Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a huge Chaser fan, but lately I worry they might be lowering the bar in order to widen their audience *gasp!* Most of the sketches are still bloody funny, especially Chas’ recent Porno Cliche Road Test. I was ROTFLMAO, literally. As disturbing as it was, I have to give the man credit for throwing his dignity to the floor, stamping on it repeatedly, then dousing it in fuel and setting fire to it. And this week’s Hobbit trailers were truly top-notch. But a few of The Chaser’s recent sketches have left me scratching my head wondering “How, exactly is this funny?”

For me, the appeal of The Chaser comes from their unique satire of politics, the media and popular culture. They don’t stick to the conventional rules for comedy, which provides great relief from the unoriginal formulaic humour saturating our screens (most of it American sitcoms). Most of The Chaser stuff is pretty original, and they’re not afraid to go where others dare not tread. But I think it’s possible for even the most loyal Chaser fans to be alienated by sketches that aren’t up to par.

I don’t want to turn this post into a whinge-fest but some sketches just aren’t funny. Andrew’s Thesaurus song was simply embarrassing to watch. I felt bad for the guy. Is he really that desperate for material? How do you make fun of synonyms? And his hair lately screams “mid-life crisis”. But I shouldn’t just pick on Andrew (although his hair really deserves it). Julian’s trip to the 3 call centre in Mumbai wasn’t all that funny either. OK, so phone companies outsource their call centres to India. WE GET IT. And waltzing into The Athlete’s Foot with tubs of paint? I don’t recall seeing “paint” as a terrain in the original ad. It’s like they thought “How can we tweak this to REALLY piss these people off?” I wish they would stop annoying the MSO. I tolerated the first instance, but when they showed up as louts in the middle of a concert, that’s just annoying.

At the moment, the funny sketches are still way outnumbering the unfunny ones. I hope it stays that way.