Seven’s Double Take sketch comedy has come under fire following a sketch last night on schoolyard bullying.
The sketch was presented as an advertisement for a fictional private school ‘St. Fillimore’s.’
A presenter, or possibly principal, boasted the school had “the best bullies money can buy.”
Whilst various scenes showed kids pulling pranks on one another, one scene depicted a laptop screen with the message “After School You Die” being sent between students.
“With every one of our bullies supplied with their own broadband account, cyber-bullying is no longer just a dream but an appalling everyday reality,” the presenter added.
“Here at St Fillimore’s our school bullies have gone on to successful careers as CEOs, professional football players and chief parking inspectors.
“While our victims have mostly gone on to top themselves.”
The sketch comes hot on the heels of 60 Minutes being forced to withhold a story on teenage suicide following concern over deaths in the wider community. Nine says the report has the co-operation of family members involved in the story.
Psychologist Dr. Michael Carr-Gregg said Double Take should issue a public apology.
“These people have obviously been to the Chaser’s War on Everything school of comedy,” he said. “I think Australians are getting sick and tired of comedians making jokes about things that are really not funny.”
The Chaser recently apologised for its “Make a Realistic Wish” sketch and saw the ABC suspend the show for two episodes whilst stripping an ABC executive of key duties.
UPDATED: David McDonald, Double Take creator and EP responded this afternoon saying, “As it happens, this particular sketch was written and filmed very early in the production schedule.
“It was not produced and aired in reaction to recent events, but written to highlight the serious nature of bullying.”
“Satire draws attention to serious matters through humour. On Double Take, social issues are often discussed, not to make light of them but draw attention to them. If the consequence of a particular sketch is community discussion then this can be a positive thing.”
Lifeline: 131 114
www.beyondblue.org.au
Source: news.com.au
I have to agree,
I find this show, Double Take is a Chaser rip-off. That kind of lat night comedy ought to be taken down permanently and never be rerun again. I think comedy entertainment is really on thin ice, this year we had more like angry mobs rather than smiling faces.
I really miss some of the old style sketch comedy like, Full Frontal where the scriptwriting and the characters were something we can truly remember like the Brownish Bomber, Milo Kerrigan by comedy legend, Shaun Micallef. Now days these comedies are just trying to insult people with disgraceful crud like, Comedy Inc, The Mansion and this recent show, Double Take.
The parodies and the sketches on that show is really disgraceful, A Muslim exposing her breast, Swearing bank robbers adjusting a time bomb, selling landmines and asbestos as furniture just to stop children running in the house, and this ad about a school that allows bulling? That kind of programming ought to be viewed to the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
The Music Video parodies are not to be seen too, like the Gabriella Cilmi video, I notice there was even a drummer who looked more “Black Faced” than a real black man. They have an objection to the Jackson 5 tribute on Hey Hey Reunion, so why not an objection to that Double Take music video. Weird Al Yankovic can do a better parody than that, and treats them respectively.
The Chaser may have done some comedy that have gone too far like the Make a Realistic Wish sketch, but they honestly apologised, I have many doubts that the people behind Double Take will do their apology.
Seriously, I find Comedy could be on thin ice, especially here in Australia.
I personally found the skit in bad taste, especially with all the school childern committing suicide over this issue.
The chaser skit was a reaction to Make A Wish axing the number of wishes they would be filling due to children asking to go to disney land etc and it costing so much, and it was reported that unless children were able to ask for more realistic wishes then the number of wishes they could fill would be cut.
hence chasers ‘make a realistic wish’
theyve done worst skits.
with cnnnn with ‘fungry’? and the children dying?
anywho, i turned it off when this double take skit came on and i think thats what people need to do. if you find something insulting, turn it off. or complain. or both
My first reaction on seeing the sketch was that they were desperate for publicity. My thoughts then went to the EP’s Father, Gary McDonald. Wonder what his take on this is given his well documented battles with the black dog.
I admit a double dose of comedy on a Thursday Night is much lighter than a full on Medical Drama but why not something decent that makes people laugh like a real life sitcom.The days of Your Comedy Company or Benny Hill are long over.
This show is hilarious to me, but not to everyone and that’s fair – like the skits on the show. This particular sketch offened some extremely touchy aussies who really need to wake up – this is draw attention to bullying, not defend or encourage it! And “Nathan from The Extra Source”, the actors on this show are awesome, i’d like to see you do something like this with this amount of awesome comic timing – especially that bullied boy – he’s hilarious!
Regulate social networking shows and not crappy skit shows.
Leave The Chaser out of this!
Utterly, utterly offensive- offensive to decent, hard working school bullies the country over who deserve at least to be satirized in (and here’s a novel idea)- a funny sketch! One would do a double take when presented with a script for this show- ‘oh my god is it really that bad!? (double take)… oh yes, it is (frown)’. Heaven forbid anything resembling comedy should grace our screens at any stage during proceedings.
