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I don't know where the dodgy Chavs went and I'm not sure I care - but I suspect they all became even dodgier builders and mini cab drivers. But I like Stormzy and I'll buy into the argument that the people that replaced the Chavs were a bit more focused and self aware.
My school was probably like 75% chavs. I remember them all stood round a computer in IT watching Devvo, saying how much of a legend he was because they didn't realise he was satirising them 🤣
Yeah definitely. I'd bet a ton of people from the US know basically nothing about it. I've heard the word chav but had no idea what it meant. Pretty interesting stuff.
This isn't really representative of the whole of The UK, this is mainly about London. The North of England is very different from that southern cunt hive!
The acronym definitely came after the word. As a kid in Doncaster "Charver" and "Chav" were just friendly words they would call each other. "Now then Chavvy how ya doin'?" etc.
Interesting, I grew up in Leeds around the time people started identifying as chavs so never really gave much thought to the words entomology as I always assumed it was an invention by the media - you not only entertain but educate too - cheers for all the content over the years you've been a huge influence.
My experience with chavs as a teenager was horrible, I was beaten and bullied continuously as I was different ( goth ), I've never truly got over how badly I was hurt and made fun off. I don't miss them at all....
@@kraanz naw goth is still cool, black looks good on damn near everybody and theres a bunch of subcultures of goth where theres a style of it for everyone.
We still have Chavs around, especially in the further reaches of England, Like Devon and such. I think the whole thing with demonising and everything with Chavs also didn't help that people made TV Shows like "The Jeremy Kyle Show" allowed people to portray them self in a bad and demeaning manner. I feel like the Death of TV for the internet age played a big part in the removal of what used to be a very big thing in the UK.
At the same time the Chavs showed up in the UK, the Gopnik culture was happening in East Europe and Russia. Although Gobniks were a result of the breaking up of the USSR, its strange that both Gobnik's and Chavs with different origins happened at the same time and also seemed to disappear at about the same time.
Yeah its interesting, it seems like most countries had a version of tracksuit wearing aggressive types, here in Poland we call them "Dres" which literally just means tracksuit, and it pretty much overlapped with british chavs and russian gopniks - hardbass/bad rap, expensive sports clothes, will mug you for no reason etc. I also think chavs, gopniks and so on had a lot to do with aggressive football fans, I feel like there was a lot of overlap between those groups, but now I dont think that many people watch football anymore and there are way less aggressive football fan fights. This might be the common link between the subcultures and why they died out
There are still millions of em' around... wearing 'designer' gear, Nike Air Max, tatoos, vaping, 3 JD bags on their back... unfortunately, a Chav doesn't know they're a Chav
@@jadedwitness9840 sure Chavs still exist if you just mean Council Housed people in trackies. But the sub-culture is barely there - those types of people are now roadmen, as Jimmy says. Or they might be Essex boys, D&B or garage ravers. Heck even hooligans are coming back from the dead.
You forgot to mention how in the 2000s chavs would attack Goths, emos and moshers, literally killing them in at least one case; Sophie Lancaster . It was terrifying for me and my friends. Anyone who wore black or had the "wrong" piercings were targeted. My sister still feels anxious when she sees a person wearing a shell suit. I'm so grateful that chavs are pretty much gone!
This was my experience as a teenager as well in Australia. Me and my friends could not go to a single party without one of these pieces of shit getting violent and sending one of us to the ER. Horrible culture and im glad kids can grow up these days adopting some ridiculous subculture like being a furry or something for a couple of years before growing up, and be left in relative peace.
Seriously it was a terrifying time. I got beat up at least once a week and I had to witness a close friend get stomped into a 2 month hospital stay where he came out interlectually disabled. That was a couple years before Sophie (rip) I'm now in my 40s and I still solely drink in rock/metal pubs and don't really mix with people not of my kind.
I never understood the sticking up for the chavs because they are “working class” thing. For one have you ever seen a chav working? And two: You don’t have to behave that way just because you are working class
Actually, yes, I did see chavs working back in the day. Quite a few of them were builders, joiners, decorators and mechanics. I went to college in the early 2010's and literally the only people who were on the courses for those professions were chavs. Well, apart from the mechanics course, I think there was a few alternative kids on that, but they probably got the p!ss taken out of them by the chavs constantly.
Here most of us working class types are the punks, goths and metalheads (alt folks). We all got older, had kids, got married, still loving the music. Still wearing black and going to see local shows. Yeah we'd rock somebody's shit for "happy slapping " but us American folks are a lot less forgiving than our British friends.
It's not that we're sticking up for genuine troublemakers or people that choose to be unemployed because they're lazy. The "chav defenders" are actually criticising the way hatred for chavs demonised the working class in general, it promotes the idea that poverty is a necessity in society as there are people who refuse to work and are beyond saving. There is a book called Chavs by Owen Jones which researches this in depth, it's really eye opening
Too much self awareness, you probably never really were a chav. Being a chav is terminal I am afraid. Nobism is more like it, you seem to have recovered.
Yeah we grew up…got out of prison and moved on with out lives and became something new. But believe me…you best treat 50 year old working class men with caution…..Cos we’re still chavs deep down!!!😉😁😂🇬🇧
Its like what happened to the skinheads...they were a scourge throughout the 80s and just mostly disappeared in the 90s...blame rave culture and ecstasy
Chavs and neds are still 100% with us despite what youtubers and guardian journalists want to tell you, they just switched out the burbery for all black clothes form sports direct.
Am from Glasgow was a Ned growing up and can agree you still get little neds or wannabe roadmen now about Glasgow etc the murders have actually stopped since the housing schemes got tore town lol most grow up the nonsense a lot younger now as well
Exactly 100% changing fashion sense, and the changing ethnic demographics of multicultural Britain simply made ppl more sensitive about using the term . Its reflected in how MLE has spread rapidly from when i was growing up. Im from an area in surrey . Chavs were everywhere, had their dress code, behaviour and slang. All thats changed since then is the slight changes to dress , evolution of slang and of course the changing ethinic demographics .Chavs" are still very much with us. They still wear hoodies , they still have jewellery , they're still loud and obnoxious but now we're sensitive about it to the frustration of residents that live in areas where they are terrorised by it. But it can't escape the news as knife crime is rife in the UK , gang culture hasn't vanished and instead of listening to music like garage , the youth of today listen to drill .
We had a really similar thing in most of Easter Europe, especially Ukraine, Belarus called Gopnik or Gopniks, which were essentially the same thing. Basically huge dickheads who were in everywhere. Extremely loud obnoxious and usually loud. In the worst case they might actually attack you or steal something from you
@@SnarkyRC Even though I did not know the term gopniks, I knew that they abounded in Russia as the squatting slav always reminded me of a posing chav. Chav is close to the Portuguese for keys, which is 'llaves' in Spanish, which is the root base item of a working man across all of Europe. The song of working parents may not have riches but usually the keys to a home. Llaves is pronounced "ja/yaar-vez", which is like laughing "yes you, yes you in Spanish". -Av is the Latin root for Avis or a bird - and Chavs in the UK call their female friend their "bird". So, the working man, or the Gopnik, or the Chav, is really the key to European society and unlocks the YES factor in European women. Once the chav has taken his keys and flown that bird of beauty in the sky, his pineal gland is filled with milk and honey. All of a sudden, he's not looking down at the gutter for Nikes to swipe off the public, but wonders at the sky for his place in civilisation. So, what I am saying is the Gopnik is really a matroishka. Inside of him lies the civil servant, the handyman, the councillor. They all disappear. I'd guess they become highly enfolded into the fabric of their town or move up the corporate ladder. The ones that aren't smackheads anyway. 😆😆😆😆
it always amuses me when people tried to say Chavs were the working class, they weren't, a lot of them had parents who sat on the dole, they were always a sub culture, uneducated unemployed and feral. they are still around.
Quite right, there's nothing work related about Chavs, a Chav has never done a days work in their life, so they don't deserve to be associated with the honest lot that are the working class, they have more in common with rich Tories who exploit the labor of others, both are social parasites in society it's just that Chavs never wear suits and ties
@@virtualworlds8081 In Australia they're called Eshays, they're also mis categorised as working class. Typically they're the result of multi generational unemployment, literally nobody works or wants to.
In Poland we have our own variation of Chavs called „dresy” (tracksuit) or „Seba” „Sebix” from name „Sebastian”. Chavs that are women we call „Karyna” that is just popular chav name. They also wear adidas head to toe. Children of Chavs we call „Brajanek” or „Dżesika (its like Polish version of names Brian and Jessica)
A Marjolka? :) Dziewczyna Sebixa, nosi dżiny biodróweczki na chudej miednicy i różowe staniki. Marjolka nie lubi jak inne foczki obczajają Sebixa i można od nich dostać po pysku. Jak tylko puszczą wózek z Brajankiem/Dżesiką. : 😃
I really appreciate how fast and to the point you are with the ads. Alot of my favorite channels will do their ads for like 3 minutes straight and it is so frustrating. You get a sub from me just for that
It's funny seeing how pretty much every country or society in the world has this exact same subculture. Chavs for the UK, canis in Spain, hoodrats and white trash youth in the US, gopniks in Slavic countries, cholos/reggaetoneros/etc. for Latin American in general. The superficial appearance varies a little, but all the basic traits remain extremely consistent.
i was some of a chav myself at school in Perú slapping my friend's faces for fun when they would fall asleep we were a group of face slapping friends recording our best slaps on video 😂
yep. just like chris rock said, there are black people and then there are n**gas. it's the case literally everywhere. it likely results from lack of education, bad parenting and being poor
Burberry actually increased their prices dramatically after the fad died out, not to increase profits, but to discourage the working class from buying Burberry. It must be a kick in the balls knowing 99.9% of the Burberry pattern seen on streets was market counterfeits anyway😂
That happened in Brazil among hoodlums with Lacoste and Polo becoming gang symbols. There were giant counterfeit alligators plastered everywhere, from backpacks to umbrellas. Totally ruining their market value in the process. Too funny.
I feel like there's always going to be that section of the lower class that's seen as rebellious and violent. Across the world they even have different names, like in Russia they call them "Gopniks" which refers to people who where adidas and drift around street corners in their Lada's blasting Hardbass with the windows down at max volume.
Rebellious against what? They're just lazy and rude. Just get a fucking job and stop causing trouble. Or accept your lame future with dignity if you embrace the lack of education and income.
@@lc6726 I grew up in a rough, working class area too and let me tell you something, some of the people I know from there are actually the smartest people I know, and I also know people from upper class/ aristocratic backgrounds who are dippy as fuck, being from a poor background doesn't make you stupid
In my opinion Chavs have turned into Roadmen, and the culture is slightly different. They seem to get more involved with dealing drugs and being in part of gangs instead of causing small crimes such as vandalism.
Ah, I remembered my sociology lecturer talking about this. Burberry became known as a working class brand and those with wealth didn't want to be associated with it. Apprently the company spent millions on branding to try and revive it's image.
I grew up in Switzerland and lonsdale was pretty popular over here and very expensive too, then I moved to the UK and realized that lonsdale was cheap as hell and only worn by chavs 😂 it was so funny to me. In Switzerland it was considered posh British imported fashion worn by elegant British upper class people, but in reality it was only worn by tracksuit wearing teen chavs 😂😂
The sociologist Bourdieu famously wrote about this, his analysis on how “taste” is constructed is so interesting. Basically, if it’s associated with the working class, it’s considered tasteless and tacky. It really is true when you think about it, taste and aesthetics are very subjective but there seems to be some unspoken universal agreement on what is thought to be tasteless, that doesn’t materialise out of nowhere
@@PointNemo9 Literally just a matter of time before China develops chavs who start wearing Burberry, and the cycle restarts! Maybe India next time? LOL
I remember a guy at school who was from a well-off family who thought he was a CHAV. As someone who grew up on a council estate surrounded by them, it was hilarious seeing this comfortable, privileged boy, who's parents bought him anything if he cried enough, walking around pretending to be a hard CHAV. He would speak like one as well until he was around his parents, then he'd go back to sounding soft and normal. Looking back, it's so cringe. I also always asked him why he'd WILLINGLY want to become something everyone hates. Not even CHAVs like CHAVs.
