The Chaser Report - Purge Pricing

Episode Date: March 15, 2022

Aleksa reports on a class of worker in Saudi Arabia that is in desperate need of union help. Meanwhile Gabbi presents her film review of 'The Batman'. Plus Charles and Dom take a reminiscent look at how far Adelaide has come since they were youngsters. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report. It is Wednesday the 16th of March. I'm Dom Knight, Alex Savulovic, Gabby and Charles Perth back with us. Hello. Yay! I'm back. Yay!

Yay! Don't all celebrate too hard. Dad's home. He's not home. He's still in Adelaide. You know what I did? I'm in Adelaide, right? Again.

You know what I did, which I've always threatened to. Hang on a stick. Didn't we talk about this yesterday? There can't be more than one day's worth of content of your trip to Adelaide. No, no, no, this is about Sydney. Okay, right. So as I was leaving Sydney, I turned to my sons and I said, I'm just going to go and get some milk. And that was the last thing I did. No, not the old milk adage.

I did. That's a proper thing to do that for years. That's so cool. That's hilarious. That's brilliant. They've now got proper, proper, you know, character building trauma. It's fine. for their therapy.

You're making them into great comedians. Yeah. Works out incredible. Yeah, it's good. And good firm, very good for content. They'll probably win a Nobel Prize out of it. They should be thanking me. Or at least best show at the Adelaide Fringe.

Like that would be won. Charles, any more reflections on Adelaide? Are you coming back or are you relocating there? I know people who've moved to Adelaide. Do we have to go to Adelaide if Charles moves to Adelaide? No, no. After yesterday's discussion, I signed up with Uber. Oh, good. Oh, good to you.

Makes sense. I'm now fucking making millions. So much money. I'm not coming back. He's the wolf of Rundle Street. I'm sure the surge pricing will continue even after everyone leaves in a week's time. You were saying yesterday, Charles, that there are no restaurants open after about 845, and that was my experience too. But there is one, which is that the thing Adelaide does is it concentrates things.

So we mentioned it all the events are in like a two-week period for the whole year. Yes. But also all of the nightlife is in one street. So there's basically Rundle Street turns into like the mall with the big sort of silver balls. It's got the posh wine area, all in the same street and the trashy nightlife area. I've never seen a busier and more disgusting McDonald's than 3 a.m. on whatever part of Heinley. Heinley, Heinle Street, isn't it?

Heinle Street, that's right. And honestly, when I went to say, I took photos, there was just wrappers on every surface. It was just completely disgusting. And so I found, I found, like, basically, I'm so confusing. There are people dropping beats in McDonald's. Disgusting. Yeah, yeah.

Grimus was just doing a gang sign. No, but it's amazing. Like, nobody, nobody in Adelaide throws their rubbish in the bin. Like, honestly, every single surface in Maccas had, like, chip wrappers and... What? So that is, that's the only place you can go. That's not a great story, but... On today's show, I'll be telling you guys all about the lovely, whimsical world of Saudi Arabia.

Oh, great. And I'll be talking to you guys about Batman because I'm filtered for content and I saw it on the weekend. So there you go. It'll be riveting. Good shit. Wow, way to sell it. All right. But before all of that, really well thought out content and one segment about Batman.

Here is Rebecca Dayuna Muno in the Chaser Newsroom. Climate scientists have praised the Morrison government following. a massive drop in greenhouse gas emissions due to petrol prices being too expensive for anyone to afford. This lack of action on the rising cost of living has been heralded as the closest thing the government has done to anything that could be considered climate action. Polling data suggests that voters are enthusiastic for the government's plan to make fear cheaper, as it will be cheaper to drown the sorrows of not being able to afford things like houses or petrol. or petrol. With one local voter praising Morrison saying that in a world of plague viruses, floods and wars, they are glad the Prime Minister is focusing on what is clearly the most

important issue. And finally, Scott Morrison has been criticised for mocking Anthony Albanese's weight loss on the Today Show following Albo's recent 60 Minutes appearance. During the interview, the man who gave himself a nickname in order to rebrand himself last election, told reporters that, unlike Albo, he never pretends to be anyone but himself. The PM later reaffirmed the assertion while taking photos of himself moonlighting as a tradie, hairdresser, welder, truck driver and leader during a crisis. I'm Rebecca Dana Muno from the Chaser Newsdesk, and I'm ready to get on the slightly cheaper beers next fiscal year.

