The Chaser Report - Dom Hates Paul Kelly | Word Of The Year 2023 Pt. 2

Episode Date: November 29, 2023

Dom continues to tour Charles through Macquarie's list of words of 2023, and starts off with a highly controversial take on one of Australia's most celebrated song writers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gatigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. By popular demand, in fact, not at all by popular demand. We just thought that there were so many words of the year that we would actually break it into two episodes. Yes. So that we'd hook you with the first one and keep you listening for number two. It'll be interesting to see whether the ratings saw.

Yes, well, they probably will. Yeah. This is good stuff. And the best thing about this is that it is genuine research that another organisation has done that we're completely stealing. Yep. Except we're promoting Macquarie Dictionary Dictionary. So go on buy Macquarie Dictionary Dictionary. We're like generative AI.

We are. We're stealing their work and repackaging it in this podcast. We got up to generative AI and it goes on from this. And in fact, I'm going to put the cat amongst the pigeons. I'm annoyed by the next one. Really annoyed by Gravy Day. Talk about why after this. What's Gravy Day, Charles?

Is it the day that you get paid and so you're making gravy? making gravy. Yeah. Is that? No. Is it the day that you make gravy? Yes. What?

In a sense. Charles, you must be an unusual kind of middle-aged where the word gravy doesn't immediately bring something to mine. A song. What? Have you heard the song? Because Charles has a lot of holes in his pop music. Yeah, yeah, I'm not.

Have you heard the song How to Make Gravy by Paul Kelly? I'll probably have. Are you serious? You've never heard it? Well, anyway. I don't know. Okay. So there you go.

Look, I shouldn't assume. I shouldn't assume that just because everyone knows this song, the Charles is. And just because, you know, whoever this Paul Kelly guy is, you know, wrote a song. He did. So, Paul Kelly, it's one of Paul Kelly's most famous songs. How to Make Gravy.

It's so popular that they're making a fucking movie out of the story. And I think a musical, I don't know, that, oh, they made a TV series or something out of it. But essentially, the premise of the song is that it's a prisoner, it's a con, someone on the inside. And he's worried because he's not sure who's going to make the gravy at Christmas. Inside the jail. He's worried that his family's outside.

He's inside. Who's going to make the gravy? Because he usually makes the green. Because he normally makes it. And so he won't... You don't want bad gravy on Christmas Day? No. Because it'll be all lumpy.

But that's the mistake people make is they don't mix the flour before putting it into the hot pan. I love that you're discovering this for the first time. So the song begins with, hello, Dan. It's Joe here. I hope you're keeping well. It's the 21st of December and now they're ringing the last bells. And that's why gravy day.

is the 21st of December This song is so popular That with everyone except you Yes That it's become this cultural phenomenon Oh, right They even had some sort of music festival On 21st December a few years ago

And he mentions the recipe And you can buy tea towels with the recipe on it It's this whole thing So why does this annoy you And so flour It's flower is key To the recipe as well The reason why it annoys me

It's because it's gone too far It's a nice song, it's lovely But people view it as some sort of fucking religious text. It's the most important song. It's really smoltsy. It's really smaltzy. And that sort of Paul Kelly way of, oh, you know, this guy's done it tough. It's an Aussie guy down and it's like, it's just, I don't know, just annoy. It's no irony about it. There's no humor about it. It's just very, very earnest. Right. So are you, are you one of these, do you not, um, I don't want to hear it again. Do you not observe Gravy Day?

I don't observe Gravy Day. Gravy Day is a dark day in my household. Not least because everyone else in my family is vegetarian. Vegetarian. So we can't have Gravy Day. Can you maybe get to have gravy? You could make vegetarian gravy. I don't know if you can't. You're supposed to make it from the juices of the roast meat. But can't you make it from the juices of the tofu? Tofu gravy.

Maybe you can. And also all Indian food has its base element, onion gravy. Well, they also describe curry sauces as gravy. Yeah, exactly. So maybe it's okay. Maybe it's, and curiously enough, apparently it was co-written by Neil Finn. I don't mind it. It's an okay song.

It's been overplayed. And it's been taken too far. Yeah. And it doesn't deserve its own entry in the dictionary. It certainly doesn't deserve. This is a thing. So it's just another example of people getting on the gravy bandwagon. Yes.

It's a gravy train. The other one is white wine and the sun, which is a lovely song by Tim Minchin. But people just go on about it. Like every year the same shit. Love actually is brute is die-hearted Christmas movie. You know what it is? It's because I've been doing radio. Yeah.

Yeah. All these conversations are saying, I just don't want to have them. them anymore. No more gravy day for me. Anyway, so there you go. Well, probably the best way to start that trend, Dom, is to stop talking about it on the podcast. Yeah, that's true. So, from now on, we're never going to discuss. It's banned.

