Today Network duo in 4.15am ambush prank on female presenter
Three months after the death of British nurse Jacintha Saldanha, the Today Network has started to pull pranks again.
The Today Network’s Newcastle breakfast duo of Heath Piper & Lucas “Normy” Dorrell uploaded footage of themseleves ambushing new colleague Heidi Anderson as she arrived at the deserted office car park at 4.15am.
The duo hid in bushes, with Dorrell in a gorilla costume.
In the video, Piper says: “We are going to scare our co-host Heidi when she gets to work… to know her in tough situations. She’s going to get the scare of her life.”
Dorrell then leapt out as Anderson tried to open a door to the NXFM studios.
The prank comes just weeks after Southern Cross Austereo was forced to provide security for its staff over the backlash to the disastrous prank call by Michael “MC” Christian and Mel Greig.
After the prank, Anderson screamed, but quickly recovered her composure and was soon laughing with her colleagues.
After the death of the British nurse, the company said it was suspending prank calls, but did not make a ruling on stunts pulled on staff.
Heath & Normy previously did an evening show on Southern Cross Austereo’s Triple M and moved to NXFM late last year. Anderson joined NXFM last month.
Remind me never to support dolts like this in any sphere of my life.
Funny. Lone girl. Two guys. Early morning. Nice.
Grow up.
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its a cheap gorilla suit anon….maybe you need to exist in a cotton wool society…
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I agree with Anon. There’s nothing funny about scaring a woman alone in a carpark at 4am.
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Sigh….. not their fault really…. if listeners stopped listening to their thoughtless, humourless pranks perhaps they would go away. We’ve pavlov’s dogs-d them into this.
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Firstly, I saw this article advertised on Facebook and the picture above of Anderson is a bit misleading as at first glance she seems to be distraught.
The issue here isn’t about the hosts being immature or anything (which I wholeheartedly agree with), it’s whether or not it’s ‘too soon’ for them to be constituting pranks after the horrific incident involving Jacintha Saldanha.
Personally I think it was too soon for the network but considering it was just a bit of harmless fun (and the major factor in that they new how Anderson would react) for everyone involved, it was fine
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I once hid in a bush and jumped out when a friend approached to scare her. I was seven.
Oh, how I’d delight if someone came up with a radio ‘stunt’ that’s a bit more creative than the hijinx of children. Extreme peek-a-boo, prank calls… ugh.
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So, the message here is that it’s ok to stalk and jump out at women in dark places in the small hours? Well done, guys.
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This is an absoute non story. Radio pranks have happened since the dawn of time. Eagle eyes on Austereo on creating a public crisis over nothing really isn’t achieving anything.
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these “stunts” are the harlem shake of radio – so over!
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Wow. Such innovative entertainment. Truly groundbreaking.
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4.00am. Deserted carpark. Woman alone. Why bother with the monkey suit? Just dress up as the rapist you were pretending to be?!?
Fucking stupid.
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Must be a slow news day in media. But wait of course if it involves SCA then as petty as it is it’s news worthy.
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Perhaps next time they could do a prank that works on radio.
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THIS IS NOT NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!
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as long as no one dies its okay then
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Like the stunts in Canberra to turn voters around, will not work
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People need to remember that radio stations have done pranks for years. Some can have the opposite or unintended response however it is all done to provide a laugh for listeners I’m sure many people thought the nurse phone call prank was funny at the time. However due to unknown production team and announcer knowledge the nurse was in an unstable state of mind and sadly took her life. I think the media and public many of who probably don’t even listen to these shows are always on the attack to scrutinise, name and shame as many as they can in an effort to up their own ratings whilst putting down others. It often effects more people than the initial prank. Yet no one seems to take that to mind.
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I live in Newcastle & these idiots make my ears bleed!!!!
They are unsophisticated idiots…. This comes as no surprise
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This is a good variation on the other pranks radion stations do….if it’s on a listener and they don’t give permission for it to air, then no harm done…if it’s a colleague and they don’t give permission, they’re not part of the team. It’s a fine line but pretty scummy to do it on someone arriving for work early in the AM
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I love Nick, K with their weak “it’s been done this way for years” defense.
We also had apartheid for years, slavery for years, women couldn’t vote for years etc. That’s not a reason to keep doing it.
These childish, immature, classless stunts just need to stop. Is it that hard to be funny on the radio ?
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1. They did it. Kind of nasty, kind of fun. Comes down to how it makes the targeted person feel.
2. They couldn’t think of anything more amusing, original, quirky to do.
3. The way they shot it is terrible. You don’t even see her see the gorilla.
4. They published it as part of their social media presence, i.e. this is how the senior people at the network with editorial control want their station to be perceived: bit nasty, bit unoriginal, bit crap.
Senior editorial control should be saying “nice try, guys. Come back with something that’s in the same ball park in terms of being out there fun, but is less nasty, more original and has professional production standards.”
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Austero are pretty bloody stupid to do this stuff given the PR backlash from late last year..
However, it’s really not a big deal and she wasn’t upset at all! Danger for Austereo is the way the media exploits harmless crap like and takes it right out of context….just like the way you’ve reported this Mumbrella, take a look at the headline and photo/caption – so misleading and trying so hard to make something out of nothing.
This is not news worth.
