Well.

"[The police] said: 'We understand that parody and satire are entertaining and fun, many people watch the program and enjoy it, but please understand the seriousness of this matter and please take caution as you go about making your program.'"

--The SMH, here

Which, really, kind of translates to:

"[The police], not quite getting the point of satire, said: 'We understand that there are certain pressures to making a show every week. Please, let us paint you a nice, big target.'"

Seriously, it's like practising your quail impressions while going hunting with Dick Cheney.

Yes, dear reader, I'm talking about the arrest of eleven folk from (or working for) The Chaser when they were virtually waved through APEC security in a faux-Canadian motorcade, something which they effectively say they didn't expect to happen.

What it all means is this: they've been arrested because the ZOMGextreeeeeeme security... really, really sucks. Apparently.

(It also means that, with Julian and Osama bin Licciardello, they're two-thirds of the way to their reported target for arrests.)

The police minister, who's probably thoroughly embarrassed about his newfound utter failure, reportedly "did not see the funny side at all''. Fortunately, about 86% of people can do it for him. (Amusingly, the ad it gave me for that page is for a DVD of the Chaser's War on Everything, featuring mugshots of the cast.)

The deputy police commissioner claims to be "not embarrassed at all", possibly the equivalent of water claiming not to be at all wet.


Perhaps the strangest part of it (apart from that their security didn't bat an eyelid) is that Alexander Downer is kind of defending them. No, really.

"Whatever you think of the humour of the Chaser, the honest truth is they were clearly not going to harm anybody in a physical way," he said.

"They presumably were, as is the nature of their show, aiming to humiliate a lot of well known people."

--ABC news, here

I'm sure I had other things I  maybe wanted to post, but really, this kind of won.


ETA: Their fine-print, let me show you it. Apparently, on the fake security passes, they had written:

"This vehicle belongs to a member of The Chaser's War on Everything. This dude likes trees and poetry and certain types of carnivorous plants excite him."

--The SMH, here

...and they call this a success for their security?

APEC Insecurity, Part the Second: Attack of the Cardboard Canadians

For those who're keeping score:

I'm angry, I'm very angry that this stunt happened, it was a very dangerous stunt.

--Police commissioner Andrew Scipione, reported here.

And then, from we the audience, contributing our $0.08 a day to the ABC:

Nothing comes from playing the "that Chaser stunt isn't funny" card except further mockery.

--deepfishy, here

...with this fact of life being handily confirmed, thus:

Three staff and a film crew from ABC TV's program The Chaser's War on Everything have been questioned by police after being involved in second stunt in central Sydney this afternoon.

The three were released by police after being briefly questioned for carrying around black cardboard boxes dressed up as limousines in Sydney.

--ABC news, here

For those keeping score, it's 2-0. For arrests, it's 5/7 - and I suspect Andrew might yet have some way of getting himself arrested. If they can somehow manage to get Charles Firth arrested for APEC (and so complete the set), they can have fifty thousand or so bonus points.

About the biggest point highlighted is this: arrange a fake motorcade, and you can breeze through security, but the moment you try using Play School technologies, security's all over you. Should Rhys Muldoon and Georgie Parker suddenly find themselves thoroughly disenchanted with the current administration, we can rest assured that $350 million of security will see them stopped, detained, and questioned.

...

"There's been specific intelligence forwarded to police that suggests that there may be a bear in there, and, possibly, a chair as well. These are serious allegations. Do you have anything to say about them, Mr Ted? Or should we call you... Big."

(...though, on the Neocon Scale Of World-Destroying Evils, they're probably vastly more terrified of that episode with the kid going to the amusement park with her two mums.)


Wow, tangent. Um... cardboard! Cardboard is evil, apparently. And that's about all I have on the Low-Emission Faux-Canadian Cardboard Motorcade of Doom. I, for one, expect there'll likely be more tomorrow.

Because Questionable Content has funny...

and because I have no self control, icon.

That is all.