The Chaser Report - How To Make The Chaser Annual

Episode Date: June 17, 2026

With the publishers at his throat for a front cover, Charles frantically brainstorms ideas for what image to use on this year's Chaser Annual. What image do you think perfectly encapsulates 2026 (even though we're halfway through)? If you have an idea, please email it to [e-mail] :))))---Listen AD FREE: https://thechaserreport.supercast.com/ Follow us on Instagram: @chaserwarSpam Dom's socials: @dom_knightSend Charles voicemails: @charlesfirthEmail us: [e-mail] CEO’s Super-yacht upgrade Fund: https://chaser.com.au/support/ Send complaints to: [e-mail] 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. Charles, it's a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. The World Cup is on and yet you look concerned. Charles, what's on your mind? A penny, if you will, for your thoughts. Well, I'm meeting with John Delmenico at 4.30 this afternoon. The editor of the Chaser website, often on the podcast.

Yes. and unfortunately we, I know that it's only like June, but we've got to come up with the front cover for the Chaser Annual Stat. Oh my goodness, not again. This is the hardest thing you ever do. I know, I know. Because, and the whole thing is that we can change the cover. We can get to sort of late September when it goes to press and we can change the cover.

But this is the cover that actually gets it sold into bookstores. Yeah, yeah. It determines how many books are pre-ordered. Oh. So it's actually important. And then also, it's the image that tends to then just end up being associated with it online for the rest of the time. So Bookopia and Amazon and all those big places. Yes.

And Demics tend not to change the image. Well, Charles, you go to the right place because I used to, for quite a few years, I used to edit the Chase Ranul. I used to run the process. Yes. And I was in charge of producing covers. You had the spreadsheet to get all the votes. Yeah, I had it all going on. We had a whole process.

All the TV people were involved. He sent me a copy of the 2006 annual year. Did they? Oh, there you go. Berker's backyard. That's right, Berker's backyard. A lot of work. It's a very dumb.

I don't know if that was my idea. Probably was. Yeah, a big Photoshop job. Charles, I had a great way to figure out what, you know, how to make the Chaser annual popular back then. Oh, yeah. Well, the Chaser was popular back then. Oh, okay.

You put the Chaser on a book and it sold massive numbers. No, I'll tell you, the Chaser annual is a bestseller. Is it? Yeah, we sell tons. Okay, all right. Well, that's good. So I'm going to have to actually work. So we're going to brainstorm it now.

Let's just take an ad break while you think. Oh, no pressure. So one of the problems is I've given James an idea for the shovel front cover. And I don't think I can necessarily top it. Because he bags Paul Enhanson. He said, I want to do something on Paul Hansen. Why don't you just, why do you keep them a separate thing? It's so weird.

Because then we'd have to do twice as much work. Like this way, You can do a full book without only doing half of books work. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Give him half the money. So his whole thing is going to be

Paul Enhanson, it may be, I don't know, but Paul and Hanson sitting as Prime Minister of Australia, something like that. Right. Like in charge of Australia. And,

but looking like Alfred E. Newman, and what me worry or something? I mean, what me explain or something? Sorry, is this satirical? Is this meant to be like, An exaggerated version of reality that is insightful.

Because isn't that just the poll? That's just going to happen. Like, what's the joke? I'm missing something. No, it's Alfredine Newman. She's like, because she's got orange hair. Like, it's sort of perfect. Don't you reckon?

Yeah. No, maybe. If it was mad, we can do better than that. But I was singing, so the topic area is that we, so James had on the shovel side Trump last year. So we could do a Trump cover. Trump's the obvious thought. And I was singing him asleep.

That's very iconic. Yeah. That's a 20-26 image. You see him asleep. So maybe it could be him, you know, I don't know, rocketing down a, I don't know, like, oh, maybe it should be Dr. Strangelove style on a missile and he's asleep on the missile. No, that's sort of like one of those bad cartoons where everything's metaphorically spelled out literally. There's so many good things about Trump.

There's the gold-plated ballroom and the arc to Trump. Yeah. Yeah. I really like and all that. The reflecting pool. That won't last. It could be him asleep. in the rubble of the ballroom.

They just... Because, you know, it's very... Like, that sort of thing of him asleep where he has his head slightly tilted up. And you can't quite tell whether he's asleep or... Sleep at the wheel. Yeah. But then there's other things that have happened.

So the other... So then I was saying to James, maybe instead what we do is put an elbow on the front cover. And he went, no. No, you can't, Charles. And I went, why? And he went...

