The Chaser

The Chaser are an Australian satirical comedy group, best known for their television programmes and satirical news masthead. The group take their name from their satirical newspaper, a publication known to challenge conventions of taste. The group's motto is "Striving for Mediocrity in a World of Excellence".

Founding

The Chaser's earliest foundation was a satirical school paper called ''The Tiger'', created by future members Charles Firth, Dominic Knight and Chas Licciardello as a way to "wring as much money as heycould out of their expensive private school" while attending Sydney Grammar.

The three then met Julian Morrow, Craig Reucassel and Andrew Hansen at the University of Sydney while working on the University newspaper ''Honi Soit''. Chris Taylor also attended the University of Sydney but never knew the others during that time, joining the Chaser later after volunteering as a contributor while working as a journalist in Melbourne.

In 1999, the group began their first newspaper project titled ''The Chaser'' as their time at university drew to a close, in "an attempt not to grow up" as described by Firth.

The Chaser members

The "Boys"

The founding members of the Chaser became colloquially known as "the Chaser Boys" in the media due to their undergraduate style hijinks during the ''War on Everything''.
* Charles Firth. Firth decided in 1999 that the founding members should produce a newspaper, and was at the helm of the newspaper until its collapse in 2005. Firth appeared in The Chaser's television and radio productions until 2004 when he moved to the United States so his wife could finish her PhD, instead serving as The Chaser's "American correspondent" until returning to take over the Chaser's publishing business in 2015.
* Dominic Knight was one of the founding members of the team. Although he initially performed in the Chaser's early TV and stage shows, Dom moved to a behind the scenes role after 2004. He regularly features in the team's podcast and radio work.
* Julian Morrow. He became the executive producer of the television series after Andrew Denton left the role in 2004.
* Craig Reucassel was a founding member of the team, and is described by the team as "the one successful one".
* Chas Licciardello started work on ''The Chaser'' newspaper in 1999 under a pseudonym. Licciardello refers to himself as a writer and not a performer, which is why he does the 'edgier' stunts in the television series. Licciardello has stepped back from appearing in Chaser roles since 2016's Election Desk due to commitments with his current affairs show Planet America.
* Chris Taylor had gone to the University of Sydney but never personally knew the four founding members. Initially a long distance contributor, Taylor spent two years emailing his articles to The Chaser, before quitting his job to do a television series based on the 2001 Australian federal election with the team, eventually becoming a member of troupe. Chris has not appeared in the Chaser's TV shows since 2009, stating that he thought they were "getting a bit s--t", though he has continued contributing to their print, radio, and online work.
* Andrew Hansen started working with the online Chaser website in 2000 writing columns as a favour to his friend Firth. After two years, he was considered for a part in the Chaser's television series due to the need for a musical performer, and joined the team permanently in after that.Radio Ha Ha Episode 50.
10 November 2006. ''Accessed on 15 January 2008.''

The Checkout team

Following the end of the ''War on Everything'', a number of researchers and writers were elevated to on-screen roles for the new series ''The Hamster Wheel'', with this team growing through four seasons of ''The Checkout'', to 2016's ''Election Desk''.

* Ben Jenkins
* Zoe Norton-Lodge
* Kirsten Drysdale
* Scott Abbott
* Alex Lee
* Mark Sutton
* David Cunningham
* Hannah Reilly

The Interns

Following the relaunch of the Chaser website in 2015, the Chaser held a competition recruiting "interns" to help execute stunts and pranks without being recognised by the public. This team took over the Chaser's social media channels in 2016 following the viral success of some Election Desk clips, with the interns now producing daily videos and satirical articles with occasional contributions by the founding team.

* Gabbi Bolt
* Aleksa Vulovic
* Lachlan Hodson
* Caz Smith
* Zander Czerwaniw
* John Delmenico

The Chaser projects

''The Chaser'' newspaper

The newspaper, first published in 1999, was The Chaser team's first enterprise. Though the paper initially had a circulation of well under 30,000, the paper gained national infamy when their February 2003 edition published Prime Minister John Howard's private home number on its front page with the headline "Howard ignores the people. So call him at home on [phone]". The prank came in response to Howard's dismissive attitude to half a million protesters marching against the invasion of Iraq. Howard's number was blocked by the afternoon after being flooded with calls, and federal police raided The Chaser's office.

In 2005, after six years and 91 issues, The Chaser decided to cease publication of the newspaper, due to an inability to meet production costs and the "large amount of time it takes to produce a paper nobody reads".

The newspaper was revived in 2015 as a quarterly publication, following a successful $50,000 crowdfunding campaign. The magazine managed to last just 20 editions before folding due to financial insolvency, with founding member Firth stating "in hindsight we probably shouldn't have spent $40,000 on our bar tab".

The Chaser Annual

The Chaser have released yearly annuals since 2000, initially based on the best of ''The Chaser'' newspaper, and then featuring a selection of articles from The Chaser's website since 2005. This was later expanded into a live touring show ''The War On The Year'', as part of the Chaser's attempt to "squeeze some money out of the wildly successful and even more wildly unprofitable website".

