8 attempts at chugger satire
Guest Blogger | 13 January 2014 | Blogs
Street fundraisers attract ire via just about every medium possible. There are torrents of rage on Twitter and discussion groups, abusive comments on news stories and blogs, and dedicated anti-chugger groups on social networking sites (which hardly ever seem to persist beyond the initial burst of communal outrage).
Radio phone-ins about charities wouldn’t be complete without a call from Mr Angry from [INSERT TOWN NAME], decrying the fact chuggers have rendered walking down his local high street a worse experience than getting the groceries in Aleppo.
You can even find this vehemence on YouTube, where some pavement crusaders without much else to do spend their Saturday afternoons stalking chuggers with their mobile phones hoping to catch one of them break the PFRA’s three-step rule.
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And yet this vitriol rarely translates into any kind of humour or satire. There have been a number of threats to make a sitcom about chuggers, but they have so far come to nothing. Whenever one off sketches have appeared on YouTube or Vimeo, they are quite often just not very good.
So UK Fundraising presents a run down of all the chugger sketches we can find, along with our star rating.
The irony in all this is that people demean street fundraisers as the stereotype failed actor. Many people producing these chugger satires are already failed actors; they just haven’t realised it yet.
Xtreme Productions – ‘Chuggers’
[Video no longer available – 21 July 2021]
Sub-Pythonesque homage that’s far, far too long without a single giggle. Still, probably allowed the writer/director to get something off his chest. Bet you can’t get through the entire 7’36”.
Rating: 1/10
Vibe Gum – ‘Chuggers’
[Video no longer available – 21 July 2021]
Two miserable gits try desperately to come over as a cross between Charlie Brooker and Pete and Dud with their forced faux outrage against everyone they encounter on the street, from ‘god-botherers’ to market researchers, but of course with special ire reserved for chuggers.
Rating: 2/10
Hot Gulp – ‘Chugger’
A ‘chugger’ really is a charity mugger.
Rating 4/10
Chuggertube – ‘Chuggers – the sitcom’
Five webisodes of a prospective sitcom – you can view them all at their website – that never got off the ground but the writers clearly new what they were talking about. Webisode 3 is even filmed in a pub where real live street fundraisers do actually hang out after their shifts. Had potential.
Rating 6/10
Laurence Owen – ‘A moment of your time’
Though the star of this music video is a street fundraiser in the guise of Clint Eastwood, the song is actually an attack ‘cowardly’ city types who consume their wealth put walk past fundraisers with disdain.
Rating 8/10
Scallywaga – ‘Charity Collections Techniques’
CBBC sketch show takes new fundraisers through their approach techniques. Would have got an extra star apart from flagrant breaching of PFRA’s three-step rule – how irresponsible for something that purports to be a training video
Rating 8/10
ActionAid – ‘Drive Aid’
ActionAid sends spoof fundraisers on to the street to make a point about biofuels. Notice how the three step rule is again exceeded by a factor of 30.
Rating 8/10
Lee Nelson’s Well Funny People – ‘Five minutes for the badgers’
If you want something done properly, you have to call in a professional. Note to all the aspirtant writers/directors: it’s only 1’09” long.
Rating: 10/10
“Chuck Kerr”
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