It's the same as the wiggers that try and act gangsta! I was born in a well off city and there were so many white kids trying to be wu tang! When I moved to the bigger city next door where there actually is crime and gangs I'd love to see those little shits from school try and act cool in the face of reality!
The logo thing started in the late 70s / early 80s - well before the 90s - with Mods and football casuals. A whole bunch of brands including Adidas, Lacoste, Fred Perry, Pringle, Sergio Tacchini, Barbour and yes, Burberry (scarves to cover your face rather than caps). All could be seen on and off the terraces.
I don't know if it's connected but the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous when it came out in the 90s made a big deal of the logo obsession as a new edgy trend at the time.
First heard the word chav in 1975, a group of lads i was playing football with called this lad who wanted to join in a chav, they told me he caused trouble then blamed everyone else, he stole from his mams purse even though she would give him money when he asked , basically he was a 2 faced thieving trouble making Ahole and yes he wore a tracksuit, the first female chav i met was in the 90s they were very much like the lads with supersize earrings and very loose if you know what i mean.
@@vanman757 Chav is a word that originally comes from Romani gypsies in England and means "child", you hear people saying "chavvy" too. In Scotland they get called "neds" too as in non-educated delinquents.
Chavs were my saviour when I was younger. Moved school to one my mum taught in but she was from a rough area herself so she went out of her way to teach bottom set kids cause she knew the struggle they faced on a daily basis. All the Chav kids gained respect for her and thus made sure I was alright, had people to play football with. Even gave me money for food when I was struggling without asking for it back. Never had a single person pick on me even though I was a weak skinny easy target, walked through rough areas without any trouble when others said not to. Feel sorry for everyone on the wrong end of them though they were nutters!
For some reason if you're on a chavs good side in school they treat you like a saint but if you have nothing to do with them you're like a foreign invader
very different these terms mean different things. Chav usually referring to working class white people who are stereotypical violent and wear loud clothing. while road men are attributed to mainly black African/Caribbean men and are stereotyped into organised crime selling drugs and actively killing people.
Chavs have evolved into roadmen. The whole style has carried into the younger generation. I still dress like a massive chav mixed up with today's clothes. I have a know people that still do all this. My sister is like this never worked 2 kids single mum. But this chav has grown up. I've got a job saving up for my house now at 28 (living at mums) most my boys cannot get out that circle some have some haven't, most of us dress in TNs tracksuits. We just grow up
Exactly. Fashions change, but the attitude is still the same. The middle and upper classes want to appear more grounded these days, so Chav'ness has just become more acceptable. My definition of a chav has always been an uneducated poor person, lacking dignity and taste, usually aggressive too. What they were is irrelevant.
@Rotten Cabbage bro I've been 4 schools got no GCSEs smoke weed like a knobhead. I will mouth at people but not for any reason also I will fight at any minute if its happening. But I've got a career to get on with
It's funny because the vintage Chav aesthetic is ironcially having a mini resurgence, but its actually posh southern uni students wearing vintage sportswear at extortionate prices. As someone who goes to raves in Liverpool these guys are everywhere
I grew up in Switzerland and lonsdale was pretty popular over here and very expensive too, then I moved to the UK and realized that lonsdale was cheap as hell and only worn by chavs 😂 it was so funny to me. In Switzerland it was considered posh British imported fashion worn by elegant British upper class people, but in reality it was only worn by tracksuit wearing teen chavs 😂😂
Yep, the utter cringe of it, the upper middle-class students are so desperate to basically cosplay and get in with the ghetto filty, it's like they have a fetish for it. Sick really.
I was born in 2001 and I remember chavs being everywhere through the 00's. All dressed in tracksuits/ bright colours and shouting "brap brap!" and "innit bruv"... Etc. I noticed it seemed like they all turned into roadmen around 2015 ish. Always hated chavs but seeing roadmen nowdays honestly makes me want chavs back (never thought I'd see the day where I'd say that).
Yup you get groups of teenagers dressed in tracksuits and balaclavas all up and down the UK now lol. There is a much bigger audience for culture that glamorises gang life now than there was during the chav era, when their main objective was to just get pissed and fuck about.
I'm 15 years older than you and I agree with you entirely. Roadmen are just extreme versions of chavs, dealing heroin and cocaine, carrying around knives and generally appearing bereft of any human emotion. Quite probably working for a gang "elder" who supplies them with puffa jackets, balaclavas and handbags (sorry those stupid little man bags they carry now). Whereas chavs though violent and unruly bullies at least seemed colourful, the world of the "Roadman" seems dark, harsh and depressing, like they have no soul at all. Suspect that many of them are beyond saving unfortunately.
In 2018, South Korea's rapper version of The Voice called SHOW ME THE MONEY had all the rappers dressed in chavy burberry fashion unironcally; hence, so many Korean streetwear fans were dressed like chavs and it was hilarious for ppl like me who lived in the UK before
South Korea, eh? I wonder if that had something to do with the fact that they really liked Kingsman: The Secret Service (i.e. main character Eggsy being a chav himself before joining the spy agency)...
@@jakmanxyom asia in general dont really understand other cultures. Such as japan still living in the 2000's dressing hilariously and having backwards fashion. They use braids etc. Asians are really fascinated with culture and fashion and do little research into it. but how could you lol
I find these discussions about 'chavs' so interesting. I was a born in 1990 and went to a very working class, inner city secondary school in the early-mid 00's. To me and my mates, chav was what we were the opposite of, we were working class, but we were deffinately not 'chavs'. In a very abstract sort of way we were rebellious toward that idea. As working class boys we didn't think about it as a question of class, more of a representation of lifestyle.
Yes there are a lot of middle class chavs as well as working class ones. Plus working class kids who weren't chavs. But it seemed to be the default tribe if you weren't in another one because the clothes could be bought in every high street & for less money. Other tribes had clothing that you had to go out of the way to find in side streets in the city centre or you made them yourself. The music is more accessible as well as it's what you hear on the radio first thing in the morning. The other types of music would be on the radio in the evenings when the chavs are watching soaps & crime dramas on TV or hanging around on street corners. Like being a square in the 70's.
Chav isn’t a class or a fashion but it’s a behaviour and attitude. You can be working class and be a polite, decent person with manners. Chavs are just obnoxious, trashy and ruin it for everyone else.
@@notmenotme614 So true. The clothes they wear are very common so worn by non chavs as well often before the chavs wear them. Hoodies are worn by moshers as well as chavs.
Ironically, all these people who are trying to respect the working class by not ridiculing chavs are doing the exact opposite. Chavs do NOT define being working class. Chavs deserve their ridicule because they are ridiculous.
i like this. I often hung around 'Chavs' in school because they were the nicest and rawest ppl i knew. Everyone in school was nasty and violent, so it wasn't a matter of "oh theyre chavs" it was always just "oh, they're a nob."
I'm from Los Angeles but my family is from the UK. It was very strange visiting England in 2007 where there were chavs everywhere. It was fascinating and sad.
Oh bro I got ripped off by established titles too! They don't actually make you a lord and they pocket the "charitable donation" for their own business. I found this out when I tried changing my title to Lord and they were like "yeah no, mate, you can't actually do that"
We also had 'chavs' in the Balkans in the 90s, called them chapci or chefurji. Usually they were immigrants from serbia, bosnia and croatia who were usually up to no good and mostly wore sweaters/streetwear, so i think this was a eastern europe type trend that spread to the UK a decade later in 2000s.
Don’t be stupid, this guy in the video has gotten it wrong. Chavs in the uk have been around for decades and wore this stuff before Eastern Europe abolished communism. The Eastern European’s and balkans copied/were influenced by this subculture, just like they copied UK football hooligan culture etc etc
It’s kinda funny with Burberry is that something similar happened with gopniks in Russia and Eastern Europe with adidas due to the fact that during the days of the Soviet Union adidas tracksuits were only worn by the the wealthy or celebrities most notable the Soviet Olympic team and a lot of their sports teams too which because of that adidas quickly became a status symbol
Man it’s funny that you yeah that, I’ve always saw Gopniks and chavs as being brothers that are thousands of miles away lol, a lot of the comparisons are crazy similar, they are the same group.. one speaks Russian lol
I'm from the US but was in England a lot in the early 2000s for work and leisure. And my travels took me all over the country to regional cities and towns, not just the London metro. There were Chavs everywhere, from Portsmouth to Middlesbrough, Birkenhead to Hull. Chavs were a scourge--the stereotype was real. As a foreigner they were endlessly fascinating to me, and occasionally a nuisance--I was certainly barked at, even had a half-full tin of lager chucked at me. Due to a change in career I didn't come back over to England until 2018, and yeah--it seemed like they'd entirely vanished by then. So to have this issue addressed just over a month ago by someone who's actually from there is great. The Chavs were utterly worthy of mockery, but strangely they were almost endearing in a way too.
I remember doing some shopping for my mum when she came out of hospital. I was walking out of the supermarket back to me car, pushing a shopping trolley. Some chavs were sat on a wall next to where I’d parked my car, and shouted at me “Ha! Been shopping ‘ave ya??” What gave me away? Chavs deserved the ridicule they got.
@@A5H_01 Nah, go to Facebook or Snapchat. They're still very active there. You get them on Instagram too, though usually female chavs. TikTok doesn't have many chavs.
I found you only yesterday and I’m hooked! You make listening to history so cool! Very interesting, well researched, well timelined and well recounted! Keep it up! 👌🏾♥️
Hey, Jimmy. I'm a big fan of your work. I do have a small gripe with your choice of advertisements, though. A lot like the "buy, name, and own a star" scam being run throughout the internet, this Scottish land one is the same exact thing. There are no legal ennoblements, no authorities, and it's debatable that you even own the land you purchase. I totally understand needing the advertisement money, like the manscaped ads and the magic spoon ads are real services with real goods that can be bought. But this one really rubs me the wrong way. I hope I don't see you trying to sell the Golden Gate bridge any time soon. I'm unsure if you're aware of the scam or not, but thought id do my best to bring it your attention. Love your videos man.
@@Old_Geezer The only thing your comment tells me is that you didnt actually watch his video. Did you miss the part where he stopped the video to place an advertisement for a company? It’s 2022, I have adblock. 3:08 is where his ad starts
I apologize. You're quite correct, I didn't get that far - his narration didn't warrant it. Seems my instincts were well founded though - most people will shill anything if it pays - discernment, principles and integrity rarely get a look in so I can't say I'm surprised. And you are absolutely right to call him on it. Again, I apologize for my patronizing remarks to you.
I just saw someone talking about this recently. Supposedly they looked further into it and it's a Chinese owned company that has literally nobody there to do anything with any land that they don't even own . I get sponsorships and such, but hopefully enough people don't buy into it that the company eventually goes away.
They're still around where I live. Same antisocial behaviour, tracksuits and manner of speech. They're even still referred to as Chavs. Sister lives next door to one who is constantly burning stuff for some reason.
They most certainly are. I pretty much refer to any rough sounding, acting and looking person as a 'chav', and they do not disappoint. It must be said.
Don't tell any middle class English, they think everyone from Europe is so sophisticated and cosmopolitan, and look down on our own working class. They don't realise that Jose or Juanita serving them at Pret a Manger are a cani and a choni.
I forgot about the "happy slap", they only tried it when in a group though. We eventually found out if you just run for one and dont give them chance to get wound up they would just leg it lol.
You could explain the 10 best ways to organize your stamp collection and make it interesting. You really are a natural at this stuff man. Always interesting and unique subjects.
This video ended up being a lot more nostalgic for me than I expected, I grew up and still live in an area of my town that was known for being quite chavvy and it's interesting to see how it's changed over the years. I think there has been a definite change to the roadman culture amongst the former chav demographic, part of this I think is an americanization of british culture that has happened over the years, with people growing up with more american media, (especially GTA, although its origins are british, rockstar and the GTA franchise are viewed as and present a very american culture, and are always set in America) it has had a strong influence. I think this is symbolized well in the chav's iconic burberry (a british designer brand) being abandoned in favour of american and multinational branded clothing. As for the "where did the chavs go?" question, I think it's down to multiple factors, one of which is the rise of social media which has caused a decrease in public loitering, as well as video games becoming more popular which led to people staying inside more.