It’s quite amusing that the bully sketch is attracting ire, yet the program seems to take great glee in ‘poof jokes’- surely a taboo since the likes of the late, great Benny Hill passed on. Double Take makes TV Burp look like a monumental work of genius (no mean feat).
I don’t think this sketch is that bad – it is satirical, so shouldn’t be taken to be offensive. That said, the show Double Take as whole is stupid and should be taken off air. THe cast are just not funny and the writing isn’t good enough to sustain interest. I love to watch Aussie sketch shows, but not this one!
Carr-Gregg should get a sense of humour. Didn’t see it, don’t watch the show, what I’ve seen I’ve mostly despised (most of what I’ve seen of it has been the mass TV show parody easy-money comedy they seem to mostly do) – but come on, bleeding hearts. This is comedy.
And I’d just like to reiterate that I didn’t find the Chaser sketch the slightest bit “offensive” either. Much to the disgust of pretty much everyone I know, who seem to have been told it was bad by the media and obeyed.
It should be axed for being a terrible show but it is amazing how sensitive people have become. I can understand the Kyle and Jackie O thing as that’s a real person, if this was a U.S or U.K show being shown here then it wouldn’t get a mention. Let’s be honest they wont move the show because a)they need the drama points and b) commercial networks aren’t as timid and reactionary as the ABC.
Could this controversy combined with awful ratings spell the end for Double Take?
Those Gary Unmarried ads said ‘coming soon’ didn’t they? How soon I wonder…….
I tried to watch the show..once, about 10 minutes was all I could stand!
The sooner this rubbish is off air the better!
First it offended by just being a really s**t show. Now they have gone too far. Hopefully their rating go down as the amount of talent these people have.
So Tasmanian Devil, you actually think that networks should refrain from airing potentially controversial content for fear of upsetting paranoid individuals who are incapable of comprehending satire? If we give ground to every obsessive special interest group then comedians will not be able to tackle any real world issue in a satirical manner. Considering we are already at the stage where a comedian is forced to apologise for making a joke about hepatitis, do you really want to make this situation even worse?
Your country appears to be full of stupid hillbillies incapable of decoding social satire. Prove me wrong.
Oh boy, I saw this coming when I watched the skit.
Sure it was a shock laugh but it was still a good laugh. I enjoyed it for its distastefulness, that was part of the gag.
So will ratings go up or down in light of this ‘scandal’? Seven will be hoping for the former but in light of the show’s obvious and much-maligned “crapness” (although as yet I haven’t seen the show in full), it’ll probably go down.
I think it’s not so much that the skit was not funny but that it was in bad taste. Still, I have to agree with Matt and Bueller but I think they shouldn’t have aired the skit because people are so paranoid that they can’t accept what the point was. It would have saved all this trouble, didn’t they learn anything from the Chaser?
That sketch actually sounds like it would have been quite funny, compared to the other content I’ve seen from the show (endless parodies of media personalities = meh).
Michael Carr Gregg is nothing more than your regular nutter using his qualifications as a convenient excuse to push his anti-everything agenda. All he ever does is cash in on the latest moral panic the tabloid media has succeeded in whipping up – be it one concerning sex, drugs, violence, alcohol or scary new technology – you name it, and he’s there trying to make money out of it. Which begs the question – is he really so thick-headed that he can’t identify the clear satirical nature of this sketch, or is he just fueling the flames to advance his own agenda?
As someone below said – if it offends you, don’t watch. Not one single person is being forced to watch any of these shows.
And really – I think most of you need to grow a pair, or at least a thicker skin.
I’d say this only made the headlines because of the Chaser’s Realistic Wish sketch. And the Chaser sketch only made the headlines because it was the Chaser. People seriously need to harden the fudge up.
It just goes to show what sick minds the producers and writers of this show have. They obviously dont have children going to school and perhaps they should never have children, given that they may wind up being like their parents with sick and warped minds.
Channel 7 you are better than that, get these creeps of the air for good.
Geoff.
channel 7…hang your head in shame!!
like i said a while back…seven is on the way down from the top!!
If its offensive, dont watch. simple as that. I was never a huge fan of the Chasers, but did get a few laughs occassionally. This last series was very lame and after the Make a Wish sketch I tuned out, not because the media made a huge thing about it, I just found it in really poor taste as it aired and gave up.
I dont really think we need psychologists telling us what is or isnt offensive to the mass public. Surely people can work that out for themselves. Didnt see the show but from the article above it sounded more satirical than offensive. Probably pretty crap, from what Ive seen of this show its not that good, but it looked like it was trying to poke fun at the situation of bullying, not suicide.
“Double take” and “sketch comedy” don’t belong in the same sentence unless there’s a “is not an example of good” between them. Fact.
