Arseholes live forever

Thats what you’d think reading eulogies.   Everyone who dies is an absolutely wonderful person who was a paragon of virtue from the moment they were born until they took their last breath.

There’s been a storm in a teacup today about The Chaser comedy team’s show last night on TV and “The Eulogy Song” that Andrew Hansen sang.  It went roughly like this:

The Eulogy Song
Steve Irwin lived in Khaki, a cartoon kamikaze, he taunted crocs and tots so frequently. Brocky was some revhead who pumped the air with lead, so anti green he drove into a tree. But all that was forgotten once they took thier final breath, yes even tools turn into top blokes after death.
John Lennon chose the hippie life he chose some nutbag for a wif, his songs were never quite as good as Paul’s. Jeff Buckley fooled all lovers, just one album, mostly covers, with more wailing than Japan does off our shores. But all that was forgotten once he took his final breath, yes even wankers turn into top blokes after death.
Princess Di was just a slut for sex, when they looked in the car, a wreck, her dress was wet with Arab’s semen stains. Stan Zemanek was a racist jock a fatso and a phobic cock, his views were more malignant than his brain. But all that was forgotten wehn he took his final breath yes even arseholes turn into top blokes after death.
It’s not how they lived that counts, but how we rewrite the book, when it comes to truth, it;s best to use restraint, it pays to throw away the facts and have a rose coloured look, when he dies Martin Bryant will look a saint.
Don Bradmon was a total Bastard, grumpy, greedy, a tight-arse who couldn’t even score one run the last time he played. Kerry Packer was a brothel Chief, a tax fraud and a kidney thief, and procreating Jamie was the worst mistake he made. But all that was forgotten once he took his final breath yes, even fuckers turn into top blokes after death.
Remember all will be forgotten once we tale our final breath, yes even pervert mother fuckers, even rampant child abusers, even local Baghdad looters, even baby bunny rooters, even reckless drunken drivers, even violent poofter bashers, even public penis flashers, even rotting corpse molesters, even human piss ingesters, even tiny kitten dickers, even anal finger lickers, even Anna ‘bloody’ Coren, yes, even she will be a top bloke after death.
Care of the Chaser’s war on everything, written by Chris Taylor.

Obviously more important than things like the economy, health, education and all the other things that the federal election is about, this was sufficiently serious to draw comment from John Howard, who said it was “distasteful” and “despicable”, and:

“Why don’t they stick to decent dirt-free humour?”

That might be because its not as funny.  Also, somehow this brings to mind “who don’t you stick to decent dirt-free campaigning?”, John.

But not to be left out, Kevin Rudd has his bit to say, too:

“I have said before that I have enjoyed the Chaser’s work but I would say to those guys at the Chaser this is absolutely disgusting,” Mr Rudd said.

“Guys - you really need to lift your game, guys - this is just wrong.”

Insensitive, yes, bad taste, probably, funny, shit yeah.  The point of the song was to send up how people are eulogised as saints when they die.  Humour, satire …. those outraged by The Chaser need to get out more and get a life.  (They also need to get a TV that has (a) an on/off switch, and (b) a channel changer ….I’ve never noticed but there must be shops somewhere that only sell TVs that force people to watch things that they don’t enjoy and outrage them - lacking the capacity to change channels or switch them off.)

The song’s writer, Chris Taylor, said this about it:

“The song was intending to make a point about people who are flawed in life who are disproportionately hailed as saints in death,” Taylor said.

“You see it time and time again, people almost incorrectly eulogised and people very quickly forget what the person was like when they were alive.”

“When we mentioned Belinda Emmett and stopped, that’s our way of saying that’s going too far.”

During the program last night, the song’s performance was terminated just as Hansen refers to Belinda Emmett, who died of cancer last year  (they were being more sensitive than me …. clearly her illness and death gained her much more fame than anything she did as an actor or singer, and her posthumous CD sold far more than it would have if she hadn’t died).  Oh, and Zemanek was a bigoted loudmouth.