Brilliant analysis and lookback. When talking about television shows from the era, I thought Channel 4's 'Shameless" did a great job of honing in on some of the Chav youth culture. It had a laugh, whilst brilliantly getting dramatic, relatable and, got into peoples perceptions of the lives lived in areas like its "Chatsworth Estate".
David firth was so a head of his time, each of his projects was so intense. He is the face of chav culture and Devvo will always have a place in my heart
Thank you for this, I've always hated the concept that Chav = working class. Chavs were absolutely a fashion subculture that demanded shitty behaviour as part of its aesthetic. I'd even argue that irreverence and pigheadedness was pervasive all across society in the early 2000's, whereas Grime appeals to the more political and emotive times we live in now.
The fashion has changed, but the Chavs have not. it's the lack of dignity, taste and basic manners that make the Chav. Not all working class are Chavs, but all Chavs are working class.
chav has classist connotations though & they don't disappear just by arguing that its a subculture. its interesting but you cant rlly gloss over how most people dont care and still just throw it around to demonise poor people. also leaves working class people wanting to be seen as one of the 'good' or acceptable ones which just divides people more. this country is so weird about classism lol how else could jeremy kyle go on so long
Ahhhhhhhh this video is such a nostalgia trip for me. My dad got happy slapped by a chav once, he angry throat punched him back and oddly it didn’t happen again.
One threw a rock at my dads windshield (along with other cars), so he pulled onto the side walk, jumped out, ran after, grabbed the chav, then started booting him up the arse while other drivers stopped and started cheering lmao. Worst car to target, a giant Maori dude.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I think most Americans think British people are like Hugh grant and we’re all posh and drink tea. When in reality it’s basically like this video. Drinking, drugs and fighting.
@@pointycapitals7306 I am not American, I live in Central Europe and somehow I always imagined Brits, at least younger ones like those in Trainspotting...
The kidaulthood series was my fav british movie of all time as a kid. Took me 3 days to torrent it back in the 2000s. And loved every sec of it. As a fucked up kid it really shined light on how life is over there for there youth like how I could relate to it being here in the US. Thankfully I turned my life around.
"how life is over there for there youth". How life is for them? They CHOOSE to be the utter scvm that they are, as if they're some poor innocents being held to ransom.
I think it's unfortunate how often the poorest people are often the ones that scramble for the luxury brands the most. I guess having fancy clothes makes them feel better about their situations? I've seen people save up for months just to buy one pair of expensive shoes or a designer purse when they really needed to buy food for their kids instead. My dad grew up with a mom that did that. She'd spend tons of money on herself and then have almost nothing left for the family. Often my dad and his sister would have to ask for handouts on the street just to feed themselves.
@@SirOswaldMosley. Yeah, I got more and more tired of it the more planned obsolescence was introduced. Soles that wear out in weeks aren't getting my money, and cars that won't go faster without an additional £1200 payoff to the manufacturer aren't my thing. When it went from analogue TV to flat screens it was worth upgrading your TV, but now it's somehow become expected that you'll buy a new TV every year for a 1" bigger picture, when the TV is already too big for the room and viewing distance. Capitalism has run rampant and price differenciation means nothing holds its value unless it costs more than the average person can afford. I just buy most things second hand lightly used, and pick up vintage bits and bobs that last longer and weren't made to fall apart the day after the warranty expires. Then when I can't afford anything at all, at least some of my stuff will still work lol.
In the UK there's a very specific and well documented reason as to how and why that happened. Liverpool football hooligans basically took over Europe in the 80s (well until they inevitably got banned obviously) but they pillaged places like Italy and France for the designer clothes and Rolex's and so on that weren't available in the UK. They started going to football matching in thousands of pounds worth of clothing. It had two effects. Firstly the police ignored them, which is very useful for a football hooligan and the second was a badge of honour that not only had their team conquered Europe but so had their hooligans. This kind of just caught on and Aberdeen, Spurs and Arsenal started along with Everton and apparently Man United and Man City who apparently used to actually all go abroad with Liverpool. It's one of the big things you hear about with haysel is that it apparently was more like an England match. West Ham and Chelsea and everyone was there. Anyway because football is the biggest subculture in the UK, designer clothes and the casual trend became fashion amongst the working classes. That said though I know a lot of CEOs and bosses of companies who attend meetings in Stone Island jumpers and stuff but they're all people who made their money and all come from the bootnecks and paras and so on, who tend to be more working class
I remember visiting Prague in 2013 and I met a group of girls from Yorkshire. They asked if I could guess where they were from, and I guessed Manchester. The response went like this “no, we’re from Yorkshire! God Manchester, they are well chav” 🤣
I remember my aunt bringing me a tracksuit from England when I was younger and she specifically mentioned that she wanted to give it away because of all the connotation to chavs made it very unfashionable. In the years after, I always saw a similarity of the gopnik culture to chavs in a way...and wondered if one influenced the other.
I just wanna say, I lived in a 900 person collection of homes around a timber mill in western Montana and even I knew what a chav was and that everybody in the UK hated them.
I was raised in Chatham (pronounced ChA-um, if you're native), and I'd say the word Chav began to fall off with the rise of wealth disparity in the UK and the dying off of the majority of the middle classes. More people have found themselves in hard times as the years have gone on and has been met with a rise in public empathy, as much as empathy can exist in British culture... also trends are subject to change, like, when was the last time you heard Cockney? I believe we are seeing a return to more "chav-like" behaviour in roadman culture as crime is rising though, and it will be interesting to see where working class culture goes from here
This is a good point. There’s definitely less snobbery now because even the middle classes are starting to struggle significantly. Nobody can afford to be snobby and we’re all in the same sinking ship at this point
Cockneys all moved to Essex, and changed that accent to what it is today. The end of chavs and cockneys is largely due to immigration - it's not only the middle class who "white flight" it out of the cities when they become too diverse. The ones who remain become assimilated to the various immigrant subcultures.
I grew up in Medway. Born in Chatham n'all. Chavs were demonised but looking back the worst bullies I had were middle class kids who could alwyas afford expensive shit. Actual "chavs" from poorer backgrounds weren't perfect but they never gave me as much grief. I also noticed this when I moved to Essex. The biggest pricks were mainly from middle class backgrounds and the poorer students people classed as chavs were more accommodating despite their flaws. Worst thing is that some showed clear signs of intelligence but never applied themselves, acted out a lot, hung around with a bad crowd (outside of school) and just never did anything with themselves.
I agree, I started to notice the "Chav" phenomenon die out around 2008 after the recession. It was like almost overnight "Chavs" had grown up and had to graft harder to make ends meet and had no time for either "loud" fashion or anti social behaviour. Plus as you mention the middle classes were starting to struggle as well, so 1. they weren't so snobby/judgemental and also started to dress differently it started to become cool to wear plain sportswear - I put this down to more mixing between working and middle classes since the recession, less jobs meant middle class, especially young middle classes started to work more traditionally working class jobs. I can see this trend continuing into the 20's as we head into a new recession / cost of living crisis, middle and working class fashions, culture, values and interests are becoming more blended together.
Can't lie chavs are the most nostalgic part of my childhood. This video is spot on and if I was ever asked for a comedic representation of chavs I will always suggest Ali g. Ali g is pure premium UK teen lad culture from 90s and early 2000
Ahhh, good old days of university. I was there, 3000 years ago....when we spent a whole summer actually following Jade Goody on Big Brother *before* anybody ever knew she would explode into this terrifying phenomenon. This video is grotesquely nostalgic... :'-)
They're called neds here in Scotland. You never see the old school ned/chav clothing anymore (still get people acting the same way though 😅). I did once see someone in a burberry baseball cap a couple of years ago and it was almost nostalgic.
They should be hunted for sport, utter filth the lot of them. Harassing scvm who try to act as if "ItNoMaFaultIJustHadAHardUpbringing". Pack of sx-offending rats.
Yeah. It's all black North Face jackets now and black skinny fit trackie bottoms instead of the old school baggy ones. I see loads of lads dressed like this around my area and I think they look boring af. No character to their look whatsoever. Interestingly, some skaters wear baggy trackie bottoms now. I guess it's been so long since chavs last wore them that the stigma has worn off.
i lived in east London for many years, from 2005 to 2020. Around the time of the 2012 London Olympics, sportswear exploded in fashion too, and active wear went from being mainly sold in sports shops to really influencing casual wear. It was everywhere in London. Agree with you about Grime but at the time of the Olympics being hosted in London, there was a noticeable shift. So it's more multi-layered than being solely the rise of Stormzy etc.
Highly disagree these early grime rappers started this fashion trend way before olympics then it stated getting attention increasing the influence also you had a lot of ethnicity’s coming into the uk creating a new generation that just adopted and adapted the style then drill music came into play and that completely changed the game also take into consideration social media stared popping off as-well which grew the culture more it started getting a much bigger attraction towards the younger crowd suddenly everyone was dressing and actions like road men even kids that grew up in good homes and had parents with stable incomes listen to drill music the Olympic might have played a part but this was mostly road men and grime/drill that grew the trend
I think a few different sub cultures just absorbed the chav sub culture. I had a chav phase that ended when I was like 14 when I picked up an instrument and joined a band. One you didn’t mention was UK Indie. I left school and went into college in 2008 and half the chavs I knew from school (after I ditched my chav phase) in the course of a year had swapped out their chav kits full of trackies baseball caps and fake jewellery for medium length styled hair that used to puff out in all directions, skinny jeans, flannel shirts and plimsoles. They weren’t listening to everything from 50 cent, jungle DnB to grime, they were now bopping around at live shows by Arctic Monkeys, MinusTheBear, Bloc Party and so on. I noticed that as a lot of chavs left school and either went into work or college they’d just grown up and moved into a new subculture that wasn’t so abrasive. They had further education and apprenticeships to worry about so weren’t all hanging out on the street with a bottle of white lightning (lambrini for the ladies of course) anymore lol
I was what was known as a "jitter". There used to be a rocker bar next to a chav bar and fights broke out all the time between drunk delinquents versus people smothered in spikes and chains. It would get brutal at times.
I think the main thing behind the culture change wasn't music or fashion, but the transition in how people meet each other. It went from people going outside to find all their friends to people only meeting a few friends via text.
Yeah, but for a few bucks, you too can troll everyone you know. do you want the land or making your friends call you lord? Also, it's the only land us Californians can own.
@@transpartylines3327 hey bud, his whole point was he doesnt care about the land and just wants to troll his friends making them call him “Lord”. Comprehension isnt your strong suit or a skill of yours huh? That simple comment just flew right over your head, yikes!
@@Keyser___Soze Why would they call him "Lord" it has no meaning and isn't real. buying this means you share a square inch of land in Scotland with 3000 other people who also own the same square inch of land. and BTW you can put Lord on your license without buying land in Scotland. Nothing flew over anyone's head but yours apparently thinking paying for this is worth a troll on your friends...
Damn good catch on that Skepta line ya know, them Adenuga boys been influential for sure... "From day one I said I was serious, then Serious hit the jackpot; People ask me what music I make, turn the volume up, cuz, THAT's what". Baddaman
ok, this might be a really stupid question and that's probably because I have never been to the UK, but wouldn't Rose Tyler and her mom Jackie from Doctor Who be considered Chavs? Just by the way they clothed and were shown as working-class people. And wouldn't that be a positive representation of Chavs? Because Rose was quite smart and ended up being kinda the love interest of a very well-respected main character. How were her appearance and representation covered in the media back then?
There's an episode (first of the 10th Doctor's era, series 2? I'm almost certain) where 'the last true human' steals Rose's body and her first exclamation upon awakening is something like "Oh great, I've become a chav!" in a very upper class accent.
