The Chaser - Public Reactions

Public Reactions

See also: The Chaser's War on Everything#Controversies and well-known stunts

In July 2006, Licciardello faced charges of "offensive conduct" from the New South Wales Police Force, after turning up at a rugby league football match between the Canterbury Bulldogs and the St George Illawarra Dragons on 14 July 2006 dressed up as a Bulldogs fan and attempting to sell fake knives, knuckledusters and balaclavas for a War on Everything sketch.

In April 2007, a 15 year old boy duped YouTube into deleting all clips posted from The Chaser's War On Everything by claiming to be a representative of the ABC. They were later reinstated.

At the 2007 Logie Awards some of the Chaser team were "manhandled" by Crown Casino security staff on the red carpet before being closely supervised for the rest of the evening.

During Dick Cheney's visit to Australia in 2007, members of The Chaser team were included on the official list of terrorists, anarchists, and protesters deemed to pose a threat to the US Vice-President.

The Chaser team gained notoriety and considerable media attention over "The Eulogy Song", written by Chris Taylor and performed by Andrew Hansen on 17 October 2007 episode of The Chaser's War On Everything. The song satirised the media's posthumous praise of deceased celebrities, regardless of their behaviour in life, and mentioned among others John Lennon, Peter Brock, Stan Zemanek, Princess Diana, Steve Irwin, Donald Bradman, and Kerry Packer. The song attracted comment from both the media and politicians including Kevin Rudd and John Howard, the latter of whom used reference to the song in remarks during a sketch later aired on the programme.