A joke too far?

Following the success of last year’s ‘The Wolf of South Street,’ the St Andrews Revue have released a controversial satirical video.

The video, entitled ‘The St Andrews Revue Charity Appeal,’ satirizes typical charity appeal videos such as those seen on during Children In Need or other money-raising TV programmes. The video’s charity appeal features the Undergraduate hall of residence, Albany Park. It incorporates all of the elements of a standard charity fundraising video: gentle piano music, tearful presenters and shaky hand-held camera angles.

Whilst some have applauded the video, others have taken offense at the video’s portrayal of Albany Park. One Third Year Psychology student and ex-resident of Albany Park told The Stand that the video reinforces the prejudices of students towards residents of Albany Park.

“I personally had many cases of “Albany?! You live there?! What’s it like?! Where even is Albany?”

“The characters in the video are nothing short of typical, wealthy St Andrews students. There was no parody of the super rich to be seen”.

Albany Park is the lowest priced Undergraduate hall, costing £3,163 annually. Some residents say that they went to Albany Park out of necessity because of the high cost of other halls and accommodation in St Andrews.

However, a statement from the St Andrews Revue argued that the video aimed highlight the attitudes of St Andrews students to Albany Park:

“Our video featuring Albany Park was intended to highlight the ridiculousness of people who assume Albany Park is anything other than a great place to live. If people have taken it the wrong way we can only thank them for reasserting our view that such ridiculous attitudes do indeed exist in St. Andrews.”

Watch the full video here:

Photo courtesy of the University of St Andrews.