As someone from Newcastle, the term Charva has been around as long as i can remember and i'm in my forties. I know it's a term that's been used across the North that stretches well further back than the collective UK media bed-piss of the mid 2000s and i'm fairly certain the emergence of the term 'chav' was a derivative of it that rather than a fucking acronym. I'm not a charva, but i probably could have been described as one back in the 90s and early 2000s. It's not something i'm ashamed of either. Scratch the surface and you'll see there's a lot of culture in working class communities, even ones that dressed in a way that doesn't suit the narrative of the time. In the North East, charvas were (and still are) the creators and supporters of a music scene that's as unique as it is infallible, it's creative and a means of collectivism that enables young disenfranchised youths to articulate the struggles of life... It also happens to be Spanish derived happy hardcore. Point is, this video is lazy in it's approach to 'chav' culture. It regurgitates a bunch of tropes about working class youth at a certain point in time. Here's some modern day charvas doing their thing.... ruclips.net/video/ERduHuuS7Yc/видео.html
I'm from a dead mining town on the edge of Manchester - they were almost exclusively called scallies here and date back to the late 90s. I agree with many of your points, but there was a working class schism here - working class families trying to get by and scallies. Chavs and working classes were demonised in the 00s but the stereotypes did have truth. There were scallies that were very much cheating the system, indulging in theft, vandalism and making other peoples' lives a misery.
I will say that at least in the North of England,, Chavs haven’t completely disappeared. Fair enough they aren’t wearing Burberry but I’d say that “Roadmen” are pretty London-centric (although we do have some up North as well).
It's hard to know the difference these days because they all go for that all black aesthetic with the essential North Face jacket. It's not like back in the 2000's when they wore all white or baby blue tracksuits with the gold striping on them. Speaking of gold, jewelry seems to be way less a part of the today's chav aesthetic compared to back then.
We actually had "Happy Slapping" way before phone cameras...it stemmed from a Tango advert where this bloke would run up to strangers and slap them with a big orange hand and say "You've been Tangoed" it was a really funny advert that naturally had all us kids running around doing it, ultimately leading to the advert being banned.
You missed the chavs vs metal heads thing. I was (and still am in most ways) a metal head and it was like an unwritten law that if a chav started on you it was game on. I'm amazed I never got shanked! Come to think of it they mostly backed down if you weren't an easy target and eventually ignore you altogether.
I was poor and clever but the 'alternatives' were a very small minority, they stood out massively and didn't stand a chance. I think regardless of your clan if you're not strong or geeky you're not getting out unscathed
We didn't have metal heads vs Chav's here in the states or in Mexico. Here it was Metal heads vs Emos. It was bad enough nightly news covered said threats or attacks😂
I have to agree. I grew up in the 2000's and I can say that not all chavs were bad. In fact, quite a few of them were actually decent when they were by themselves, but when they got in a group, there was that peer pressure there to act like a total c*nt. That's why I stopped hanging around with the other kids in my area. 99% of them were chavs and I realised that if one of them threw a brick threw someone's window or committed some other crime and I was seen with them, I'd be automatically grouped with them and I wasn't that type of person. As for roadmen, they're c*nts when they're by themselves and even bigger c*nts when they're in a group. What this guy said in his video about them not wearing luxury brands is BS too because I know for a fact they wear Gucci, Balenciaga, Moschino, etc.
I recently got into "The Thick of It" by Iannucci. And I would hear chav and asbo, and not have a clue what it meant. A big thank you from Florida, I'm now a subscriber.
That segment on happy slapping brought back memories. I remember back in primary school, I has this really old, tall, stern teacher and he started off an assembly with the words "Happy slappy" before going on a 30 minuit rant about it. mustve been 2004-2005.
I graduated secondary school in 2002, the year of Bo Selecta & Ali G. You really didn’t know ‘chavs’ unless you grew up in the early 00’s in my opinion; & despite newspaper reports, they definitely weren’t all bellends. Many just came from single parent households who’s parent / guardian was at work all hours god sent to put food on the table, or some came from really difficult upbringings. Being in groups with friends in similar situations just made them feel less alone. Wasn’t a ‘chav’ myself, but met what would be considered many through the college I went to when I was studying childcare, they had another course called ‘life skills’ there, they’d pay those attending £40 a week + travel expenses, it got them off of the streets from 8:30-4, & quite honestly, they were some of the kindest lads I’d ever met. They just kept getting in trouble, all egging each other on & influencing each other, but 1:1 they were truly some great individuals. I often wonder what happened to them & where they ended up.
@@ffffffffffffffs Nope. I know 1 of them ended up with his own mechanic business, married with 3 kids. Others moved away, but last I heard 1 was travelling & 1 was in full time employment with a little one. That was 10 year ago. So no. Not ‘prison’.
Good attempt Jimmy.. very complex subject. Fashion changed and with the rise of the internet, social media and popularity of online gaming etc, people stopped hanging around the streets causing trouble..
I would think not only is it people like stormzy and skepta influencing youth culture i also think that younger kids who were growing up seeing everyone hate chavs probably made them not want to become one so the new youth tried to distance themselves from that culture and look towards others who were doing the same
The gypsy word "chávè" actually really fits. In my country it's a word to describe unkempt, poorly socialised, usually neglected children, usually of gypsy descent. In my head canon this really fits.
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Chavs sucked but Devvo was hilarious
In Scotland it’s joks
They invented a word to describe any teenager who resembles Liam Gallagher?
I don't know where the dodgy Chavs went and I'm not sure I care - but I suspect they all became even dodgier builders and mini cab drivers.
But I like Stormzy and I'll buy into the argument that the people that replaced the Chavs were a bit more focused and self aware.
My school was probably like 75% chavs. I remember them all stood round a computer in IT watching Devvo, saying how much of a legend he was because they didn't realise he was satirising them 🤣
Textbook chav behaviour 🤣
Hilariously ironic.
In Australia we have a show like that called fat pizza.
Mine was 98%
Ariiiiight youuuuns..... You wanna boff some gasssss? Av just ad some gassssss
I myself wouldn't mind if you made more videos explaining UK culture like that, it is so known and yet so few people know the origins and specifics!
Yeah definitely. I'd bet a ton of people from the US know basically nothing about it. I've heard the word chav but had no idea what it meant. Pretty interesting stuff.
This isn't really representative of the whole of The UK, this is mainly about London. The North of England is very different from that southern cunt hive!
Definitely a killer topic hell yeah
ducken fo it. moar plz
What happened with chavs was we became roadman
The acronym definitely came after the word. As a kid in Doncaster "Charver" and "Chav" were just friendly words they would call each other. "Now then Chavvy how ya doin'?" etc.
Interesting, I grew up in Leeds around the time people started identifying as chavs so never really gave much thought to the words entomology as I always assumed it was an invention by the media - you not only entertain but educate too - cheers for all the content over the years you've been a huge influence.
Love your stuff David. Been watching your shit since the days of New Grounds.
same kind of thing in tipton, still get chavvys over these ways
That's enough from you, Margery Stuart-Baxtor!
Same in the North East “Alright Charver” was/is a typical greeting since before “chav” as it’s known now
My experience with chavs as a teenager was horrible, I was beaten and bullied continuously as I was different ( goth ), I've never truly got over how badly I was hurt and made fun off. I don't miss them at all....
The whole "goth" thing was cringe as fuck, you have to admit it =]
Not that it excuses bullying, ofc.
I think they still exist they've just evolved yk?
They're nowadays generally a mix of roadmen and chav.
no @@kraanz
@@kraanz naw goth is still cool, black looks good on damn near everybody and theres a bunch of subcultures of goth where theres a style of it for everyone.
Still a Teen .Yeah not a fan they are always shouting hurtful things when I mind my own business ,never been beat up though ,thank goodness
We still have Chavs around, especially in the further reaches of England, Like Devon and such. I think the whole thing with demonising and everything with Chavs also didn't help that people made TV Shows like "The Jeremy Kyle Show" allowed people to portray them self in a bad and demeaning manner. I feel like the Death of TV for the internet age played a big part in the removal of what used to be a very big thing in the UK.
they are just "bros" but in the UK.
@@beatles42ohgg94 Not even close mate...No where near in fact.
@@eclipsegfxable look up the song "parma state of mind" and tell me they arent chavs
@@eclipsegfxable okay, hell forze over in parma. but i bet it looks like chavs in the winter XD
@@eclipsegfxable chav is literally a local insult for people from parma.....
At the same time the Chavs showed up in the UK, the Gopnik culture was happening in East Europe and Russia. Although Gobniks were a result of the breaking up of the USSR, its strange that both Gobnik's and Chavs with different origins happened at the same time and also seemed to disappear at about the same time.
Yeah its interesting, it seems like most countries had a version of tracksuit wearing aggressive types, here in Poland we call them "Dres" which literally just means tracksuit, and it pretty much overlapped with british chavs and russian gopniks - hardbass/bad rap, expensive sports clothes, will mug you for no reason etc. I also think chavs, gopniks and so on had a lot to do with aggressive football fans, I feel like there was a lot of overlap between those groups, but now I dont think that many people watch football anymore and there are way less aggressive football fan fights. This might be the common link between the subcultures and why they died out
It's not a cultural thing specific to the UK. The U.S. has the same type of idiot, and still do it never went away. Often called "wiggers" here.
When i was on hollyday in Netherlands in the 2000s i saw alot of young people wearing simmilar clothing as Chavs. They were called Gabbers.
They've not disappeared, have you seen Essex, Berkshire, South Cambridgeshire, Hampshire.......?
@@kebab1535 well yes many UK chavs travel for the weed speed & gabber 😁
As per history, Englands social detritus was shipped to Australia, where they rebranded as Eshays
Bogans 😊
honest, spot-on that
@@abbeyjanegreen703 bogan is different from essay, although the two aren't mutually exclusive.
That's the one thing I was thinking, they may have died in England but they reincarnated in Australia and rebranded themselves as eshays.
@@abbeyjanegreen703 Bogan just means lower class and poorly educated, tbh, most bogans are absolutely tops.
There are still millions of em' around... wearing 'designer' gear, Nike Air Max, tatoos, vaping, 3 JD bags on their back... unfortunately, a Chav doesn't know they're a Chav
Especially the "Muslims/Migrants" Here in Germany - Gucci Tracksuit, stupid behaviour... 🤮
i know loads of them, work with a few as well. they defo don't know they are
I am an proud german one 😁
German word would be „proll“.
Chavs grew up... once they reached an age, they changed fashion, music etc. Different sub cultures came through.
As it always happens with subcultures since 1950s
As an ex chav I agree dude
I don’t know how you can live in this country and say such nonsense
@@jadedwitness9840 sure Chavs still exist if you just mean Council Housed people in trackies. But the sub-culture is barely there - those types of people are now roadmen, as Jimmy says. Or they might be Essex boys, D&B or garage ravers. Heck even hooligans are coming back from the dead.
AsBos did nothing more than create damn Rank’s within them all! 🙈😂
You forgot to mention how in the 2000s chavs would attack Goths, emos and moshers, literally killing them in at least one case; Sophie Lancaster . It was terrifying for me and my friends. Anyone who wore black or had the "wrong" piercings were targeted. My sister still feels anxious when she sees a person wearing a shell suit. I'm so grateful that chavs are pretty much gone!
Why are so many comments saying chavs are pretty much gone when they're still bloody everywhere?
This was my experience as a teenager as well in Australia. Me and my friends could not go to a single party without one of these pieces of shit getting violent and sending one of us to the ER. Horrible culture and im glad kids can grow up these days adopting some ridiculous subculture like being a furry or something for a couple of years before growing up, and be left in relative peace.
@@dannyg9625 hahaha eshay brah
Deserved what you get fake emo
Seriously it was a terrifying time. I got beat up at least once a week and I had to witness a close friend get stomped into a 2 month hospital stay where he came out interlectually disabled. That was a couple years before Sophie (rip)
I'm now in my 40s and I still solely drink in rock/metal pubs and don't really mix with people not of my kind.
I never understood the sticking up for the chavs because they are “working class” thing.
For one have you ever seen a chav working?
And two: You don’t have to behave that way just because you are working class
Actually, yes, I did see chavs working back in the day. Quite a few of them were builders, joiners, decorators and mechanics. I went to college in the early 2010's and literally the only people who were on the courses for those professions were chavs. Well, apart from the mechanics course, I think there was a few alternative kids on that, but they probably got the p!ss taken out of them by the chavs constantly.
