Ranking LUSU candidate videos by level of cringe

Embarrassing themselves is in the FTO contract


It’s finally here, the most exciting/stressful/annoying week of LU life depending on who you ask: LUSU election week. Over the past week, we’ve watched an array of candidates plaster their faces on the walls of the underpass, try to hand us flyers in Alex Square, and most importantly, embarrass themselves on social media.

The videos are the best (and least headache-inducing things) things that come out of LUSU elections, even though the second-hand embarrassment from them can somehow get a little tough to handle. We’ve rounded up one video from each candidate that’s been posting and ranked them according to their level of cringe.

So here they are: LUSU candidate videos in order of least to most cringe.

Just a note before we get started: cringe culture is dead. We think all the candidates did brilliantly with their TikToks and videos. Don’t forget to vote for your new LUSU before Friday at 3pm!

8. Megan Homburg (VP Sports)

In the place for least cringe and probably the best video of all time, is Megan with her Instagram video where she almost knocks herself out with a cup.

Why would this convince you to vote for her? We have no idea. But we could literally watch this video for hours. Good on Megan for having the balls to post this.

7. Callum Slater (VP Union Development)

In this three minute (you read that right) Instagram video, Callum is being grilled by interviewers on the Apprentice.

This should be cringe, but somehow, it isn’t. Callum did really well editing and choosing clips and somehow made a fully entertaining three-minute campaign video. This might actually be a first.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca16ylAJJes/

6. Vic Phillips (VP Welfare)

In her TikTok, Vic is promoting intersectionality and inclusivity and dancing in the middle of Furness bar, Trevor.

This has neutral levels of cringe. The dancing in public is offset by the fact that she can actually dance. Also, have you actually ever seen anyone in Trev during the day? We don’t even know if this counts as dancing in public.

@vp4vpwelfare♬ Antenna – UK Radio Edit – Fuse ODG

5. Hamza Dalvi (President)

Hamza’s TikTok consists of a slam poem he wrote himself and delivers to the camera (with a microphone!).

Slam poetry gets a bit of a bad rep, but Hamza really nails this one. It took us a couple of lines to actually realise that the speech rhymed, and the form is engaging enough to keep everyone watching.

@hamza4supresident #Lancaster #LancasterUni #LancasterUniversity #SU #Equality #Diversity #Representation #Inclusion #Justice #racialjustice ♬ original sound – Hamza Dalvi

4. Noah Katz (VP Education)

In their Instagram video released this morning, Noah and their friends are parodying a classic Mean Girls scene.

This is another (kind of outdated) meme that a lot of freshers might not latch on to, but it’s done well nonetheless. The highlight of the video is by far the clip of a very drunk Rachel Lord on LA1 TV’s coverage of last year’s Extravs.

3. Puru Sharma (VP Welfare)

Puru has made Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up his campaign speech and treated us all to a live rendition of it at last night’s Hustings.

(Un)fortunately for all of us, he has managed to enlist an actual band to help him cover the song again. Puru is clearly very self-aware, but we can’t help but think of how Rickrolling fell out of fashion around 10 years ago and how there are probably freshers that have no idea why it’d be funny.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca4cEK1IxEi/

2. India Ellis (President)

In this video uploaded to Instagram this morning, India is in Sugar and is making her friends yell “India for pres!” at the camera.

In all honesty, this is a cute video and it’s cool to see friends supporting friends. The cringe levels come from thinking about the other people in Sugar watching them all scream the same phrase back and forth. But, hey, whatever it takes, right?

1. Ciara Sowerby (VP Union Development)

In her TikTok, Ciara is sh0wing off her pool skills whilst giving us the rundown of her campaign. To be fair, this is a pretty standard campaign video, and we’ve seen far worse from other unis. It just happened that Lancaster people were really on the ball with making these videos this year.

Ciara uses a cleverly placed cowboy emoji in the caption to offset any misplaced cringe. She’s a self-aware gal. We love that.

@ciara4vpud levitating? you will be with me as VP Union Development! I got you! 🤠 #lusu #elections #studentsunion #lancaster #uni #fylde #pool ♬ original sound – Vote Sowerby #1 For VP UD

No matter what the videos have been like, it’s important we all vote for the LUSU we want this week!  Elections opened this morning at 10 am. You have until 3 pm on Friday to vote for your next Students’ Union. You can vote on the LUSU website here.

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