If the Chaser team wanted to be really daring & transgressive...

Andrew Bolt Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at 10:53am     Gerard Henderson was almost amused by the Chaser’s latest taxpayer-funded stunt: The Chaser’s executive producer, and comedian Craig Reucassel decided to fly a helium-filled blimp at the front of St Peter’s Square, close to St Peter’s Basilica.  The blimp was flown in Vatican City airspace which, for obvious security reasons, is a restricted zone… Apparently the blimp contained a rude message for Pope Benedict XVI (no surprise here) and the stunt will be shown in the new Chaser series which is an ABC co-production. Yet Henderson wonders if the stunt lacked that certain something - bravery? originality? a point? - and suggests a few tweaks to the concept to make it truly worth applauding: 1. Put a rude message about the Prophet on a blimp and fly it over the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca.   2.  Put a disrespectful comment about the God Ram on a blimp, fly it over the Tirupati Balaji Temple in India and wait around and see how the radical Hindus react.   3.  Place a mock cartoon of Guru Nanak on a blimp, fly it over the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, and see how angry the Sikhs become.   4. Put a “Free Tibet” message on a blimp and fly it over Tiananmen Square in Beijing.  Talk about your feelings with China’s secret police.   5. Pretend to have a leak on the Kremlin Wall in Moscow, right near Vladimir Lenin’s Tomb. Try telling the Moscow police that you are a Lenin-hater and are merely engaging in a “piss-before-you-diss” routine. But what are the odds that the ABC would back any of those suggestions the way it backed the mockery of the Pope: The Chaser shoot was approved by ABC TV.  No one has yet been charged and anyone who is charged will have our full support. [But of course they would never dare do such things. It's not only that they'd be hamstrung by the politically correct pieties of the modern multiculturalist who considers all cultures sacred, (except his own), but they would be well aware that in some of those settings they'd be lucky to get out alive.   No such fears in attacking the Pope however. An easy and safe target.   Jeez though, not an exactly original idea is it?   "Hey, I've got this great idea for a skit - we'll take the piss out of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church."   "Wow, that's brilliant!"   "Yeah, that's never been done before, I mean, apart from all the other times. But hey, the people likely to watch our show are going to find it hilarious anyway."   "Let's do it!"]

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