Woo-hoo! I don't know if you guys know about this, but this week is a week for. the record books. Really? Saudi Arabia hit a personal best this week. Most people executed in a single day. They had a ceremony, I guess, much like citizenship ceremonies. You've got a bunch of people lining up.

And 81 people were killed in one day. At the same time? Yeah, well, I think, so from what I've seen, they do it with a big sword. So I think it's one by one. Oh, but I mean, like, in the same event successively, I can... Don't they do it in like the town square or something? It depends on the crime, I think. I feel like if you, so the way they structure it,

you've got people with deviant beliefs. That's one group that get executed. And then there's also allegiance to foreign terrorist organizations. Well, that has been a touchy subject for Saudi Arabia in recent years. I assume that's the people they pay. But no, I think what counts as a foreign terrorist organization in Saudi Arabia might be a bit different to what we would call foreign terrorists. It's not al-Qaeda, it might be, I don't know, CIA.

The Houthis, so like if you're from Yemen, you're probably a terrorist. Yeah, yeah, sad times. But it's interesting because it's a record, right, 81 in one day. Do you know what the last biggest execution was? 27. 67, very close. But that was last year. Last year.

Hang on. So this is being done with a sword, right? The method is a sword. So does the one person have to go through and cut off 81 heads? what would that do to a person's brain that's exactly what i was thinking better than the victims i suppose but yeah it's still it's still not great though because like you got more and more executions every year it's a it's a fucked job like you know i i'm starting to think like i feel for these executioners right i i care about workers rights i don't know about you guys you know big union supporter um but i think

these people are getting exploited like it's it is it's a massive sword it'll do your back in trying to swing that thing i i can't imagine how that works and then also they do crucifix they do do crucifixions as well. What? Yeah. Can you imagine lifting a human body? Like, that's heavier than a sword. That's, I just don't know what kind of benefits these people get or like if there's any

kind of OH&S. Like, is there, is there a union for the executionist union? I don't think so. So I was, oh, God. I mean, like, so I've been, I've been looking into it and like, because it is shocking, you know, their, their workloads increasing exponentially every year. You know, I keep breaking records. And I found a job ad posted on a.

civil services jobs portal in Saudi Arabia. Seriously. For an executioner. So there are no specific qualifications. It says no special qualifications I need for the job. Well, presumably women can't apply. Yeah, oh, sure, but that's for all jobs. Yeah.

But the main role is executing a judgment of death. That's in quotes. But you also perform amputations on people convicted of lesser offences. Oh, yes, because you take the hand off, don't you? Yeah, yeah. So that's the same job. This person is not just killing 81 people in a day. They're also chopping off legs and hands and, oh, it's just tiring, even thinking about it.

So they're categorized as religious functionaries. Right. And their pay scale is on the lower end of civil services. So I was trying to look up like what's... But do they get productivity bonuses? Like, they've been doing really well. Do they get paid like an extra... You'd think 81 in a day, you'd get...

Yeah, you should get some sort of bonus for that. Yeah, like at least a Christmas. I mean, I don't think you actually get many bonuses because... they put up this ad when demand started increasing. So I don't think they're giving bonuses to executioners. They're just trying to flood the market with more executioners to keep the rates down. So have you thought of applying? Well, like my wrist is like really bad.

I'm not like, yeah. I mean, I do eat meat. I'm not against like killing things. I just never, yeah, I don't know. I never really saw that as my trajectory. And also the pace sucks. It's interesting that the pay sucks. Yeah, well, it's on the lower end of the civil service pay scale.

I was looking at, like, what are the lower end civil service pay jobs in Saudi Arabia? Like, it's around the point of, like, a receptionist or, like, a government laundry worker. There's a lot of white linen in Saudi Arabia. That's also a fucking hard job. Well, presumably the execution has cracked quite a lot of work. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Supply and demand. Haven't they caught up with the modern world?