I know why. Back in 2023, James had elbow on the front cover Of the shovel side On the shovel side And that year He hardly sold any copies That's what I'm going to say

It's like literally What's the equivalent? You know that movie The Cooler? Yes, someone comes in Yeah, that's right Yeah, there's a guy who's so uncharismatic The casinos Pay him to just, if somebody's on a winning street

To go over and sit next to him And it just ends it It just ends their winning street No, but Charles, that makes a degree of sense. But we know how the market and elbows work. We've seen plenty of it. The way that the market and elbows demonstrably works, I am, is that they're really quite underwhelming.

The PM still hasn't come on the podcast, by the way. But anyway, again, challenges if he comes on. The market and elbows is generally pretty unappealing. Yes. Unless you're in a binary contest between a market for Scott Morrison's or a market for Peter Dutton. So if you really want to sell lots of copies of the Chase and you with Albaugh on the front.

Put it next to a book with Peter Dutton on the cover. Oh, I think, yeah. And so you've got to buy one of the two. No, but Dutton had that evil face. Like, there were lots of images. And also, you could always do the Mr Potato Head style thing. There was always a comic angle with Dutton. And Scott Morrison sold tons.

Scott Morrison did very well. Because you just show him in Hawaii. Hawaii, you can't write itself. Albo has, he actually has no good satirical angles. It's one of the great successes of his. I mean, Kevin Rudd had so many. Yeah.

I mean, the strippers. Don't forget the strippers. Anyway. All right, well, we digress. Kevin Rudd would say put Kevin Run on the cover. Yeah. So, no, no, but it's got to be, so, it's got to be about 2026. But the big story of the year so far is Iran.

Iran, yeah. Because I'm trying to think of puns on the Straits of Hormuz or something to do with. Will that still be the oil prices? See, this is the problem with trying to brainstorm a cover that's going to be on sale in six months time. You don't think Iran will still be wrong. Well, no, I think that. Trump and gold and. rubble will probably still.

What about Trump asleep on Epstein's Island? See what I mean? Oh, that's too in front of mine then? Is it not already off the oil? You reckon it's a nothing. I think it's already, I think people have forgotten about. Was that the point of the war in Iran? What about a World Cup soccer?

Well, people still remember that. Remember our one victory against Turkey? Yeah, it'll be the best thing in the air. What else is going to have? The other thing is to predict something that happens. Sometimes you can sort of know what the vibe is going to be. Donald Trump, when the trash Daniel comes out,

we're back to the Nobel Peace Prize thing. Yeah, it'll be, I'm not sure he's going to get it this time, but we'll talk about that in the podcast scene. Oh, what about Elon Musk? He launched his first trillion here. Yeah.

Should it just be like a front cover of a trillion, Elon Musk sitting on top of a trillion dollars worth of cash? New York Times did a visualization of how, much that was in dollar bills the other day. Yeah. The entirety of LA County, covered in dollar bills, is a trillion. If you stacked it end-to-end,

you'd probably reach Mars, wouldn't you? More successfully than SpaceX is going to do. Hello. Hello. I'm doing. Yeah. I mean, Trump's a safe bet, no matter what happens, really. Even if the unthinkable happens and he's not around by December,

I mean, it would be a nice way to pay a tribute, wouldn't it? Yeah. And maybe there's an in-memorium, because he can't remember anything because he's getting on a bit. Because he's 80. Oh, it could be a little like five-year-olds, you know, Trump memory game. Yeah, the Trump memory test. Like a sort of memory.

Yeah, elephant. Yeah. Elephant and donkey. Elephant donkey. Yeah. Can't remember. Yeah. Can't remember.

Can't remember. Yeah. A test. Can you remember any of these words? Epstein. Does you just be Epstein's face? Galane Maxwell? That's funny.

There's something there, isn't there? Yeah. Like a memory of a game? Yeah, it could be all the things that he's done, you know, that he's stuffed up this year. Is there a game like, I'm thinking like, you know how we did covers in the past, like based on guess who and concentration and sort of memory. I can't think of anything. Yeah.

I mean, visually I like Trump and Gilded, like Trump's sitting astride, the arc to Trump. What about something where he, because the other thing is what you used to do when your editor was, used to take the most popular book of the year. We often did. And I satirized that. The secret and the other secret. The problem is that people don't read books anymore. No, is there a movie?

Oh, yeah. Disclosure Day. The Avengers. Yeah. So that stuff works. Pop culture doesn't really exist any. No, it's been killed. Oh, what about an AI angle?

