away. I'm hooked. only 2 weeks after I started watching. I've downloaded episodes and bought the DVD's. Reoccurring Clips Such as "the Ad Road Test" and "current affairs" Are quiet hilarious. Then There's the ad's they take off "Use Emo. Use your Own Tears For More Effective Use" Also Funny in the politics Side of things. Nothing is wrong with them doing this. it's funny. Any Australians Who Don't Find This Funny. Don't Complain And don't Watch it. ALL Australian TUNE IN Wednesday AT 9 ON ABC

The Chaser Team Has Done It Again!

[ackstasis · 8/10 · 24 April 2006]

The hilarious team that brought you 'CNNNN' and 'The Chaser Decides' have returned to the ABC with their new series, 'The Chaser's War On Everything.' Filmed in front of a live audience, the Chaser team, once again, does what it does best- lampooning key political figures, international celebrities and media personalities.

The satire is simply priceless, and nothing is sacred. In recent weeks, the Chaser Team has chased alongside the Queen (during her visit to Australia) to try and have John Howard Dismissed and had Kim Beazley (Aust. Opposition Leader) threaten to kneecap them.

A particularly funny segment is "Mr. Ten Questions," showing an overly enthusiastic reporter who approaches celebrities (recently Charlize Theron and The Backstreet Boys) and asks them ten such inane questions as "what is your optimum length of rice grain?" Just for the record, Theron ignored him and walked away, and one of the Backstreet Boys got angry and "refused to dignify it with a response."

A segment that recently had me in stitches was when one of the team decided to become a 'statue busker' to score some extra money. When he realized how hopeless he was, he put a real statue in his place. THE PERFECT SCAM! He got thirty dollars in twenty minutes!

A brilliant satire of everything in Australian society. Two thumbs up!

(By the way, the show won't be showing for the three weeks after Easter, because "though the team are all atheists, they're also hypocrites.")

Chasers War on Everything is one of the best Australian comedies ever.

[dobbin-4 · 10/10 · 2 July 2007]

This show is up there with the best Comedys made in Australia as it makes fun of pretty much anything which is what lots of our public want. Some of the best bits in the show are the ad road test which tests out how an ad would do in real life. What is really great about the show is how original it is and the fact that it has people(the chasers)who love doing what they do and who would n't. This show has loads of bits in it that can crack up anybody like the ad road test which I've already mentioned, Mr ten Questions where he asks 10 questions really fast in front of famous celebrities like Hugh Jackman and the Beach boys, temporary ones like The Chasers Emmys and ones that have been there from the start like What have we learnt from Current affairs this week. Overall I rate thin show 98%.

Biting political and social satire at it's best.

[mazunderscore · 10/10 · 11 April 2007]

When you think of brilliant Australian comedy you don't think of Skit shows (Although I'm quite partial to a bit of 80's and 90's Full Frontal) or even Sitcoms - you think of SATIRE! Something that we Australians really know how to do well. (Eg: Front Line, The Micallef Program) We know how to take the pi$$, and The Chaser's War on Everything, is a classic example of how to do it, and how to do it really well.

I've been a huge fan of Chris Taylor and Craig Reucassel for a long time. I remember listening to them on Triple J's afternoon show. They were, and remain, two of the funniest comedians around.

Although I was sad when they left Triple J, I was excited to find out what they were investing so much time in that made them have to leave. (They were doing CNNNN and Triple J at the same time, so I figured this was something much bigger) And what an amazingly HILARIOUS show Chaser is. Biting political and social satire at it's best.

I'm also pleased to say that it has recently received a MUCH better time slot than Friday nights and has been moved to Wednesday nights right after Spicks and Specks. THANK YOU ABC!! Finally I don't have to tape it! :)

Fantastic

[rowie_star · 10/10 · 22 September 2006]

This is exactly what Australian Television and Australian Politics needs, people with a sense of humour!!! Good on ABC for supporting these guys. The show is based around a couple of Aussie blokes who know how to take the mickey out of politicians or other people in the limelight. The boys use Sydney as their main base for making a splash in the public. Keep an eye out for the Crazy Wharehouse Guy or Mr Ten Questions. The guys who perform these acts are the same guys that presented CNNN. If you enjoyed CNNNN and the Glasshouse then you will love this show. I am still interested in knowing which stunts are real and which are purely acting because there are some questionable actions made by the guys...

If I was only allowed to watch one program in my entire life, I would definitely have to pick "The Chaser's War on Everything".