I mean, obviously they haven't. But surely this should be another case for the gig economy. You don't need a full-time executioner who also does amputations. What you need is just a bunch of amateurs with their own equipment who you call in VARAP and they need it. So you wouldn't have the big sword. They might have to use a heavy knife or a cleaver or probably just something blunt. Probably just like a rusty knife that doesn't got much use. But it doesn't matter about the quality of the experience or anyone's safety.

What matters is saving costs. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, in that sense, you could just have the people who need to be. killed sign up as Uber drivers and they'll just die on the roads themselves. That would take care of itself. But if you're having a sort of executioner app, wouldn't there be a problem with surge pricing? Like suddenly there's 81 people to kill in a day. There's only like three executioner.

Yeah, scourge pricing. Yeah. Yeah. Scourge. Purge pricing. Perge pricing. Yeah. You know, like, and then it would actually end up costing more.

Because isn't that the whole point? That's true. You couldn't do it. one in a day. You'd have to split it out. The Chaser Report. More news. Less often. Do we ever sting like Gabby's film Corner?

No, we don't, because I'm probably only going to do it this once. Funny female films. It's awful. I hate female. Feminist icon films. Yeah, no. I saw Batman on the weekend. Oh, yeah?

Yeah, the new one. There's another one? Yeah. The 50 millionth. of the Batman films. Thank goodness they dare to tackle that on the screen. This is the bit. Yeah, the only one.

Yeah. Yeah, because, like, I mean, I just went with my roommates because we haven't really actually, we've been living together for a year and we had never done like a roommate hangout. You'd never actually hanged out outside the house. Yeah, because COVID affected our roommate dynamic. So we went on a little roommate trip and, yeah, I decided to use my Dund to Discover voucher on a Batman ticket.

So it was pretty sick. Whoa. We still got those. Yeah, they're valid until July. So definitely get work. If you guys want to go see Batman, you can do it for an extra, well, only for $5. Thanks, Matt Kane. Yeah, thanks.

But anyway, I saw it, saw our Pat's Batman. And it's funny, because, like, the only other Batman I've ever really seen, I've seen, like, a couple of the earlier ones, but I don't really retain any of that information. The only one that I've seen and can retain is the dark night. So it's always, like, a bit of a, you know, is it going to be better than this one kind of thing? Yeah. I very much buy into that hype. But I thought it was good. I thought it was a good movie.

It's three hours long, but I thought it was good. Did it need three hours? I will honestly tell you it didn't feel like three hours long. What? When I was in the theatre, yeah, it didn't feel like... Were you late? No, I watched all of the trailers and everything. I saw the trailer for Doctor Strange and like a bunch of other stuff got pretty hype.

Wait, Doc, every single movie is a fucking superhero movie. A lot of them are, yeah. Well, I mean, a lot of the ads for the superhero movie come up for the... Oh, capturing superhero movies. Yeah. But, yeah, I saw that and I saw the ad for Morpheus, Mobius, Moab, Jared Lido. Anyway, but anyway, it was a really fun. Three hours. I had a great time.

Okay. Well, this has been a great way to end the episode. Thank you, Gabby. Yeah. The only thing is, I've got to say, the Riddler's been a bit defabulous. The Riddler? Yeah, because if you've seen the original Riddler, well, the original Riddler... From that, like the Adam West TV show? No, no, no, no. The most iconic portrayal, the 1995 Jim Carrey adaptation of the Riddler. That movie's called The Riddler, as far as I'm concerned. But basically, I have a theory that Jim Carrey could play the current Riddler, but Paul Dano could not play the a 95 riddler.

There's no way. Right. Yeah. But the ridler was terrifying in this film. Absolutely terrifying. Bone chilling. And I just never saw that coming because the last time I saw the ridler who's in a green morph suit just doing like jazz hands and shit.

I saw some pictures. He's got like a gimp hood. How do you make that terrifying? It's horrifying. It's green spandex with like question marks. Like does he make you laugh to death when he attacks you? I mean, in some places you laugh because you're scared. Like he is great.

