TVSquad

It'll probably be a long time before Bill Maher is welcome in Australia. The comic is making headlines for dressing up for Halloween as the dead Crocodile Hunter, complete with stingray barb and bloody shirt. In its story about Maher's tasteless costume, the Sydney Morning Herald makes it sound like one-in-two Americans is going as dead Steve Irwin this Halloween.

Is it insensitive? You betcha. Funny? Eh. It's not laugh-out-loud funny, but more roll-your-eyes-and-groan funny. And it's not nearly as funny as South Park's reference to Irwin's death last week, which I thought was surprisingly tasteful and hilarious at the same time.

So... is the costume funny or not?

When I heard that Steve Irwin died from a stingray barb he got while filming a show on the Great Barrier Reef, I was wondering if the producers of the special actually caught the accident on tape. According to Irwin's manager, John Stainton, that's exactly what happened, and the experience of watching it was obviously not pleasant.

"It shows that Steve came over the top of the ray and the tail came up, and spiked him here (in the chest), and he pulled it out and the next minute he's gone," he told reporters in Carins, where Irwin was being autopsied. The ray may have been trapped between Irwin and the cameraman, say environmental experts, and that it shot out its tail in self-defense; there is no evidence that the Crocodile Hunter provoked the ray into attacking him. I would imagine that the footage will never make it to the air, but you never know these days. Hopefully, the producers will lock up the footage for good.

(UPDATE: This article says that, per Irwin's previously-stated wishes, the family will allow the video to be shown on TV. You know, I think I'll skip that one...)