I'm banning the song. We're going to ban a concept that I'd never even heard of until just now. How to make gravy. We'll play it to you after the show. I make a mean gravy. I think you probably would. If you're, if you're family of Vijo, you come around to my house on, actually,

I won't be at my house on. He invited me. and then just immediately uninvited me. That's the kind of lovely show for each other on the podcaster. Speaking of which, Charles, hostile architecture. No, I'll tell you what, come around on Gravy Day and I'll make his... 21st and say, oh, hostile architecture, Charles. Oh, hostile architecture is architecture like they do with homeless people

where they put spikes on ledges that homeless people would otherwise sleep on. That's right. So it's going, oh, people who are really down on their luck might sleep on this bench at night. Let's put some fucking spikes on it because they suck. It is unbelievable the extent that they go to in America to put in hostile sort of fittings and stuff like that. And they're so mean as well.

It's just like they have benches and then they'll just put something in the middle of a bench so you can't spread out. Or they put armrests and stuff too. You know what they should have Charles? There's a button. And so when you're a homeless person, and you lie on the bench.

And it goes, be it's like an injectice. It's a gratuity. Now I was imagining what it would do is it would fire off a lecture. Like there'd be speakers in the bench and it would just have someone going, it's your own fault. It didn't amount to anything.

You're a loser. Well, it is true that, I mean, even our local shopping centre plays classical music in the car park because a decade ago, they discovered that if you play classical music where youths hang out, they stop hanging out there.

Or there's probably one kid in a thousand who hears and goes, this is amazing. I'm going to the conservatorium, to become a concert violinist. So it's a win-win. So, well, no, is that a win-win, or is that, I mean, we've just got to deal with more sort of Ponzi-Musos?

Ponsi Musos, all right. So, strange enough, Charles, this list jumps all the way from H for hostile architecture. This is a Macquarie dictionary word of the year, 2023, to Riz. What is Riz? So there's nothing... Between H and R. It's strange, isn't it? Okay.

Maybe the HR department has something to say about us. Possibly. Okay, what's Riz? Riz. I know this one. Riz is... more after this. Well played.

Riz is a... Do you want a clue? No, I don't want a clue. Riz is a... It'll be a contraction. It'll be... I love watching the gears grind so slowly. Did you ever listen to the thing where I got outwitted by an AI?

There's been so many complaints about that. But it is so true. Like, so many email me went... It was just humiliating to you being outbuted. Well, you're the first. You're the first human to have been outwitted by AI, but expect more in the future. Okay, Riz is, it's a way of washing that involves rinsing and... No.

No, it was a contraction. It was a contraction? You have more of it than me. Hair. No. It's charisma. Oh, charisma? Riz for charisma.

Oh, that's not. Oh, well, I don't think that's true. Dom, you've got... That's the only thing you have is charisma. That reigns to be seen. Okay, so that's what Riz is. Okay. Apparently, that's what the kids are saying on social media.

Riz. Okay. Well, I think I do have a lot of Rizze. I mean, in political science, Charles, we studied how charisma could be used to, you know... Yeah. Establish a totalitarian government or whatever. Yeah, exactly. But it sounds more innocuous when you can say Riz.

Like, Donald Trump's got a lot of Riz. He's got a lot of Riz. We should make him, you know, dictator for a lot of Riz. life. Yeah, yeah. Because of his Riz. And Peter Dutton doesn't. Now, this next one, I'm not going to say it's a good segue from Peter Dutton.

I'm going to say, the word is scrotox. That's all I'm going to say. So is that when you put Botox in your scrotum? Yep, Botox in the scrote. Apparently this is a thing. Yeah, right. Especially as used for cosmetic purposes to make the skin appear less wrinkled and to reduce sweating. Well, you need that.

If you've got sweaty balls, just get some scrotox. And is it just Botox? is apparently, why would you want less feeling in that part of your body? And also, isn't it incredibly painful? Botox? I think so. Chas got those dozens of injections in his face. And he said it was one of the most painful things

he's ever been true. That was one of the most stupidly overblown stunts ever done. If you haven't seen that, it's on where Chaz tries to turn himself into Daniel Craig on only half of his face. It's very funny. And the important thing to note is you could barely see the Botox

by the time they filmed it. It was pretty minor. but for months after that it looked bizarre like he had no wrinkles on one half of his head yeah no good on your chassis all right shadow work no I'm still concentrating on scrotogs you're going to get it well I'm just thinking like what's the audience

like how many people see your scrotum especially like you'd have to shave down there as well but you didn't believe your sexual partner goes oh no wrinkles you're so youthful and madly oh this is like having sex with a five year old Much less sweaty, fire them. Like your body, like your balls sort of become wrinkled really early on. No, it's in many ways the most sensible place to have wrinkles if you're going to have them.

Yeah. Well, and look, email us podcast at tazzo.com.com. If you disagree. Or if you've had it, if you've tried scrotox. We should start doing interviews with some of those people. I think we should get sponsored by Scrotox. Big, big Scrotox. Yeah, that's great.

The Chaser Report, news you can't trust. Shadow work, Charles. Shadow work is when you do somebody else's job for them because you are an assassin. That's wet work. Oh, that's wet work. I suppose that you can perhaps Scott Morrison did shadow work for all of his ministers. No, it's not that, although that would have been a much better definition.