Here most of us working class types are the punks, goths and metalheads (alt folks). We all got older, had kids, got married, still loving the music. Still wearing black and going to see local shows. Yeah we'd rock somebody's shit for "happy slapping " but us American folks are a lot less forgiving than our British friends.
Upper/middle class never made that distinction though- to them we were all chavs.
It's not that we're sticking up for genuine troublemakers or people that choose to be unemployed because they're lazy. The "chav defenders" are actually criticising the way hatred for chavs demonised the working class in general, it promotes the idea that poverty is a necessity in society as there are people who refuse to work and are beyond saving. There is a book called Chavs by Owen Jones which researches this in depth, it's really eye opening
@@AmyMarieJackson I don’t get it you had a whole class of people commenting crimes and being shit heads, no respect for chav
they're still around, but they now go for Inverted Guinness Pint look. Black northface jacket and grey nike joggers.
Inverted Guinness pint look🤣🤣🤣
I was a chav. I grew up, got a job and realized I was being a nob. Maybe the same thing happened to others.
Nope, self awareness is not allowed in this sub culture.
Same story
Too much self awareness, you probably never really were a chav. Being a chav is terminal I am afraid. Nobism is more like it, you seem to have recovered.
@@kayakMike1000 Yeah, maybe lol.
@@matthewjames5090 still sporting the billy hat though 😉
I think the theory that explains it the best is that they simply grew up, they didn't just disappear it was a generational thing
What you mean grew up, there are still plenty of football fans...
Believe me, there are elderly chavs.
They got phones, and all the pubs closed. Now they mostly drink at home on their own while making tiktoks.
Yeah we grew up…got out of prison and moved on with out lives and became something new. But believe me…you best treat 50 year old working class men with caution…..Cos we’re still chavs deep down!!!😉😁😂🇬🇧
Its like what happened to the skinheads...they were a scourge throughout the 80s and just mostly disappeared in the 90s...blame rave culture and ecstasy
Chavs and neds are still 100% with us despite what youtubers and guardian journalists want to tell you, they just switched out the burbery for all black clothes form sports direct.
Oh yes, im in high school right now and so many chavs still exist
Am from Glasgow was a Ned growing up and can agree you still get little neds or wannabe roadmen now about Glasgow etc the murders have actually stopped since the housing schemes got tore town lol most grow up the nonsense a lot younger now as well
Exactly 100% changing fashion sense, and the changing ethnic demographics of multicultural Britain simply made ppl more sensitive about using the term . Its reflected in how MLE has spread rapidly from when i was growing up. Im from an area in surrey . Chavs were everywhere, had their dress code, behaviour and slang. All thats changed since then is the slight changes to dress , evolution of slang and of course the changing ethinic demographics .Chavs" are still very much with us. They still wear hoodies , they still have jewellery , they're still loud and obnoxious but now we're sensitive about it to the frustration of residents that live in areas where they are terrorised by it. But it can't escape the news as knife crime is rife in the UK , gang culture hasn't vanished and instead of listening to music like garage , the youth of today listen to drill .
they're called roadmen now
roadmen are something entirely different and a good deal more dangerous@@sodium7127
Chavs are still rampant mate, if you aint seeing em its because you're in a nice area. let that sink in.
This is true , it's like the chavs have all absconded to the housing estates nowadays , take a stroll through one and you will see
We had a really similar thing in most of Easter Europe, especially Ukraine, Belarus called Gopnik or Gopniks, which were essentially the same thing. Basically huge dickheads who were in everywhere. Extremely loud obnoxious and usually loud. In the worst case they might actually attack you or steal something from you
@Ben B Artist You know the slavic word. Props to your cultural nouse.
Gopniks are everywhere especially, Ukraine and Russia
Even though they speak completely different languages gopnicks and chavs still manage to sound the same
@@SnarkyRC Even though I did not know the term gopniks, I knew that they abounded in Russia as the squatting slav always reminded me of a posing chav.
Chav is close to the Portuguese for keys, which is 'llaves' in Spanish, which is the root base item of a working man across all of Europe. The song of working parents may not have riches but usually the keys to a home. Llaves is pronounced "ja/yaar-vez", which is like laughing "yes you, yes you in Spanish". -Av is the Latin root for Avis or a bird - and Chavs in the UK call their female friend their "bird".
So, the working man, or the Gopnik, or the Chav, is really the key to European society and unlocks the YES factor in European women. Once the chav has taken his keys and flown that bird of beauty in the sky, his pineal gland is filled with milk and honey. All of a sudden, he's not looking down at the gutter for Nikes to swipe off the public, but wonders at the sky for his place in civilisation.
So, what I am saying is the Gopnik is really a matroishka. Inside of him lies the civil servant, the handyman, the councillor. They all disappear. I'd guess they become highly enfolded into the fabric of their town or move up the corporate ladder. The ones that aren't smackheads anyway. 😆😆😆😆
A нy, чики-бpики и в дaмки!
it always amuses me when people tried to say Chavs were the working class, they weren't, a lot of them had parents who sat on the dole, they were always a sub culture, uneducated unemployed and feral.
they are still around.
Yeah, there's no one who hates chavs more than the actual working class, who ya know, work for a living.
Quite right, there's nothing work related about Chavs, a Chav has never done a days work in their life, so they don't deserve to be associated with the honest lot that are the working class, they have more in common with rich Tories who exploit the labor of others, both are social parasites in society it's just that Chavs never wear suits and ties
i think they all just grew up, signed on to the dole themselves and either had litters of kids and/or died of overdoses
@@virtualworlds8081 In Australia they're called Eshays, they're also mis categorised as working class. Typically they're the result of multi generational unemployment, literally nobody works or wants to.
The people you described are considered working class, as it’s used for low income households, no matter the employment status.
In Poland we have our own variation of Chavs called „dresy” (tracksuit) or „Seba” „Sebix” from name „Sebastian”. Chavs that are women we call „Karyna” that is just popular chav name. They also wear adidas head to toe. Children of Chavs we call „Brajanek” or „Dżesika (its like Polish version of names Brian and Jessica)
😁 in russia we call them 'гобник' ('gobnik') ...in germany they calles 'Assi' (asocial) .... these dudes international bro 🤣
I think Brits already know who Dresy are lol
Karyna?? oh now this has crossed the pond!
'Karens' are nuvo American chavettes! This is Deep. 🤣
As a pole the Term Dresiarze/Dresiarz
Or patus/patola is primarily used not those Sebix Seba karyna names those are just memes
A Marjolka? :) Dziewczyna Sebixa, nosi dżiny biodróweczki na chudej miednicy i różowe staniki. Marjolka nie lubi jak inne foczki obczajają Sebixa i można od nich dostać po pysku. Jak tylko puszczą wózek z Brajankiem/Dżesiką. : 😃
I really appreciate how fast and to the point you are with the ads. Alot of my favorite channels will do their ads for like 3 minutes straight and it is so frustrating. You get a sub from me just for that
It's funny seeing how pretty much every country or society in the world has this exact same subculture. Chavs for the UK, canis in Spain, hoodrats and white trash youth in the US, gopniks in Slavic countries, cholos/reggaetoneros/etc. for Latin American in general. The superficial appearance varies a little, but all the basic traits remain extremely consistent.
That's what I thought as well when I saw the chavs....geez they're just gopniks with burberry instead of adidas and some of them even squatted!
In the USA we call them Fuckbois
Looks like it is a biological phenomenon, not a subculture
i was some of a chav myself at school in Perú slapping my friend's faces for fun when they would fall asleep we were a group of face slapping friends recording our best slaps on video 😂
yep. just like chris rock said, there are black people and then there are n**gas. it's the case literally everywhere. it likely results from lack of education, bad parenting and being poor
Burberry actually increased their prices dramatically after the fad died out, not to increase profits, but to discourage the working class from buying Burberry.
It must be a kick in the balls knowing 99.9% of the Burberry pattern seen on streets was market counterfeits anyway😂
That happened in Brazil among hoodlums with Lacoste and Polo becoming gang symbols. There were giant counterfeit alligators plastered everywhere, from backpacks to umbrellas. Totally ruining their market value in the process. Too funny.
@@motox2416 this still happens lol
Burberry even stopped selling the cap and the scarf because all the chavs where buying that
And it’s funny because Burberry products look crap anyway, and then the chavs ruined their reputation lol.
@@motox2416 yeah Lacoste was a chav thing too lol
I feel like there's always going to be that section of the lower class that's seen as rebellious and violent. Across the world they even have different names, like in Russia they call them "Gopniks" which refers to people who where adidas and drift around street corners in their Lada's blasting Hardbass with the windows down at max volume.
A Russian without Adidas kecks on is like a zebra without stripes.
Rebellious against what? They're just lazy and rude. Just get a fucking job and stop causing trouble. Or accept your lame future with dignity if you embrace the lack of education and income.
Yeah I came into this video not knowing wtf a chav was but they sound p much like the Brit version of gopniks lmao
@@lc6726 I grew up in a rough, working class area too and let me tell you something, some of the people I know from there are actually the smartest people I know, and I also know people from upper class/ aristocratic backgrounds who are dippy as fuck, being from a poor background doesn't make you stupid
@@lc6726 да ну чё ты гонишь братан, так грамотно пишешь на инглиш
In albania, they call chavs 'albanians'
😂😂😂😂
In my opinion Chavs have turned into Roadmen, and the culture is slightly different. They seem to get more involved with dealing drugs and being in part of gangs instead of causing small crimes such as vandalism.
You need to do something for a living Indeed.
And they've upgraded from a cheeky boxcutter to Rambo Blades and military grade machetes
Yeah they just where all black now and be doin robberys on mopeds and surons. Like some real chavages lol.
Yeah he mentions that
Roadman have always been about totally different culture
Ah, I remembered my sociology lecturer talking about this. Burberry became known as a working class brand and those with wealth didn't want to be associated with it. Apprently the company spent millions on branding to try and revive it's image.
They focused largely on the Chinese market instead
I grew up in Switzerland and lonsdale was pretty popular over here and very expensive too, then I moved to the UK and realized that lonsdale was cheap as hell and only worn by chavs 😂 it was so funny to me. In Switzerland it was considered posh British imported fashion worn by elegant British upper class people, but in reality it was only worn by tracksuit wearing teen chavs 😂😂
The sociologist Bourdieu famously wrote about this, his analysis on how “taste” is constructed is so interesting. Basically, if it’s associated with the working class, it’s considered tasteless and tacky. It really is true when you think about it, taste and aesthetics are very subjective but there seems to be some unspoken universal agreement on what is thought to be tasteless, that doesn’t materialise out of nowhere
@@PointNemo9 Literally just a matter of time before China develops chavs who start wearing Burberry, and the cycle restarts! Maybe India next time? LOL
@@Cheemma very much to do with exclusivity. If everybody has it, those who can afford to, would rather buy something else 🤣
I remember a guy at school who was from a well-off family who thought he was a CHAV. As someone who grew up on a council estate surrounded by them, it was hilarious seeing this comfortable, privileged boy, who's parents bought him anything if he cried enough, walking around pretending to be a hard CHAV. He would speak like one as well until he was around his parents, then he'd go back to sounding soft and normal. Looking back, it's so cringe.
I also always asked him why he'd WILLINGLY want to become something everyone hates. Not even CHAVs like CHAVs.
What did he say?
Lol I was gonna bring up the well off ppl who wannabe and dress like chavs ,weirdd I guess ever has there own style
And what did he said? He just wanted to call ateantion or what?
Of course not. That is why they always are ready for fighting in England. Even with weapons named "cosh". Crazy nuts over there. 🤦♂️😖
It's the same as the wiggers that try and act gangsta! I was born in a well off city and there were so many white kids trying to be wu tang! When I moved to the bigger city next door where there actually is crime and gangs I'd love to see those little shits from school try and act cool in the face of reality!
The logo thing started in the late 70s / early 80s - well before the 90s - with Mods and football casuals. A whole bunch of brands including Adidas, Lacoste, Fred Perry, Pringle, Sergio Tacchini, Barbour and yes, Burberry (scarves to cover your face rather than caps). All could be seen on and off the terraces.
Yeah, I always had the impression that the chav culture was an evolution of the 1980s soccer casual scene.
