Chaser skit 'didn't pass their own test'

The Chaser's War on Everything star Julian Morrow has said the sick children skit that banished them from the airwaves for two weeks didn't pass their own test.

Morrow admitted the 'Make an Unrealistic Wish Foundation' segment which made fun of a charity for terminally ill children crossed the line — even by their own standards.

"What really disappointed us is that it didn't really pass our own tests," he told Nine's TODAY this morning.

"We were trying to appeal to a darker sense of humour in a way that clearly failed."

He said one of the important things in judging comedy was acknowledging when it overstepped the line.

"We've come very close to the line, but this one was over the line," he said. "We weren't surprised that people were on the other side because we were on the other side."

The skit, which aired on the ABC on June 3, involved Chaser member Chris Taylor at a hospital ward for terminally ill children.

He asked what they wished for but only offered them a stick and a pencil case before announcing it wasn't worth sending them to Disneyland because "they were going to die anyway".

The program sparked outrage from the public, prompting in the ABC to suspend the program for two weeks and demote network comedy boss Amanda Duthie for approving the material.

Morrow said he did not agree with the penalty, saying it should not have been "a question of how many weeks off air" as punishment.

"We should have got straight back on the bike and started making the right sort of jokes," he said.

But Morrow hoped their audience would return when the show reappears on the ABC tonight.

"We hope that people will give us another chance and they will enjoy the show and take it in the spirit that it's intended," he said

"We've put together a show tonight which passes our own test."

Morrow said they had continued to shoot new material during their suspension and hinted at some material related to the shooting death of underworld figure Des Moran and the OzCar scandal that has embroiled federal MPs.

"Unfortunately it seems like fake sketches are much better produced inside the Treasury than at the Chaser office at the moment … they're really beating us on that one," he said.