Completely Unnecessary

h/t to Danny, who sent me a link this morning about the Chaser boys’ breach of Bush’s uber-security in Sydney:

The group staged a faux motorcade, pretending to be the delegation of Canada with one of the comedians dressed as Osama bin Laden, and made it past two police checkpoints before being stopped.

Eleven people were charged. Apparently, you can’t just walk up to the American president like you can the PM. Weird.

Ha. The Age’s reporting is more humorous:

IF ONLY the police had stopped to read the fine print on the “APEC 2007 Official Vehicle” sticker.

“This vehicle belongs to a member of The Chaser’s War on Everything. This dude likes trees and poetry and certain types of carnivorous plants excite him.”

Two police security checkpoints into the sniper-ridden “ring of steel” later, and it took a comedian in an Osama bin Laden outfit to rouse Sydney’s $150 million APEC security monster into action.
…
The Chaser’s bogus motorcade of two black vans, a hire car, two very unofficial looking motorcycles and jogging security heavies remained undetected until Morrow and Licciardello got out of their car outside Mr Bush’s hotel, where police grabbed them.
…
Police had been worried the Chaser team would cause trouble and had warned them to behave responsibly, Mr Campbell said.

This, however, is the best part - the ABC going to bat for their most popular show:

Last night, the ABC issued a statement saying: “The Chaser team had no knowledge that they had entered a restricted zone.”

“When the Chaser reached the perimeter of what they thought was the APEC restricted zone, they voluntarily turned around,” the statement said.

That is funnier than than the stunt.

White House Mum on Comedy Group’s Security Breach [The Hill]
Chaser Comic Convoy Beats Summit Security [The Age] - oooh, alliteration

Vaguely Related

• Australian Reuters Writers’ Party Trick
• Yea the Age!