I don't know if it's connected but the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous when it came out in the 90s made a big deal of the logo obsession as a new edgy trend at the time.
@@nobbynoris It was. There was a lot of overlapping. Chavs were just too lazy to wear jeans. Too much hassle.
First heard the word chav in 1975, a group of lads i was playing football with called this lad who wanted to join in a chav, they told me he caused trouble then blamed everyone else, he stole from his mams purse even though she would give him money when he asked , basically he was a 2 faced thieving trouble making Ahole and yes he wore a tracksuit, the first female chav i met was in the 90s they were very much like the lads with supersize earrings and very loose if you know what i mean.
Really ?! Wow !! I didn't think the word was used going back to the 70's ?!
@@vanman757 Chav is a word that originally comes from Romani gypsies in England and means "child", you hear people saying "chavvy" too. In Scotland they get called "neds" too as in non-educated delinquents.
@@Yolo_Swaggins exactly, this guy is going with some public school boy acronym that was fitted 40 years after the fact
@@Yolo_Swaggins similar to charva which is a gypsy that lives in a house
@@Yolo_Swaggins chav means council house and violence.
Chavs were my saviour when I was younger. Moved school to one my mum taught in but she was from a rough area herself so she went out of her way to teach bottom set kids cause she knew the struggle they faced on a daily basis. All the Chav kids gained respect for her and thus made sure I was alright, had people to play football with. Even gave me money for food when I was struggling without asking for it back. Never had a single person pick on me even though I was a weak skinny easy target, walked through rough areas without any trouble when others said not to. Feel sorry for everyone on the wrong end of them though they were nutters!
For some reason if you're on a chavs good side in school they treat you like a saint but if you have nothing to do with them you're like a foreign invader
damn bro u had street cred
Chad mom
I think they were banging ya mum bro. Sorry.
damn
The teenage chavs of 2004 are now proud grandparents, waiting outside the school gates with a neck tattoo.
@@paulsayers1274 who me? I literally make condersending remarks about working class people and that makes me a soy??
You’re an arse for that comment 😂😂
And at the start of every term the kids have a brand new surname...
Got to be at least great grandparents by now.
@stuartmorgan3654 Hahahaha in their 40s
This guys presentation and style is phenomenal. Subscribed.
In Poland, Chavs are pretty much the same as ever and they're called "dresy" wich literally means "tracksuits".
I think Chavs and their variations around Europe is such an interesting topic
Gopniks in Russia ;)
ruclips.net/video/y90yaLFoYoA/видео.html
Urlas in latvia
😂😂
Chavs aren't dead at all, these human mistakes are absolutely rancid and still very alive. They just go by the name "Roadman" now.
very different these terms mean different things. Chav usually referring to working class white people who are stereotypical violent and wear loud clothing. while road men are attributed to mainly black African/Caribbean men and are stereotyped into organised crime selling drugs and actively killing people.
@@nodruj8681 nah chavs are very white. Roadman is black
Chavs have evolved into roadmen. The whole style has carried into the younger generation. I still dress like a massive chav mixed up with today's clothes. I have a know people that still do all this. My sister is like this never worked 2 kids single mum. But this chav has grown up. I've got a job saving up for my house now at 28 (living at mums) most my boys cannot get out that circle some have some haven't, most of us dress in TNs tracksuits. We just grow up
Exactly. Fashions change, but the attitude is still the same. The middle and upper classes want to appear more grounded these days, so Chav'ness has just become more acceptable.
My definition of a chav has always been an uneducated poor person, lacking dignity and taste, usually aggressive too. What they were is irrelevant.
@Rotten Cabbage bro I've been 4 schools got no GCSEs smoke weed like a knobhead. I will mouth at people but not for any reason also I will fight at any minute if its happening. But I've got a career to get on with
It's funny because the vintage Chav aesthetic is ironcially having a mini resurgence, but its actually posh southern uni students wearing vintage sportswear at extortionate prices. As someone who goes to raves in Liverpool these guys are everywhere
Yeah they call it 'Year2k fashion'
I grew up in Switzerland and lonsdale was pretty popular over here and very expensive too, then I moved to the UK and realized that lonsdale was cheap as hell and only worn by chavs 😂 it was so funny to me. In Switzerland it was considered posh British imported fashion worn by elegant British upper class people, but in reality it was only worn by tracksuit wearing teen chavs 😂😂
Yep, the utter cringe of it, the upper middle-class students are so desperate to basically cosplay and get in with the ghetto filty, it's like they have a fetish for it. Sick really.
watching this after see the newest video. It's very interesting in retrospect
I was born in 2001 and I remember chavs being everywhere through the 00's. All dressed in tracksuits/ bright colours and shouting "brap brap!" and "innit bruv"... Etc. I noticed it seemed like they all turned into roadmen around 2015 ish. Always hated chavs but seeing roadmen nowdays honestly makes me want chavs back (never thought I'd see the day where I'd say that).
Yup you get groups of teenagers dressed in tracksuits and balaclavas all up and down the UK now lol. There is a much bigger audience for culture that glamorises gang life now than there was during the chav era, when their main objective was to just get pissed and fuck about.
I'm 15 years older than you and I agree with you entirely. Roadmen are just extreme versions of chavs, dealing heroin and cocaine, carrying around knives and generally appearing bereft of any human emotion. Quite probably working for a gang "elder" who supplies them with puffa jackets, balaclavas and handbags (sorry those stupid little man bags they carry now). Whereas chavs though violent and unruly bullies at least seemed colourful, the world of the "Roadman" seems dark, harsh and depressing, like they have no soul at all. Suspect that many of them are beyond saving unfortunately.
In 2018, South Korea's rapper version of The Voice called SHOW ME THE MONEY had all the rappers dressed in chavy burberry fashion unironcally; hence, so many Korean streetwear fans were dressed like chavs and it was hilarious for ppl like me who lived in the UK before
South Korea, eh? I wonder if that had something to do with the fact that they really liked Kingsman: The Secret Service (i.e. main character Eggsy being a chav himself before joining the spy agency)...
@@jakmanxyom asia in general dont really understand other cultures. Such as japan still living in the 2000's dressing hilariously and having backwards fashion. They use braids etc. Asians are really fascinated with culture and fashion and do little research into it. but how could you lol
I find these discussions about 'chavs' so interesting. I was a born in 1990 and went to a very working class, inner city secondary school in the early-mid 00's. To me and my mates, chav was what we were the opposite of, we were working class, but we were deffinately not 'chavs'. In a very abstract sort of way we were rebellious toward that idea. As working class boys we didn't think about it as a question of class, more of a representation of lifestyle.
Yes there are a lot of middle class chavs as well as working class ones. Plus working class kids who weren't chavs. But it seemed to be the default tribe if you weren't in another one because the clothes could be bought in every high street & for less money. Other tribes had clothing that you had to go out of the way to find in side streets in the city centre or you made them yourself. The music is more accessible as well as it's what you hear on the radio first thing in the morning. The other types of music would be on the radio in the evenings when the chavs are watching soaps & crime dramas on TV or hanging around on street corners. Like being a square in the 70's.
Chav isn’t a class or a fashion but it’s a behaviour and attitude.
You can be working class and be a polite, decent person with manners. Chavs are just obnoxious, trashy and ruin it for everyone else.
@@notmenotme614 So true. The clothes they wear are very common so worn by non chavs as well often before the chavs wear them. Hoodies are worn by moshers as well as chavs.
Ironically, all these people who are trying to respect the working class by not ridiculing chavs are doing the exact opposite. Chavs do NOT define being working class. Chavs deserve their ridicule because they are ridiculous.
i like this. I often hung around 'Chavs' in school because they were the nicest and rawest ppl i knew. Everyone in school was nasty and violent, so it wasn't a matter of "oh theyre chavs" it was always just "oh, they're a nob."
I'm from Los Angeles but my family is from the UK. It was very strange visiting England in 2007 where there were chavs everywhere. It was fascinating and sad.
Oh bro I got ripped off by established titles too! They don't actually make you a lord and they pocket the "charitable donation" for their own business. I found this out when I tried changing my title to Lord and they were like "yeah no, mate, you can't actually do that"
There was a kid in my 5th grade class in the US in 1992 who dressed exactly like a chav. After seeing this I am convinced Dennis was a time traveler.
All the white kids in n.e. Philly dressed like this in the 90s/2000..minus the Burberry it was mostly polo.
Wait you know Dennis the time traveling chav. He told me he time travels into the past to happy slap historical figures just for fun.
Americans don't have the same appreciation of Burberry. I do remember that some people had a similar look though
Dennis was a pioneer
Godspeed dennis! Whatever year you are in!
We also had 'chavs' in the Balkans in the 90s, called them chapci or chefurji. Usually they were immigrants from serbia, bosnia and croatia who were usually up to no good and mostly wore sweaters/streetwear, so i think this was a eastern europe type trend that spread to the UK a decade later in 2000s.
Don’t be stupid, this guy in the video has gotten it wrong. Chavs in the uk have been around for decades and wore this stuff before Eastern Europe abolished communism. The Eastern European’s and balkans copied/were influenced by this subculture, just like they copied UK football hooligan culture etc etc
@@mmkt9487 Correction: *sub-human culture*
That might suggest a common root word with chav and confirm that it does come from romani langauge
@@djinnxx7050 hahaha exactly
Which Balkan country called them that? In bih cro and srb the closest way to describe yobs would be - klosari.
Thank you for educating me on some british history lol as a girl from the south west of the US I had never heard of this.
It’s kinda funny with Burberry is that something similar happened with gopniks in Russia and Eastern Europe with adidas due to the fact that during the days of the Soviet Union adidas tracksuits were only worn by the the wealthy or celebrities most notable the Soviet Olympic team and a lot of their sports teams too which because of that adidas quickly became a status symbol
Man it’s funny that you yeah that, I’ve always saw Gopniks and chavs as being brothers that are thousands of miles away lol, a lot of the comparisons are crazy similar, they are the same group.. one speaks Russian lol
Nowadays its brands like lacoste and moncler
I'm from the US but was in England a lot in the early 2000s for work and leisure. And my travels took me all over the country to regional cities and towns, not just the London metro. There were Chavs everywhere, from Portsmouth to Middlesbrough, Birkenhead to Hull. Chavs were a scourge--the stereotype was real. As a foreigner they were endlessly fascinating to me, and occasionally a nuisance--I was certainly barked at, even had a half-full tin of lager chucked at me. Due to a change in career I didn't come back over to England until 2018, and yeah--it seemed like they'd entirely vanished by then. So to have this issue addressed just over a month ago by someone who's actually from there is great. The Chavs were utterly worthy of mockery, but strangely they were almost endearing in a way too.
I remember doing some shopping for my mum when she came out of hospital. I was walking out of the supermarket back to me car, pushing a shopping trolley. Some chavs were sat on a wall next to where I’d parked my car, and shouted at me “Ha! Been shopping ‘ave ya??”
What gave me away?
Chavs deserved the ridicule they got.
Are you originally from Poland? (your nick)
I can say with full certainty that chav culture isn't dead, it's just got a newish look
Yeah even the Chavs change along with fashion n times but they're still going large at a local town near you!😁🤣🤣✌
Just look on tiktok
@@A5H_01 Nah, go to Facebook or Snapchat. They're still very active there. You get them on Instagram too, though usually female chavs. TikTok doesn't have many chavs.
@Festering SmegmaShush!🤫, they'll hear you there's a big group of them loitering outside my housing block right now!😱🤣🤣✌
If you're referring to roadmen that is a completely different sub-culture.
I found you only yesterday and I’m hooked! You make listening to history so cool! Very interesting, well researched, well timelined and well recounted! Keep it up! 👌🏾♥️
Hey, Jimmy. I'm a big fan of your work. I do have a small gripe with your choice of advertisements, though. A lot like the "buy, name, and own a star" scam being run throughout the internet, this Scottish land one is the same exact thing. There are no legal ennoblements, no authorities, and it's debatable that you even own the land you purchase. I totally understand needing the advertisement money, like the manscaped ads and the magic spoon ads are real services with real goods that can be bought. But this one really rubs me the wrong way. I hope I don't see you trying to sell the Golden Gate bridge any time soon. I'm unsure if you're aware of the scam or not, but thought id do my best to bring it your attention. Love your videos man.