[gotagofast_23 · 10/10 · 17 May 2007]

If I was only allowed to watch one program in my entire life, I would definitely have to pick "The Chaser's War on Everything". Of all the satirical shows that have been on Australian television, I found "Chaser" to be the funniest of all. It is just so Amazing, the boys aren't afraid to do anything.

Whether it's dress up as Hitler to get into a Polish Club, or push a MASSIVE ball of string around Melbourne to try out the tourism ad's or rock up to the Coke factory naked in a bath with $2.40 to buy some water. The Chaser boys will go there.

In agreement with the comments above (and/or below) "The Chaser's War on Everything" is more popular than their previous program "CNNNN". But CNNNN was just as funny. Some unforgettable moments from that show... Clean up Cambodia!!! Classic.

So anyway to stop me from Ranting further, I STRONGLY advise you to at least give Chaser a chance, you'll more than likely find it HILARIOUS!!!!

A brilliant comedy hit

[atomius · 10/10 · 24 May 2007]

For one used to the comedies on television now- whether sketch, sitcom or animated, it's nice to watch something truly refreshing.

The Chaser has to be the best comedy of this decade, Seinfeld being the last's triumph. It follows the hosts urban crusades to fix situations, do 'ad road tests' and try to get the facts from our politicians the good old fashioned way.

Despite being very controversial at times, the shows excellent quality, from the well made and truly funny opening credits to the sketch style investigations (sketch style only in time, they are not scripted, at least, not the ones at the other end of the joke) is certainly worth watching. Even the most cynical and intellectual viewer won't be disappointed, and the show deserves ten stars.

All in all, well done to the ABC for showing this and i recommend it highly.

truly comedy genius

[beatles-4-eva · 10/10 · 22 November 2007]

everyone is a genius in something. Albert Einstien was a genius in science, William Shakespeare was a genius in literature and the boys from the Chasers war on everything are truly comedy geniuses. Their satire TV show is a constant hit on the Australian broadcast commission ( ABC ). After a small start as a satire newspaper, the chasers popularity skyrocketed when given their own television show. Never short on controversy with the cast members will do everything some of it even being arrested for. Chris Taylor going on Sunrise, a very popular live morning television show and telling his partner to f***k off, creating a fake motorcade and driving into APEC high security area and doing a very funny satire of a Australian ad about nicotine by following smokers around yelling out "NO GARY NO NO GARY NO". While controversial the show is increably funny and worthy of running for years to come.

Australian Humour at its funniest.

[avacarrdo_1983 · 8/10 · 11 September 2006]

A very funny look at some of Australia's current affairs and political goings-on. The Chaser boys really seem to have fun with this show, and what I enjoy is that they all have their strengths; some are brilliant (Chas) at making complete idiots of themselves, whereas Julian can pull off the whole "I'm interviewing a famous politician and I'm about to suggest that he disguise himself as a pot of jam" type of humour.

They have great segments in the show taking the mick out of all sorts of aspects of Australian culture such as our Current Affairs Shows, our Adverts and Early Morning TV programmes. Some material is a bit tired and predictable, but overall it's a lot of fun to watch, and will leave you with a smile on your face.

Comedy at its best.

[rob-brew700 · 10/10 · 5 August 2007]

The Chasers War On Everything. 5 words that I love to watch. The chasers war on everything is an excellent Australian comedy. As the name suggests they wage war on everything. They seem to love hitting the politions most of all.

The Chaser is one of the best comedies I have seen and is the top of the line in Australia. It is on the Australian Broadcasting Corparation (ABC) which is where some of the best comedies are.

It has won the Australian Film Industry (AFI) awards but did not win the best comedy at the logies.

Last Year (2006) the chaser was aired on ABC on Friday nights when everyone was out so no one could watch it. Well they have been moved to Wednesday nights at 9pm (a heaps better timeslot) and the best thing is if I miss an episode or even just want to see it again i can download it from www.ABC.net.au/chaser.

BEST Australian TV Show EVER!

[Foobarman · 10/10 · 12 February 2009]

This program is certainly my favorite non-sitcom television comedy. Australia produces very little good programs - most of the TV which I watch (and I live in Australia) is from the US and England.

The funniest part of this show is just how controversial it is. Like when they went past numerous security barriers at the APEC summit pretending to be Canadian diplomats.

The show is made up of pre-filmed stunts, general satirical discussion of current world events, and sometimes on-stage skits. These all come together to make a fabulous, extremely funny TV show. The segments like "Ad Road-test" and "Message from Osama bin Ladin" are hilarious. For anyone interested in watching hilarious satirical TV comedy - then this is definitely the show you should watch.

