THE ABC has been forced to apologise to the parents of dying children and the Make a Wish foundation after The Chaser last night made them the butt of a sick skit.
And according to The Daily Telegraph, the skit was not even original with a very similar clip already on the website of the satirical Onion News Network.
Outraged callers inundated the ABC after the "Make a Realistic Wish Foundation" segment in which Andrew Hansen and Chris Taylor ask actors playing hospital bed-ridden children what they wish for.
Ratings figures show more than 50,000 people in Sydney who were watching the program immediately switched off.
Kim Dalton, Director of ABC TV and Julian Morrow, Executive Producer of The Chaser’s War on Everything apologised for any hurt caused and promsied not to repeat the program tonight.
"The Chaser’s War on Everything is a satirical program aimed at provoking debate and providing social commentary on topical issues, current affairs and public life in general."
"The sketch in last night’s show called ‘Making A Realistic Wish Foundation” was a satirical sketch and black comedy."
"The ABC and The Chaser did not intend to hurt those who have been affected by the terminal illness of a child. We acknowledge the distress this segment has caused and we apologise to anyone we have upset.
"As a result, ABC TV will edit the segment out of tonight’s repeat screening on ABC2 and online."
The Daily Telegraph Online said The Chaser skit and the clip on Onion News Network are both
based around the same premise: That a dying children's charity cannot afford the excessive wishes made by the kids.
Meanwhile Make-A-Wish said The Chaser had contacted the charity to 'explain' its sketch making dying children the butt of a sick joke but failed to offer an apology.
The Herald Sun reports the ABC comedy team contacted the foundation in the last hour to explain their 'Make A Realistic Wish Foundation' skit on last night’s edition of The War on Everything.
Make-A-Wish’s communications general manager Janita Friend says, however, that they didn’t say sorry.
“They just wanted to say they’re not poking fun at us,” Ms Friend said.
“I wouldn’t say it was an apology. It was an explanation.”
The foundation says the Chaser’s skit could potentially traumatise families with children who have life-threatening illnesses.
"One of the first things we were upset about was that a lot of our families and children would have been watching that,” Ms Friend said.
The Punch: Sick kid skit only funny thing on The Chaser
Ms Friend is also deeply concerned the skit portrays children wanting wishes as greedy and says it could stop parents applying to Make-A-Wish for wishes.
"Some families will go, 'Oh my goodness, people will think I'm being greedy (applying for a wish)," she said.
In the sketch Chaser members Andrew Hansen and Chris Taylor asked actors playing bed-ridden children what they wish for.
When one little girl asks to meet Hollywood actor Zac Efron she is given a stick instead, with Taylor saying, "Why go to any trouble when they're going to die anyway?"
When another child asks to go to Disney Land she was given a pencil case.
Taylor said the "foundation's" purpose was about "helping thousands of kids to lower their extravagance and selfishness in the face of death".
"They (Chaser) haven't understood the reason behind why a wish is granted," Friend said.
"Our mission is to grant wishes to children with life threatening medical conditions – not all of them pass away.
"We don’t ever like to say it’s a dying wish but that’s really the message the Chaser were putting across which is really incorrect and unfair."
"It is interesting that they used the Disneyland example (as being unrealistic) because we do send lots of children to Disneyland”, Friend says.
“We also have a lot of children who wish for very simple things like a party. Little children wish for puppies and cubby houses.”
I myself love black humour, but this one pushed it for me. Even still, the skit itself didn't strike me as funny.
Then again, I have a friend who works for Children's Wish Foundation so I may be a little biased.
we are all part of a society that doesnt exclude the terminally ill and disabled
however, we still show prejudice
there has been a fair bit of backlash in australia
the pm denounced it
a heard a letter about a child who was dieing who watched the 'skit'
she was wanting to know if she would die in agonising pain
they were smug afterwards, saying they are hated after every week
but have apologised, i havent heard the apology yet tho
one of our ministers accused a fellow minister of having a 'spak attack' earlier in the week
i live in a backwards progressive country
2. to be completely and utterly consumed by rage that you cant find the words to express yourself, and end up standing flailing your arms, and making sounds similar to a wilderbeast
wake up, call some girl you know, give her the sob story, get some and get fed... it surprisingly works more often than you would think... its the whole motherly instinct thing...
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