Sorry to disappoint, but it’s not evil bunnies making Andrew Hansen burst into controversial song. Instead, I hypothesise a more plausible explanation for the recent Chaser shenanigans.

The Chaser have again made the headlines, this time for Taylor’s Eulogy Song, which criticises how we forgive celebrities’ indiscretions after their deaths. Calling Princess Diana a slut seemed to cross the line. My knee-jerk reaction was similar to the reactions of the tabloid media. For the past few days I’ve been frustrated trying to understand what could possibly motivate such distaste. It seems like it’s just been done for shock value. Or possibly to just see how much they can push the boundaries without getting kicked off the ABC.

But last night, another theory came to me. Recently, The Chaser team have seen an increase in popularity, mostly due to their recent APEC stunt which received widespread media coverage. They pride themselves on satirising mainstream media. But what would happen if The Chaser themselves became mainstream? We certainly couldn’t have that. So every now and then, they come out with a tasteless sketch as a correctional measure. This alienates a portion of their audience, thus restoring the equilibrium.

Despite this revelation, I was still pretty angsty about the whole affair, until I read the News Ltd articles linked above, immediately followed by an article from a real newspaper which begins:

“When the ABC’s most popular television program, The Chaser, declared war on some of Australia’s most revered dead people on Wednesday, the national broadcaster received only six calls, three for, three against.

I felt immediately enlightened. Certain media outlets have a powerful ability to blow events out of all proportion, feeding off the self-perpetuated sensationalism. Then there are others, that report the facts in an unbiased way. It has renewed my boycott of News Ltd and restored my faith in quality journalism - it’s still out there.