Web

In 1999 The Chaser became one of the first independent Australian publications to launch a website, after Firth, a former computer shop owner, and Licciardello, a computer science student, built their own CMS from scratch. The site initially featured articles from The Chaser's newspaper, as well as a popular fan forum, and a directory of internet oddities run by Andrew Hansen which included stern faced reviews of all the pornography he found.

The Chaser's web presence expanded exponentially in the year 2000 after the spinoff site ''Silly2000.com'', a parody Sydney Olympic website, went viral, gathering millions of views and international reviews.

In 2010 The Chaser caused media outrage after becoming the first and only Australian news service to be approved on Apple's iPad at the time of launch. Though the app generated a large subscriber base, the team stopped updating it within a year due to their "frankly idiotic belief that the iPad would be a fad".

In 2016 the largely abandoned Chaser website was relaunched with a focus on social media. By 2020 The Chaser website once again ranked as one of Australia's most successful media outlets, with the site's stories regularly topping the chart of Australia's most engaged Facebook posts.

''Live Tours''

In March 2005, The Chaser team wrote and performed a stage production ''Cirque du Chaser'', the name a parody of ''Cirque du Soleil'', performing stand-up comedy, sketches, live music, and video satire in a sell out national tour. The format was later pitched to the ABC as the show which would become ''The War On Everything''.

In 2008, the team revived the format with the nationally touring stage show, ''The Chaser's Age of Terror Variety Hour''.

In 2016 The Chaser teamed up with satirical website The Shovel to produce a new live tour titled ''The War On The Year'', wrapping up the news headlines of the last 365 days. The show continued to tour nationally in a sell out run until 2020, when it was re-packaged as the online sketch show ''The Chaser's War On 2020'' due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Radio

Following the success of the Chaser newspaper, the Chaser team were in high demand to bring their brand of satirical news coverage to the airwaves, with the team at one point providing satirical news updates simultaneously for three rival radio networks. In 2002, Morrow was tapped by 2UE to provide a regular weekly comedy slot of topical news headlines. In 2004–5, Taylor and Reucassel hosted the Triple J radio drive programme '' Today Today''. From 2006 to 2007 Taylor and Reucassel returned to Triple J to host ''Bloody Sunday'', while Licciardello and Knight also hosted a show on Triple M called ''Chas and Dom from 'The Chaser'''. In 2010 Hansen performed the Aria award-winning parody show ''The Blow Parade'' on Triple J in what would be the team's final stint on youth radio.

The Chaser team returned to Triple M in 2018 with the afternoon show ''Radio Chaser'', though the group opted to move from live radio to the podcast ''The Chaser Report'' in 2019, with Firth explaining they were "sick of the high pay rates and adoring fans that come with a free to air radio show."

Television

After two years of running their satirical newspaper, and various radio roles, The Chaser attracted the attention of TV star Andrew Denton in 2001. Denton signed the team on with ABC, stating "They've got the talent, the work ethic, the fearlessness, the desire".

Election specials

Denton helped the Chaser to produce their first television program ''The Election Chaser in 2001'', a parody of the national election tallyroom. The show was nominated for the 2002 Logie for "Most Outstanding Comedy Program".

''The Chaser Decides'' returned again in 2004, winning a Logie award, and was re-commissioned in 2007 to cover the 24 November election, winning the ratings in its timeslot.

The team returned with a similar formats in 2010 and 2013 with ''Yes We Canberra!'' and ''The Hamster Decides''. The ABC chose not to recommission the election special in 2019, following the widely panned 2016 ''Election Desk''. A podcast ''Democracy Sausage'' was instead produced by Reucassel and Taylor for the ABC, alongside a national live tour ''The War On The F*%king Election'' produced by Firth.

The team in 2022 repeated this formula, with members of the original team reforming alongside The Chaser Interns to create an election special podcast, a national election tour, and a politics themed satirical single that hit number 1 in the charts.

''The Chaser's War on Everything''

In 2006 The Chaser team signed with the ABC to produce a variety comedy show based on news reviews, studio monologues and confrontations with politicians. The project would be performed in front of a live audience compared with their previous news format television productions and was named ''The Chaser's War on Everything''. The first season of ''The Chaser's War on Everything'' premiered on ABC TV on 17 February 2006. The series aired late on Friday evenings where it developed a cult following, drawing an average national audience of between 591,000 and 821,000 viewers each episode.

''The Chaser's War on Everything'' returned for a second season in 2007, regularly attracting more than a million viewers per episode, with a brief break in June to cover the Federal election.

After a hiatus in 2008 to tour a live show, the team returned for the third and final series of ''The War'' in 2009.

''The Chaser's Royal Wedding Commentary''

Originally set to air on 29 April 2011 on ABC2, a Chaser special was to be shown based on the Wedding of Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton featuring live commentary from the team members. However, a diplomatic row ensued, after the ABC were forced by the BBC
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