I usually don’t watch … and this was the point where I decided they were complete idiots and switched off … now i know why I don’t watch …
Jack!
This show should be Axed!! It’s a terrible show…No one likes it. The talent on the show are untalented and Seven could spend their money in a better way.
What a bunch of sickos showing a bullying skit!
Im disgusted!
So, is TodayTonight going to defend this program?
Pretty sure ACA will air a story on this.
koverstreet – I totally agree!!!! It is the most ridiculous show ever. It’s not even funny. It just has this lowest form of humour, actually you can’t even call it humour… its a really really really crap show
Simon you are probably right there:)
Anyway clearly the sketch was anti-bullying and as such I have no issue with it.
DT should be slammed for it’s overall shiteness though.
Why are people watching this show anyway? This and Tv Burp are two of the worst shows on air at the moment.
Does anyone think the title of this News Ltd article is a bit out of context (found on news.com.au)
“Channel 7 show laughs at suicide” is on the main page,
and the story is titled: “Double Take laughs at suicide, bullying”
The titles seem a tiny bit of a stretch, although the skit probably did take things too far.
I’m surprised at how far cyber bullying has actually come. 5 years ago, when I was in year 12, no one had myspace, facebook, twitter, youtube accounts and Camera phones (mainly because most of those didn’t exist), and so when the term ‘cyber bullying’ was introduced to us in year 12, most of us laughed because we couldn’t see how you could actually bully online. Now days, there are multiple ways to bully online, so I certainly feel for the kids.
MSN messenger was the only online community any of use took part in, and you only added people you wanted.
The only funny part of the sketch : “Here at St Fillimore’s our school bullies have gone on to successful careers as CEOs, professional football players and chief parking inspectors.” cause it’s true (particularly parking inspectors).
i haven’t seen it yet, i tuned out after TVburp but:
“While our victims have mostly gone on to top themselves.”
^^is that the only reference to suicide, i don’t think there is anything wrong with that. there has been worse, is every light passing reference to suicide considered crucifixion these days.
Did the Producer’s release this in the hope someone notices the show?
@daniel. thats not funny.
the show is terrible and it should be canned any way. i am stuffed if i know why 7 would a show like this one on. full frontal day’s are well and truely over
Have Australians honestly forgotten what role satire and parody have in comedy?
I blame the media, i reckon the journalist went looking for someone to make comment and not the other way around. They won’t be happy till we are all watching Rove-styled comedians that are bland and unfunny but it doesn’t offend your Nan so thats ok.
I suspect the entire audience for this show consists of people who have fallen asleep in front of their televisions at the end of a long day.
Disgraceful but what I’d expect from 7.
Are people just too dumb to understand satire?
predictably CEO of Rent-A-Quote Australia, Michael Carr-Gregg, was on hand to give his opinion.
Oh what a surprise, serial won’t-somebody-think-of-the-children media whore Dr Michael Carr-Gregg has his self-righteous knickers in a knot over “suicide” being mentioned in popular entertainment. Seriously, this is the same guy who wanted “The Happening” banned because he believed it would encourage suicide. He genuinely believes that having suicide mentioned or addressed in any way, shape, or form in the media will automatically trigger vulnerable people to kill themselves. He’s a hysterical idiot, and a disservice to his profession. God knows I wouldn’t want my kids treated by him if they were depressed.
Double Take should be slammed for it’s crapness. I’m surprised there was actually people watching this show in the first place to have someone to make a complaint.
I’m yet to see the show, but I thought this news item is quite funny given the article I read in The Age yesterday, profiling one of the cast and says this about the show:
“Double Take’s point of difference in the sketch-show arena is its focus on the world of entertainment, which makes it unlikely to offend the arbiters of taste and decency in the way that The Chaser team can.”
Ouch. Bad timing. :p
Oh, c’mon! It was not given glory to bullies! It was making the point that so much goes of it in schools and nothing is done about it. This is again a reminder of what a “cotton wool” country we live in. Disappointed in the media’s reaction, they’ve completely missed the point.
I have to say I didn’t like the sketch, but only because it was a poor sketch. Dr. Michael Carr-Gregg is right, they should apologise, but for the whole darn show. Double Take is the only thing that makes me want to crawl into the bath and open a vein. Dross!
Haven’t seen it, but from this article it seems as though the only offending part was the line “While our victims have mostly gone on to top themselves.”. Other than that, I think the skit takes aim at bullying, and also takes aim at football players and CEOs and the manner in which they conduct themselves.
However, given the outcry over the Chaser’s stunt, I suspect a similar thing will occur with this.
Seems a bit overboard, especially given the many many recent events which would indicate that this is bad taste, and bad television.
god TheChaser is off the air
and they are still getting blamed for the evils of TV.
and therein lies a boost to its ratings next week
Maybe it’s just me, but I actually thought the skit was taking a dig at schools not doing enough to combat bullying.
Lighten up, people.