Grab your leopard skin, neck a prosecco, take a holibob! How ‘hun culture’ conquered the world

07/07/2022 07:00

Did someone say beveragino? From Denise Welch to Alison Hammond, the matriarchs of British TV are storming the internet, worshipped for their camp combination of glam, grit and driftwood decor. All hail the huns! xWhat links Alison Hammond, Chanel the lost African grey parrot, Nigella Lawson’s electric oven, a woman on a shed roof asking “Did someone say beveragino?”, Natalie Cassidy, “OK dot com”, and Kat Slater? If you’re rereading that question for the 10th time, chances are you’ve yet to fully immerse yourself in the leopard print and prosecco world of the hun, a very British subculture that’s sweeping the internet quicker than you can calligraph “It’s wine o’clock somewhere” on to a piece of driftwood. Resonating chiefly with women and gay men, celebrating the naff and deifying soap actors, reality TV icons and female pop stars, hun culture mixes nostalgia, camp humour and irony-laced national pride. If US social media influencers are preened, puckered and always on sponsored holidays, huns are sloppy, sarcastic and off on their “holibobs”.A huge source of lockdown escapism, hun culture’s biggest exponents are Instagram accounts such as Loveofhuns (650k followers) and Hunsnet (205k followers), while its famous acolytes range from Joe Lycett to Lily Allen to Katy Perry. Rather than using memes that feel malicious, or rely on twisted black humour, in a world on fire, a hun meme is playful, riffing on the yassification of the everyday (celebrating a pack of prosecco-flavoured Pasta’n’Sauce, for example), or showcasing a niche celebrity doing something instantly relatable. As the phenomenon has spread, its subjects have started to revel in their hun status, warming to its inclusive sense of humour. “It’s laughing with rather than laughing at,” explains Hunsnet founder Gareth Howells who, as well as diversifying his brand with merchandise, brunch events and a podcast, has also written a beginners’ guide to hun. “It’s a safe space between straight culture and LGBTQ+ culture. If the straights get banter, then the huns get this.” Continue reading...