This goes back to Jung. Does that help you? It certainly wouldn't have helped me. Oh, okay. So it's to do with psychology. It's probably to do with something like, you know, platonic forms and the shadow on the cave. Oh, very impressive. You know. Not at all, but a nice work. Nice, nice attempt to have some sort of link to philosophy there. Yes, indeed, Plato in the cave. So it's symbolism. No, well, this is what you do, Charles. You identify and accept one's repressed or unacknowledge behaviors or traits, thought to improve self-awareness and self-realization. So it's something I've got no interest. in doing.

So, wait a minute. So you embody somebody else. So instead of looking at it from their own, you look at from other people's perspectives. I'm not sure how the metaphor works. Maybe it's sort of wrestling with your own shadow. Maybe that's what it is. Anyway, shadow work.

So is it about you trying to look at yourself from somebody else's perspective? Well, you accept and acknowledge your repress or unacknowledged behaviors. Identify them. I think that's a very, that's very healthy. I think that's what I've been doing all year. That's what I'm not interested in doing that at all. I've no desire to confront my... Oh, God, no, yeah.

That would be a... Where would I start? And maybe that's the best part of me. I don't know. Okay, skimflation, this is a good one. Skimflation, well, there's a whole subreddit about skimflation. We'll do a whole episode on it. Which is, you know, when suddenly your Mars bar goes down from 55 grams to 45 grams.

Yes. In Australia, skimflation is, in fact, illegal and quite heavily policed. Is it? By the ACCC, yeah. Well, how do they all do it all the time then? Well, you have, there's rules. There's rules around if you change the size of a product, but it looks similar to the last product, you have to, for a certain amount of time, make it very clear that you've changed the size.

Yeah, interesting. Do you think it counts to taking a podcast that should probably have been one episode and breaking it up into two as we've done with the word of the year? I, for the purposes of the ACC inquiry into this podcast, um, I, no comment. No comment. No comment. Uh, finally, the Yimbi. Oh, well, Yimbi is the movement started by Dave Porge, a friend of the podcast,

uh, former mayor of, uh, Parramatta. Uh, he runs now the, what's it called the Western Sydney Forum, what it was called. And Yimby's is, yes, in my backyard. So he's trying to change it from. not in my backyard and instead make everyone say yes to horrible urban development. Yes, build a massive apartment block in my backyard. You've got a big backyard? That's right.

Pro development. And it's sort of like, good luck with that, mate. Like, there's a reason why NIMBYs exist. And it's not because people don't want to solve the housing crisis. It's because actually people don't trust developers or government because they're fuckwits. It's also worth noting, Charles, that people do want to solve the housing crisis. Yes. We all think there should be more apartments and more density.

But they should do it in another suburb. Yeah, just don't do it here. Exactly. And it's completely consistent, right? I believe in it. I just think there's so many other better places. Yes. Places where poor people live.

Oh, yes. Places like on the fringe of cities. Yes. Most importantly, not where we live. But I think, but my approach to Yimbianism is actually that's the sort of reaction to the thesis, rather. There's the antithesis of the. the thesis, that actually you need to come up with a more, because I think everyone does want to solve the housing problem.

And if we actually had a say and trusted developers more because there were actually laws that allowed the community to engage properly rather than this sort of fake engagement that they do all the time now, then you would be able to have development in every suburb. You know, Charles, that actually seems like a well-considered and thoughtful point. You're on the wrong podcast. Yes, that's right. Well, that's the final one. So Yimbi was the final one.

So the question is which of the words is the word of the year? Do you want me to run you through all of them again very briefly? Oh, fuck. Yeah, okay. Algo speak, angry water, bas-ball, blue sky flood, Bopo, bore out, bridesmaid suburb, cosy lives, crash blossom, doof stick, debt-trap diplomacy, doorway effect, generative AI, gravy day, hostile architecture, Riz,

Scrotox, shadow work, skimpflation, and Yimby. The word of the year is... Cozy lives, surely. It is cosy lives. Yes. Well done. And because, and I've actually been on the community that decided this once upon a time. Oh, yeah.

It's the word that says most about where we are now. It's not just the best word. It's the word that actually, if there's one fucking thing, it's on all of our minds, except Albo, as we discussed in the podcast earlier this week, at least so they say, it's cause he lives. From his perspective, because he's now living in the lodge and government house, he's now, presumably most of his meals are paid for. Oh, he's probably going, I don't see what the problem.

problem is. But Charles, he used to live in a housing commission flat. Yeah. Well, the government housing he's living in now is much better than that. Certainly. Okay, so there you go. You've picked it. I'm actually quite impressed. See, I got one thing right. And that was the most important thing. It's because of the just absolute abject misery in which this puts you day by day. Because he lives. I mean, who would have thought, Charles, that podcasting wasn't a sensible business strategy to stave off the increased prices of everything? And just to let you know, we should do, go to a traffic report now, uh, which is there is a pile up on the M1. Um, and, uh, so if you're listening to this last Tuesday, uh, then, you know, do something about that.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That, that, that, that traffic report brought to you by PwC. PwC, the name you think of when there's a fucking disaster. Yeah. Our gear is from road. We are part of the iconic class network. I hope your cause he lives is not. Yeah. Scroated. I don't know. That was hit with real wreaths.