RUclips selects ad placements, not the channel or its owner. In 2022 this shouldn't be necessary but - Adblocker. You're welcome.
@@Old_Geezer The only thing your comment tells me is that you didnt actually watch his video. Did you miss the part where he stopped the video to place an advertisement for a company? It’s 2022, I have adblock. 3:08 is where his ad starts
I apologize. You're quite correct, I didn't get that far - his narration didn't warrant it.
Seems my instincts were well founded though - most people will shill anything if it pays - discernment, principles and integrity rarely get a look in so I can't say I'm surprised.
And you are absolutely right to call him on it. Again, I apologize for my patronizing remarks to you.
I just saw someone talking about this recently. Supposedly they looked further into it and it's a Chinese owned company that has literally nobody there to do anything with any land that they don't even own . I get sponsorships and such, but hopefully enough people don't buy into it that the company eventually goes away.
@@johnjohnson6435 they also sponsor some really shady channels alot of them with far right leanings, it's kinda odd tbh
They're still around where I live. Same antisocial behaviour, tracksuits and manner of speech. They're even still referred to as Chavs. Sister lives next door to one who is constantly burning stuff for some reason.
They most certainly are. I pretty much refer to any rough sounding, acting and looking person as a 'chav', and they do not disappoint. It must be said.
In Spain we called the spanish chavs "cani" for men and "choni" for women.
Isnt Choni a female first name?
En Barcelona son los "quinquis" o "quillos"
Don't tell any middle class English, they think everyone from Europe is so sophisticated and cosmopolitan, and look down on our own working class. They don't realise that Jose or Juanita serving them at Pret a Manger are a cani and a choni.
Eshayyy
In Australia they're called Eshays
I forgot about the "happy slap", they only tried it when in a group though. We eventually found out if you just run for one and dont give them chance to get wound up they would just leg it lol.
Chavtastic 😂
You could explain the 10 best ways to organize your stamp collection and make it interesting. You really are a natural at this stuff man. Always interesting and unique subjects.
Now I want a jimmythegiant video on extreme stamp collecting xD
Are you being serious ?!
This video ended up being a lot more nostalgic for me than I expected, I grew up and still live in an area of my town that was known for being quite chavvy and it's interesting to see how it's changed over the years. I think there has been a definite change to the roadman culture amongst the former chav demographic, part of this I think is an americanization of british culture that has happened over the years, with people growing up with more american media, (especially GTA, although its origins are british, rockstar and the GTA franchise are viewed as and present a very american culture, and are always set in America) it has had a strong influence. I think this is symbolized well in the chav's iconic burberry (a british designer brand) being abandoned in favour of american and multinational branded clothing. As for the "where did the chavs go?" question, I think it's down to multiple factors, one of which is the rise of social media which has caused a decrease in public loitering, as well as video games becoming more popular which led to people staying inside more.
Exactly this
they became fitness influencers and beauty gurus
@@seabreeze4559 lmfao, okay that kinda made me laugh
Brilliant analysis and lookback. When talking about television shows from the era, I thought Channel 4's 'Shameless" did a great job of honing in on some of the Chav youth culture. It had a laugh, whilst brilliantly getting dramatic, relatable and, got into peoples perceptions of the lives lived in areas like its "Chatsworth Estate".
As a British person I picture chav’s as people who wear tracksuits
David firth was so a head of his time, each of his projects was so intense. He is the face of chav culture and Devvo will always have a place in my heart
Thank you for this, I've always hated the concept that Chav = working class. Chavs were absolutely a fashion subculture that demanded shitty behaviour as part of its aesthetic. I'd even argue that irreverence and pigheadedness was pervasive all across society in the early 2000's, whereas Grime appeals to the more political and emotive times we live in now.
Still chavvy af
The fashion has changed, but the Chavs have not.
it's the lack of dignity, taste and basic manners that make the Chav. Not all working class are Chavs, but all Chavs are working class.
YES! Remember Jackass and skateboard culture in more middleclass areas (I was a little shit)
@@RottenCabbage - I'd say chavs are the underclass because most of them don't work to be called "working" class
chav has classist connotations though & they don't disappear just by arguing that its a subculture. its interesting but you cant rlly gloss over how most people dont care and still just throw it around to demonise poor people. also leaves working class people wanting to be seen as one of the 'good' or acceptable ones which just divides people more. this country is so weird about classism lol how else could jeremy kyle go on so long
Ahhhhhhhh this video is such a nostalgia trip for me. My dad got happy slapped by a chav once, he angry throat punched him back and oddly it didn’t happen again.
One threw a rock at my dads windshield (along with other cars), so he pulled onto the side walk, jumped out, ran after, grabbed the chav, then started booting him up the arse while other drivers stopped and started cheering lmao. Worst car to target, a giant Maori dude.
found the rocker dad !
Great vid, needed to mention E17 though lol. The word chav in the dictionary would've had a picture of Harvey next to it 😅
This is so fascinating. As an American, I've never even heard of this subculture
Neither have I.
I think a similar species here in America was sung about in the Offspring's song entitled "Pretty Fly For a White Guy"
American chavs are what you call trailer trash. Same thing
@@jebidiahnewkedkracker1801 Wiggers and Wiggaz
Correct me if I’m wrong but I think most Americans think British people are like Hugh grant and we’re all posh and drink tea. When in reality it’s basically like this video. Drinking, drugs and fighting.
@@pointycapitals7306 I am not American, I live in Central Europe and somehow I always imagined Brits, at least younger ones like those in Trainspotting...
The kidaulthood series was my fav british movie of all time as a kid. Took me 3 days to torrent it back in the 2000s. And loved every sec of it. As a fucked up kid it really shined light on how life is over there for there youth like how I could relate to it being here in the US. Thankfully I turned my life around.
"how life is over there for there youth". How life is for them? They CHOOSE to be the utter scvm that they are, as if they're some poor innocents being held to ransom.
I think it's unfortunate how often the poorest people are often the ones that scramble for the luxury brands the most. I guess having fancy clothes makes them feel better about their situations? I've seen people save up for months just to buy one pair of expensive shoes or a designer purse when they really needed to buy food for their kids instead. My dad grew up with a mom that did that. She'd spend tons of money on herself and then have almost nothing left for the family. Often my dad and his sister would have to ask for handouts on the street just to feed themselves.
I use to be the same as a kid grew out of it spending 200 quid on nikes it is ridiculous they should be worth a fiver
@@SirOswaldMosley. Yeah, I got more and more tired of it the more planned obsolescence was introduced. Soles that wear out in weeks aren't getting my money, and cars that won't go faster without an additional £1200 payoff to the manufacturer aren't my thing.
When it went from analogue TV to flat screens it was worth upgrading your TV, but now it's somehow become expected that you'll buy a new TV every year for a 1" bigger picture, when the TV is already too big for the room and viewing distance. Capitalism has run rampant and price differenciation means nothing holds its value unless it costs more than the average person can afford. I just buy most things second hand lightly used, and pick up vintage bits and bobs that last longer and weren't made to fall apart the day after the warranty expires. Then when I can't afford anything at all, at least some of my stuff will still work lol.
In the UK there's a very specific and well documented reason as to how and why that happened. Liverpool football hooligans basically took over Europe in the 80s (well until they inevitably got banned obviously) but they pillaged places like Italy and France for the designer clothes and Rolex's and so on that weren't available in the UK. They started going to football matching in thousands of pounds worth of clothing. It had two effects. Firstly the police ignored them, which is very useful for a football hooligan and the second was a badge of honour that not only had their team conquered Europe but so had their hooligans. This kind of just caught on and Aberdeen, Spurs and Arsenal started along with Everton and apparently Man United and Man City who apparently used to actually all go abroad with Liverpool. It's one of the big things you hear about with haysel is that it apparently was more like an England match. West Ham and Chelsea and everyone was there. Anyway because football is the biggest subculture in the UK, designer clothes and the casual trend became fashion amongst the working classes. That said though I know a lot of CEOs and bosses of companies who attend meetings in Stone Island jumpers and stuff but they're all people who made their money and all come from the bootnecks and paras and so on, who tend to be more working class
We got the version in France too as "KAILLERAS" but instead of Burberry they got lacoste. Same all over.
Great video. Surprised "People Just Do Nothing" didn't get a mention - brilliant TV series!
they were late stage chavs when that culture was dieing
I remember visiting Prague in 2013 and I met a group of girls from Yorkshire. They asked if I could guess where they were from, and I guessed Manchester. The response went like this “no, we’re from Yorkshire! God Manchester, they are well chav” 🤣
I remember my aunt bringing me a tracksuit from England when I was younger and she specifically mentioned that she wanted to give it away because of all the connotation to chavs made it very unfashionable.
In the years after, I always saw a similarity of the gopnik culture to chavs in a way...and wondered if one influenced the other.
They're still very much around and have been for decades. Not so much a sub-culture as a product of the underclass. They will always exist.
I just wanna say, I lived in a 900 person collection of homes around a timber mill in western Montana and even I knew what a chav was and that everybody in the UK hated them.
Literally had this conversation yesterday. Where did the chavs go?
And now this video finds me
I was raised in Chatham (pronounced ChA-um, if you're native), and I'd say the word Chav began to fall off with the rise of wealth disparity in the UK and the dying off of the majority of the middle classes. More people have found themselves in hard times as the years have gone on and has been met with a rise in public empathy, as much as empathy can exist in British culture... also trends are subject to change, like, when was the last time you heard Cockney? I believe we are seeing a return to more "chav-like" behaviour in roadman culture as crime is rising though, and it will be interesting to see where working class culture goes from here
This is a good point. There’s definitely less snobbery now because even the middle classes are starting to struggle significantly. Nobody can afford to be snobby and we’re all in the same sinking ship at this point
Cockneys all moved to Essex, and changed that accent to what it is today. The end of chavs and cockneys is largely due to immigration - it's not only the middle class who "white flight" it out of the cities when they become too diverse. The ones who remain become assimilated to the various immigrant subcultures.
I grew up in Medway. Born in Chatham n'all.
Chavs were demonised but looking back the worst bullies I had were middle class kids who could alwyas afford expensive shit. Actual "chavs" from poorer backgrounds weren't perfect but they never gave me as much grief. I also noticed this when I moved to Essex. The biggest pricks were mainly from middle class backgrounds and the poorer students people classed as chavs were more accommodating despite their flaws.
Worst thing is that some showed clear signs of intelligence but never applied themselves, acted out a lot, hung around with a bad crowd (outside of school) and just never did anything with themselves.
I agree, I started to notice the "Chav" phenomenon die out around 2008 after the recession. It was like almost overnight "Chavs" had grown up and had to graft harder to make ends meet and had no time for either "loud" fashion or anti social behaviour. Plus as you mention the middle classes were starting to struggle as well, so 1. they weren't so snobby/judgemental and also started to dress differently it started to become cool to wear plain sportswear - I put this down to more mixing between working and middle classes since the recession, less jobs meant middle class, especially young middle classes started to work more traditionally working class jobs. I can see this trend continuing into the 20's as we head into a new recession / cost of living crisis, middle and working class fashions, culture, values and interests are becoming more blended together.
I wouldn't call Cockney a trend. It's identity and heritage, really. You're born Cockney, but you're not born Chav.
I love that you included Vicky Pollard =D
Oh, and talk about that sponsorship, lol
"London has, and always will be, the cultural capital of The UK"
Absolute bollocks.
And he said all trends start there😆😆😆this young lad was probably still in his pampers when all this was happening lol
@@michaelfarquhar9355 just another typical Londoner thinking the universe revolves around them.
@@SonofPhobos just another northerner butthurt because the country forgot about them
Spot the butthurt chavs from Braknell 😂😂😂
@@SonofPhobos i can't stand London or sourherners in general tbh
Can't lie chavs are the most nostalgic part of my childhood. This video is spot on and if I was ever asked for a comedic representation of chavs I will always suggest Ali g. Ali g is pure premium UK teen lad culture from 90s and early 2000
Booyahkasha
That’s why I watch old documentaries hahahah
@@lokisingularity3394 for real!
