Hungry Beast
| Hungry Beast | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Andrew Denton |
| Presented by | Chris Leben Dan Ilic Marc Fennell Veronica Milsom Kirk Docker Jessicah Mendes Kieran Ricketts Monique Schafter Elmo Keep Daniel Keough |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 10 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Andrew Denton Anita Jacoby |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC1 |
| Release | 30 September 2009 – present |
Hungry Beast (originally Projext NEXT [1]) is an Australian television programme, which airs Wednesday nights on ABC1. Auditions were held in January 2009,[2] with the presenting team announced in September.[3]
Format
The show is a half-hour, structured as a cross between a current-affairs program and a sketch comedy show.
The ABC's TV blog cited some of the program's mixed pedigree (then called Project NEXT), incorporating several of the ABC's current affairs and light entertainment programs, as such:
"If This Day Tonight had had an illegitimate child with Countdown called Beatbox which then had sex with its first cousin Race Around the World, whose half-sibling The Chaser then had a one-night stand with its own distant relative This Day Tonight, the result would be the genetically explosive Project NEXT."[4]
Marketing
The programme's pre-broadcast publicity included perpetrating a hoax upon several Australian news agencies, along with edits to Wikipedia articles in support of that hoax. It is produced by Andrew Denton's production company Zapruder's Other Films Pty Ltd, and Hungry Beast's team were the perpetrator of the hoax.[5][6]
The hoax included a fake study and report on urban myths, to show the gullibility of media outlets and their lack of source checking. Two of the characters in the hoax were a Doctor "Carl Varnsen" and the "Levitt Institute". Carl Varnsen has been given a legend, and the fictitious "Levitt Institute" given a WWW presence, only in September 2009.[5]
The report itself,[FurtherReading 1] which reads like buzz word generated gibberish, even states on page 5, "These results were completely made up to be fictitious material through a process of modified truth and credibility nodes".[5]
The edits to Wikipedia included editing its List of Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich people article on 11 September 2009 ([FurtherReading 2]) to include a fictitious "Carl Varnsen", claimed to be a "Public intellectual and leading sociologist in Australia". ABC1's Media Watch programme observed that "Karl Varnsen" is in fact a one-off joke from an episode of Seinfeld.[5]
The report released by the fictitious Levitt Institute was taken up by Australian Associated Press (AAP), which was then widely reported in Australian and international media.[5] News services that carried the AAP report included News.com.au, NineMSN, Bigpondnews, and WA Today. One radio station in Brisbane broadcast an interview with a purported "spokesman" from the fictitious Institute.[6][7]
AAP became aware of the hoax on 28 September 2009. Reporters for the "Strewth" column in The Australian telephoned the number given for the Levitt Institute. The call was answered by Dan Ilic who bluntly told the reporters to "Watch Hungry Beast 9PM Wednesday. Thank you." and then hung up.[6]
References
- ^ Knox, David (20 August 2009). "Denton's ABC Project retitled". tvtonight.com.au. Retrieved 1 September 2009.
- ^ Knox, David (27 January 2009). "Auditions: Project NEXT". tvtonight.com.au. Retrieved 27 January 2009.
- ^ Knox, David (10 September 2009). "Hungry Beast team revealed". tvtonight.com.au. Retrieved 20 September 2009.
- ^ Project NEXT, ABC TV Blog.
- ^ a b c d e "Deception Detection Deficiency". Media Watch. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 28 September 2009.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|access_date=ignored (help) - ^ a b c Natasha Robinson (29 September 2009). "Scam within a scam". The Australian. News Limited.
- ^ "Denton show owns up to media hoax". NineMSN. NineMSN. 28 September 2009.
Further reading
- ^ Hungry Beast (18 September 2009). "Deception Detection Across Australian Populations" (PDF).
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Hungry Beast (11 September 2009). "List of Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich people (edit as of 2009-09-11T03:42:20)". Wikipedia.
- Paul Kalina (28 September 2009). "Appetite for a fresh take on the world". The Age. Fairfax Digital.
- Graeme Blundell (26 September 2009). "Enough rope?". The Australian. News Limited.
- "WA produces two Hungry Beasts in new Andrew Denton show". PerthNow. The Sunday Times. 17 September 2009.
- Adam Coleman (17 September 2009). "Creating a monster". Inside Film. Intermedia Group Pty.
- The Awl (29 September 2009). "Australians Will Believe Anything". The Awl. theAwl.com.
- Hungry Beast web site