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I concur with Anon and other comments … not funny, not clever, not sharp and not going to make me listen to commercial radio.
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I would be ashamed to have uploaded this as “entertainment”. Cheap, childish, and ultimately an anti-climax.
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that one was a real knee slapper!!!!! awww those wacky guys at NX FM-LOL:)
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Is this womans day or mumbrella?
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Not need for fancy words or over the top commentary – it’s just shite.
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so this is what broadcasting has come to in this country
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B.O.R.I.N.G.
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It’s a pity she didn’t hit her two idiot workmates with capsicum spray or the like. I still struggle to find humour in scaring the cr*p out of someone, making a fool of someone or making someone look like an idiot. It is not real humour. Funniest Hone Videos has a lot to answer for too.
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So, pranks aren’t even allowed off-air now?
You bunch of fun police all need to get off your soapboxes and take a serious reality-check. So you douches have never pranked anyone before in your lives?? never made a PRANK call as a kid? never set someone up?
pah! I call codswallop if you try. It’s human nature.
By the time you lot are done with bubble-wrapping the world you’ll hopefully just miss everyone else, asphyxiate yourselves in it and let the world move on and have some fun.
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The class clowns had to get work somewhere.
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Unoriginal and banal, sure. But to say that it mimics the actions of a rapist is a bit much.
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Hey Nacho, nobody uses the word “codswallop” anymore, and they are not ‘fun’ police, they are the ‘lame’ police and in this instance a fine or at least a warning was well deserved!!!
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At least the gorilla made me feel like some chocolate.
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Mediaman, crawl back under your rock…
A fine or warning for a harmless prank?
You have a twisted view of reality my friend.
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I guess they were lucky they weren’t in America, she might have shot them!
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Just today I was remembering back to 1984, when a friend and I raced into a convenience store with Balaclavas and water pistols. We then politely asked for 2 packets of Winnie Blues. The same prank today would have seen us charged if not shot.
It’s 2013, and this is NOT funny anymore.
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I might have raised a slight smirk if she’d kicked them in the nuts in self defence.
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Nacho, the problem with prank calls by kids is the time and money they waste and how they get out of hand. I work at school and to receive a prank call at 3.20 one afternoon to say one of our 7 year old kids had been kidnapped on the way home…. Well you can guess the drama and heartache that caused. Thanks to great work by the police, the 15 year old boy who made the call was caught. He and his mates were trying to outprank each other hence, sorry, but no time for this lowest form of humour.
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Seriously, you lot will be the death of harmless fun…
We made prank calls about a refrigerator running… Not kidnapping.
You’re tarring the whole community with one brush.
STOP KILLING FUN !
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Bloody disgraceful, esp with Jill Meagher back in the papers, why do they still think this stuff is appropriate?
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*face*
*palm*
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I’m with Nacho
the confected outrage at this harmless bit of ‘fun’ is over the top and completely absurd
get a life, keyboard warriors – go and practice your self-righteous indignation on something worthy
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..and Mumbrella will you find something worthy to write about too?
i realise you bait these kinds of comments stream by kicking off the confected outrage but aren’t you supposed to be serving a slightly higher purpose other than just attracting eyeballs? or is media truly a business like any other?
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The real issue for Austereo is not that it’s not appropriate, it’s that it’s not entertaining.
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Why not grab her from behind and put their hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming?
Why didn’t they bundle her into a car and drive around the block?
Why not have a ‘joke’ knife?
If scaring women at night in dark carparks is funny, then they obviously didn’t milk all the yuks out of this joke..
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Deadset…
You lot are the reason we are headed to a nanny state. Freedom of speech is dead, enjoy your soapboxes until someone takes them from you. You’ll miss freedom of speech then.
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WTF … A woman arriving at work alone at 4.15am in the dark and an unidentified person (predictably male, and according to statistics on female assault, stalking, rape etc is a always male) charges at her wearing a gorilla suit.
When do you see female radio presenters dressing up as gorillas hiding in the dark at 4am outside a place of work ready to charge at a male colleague and scare the crap out of him? You don’t and probably won’t, ever.
Stalking a woman alone in the dark at 4am is not a joke. I wonder how these two radio jocks treat women?
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No Nacho, I’m agreeing with you.
Hilarious Men in costumes shouldn’t feel the least bit inhibited in jumping out of bushes in dark carparks to frighten women, because IT”S HILARIOUS.
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Dumb. Like their listeners. Commercial radio. What the hell is the appeal? Thank goodness for Triple R here in Melbourne.
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Bogans, they should be ashamed of themselves ! So should their listeners!
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Re: the above comment by “Mediahunter” – I didn’t post that, I was just alerted to it by someone else. I suspect it was posted by someone trying to be “funny”. Most likely from someone at a competing station.
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Hey Nachos – arrested development. It is not about freedom of speech -gorillas don’t talk. And If you think scaring a lone woman at 4.00 am in a dark car park on her way to work is fun then you don’t have a sense of humour. And if she hit the gorilla with a rock in self defence would that be fun? Thigh slapping stuff.
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My winged-monkeys are on standby.
If you ever crack a smile, I will send them on their way to sort it out.
Can’t have you enjoying yourself 😉
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I heard that they tried this trick in Oscar Pistorious’s house…apparently that wasnt funny though
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