WATCH: 'Beginners guide to Jersey' pokes fun at island life

Friday 20 March 2020

A YouTube video, poking fun at life in Jersey, has gained over 5,000 views online in just ten days.

The seven-minute satirical video, 'A beginner's guide to Jersey', provides a 'relatable' look into Island life, arming outsiders with essential knowledge about Jersey's east/west “cultural divide”, local pastimes such as, “morris dancing and beating Guernsey at sport” and the differences between green and blue milk.

The video opens with the explanation: “As a proud Jersey Bean myself, I wanted to make a video to educate foreigners on what this rock is all about”.

Following this, the video then discusses several different aspects of Island life such as culture, language, education, leisure and politics. There is also a section about transport in which St. Mary is described as a “no man’s land” where “anything faster than a brisk jog is considered illegal."

This section concludes that, “...the award for best form of transport on the island is a tough contest between the Duck Boat and Le Petit Train.”

A large part of 'A beginner's guide to Jersey' focusses on the various activities that are available to do in Jersey, including “surfing with no waves, sunbathing with no sun and cheating at the aMaizin maze."

There are explanations of local events such as the Battle of Flowers and Liberation Day, as well as a helpful guide to discussing local politics which suggests that the only phrase needed is: "I don't think we should build a hospital there!"

Video creator, Charlie Rive, is a 20-year-old student currently studying Economics and Business Economics in The Netherlands.

Before university, he lived in Jersey and attended Victoria College, which he likens to “Hogwarts” in his video. Charlie was inspired to make the video after seeing other popular videos online in a similar style which looked reasonably easy to replicate. He explains: “I write ideas down when they come to me. When I thought about doing a Jersey video, a few funny lines came to me which I then expanded upon to make the whole video." 

It took Charlie over 20 hours to create the 'A beginner's guide to Jersey' as he is teaching himself to edit as he goes, so he describes all the positive feedback as being "uplifting".

He knew that local people would enjoy the jokes throughout the video, but has been surprised by those who aren't from Jersey also claiming to have enjoyed and learnt something from his creation. Although he is currently "just having fun" making YouTube videos, Charlie says that he would "love it if this actually became something more".

However, with his current subscriber count at 39, he explains: "I am about 99,961 subscribers away from even being able to start thinking about making videos as more than just a hobby".

Charlie wants to encourage people who enjoyed 'A beginner's guide to Jersey' to watch the other videos on his YouTube channel, suggesting that: "If I get famous one day you can say you were a fan before it was cool, and that my new stuff isn’t as good anymore."