All the guys are great and do an excellent job in entertaining you for half an hour.

I would rate it 10/10.

They won

[TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews · 9/10 · 28 August 2010]

I was fortunate enough to be sent this by a friend of mine. This is the only thing by The Chaser that I've seen(I understand it isn't the only thing they've done), but I'd definitely be open to anything else by them. Five Aussies with each their specialty(you *have* to hear Andrew's song lyrics(also, him as The Crazy Warehouse Guy, and to a slightly lesser extent, Clive, is amazing), and Julian couldn't be possess a better deadpan wit), armed with a legal department for the riskier(law-wise) stunts take on, well, *everything*. Politics and news coverage(both mainly in their homeland; note that us in the rest of the world won't know all of the names and journalists that they go for... still, the majority of it will make you laugh), blind faith, common idiocy, etc. They see just how far service providers will go to make their customers happy, how readily stores and the like accept actual public service announcements(Open Mic), and, in one of the most memorable bits, how strict security at APEC was. Yes, they got in trouble a couple of times... and the very next week, they joked about it. Who can forget the Ad Road Test(where they see if the commercials give a realistic image of what their product can do), If Life Were A Musical and Anna Coren's Segue of The Week? There's a wide range of humor here, with silliness, cleverness, references, verbal and black comedy, and, yes, biting satire. They re-enact, parody, take out of context, ask questions of celebrities and the man on the street(ranging from the goofy, random and out of place(like ones from Trivia Pursuit, for example) to serious and vital ones... near the end, they see how much it takes to get your average ordinary guy to change his democratic vote), and use irony(often of precision worthy of a laser). At their best, these guys are *hilarious*(and they're just about invariably really, really funny), quotable and spot-on. While I do think they got too disgusting and tasteless on occasion, this hardly ever happened. I would say that anyone who got upset about anything these blokes did quite possibly misunderstood their intention. This didn't get a long enough run(then again, if they kept this level of quality up, I wouldn't want it to ever end); it seems like it's ended, with only about two seasons. There is plenty of strong language, and some disturbing content and bloody violence in this. The DVDs come with cast commentary(for every episode, I think), deleted segments, and a little behind the scenes footage. I wholeheartedly recommend this to any fan of this sort of thing. This is like Australia's version of The Daily Show(and it's definitely superior to how TDS has been recent years). 9/10

For those who enjoy current affairs satire: The Chaser wants YOU.

[khaeotic · 9/10 · 31 March 2012]

Satirical comedy shows with a distinct lean towards current affairs and politics appear on the world's television stations in a variety of forms. British offerings include the long-running "Have I Got News For You?" and "Mock The Week" while, on the other side of the pond, "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" are the shows which quickly spring to mind.

In 2006, the Australians jumped onto the bandwagon of satirising current affairs with "The Chaser's War On Everything". The spiritual sequel to the award-winning CNNNN (the Chaser's Non-Stop News Network), Chaser's War follows the exploits of the titular satirical quintet - Julian Morrow, Chris Taylor, Chas Licciardello, Andrew Hansen and Chris Reucassel - as they embark on a voyage of irreverent discussion and sketch comedy, poking fun at everything from television advertisements to political/celebrity scandal.

With the exception of the celebrities and political figures - most of whom would only really be known to the Australian viewers - the vast majority of the Chaser's victims are members of the general public; something which helps to keep the humour away from matters of location which may otherwise have impeded it.

Donning a Teletubby costume in order to gain entry to nightclubs catering to the gay community, posing as bouncers and manning the doors of security firms, attempting to use bricks as legal tender, testing the waters of just what could constitute eligibility for disabled seating on public transport and even constructing a fake motorcade (complete with one of the Chasers dressing in bin Laden-esque attire) in order to infiltrate the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference; the Chaser's aren't afraid to employ what some would consider to be near-the-knuckle stunts in order to get their laughs and, for the most part, are better off for it.

Nevertheless, as with many comedy shows, viewer enjoyment is a highly variable affair. If possible offence at some of the Chaser's brasher sketches is something which doesn't easily affect you, then there is a lot to be had in the way of hilarity here. While their more infamous exploits, such as the infiltration of the APEC conference or the "Make A (Realistic) Wish Foundation" sketch which earned them a two-week suspension from the airwaves do potentially paint Chaser's War in a rather negative light, the fact that they were human enough to admit when their brand of satirical black comedy went too far does go some way to redeeming them.

If you're the sort of person who enjoys watching people poke fun at all manner of things simply because they can, then Chaser's War is a well- constructed offering of satirical sketch comedy which is certainly worth your time.