But I got to tell you, this movie is not a superhero movie. It's a crime movie. It's a thriller. It's like a crime. I think that's why I liked it so much because I don't like the superhero movies that are super superheroy, if that makes sense. Unless they're Spider-Man

because then I just get to have a great time for two and a half hours. But yeah, it's like it's a crime thing. And I think the thing I can't ever get past with Batman, as much as I like the movie, my favorite thing about all Batman films is that the entire city of Gotham just accepts that there's a man

dressed as a bat saving people. Like if that happened in real life, you're telling me that we would all just embrace this dude. You know what? If it was in Lismore, more of the past of the weeks, fucking yes. Yeah, I suppose. The guy in the bat saving people, absolutely fine.

Also, Batman's a bloody billionaire. Like, if Jeff Bezos dressed up as a bat, no one would bat an eyelid. No, I suppose, but would you want him saving you? No, but I wouldn't have a choice. Yeah, I suppose that's true. There are so many things about Batman that I find interesting. Because, like, okay, he makes the suit. He's billionaire.

He decides, I'm going to be a vigilante. And at that point, I mean, how do you even get to that point? I suppose becoming an orphan is sort of one way to do it. But then he's like, okay, I'm going to make a suit. I'm going to costume design. and he decides bat. And then he's like, you know what this helmet needs? Two completely non-functional bat ears.

If you're going to put bat ears on a helmet and you're going to be a vigilante, make them knives. I don't understand why he hasn't... Or like, you know, like... Superhearing like bats. Yeah, actually give them purpose, but instead they're just stupid points on the top of his mask. Well, this is good news because I would have thought

that after this... In fact, before this latest movie, we did not need any more Batman movies. Yeah. But you've found a niche. It's good. I think it's good. Although I will say, again,

You know, you get to the end of the three hours and you realize that this is actually a film about a white billionaire learning the importance of empathy because he starts the movie being like, you know, I am vengeance, all that shit. And then at the end of the movie, he's like, I could be hope. And you're like, oh, you learn to care about the average person.

Good for you. I mean, I don't mean to give away the movie, but that's like the plot of all of them, isn't it? I still think that's a disgusting thing. Like, I think all these superhero movies are such reactionary filth. It's all about, like, this one individual who's super privilege, either they're rich or they've been bitten by some fucking spider or something. And, like, it's about them dominating society.

Like, it's like, I'm... Like, who chose you? And everything functions more or less perfectly apart from these inexplicably evil people. And then, like, this magic guy comes and saves it. Like, that's not how anything works. Yeah. And, like, Bruce Wayne isn't magic. He just has the magic power and money.

Why don't they have a movie where lots of people get together and solve the world? problems through collective action mechanism over several years they have that movie that movie exists you know what it's called

bugs life oh that's a movie that's a movie about collaboration right there and fighting the forces of people as a team I will say though also Wolf Warrior

Chinese movie from 2015 also about working together as a team to fight evil the Avengers fuck the one thing I walked away from though thinking was I was like so impressed with myself that I got the whole film like

I understood the movie I got everything and I think I was like God I finally hit a point where the Batman films don't feel slightly inaccessible to me and then it was revealed to me that the only other Batman film I retained the information from Dark Knight that's a sequel yeah so the whole time I've been watching that film I've been watching that film for 13 years and the whole time I'm like oh it's just so complex I just don't understand it no I didn't get all the references because I haven't seen the first fucking Batman film in that trilogy. So there's all this stuff happening and I'm like, I don't know why this is happening, but I get

it. No, I just have to watch the first one. I thought it was dumb for 13 years. I just thought it was like, oh, it's just too much. It's a boys thing, Gabby. It's a boy movie. I'm just not complex enough to understand it. No, it just didn't have a whole extra two and a half hour film of information before seeing Heath Ledger's Joker.

Oh my God, stupid. Stupid. Our gear is brought to by road microphones and we're part of the A-Cars creator network. And if you've been bitten by radioactive spider, I'd probably just call the poison hotline or something. It's definitely not going to make you be able to fly or shit. It's probably just going to kill you. So just, you know, go get that checked.