@@cloudycloud4171 hell yeah I used to love bad lads army. Group of classic chavs and emos getting pasted by old militants
@@StalwartShinobi i am not frm the uk so i dont know bad lads army but gonna watch it this night . Thanks 😂💛
Please do more British Pop culture videos this was awesome
Ahhh, good old days of university. I was there, 3000 years ago....when we spent a whole summer actually following Jade Goody on Big Brother *before* anybody ever knew she would explode into this terrifying phenomenon. This video is grotesquely nostalgic... :'-)
They're called neds here in Scotland. You never see the old school ned/chav clothing anymore (still get people acting the same way though 😅). I did once see someone in a burberry baseball cap a couple of years ago and it was almost nostalgic.
They should be hunted for sport, utter filth the lot of them. Harassing scvm who try to act as if "ItNoMaFaultIJustHadAHardUpbringing". Pack of sx-offending rats.
Yeah. It's all black North Face jackets now and black skinny fit trackie bottoms instead of the old school baggy ones. I see loads of lads dressed like this around my area and I think they look boring af. No character to their look whatsoever. Interestingly, some skaters wear baggy trackie bottoms now. I guess it's been so long since chavs last wore them that the stigma has worn off.
i lived in east London for many years, from 2005 to 2020. Around the time of the 2012 London Olympics, sportswear exploded in fashion too, and active wear went from being mainly sold in sports shops to really influencing casual wear. It was everywhere in London. Agree with you about Grime but at the time of the Olympics being hosted in London, there was a noticeable shift. So it's more multi-layered than being solely the rise of Stormzy etc.
Oh yeah u won’t find chavs in London anymore
Highly disagree these early grime rappers started this fashion trend way before olympics then it stated getting attention increasing the influence also you had a lot of ethnicity’s coming into the uk creating a new generation that just adopted and adapted the style then drill music came into play and that completely changed the game also take into consideration social media stared popping off as-well which grew the culture more it started getting a much bigger attraction towards the younger crowd suddenly everyone was dressing and actions like road men even kids that grew up in good homes and had parents with stable incomes listen to drill music the Olympic might have played a part but this was mostly road men and grime/drill that grew the trend
I think a few different sub cultures just absorbed the chav sub culture. I had a chav phase that ended when I was like 14 when I picked up an instrument and joined a band. One you didn’t mention was UK Indie. I left school and went into college in 2008 and half the chavs I knew from school (after I ditched my chav phase) in the course of a year had swapped out their chav kits full of trackies baseball caps and fake jewellery for medium length styled hair that used to puff out in all directions, skinny jeans, flannel shirts and plimsoles. They weren’t listening to everything from 50 cent, jungle DnB to grime, they were now bopping around at live shows by Arctic Monkeys, MinusTheBear, Bloc Party and so on. I noticed that as a lot of chavs left school and either went into work or college they’d just grown up and moved into a new subculture that wasn’t so abrasive. They had further education and apprenticeships to worry about so weren’t all hanging out on the street with a bottle of white lightning (lambrini for the ladies of course) anymore lol
Yes indie culture, arctic monkeys image changed with the times too
That's what happened to me minus the band
Thats a downgrade. Dnb is better
It's not a cultural thing specific to the UK. The U.S. has the same type of idiot, and still do it never went away. Often called "wiggers" here.
@@Sanctifires wiggers are not the same at all dude. J-Roc and MC Devvo are nothing alike 😂
I was what was known as a "jitter". There used to be a rocker bar next to a chav bar and fights broke out all the time between drunk delinquents versus people smothered in spikes and chains. It would get brutal at times.
I think the main thing behind the culture change wasn't music or fashion, but the transition in how people meet each other. It went from people going outside to find all their friends to people only meeting a few friends via text.
We had the same sub-culture in eastern Europe. Everything changed in mid 2010s when fast-fashion became big.
Jimmy, i think your sponsor is a scam mate. at most, i think you are buying a fancy decorated piece of paper.
Yeah, but for a few bucks, you too can troll everyone you know. do you want the land or making your friends call you lord? Also, it's the only land us Californians can own.
@@areichental I wonder how many people also own "your" land...
@@transpartylines3327 hey bud, his whole point was he doesnt care about the land and just wants to troll his friends making them call him “Lord”. Comprehension isnt your strong suit or a skill of yours huh? That simple comment just flew right over your head, yikes!
@@Keyser___Soze Why would they call him "Lord" it has no meaning and isn't real. buying this means you share a square inch of land in Scotland with 3000 other people who also own the same square inch of land. and BTW you can put Lord on your license without buying land in Scotland. Nothing flew over anyone's head but yours apparently thinking paying for this is worth a troll on your friends...
@@transpartylines3327 you’re fun at parties
Damn good catch on that Skepta line ya know, them Adenuga boys been influential for sure...
"From day one I said I was serious, then Serious hit the jackpot; People ask me what music I make, turn the volume up, cuz, THAT's what". Baddaman
ok, this might be a really stupid question and that's probably because I have never been to the UK, but wouldn't Rose Tyler and her mom Jackie from Doctor Who be considered Chavs? Just by the way they clothed and were shown as working-class people. And wouldn't that be a positive representation of Chavs? Because Rose was quite smart and ended up being kinda the love interest of a very well-respected main character. How were her appearance and representation covered in the media back then?
There's an episode (first of the 10th Doctor's era, series 2? I'm almost certain) where 'the last true human' steals Rose's body and her first exclamation upon awakening is something like "Oh great, I've become a chav!" in a very upper class accent.
@@korstmahler that’s the first episode of series 2 new earth
@@korstmahler I wish I could steal Rose's body.
@@korstmahler actually thought of this when I clicked on the video lol
@@sparklesparklesparkle6318 She still looks great. She’s in Catherine called Birdy
As someone from Newcastle, the term Charva has been around as long as i can remember and i'm in my forties. I know it's a term that's been used across the North that stretches well further back than the collective UK media bed-piss of the mid 2000s and i'm fairly certain the emergence of the term 'chav' was a derivative of it that rather than a fucking acronym. I'm not a charva, but i probably could have been described as one back in the 90s and early 2000s. It's not something i'm ashamed of either. Scratch the surface and you'll see there's a lot of culture in working class communities, even ones that dressed in a way that doesn't suit the narrative of the time. In the North East, charvas were (and still are) the creators and supporters of a music scene that's as unique as it is infallible, it's creative and a means of collectivism that enables young disenfranchised youths to articulate the struggles of life... It also happens to be Spanish derived happy hardcore. Point is, this video is lazy in it's approach to 'chav' culture. It regurgitates a bunch of tropes about working class youth at a certain point in time. Here's some modern day charvas doing their thing.... ruclips.net/video/ERduHuuS7Yc/видео.html
I'm from a dead mining town on the edge of Manchester - they were almost exclusively called scallies here and date back to the late 90s. I agree with many of your points, but there was a working class schism here - working class families trying to get by and scallies. Chavs and working classes were demonised in the 00s but the stereotypes did have truth. There were scallies that were very much cheating the system, indulging in theft, vandalism and making other peoples' lives a misery.
I will say that at least in the North of England,, Chavs haven’t completely disappeared. Fair enough they aren’t wearing Burberry but I’d say that “Roadmen” are pretty London-centric (although we do have some up North as well).
It's hard to know the difference these days because they all go for that all black aesthetic with the essential North Face jacket. It's not like back in the 2000's when they wore all white or baby blue tracksuits with the gold striping on them. Speaking of gold, jewelry seems to be way less a part of the today's chav aesthetic compared to back then.
We actually had "Happy Slapping" way before phone cameras...it stemmed from a Tango advert where this bloke would run up to strangers and slap them with a big orange hand and say "You've been Tangoed" it was a really funny advert that naturally had all us kids running around doing it, ultimately leading to the advert being banned.
You missed the chavs vs metal heads thing. I was (and still am in most ways) a metal head and it was like an unwritten law that if a chav started on you it was game on. I'm amazed I never got shanked! Come to think of it they mostly backed down if you weren't an easy target and eventually ignore you altogether.
In 1990 the Gel heads would call us Smellies.
I was poor and clever but the 'alternatives' were a very small minority, they stood out massively and didn't stand a chance. I think regardless of your clan if you're not strong or geeky you're not getting out unscathed
Does this kinda explain the murder of Sophie Lancaster in 2007?
We didn't have metal heads vs Chav's here in the states or in Mexico. Here it was Metal heads vs Emos. It was bad enough nightly news covered said threats or attacks😂
@I'm unity the fuck is a greebo?? Even though I'm American, I know Chav and several other slang/derogatory terms from Britain. But greebo is new
It never died out, just morphed into something even worse. The roadman
I have to agree. I grew up in the 2000's and I can say that not all chavs were bad. In fact, quite a few of them were actually decent when they were by themselves, but when they got in a group, there was that peer pressure there to act like a total c*nt. That's why I stopped hanging around with the other kids in my area. 99% of them were chavs and I realised that if one of them threw a brick threw someone's window or committed some other crime and I was seen with them, I'd be automatically grouped with them and I wasn't that type of person. As for roadmen, they're c*nts when they're by themselves and even bigger c*nts when they're in a group. What this guy said in his video about them not wearing luxury brands is BS too because I know for a fact they wear Gucci, Balenciaga, Moschino, etc.
I recently got into "The Thick of It" by Iannucci. And I would hear chav and asbo, and not have a clue what it meant. A big thank you from Florida, I'm now a subscriber.
That segment on happy slapping brought back memories. I remember back in primary school, I has this really old, tall, stern teacher and he started off an assembly with the words "Happy slappy" before going on a 30 minuit rant about it. mustve been 2004-2005.
I graduated secondary school in 2002, the year of Bo Selecta & Ali G. You really didn’t know ‘chavs’ unless you grew up in the early 00’s in my opinion; & despite newspaper reports, they definitely weren’t all bellends. Many just came from single parent households who’s parent / guardian was at work all hours god sent to put food on the table, or some came from really difficult upbringings. Being in groups with friends in similar situations just made them feel less alone. Wasn’t a ‘chav’ myself, but met what would be considered many through the college I went to when I was studying childcare, they had another course called ‘life skills’ there, they’d pay those attending £40 a week + travel expenses, it got them off of the streets from 8:30-4, & quite honestly, they were some of the kindest lads I’d ever met. They just kept getting in trouble, all egging each other on & influencing each other, but 1:1 they were truly some great individuals. I often wonder what happened to them & where they ended up.
@@ffffffffffffffs Nope. I know 1 of them ended up with his own mechanic business, married with 3 kids. Others moved away, but last I heard 1 was travelling & 1 was in full time employment with a little one. That was 10 year ago. So no. Not ‘prison’.
In Australia we call them Eshays. Same fashion sense, same socially mint behaviour and I swear these things have created their own language.
Eshay was a word the lads/chavs used in the 00s now they are just called eshays.
I just heard 'Eshay" for the first time in the Heartbreak High reboot , and guessed it was associated with slang for something like Chav. 👍
😂😂😂
@@kylereece1979 Do yourself a favour and check out HOUSEOS. It's a OZ comedy about these wonderful people lol
Good attempt Jimmy.. very complex subject. Fashion changed and with the rise of the internet, social media and popularity of online gaming etc, people stopped hanging around the streets causing trouble..
Must admit, filming a video about chavs with a pubs Stella glass in the background is a very fitting prop
This is so interesting to know!! Cool to see you do a video on a non-sports aspect of culture!
I would think not only is it people like stormzy and skepta influencing youth culture i also think that younger kids who were growing up seeing everyone hate chavs probably made them not want to become one so the new youth tried to distance themselves from that culture and look towards others who were doing the same
No. Chavs created the mirror subculture Grime, not the other way around. Chavs been the hidden hand in uk culture since the 90s.
The gypsy word "chávè" actually really fits. In my country it's a word to describe unkempt, poorly socialised, usually neglected children, usually of gypsy descent. In my head canon this really fits.
Chavé is the word for children
In romané language
True, in Hungary 'csávó' has become an everyday slang for 'young man' and it's known that it was introduced by the Roma population in hungary