Comedian charged: Not funny

Maybe it's an east-west thing, but something is lost in the translation for me in the reported charging of ABC Chaser's comedian Chas Licciardello.

As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald and on the ABC's own website, The Chaser's War on Everything funny man Licciardello has been charged with "offensive conduct" for filming a prank in which he tried to sell a "Bulldog's supporters kit" that included a balaclava and fake knuckle dusters. The Herald's report noted that "crowd violence when the two teams met earlier this year sparked a crack down on anti-social behaviour at Bulldogs games, with NSW police deploying its riot squad to all their games since."

Apparently NSW Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Denis Clifford described Chas Licciardello's actions as disgraceful and said they were "clearly an act of mindless stupidity that had the potential to stir up the large crowd and cause serious problems".

Erm... a comedian, quite appropriately, pokes fun at the appalling and disgraceful behaviour of some rugby fans that apparently need a police riot squad to keep them in line and the comedian is accused of mindless stupidity? 

Yes,  maybe he is stupid. I expect he was lucky one of the supporters didn't deck him. But whose at fault here? If he was flattened by a Bulldog's supporter, would the supporter have been able to claim he was provoked???

The NSW Premier said Chaser "overstepped the bounds of taste and certainly descended into grossly irresponsible behaviour".

The impacts of recent anti-terror legislation on performing artists has been discussed elsewhere on this website. Other law is obviously coming into play here. In this case though, who is the law protecting?

I'll watch the outcome of the case with interest. 

Cheers
Grant