“Chav” is a British-adjacent word, usually derogatory, for a cluster of concepts involving economically and socially disadvantaged classes, youth, sneering, hanging about in groups in public, and so on. It may be offensive in some sense; it’s not like we have a lot of non-derogatory and non-offensive words for young people in disadvantaged classes. I hope and trust I am not offending simply by using it, for instance, in a weblog post title.
Anyway! For no particular reason I gave Midjourney (version 5) a number of chav-related prompts, and here are some of the results. These are mostly photorealistic, as that’s what v5 often produces unless explicitly prompted otherwise (so this isn’t “AI Art” so much as “AI Weirdness”). And I’m putting them in the weblog here just for fun. (For some highlights of other stuff I’ve been making in MJ, albeit without prompts or much commentary, see me on Pixelfed.)
Here for instance are some Cute Chavs (i.e. the prompt was “cute chavs” with some flags and stuff):
Mildly cute, and certainly numerous! Note the three red caps. Note also that Midjourney v5 has really improved in the people department: some of the faces may dissolve into blurs, some of them disquieting, if you zoom up too much, but no one appears to have seven fingers on the same hand, or any obvious extra limbs. Which is impressive!
Additional cute chavs:
Here “chav” might be a mildly negative comment on their taste in accessories and hair dye; not sure. Awfully cute, though.
Additionally:
These may be the “tough young men” sort of chavs, although the bright pink and blue hoodies and those sunglasses are perhaps atypical.
Also supposed cute chavs:
Certainly cute, but those matching raincoats and GKSY VHIS caps look pretty upscale; it may have strayed a bit from chavery here, but, again, certainly cute. And perhaps truculent.
Further cute chavs, who have perhaps looted a cargo of loud plaids (but who all seem to have the right number of fingers and extremities, again!):
There are various more cute chavs, but we’ll finish this section with this one:
I tend to think of your basic chav as pale, perhaps because people who use the word “chav” often have other words for people who aren’t pale. These three are certainly impressive in their own way. Judgment of cuteness left to the reader.
Heavens, there are so many pictures that I’d love to share with you here! And that’s just these chav-related ones. So many thousands of pictures! See “Bach faucet“, relatedly. But anyway! Now we have some “chav life”:
No notes on that one. We got at least one other one like this except that they’re sitting on a stoop with equal truculence.
Additionally:
Perhaps “CY le HAWE” is the name of their YouTube channel, where they break cinder blocks on each other. For instance. (Do read the alt text on these images, by the way, if convenient; I put a lot of work into those!)
Asking for an artistic rendering of happy chavs, we got inter alia:
They don’t appear particularly happy to me, I admit.
On the other hand:
the Esposito Quadruplets here seem quite pleased by something.
Now this one:
doesn’t really say “chav” to me at all, due to the kilts and sporrans and so on; MJ may be improvising here. The people do look rather happy however.
In Ireland, chavs, or a group akin to chavs, are known as skangers (also possibly offensive). Prompted to picture skangers, Midjourney gave us:
The famous trio of Sakker, Sarkes, and Siakers. Sakker is notable for wearing the number “S”.
Next and relatedly:
Not sure of the relationship between skangers and ice hockey, frankly, but there we are. Perhaps it thinks it’s a typo for “Rangers”, which is a hockey thing.
Third “skangers” image:
Perhaps Gakkes(tm) soda is popular with skangers and/or chavs.
And finally in the skangers set:
“Oi, I’m goin’ down Skarnvers fer some baccy, yew wan’ anythin’ pet?”
(That was probably offensive, too.)
And finally, just so as not to overload my readers with offensive weird stuff, here are a few where we tried to mix chav with its opposite: posh.
This is the one that most obviously did that, but these two are clearly taking the piss, as it were, and on’v Chasd Heaish on top of it (the guy on the right looks familiar somehow).
We also got a fair number like:
which might be interpreted as a posh sort of chav, as well as say:
similarly (Americans perhaps, haha!). Also some where it seems to have mostly ignored the instructions and just given us two ordinary people, as in:
They’re just endearing! (Admittedly one may be missing a finger, but better that than two or three extra.) And not obviously chav or posh, so I’m not sure.
And to close, from the “a chav and posh person standing side by side” prompt:
and, well, I just have no clue, really.
I hope that wasn’t too offensive! Fun, though. :)
Off to make more! With different prompts…
ceoln 