I was just thinking AI? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay, go on. What's the genius? A. Oh, gosh. The Chaser Report

Now with extra whispers See this is See we're giving listeners a taste of what it's actually like It's so painful It sucks Yeah because you just And the problem is There's thousands of listeners

Who are listening into this Who have a much better ideas Who have a much better idea Who is going to be so frustrated with this Bored AI Yeah Maybe I think the Donald Trump memory game is a good ad.

It's a good start. It's a one-pageer. It's a one-pageer. It's a one-page. Or two-pageer the little actually put the test in. It's a good thing to include. Yeah, but in Australia there's nothing except the Pauline. I mean, you could put Angus Taylor on the cover,

and people would honestly not know. Not know who he is. Barnaby Joyce. Barnaby Joyce. But he's not like... It's just not really... Wait until he becomes leader. Yeah, yeah.

Um, oh, this is going to be a great episode for everyone to listen to. Well, no, no, but we can, we can edit out all the space. We can switch gears. Because, uh, you know, like... SpaceX and the rockets and stuff. So, no, no, but what we're failing to do is we're failing to, um, recognize that this is ultimately John's responsibility, right? Yeah. So what we should do is talk about techniques that I can use to abuse John.

Oh. So that I don't have to actually... Now it's getting more Elon. Elon wouldn't have the idea. Yeah, so I don't have to rock up with the idea. I just have to say, no, John, all your ideas are shit and make him feel bad. And then it doesn't matter. Don't you think that's a better way to approach this problem?

Management techniques. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How to squeeze the juice from the lemon. And every time he comes up with an idea, go. Oh, really? Oh, you think that, do you? Oh, okay. belittle him.

That's what James. See, James Leffel would just have the idea himself. Yeah, I know. It's sort of vertically integrated. That's not the way the chaser works. No, no, yeah. No, I mean, the usual approach is to get about six people in a room. No, well, the problem is that Loughlin now writes for the shovel.

Oh, does he? Yes. How did that happen? How did you let him support three years? Well, I suggested that Lachlan was really good at things. And James... What? And James now gets him to help out on the shovel.

He really very bad at this management. Well, I felt like they needed a bit of a help, you know. Straightened to sack John, and he'll probably be very very very very... grateful and relieved, I would say. So we can't even ask Loughlin because he's now the enemy. It's crazy. I know. And he works with Chaz.

I know. All our enemies. Oh my goodness. All the bad. Yeah. Oh, my. So it'll be the midterms. There'll be the midterms in November.

When this comes out. Yeah, but it'll be so boring. No, but it'll be. I think the best idea so far is the Pauline Hanson, Alfredine Newman one. That you're given to. the show. Why do you give all of your... I love the assumption that you're going to have more good ideas.

It's just a just proven of this podcast. There will be. There will be a good idea. I mean, with luck, one of us have a good idea in the next three hours and we can put a little addendum onto the... No, that's something to happen. No, no, what I'll do. No, John will have a good idea.

He'll come to the meeting with some ideas, right? And then I'll claim that that was my good idea. And your hope was that, you know, I'd just come and I'd not even know what we were talking about it. I just have a great idea. Yeah, you'd have a great idea. and then I'd be able to walk into this meeting in half an hour, being able to say, hey, John, I've got this great idea.

I was just chatting with Dom. I'd reference you. Oh, lovely. A statue of Trump, like a golden statue of Trump in Washington, D.C. But that's, isn't that happened? That's in Mar-a-Lago. What about a golden statue of Trump? A sleep.

No, no, on the toilet with his phone and his hand. Like monumental. I feel like that's more of a chase. the style stunt, isn't it? Yeah, it is. And you actually... Do it for real thing. Yeah. Okay. But I'm just thinking like, Ian, because everyone knows that his greatest activity is just going on, true social at 1am, you know, mid-strain.

Yeah. But yes, like next to the, next to a render of the ballroom or the, or the arc to Trump or something. Yes. And I'm not sure, what's the caption? Oh, do you need a caption? Maybe you don't. Instead of striking.

That's what we did last year. We went full-on concept. We had a mushroom mesry. Oh, that's right. Aaron Patterson's mushroom. How did that go to it? How did that go to it? That went really well.

Sold like hotcakes. Well, sold like beef. Wellington. I mean, if she wins her appeal, Charles. Who knows? You could run something else for that. Okay, well, you've been no help at all. Thanks very much, Dom.

Now, if any listener has any good ideas, please contact me at podcast at tessorcom. I will not credit you. I will not credit you. I'll just take all the glory myself. But, no, no, I will credit you. But you've got to do it quickly because it's due at the publisher any day now. Great, being no help for this process.

We are part of the Iconicless Network. Catch you tomorrow.