Campaign Against Real Life, Otherwise Known as TuffSheet.com

Content is from the site's 2007 archived pages.

TUFFSHEET BLOG - A Woolworths’ bag of spoofs:

March 23rd, 2007 by admin

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Star trek cribs…

It is well known that both Star Trek and MTV Cribs appeal to a particular kind of audience. Usually these audiences are entirely and mutually incompatible. However, just imagine if you could combine those two audiences. You would surely have an army that could take over the world! The Trekkers could work out the military tactics and design and build all the technology, weaponry, transport and uniforms and would then work out a strategy to enforce and maintain the new world order. Then the Cribbers would re-spray the cars with flame logos, eat a lot of crisps, install ridiculously impractical speaker systems in the stupidest places, and stand around in their velour hooded tracksuits clicking their fingers saying ‘you know what I’m talking about’ a lot.

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Harry Hill - Deal or no Deal

The success of Deal or no Deal is astounding and slightly disturbing. It is basically the equivalent of the ‘choose your own adventure’ fantasy books. It makes the viewer do all the work. It is like one of those patterns that you stare at for ages and start to see shapes and forests and dogs. Who is the mystery man that Noel Edmonds is talking to? One thing is for certain... it is not his stylist... because that person appeared to pass away in 1986 in New York City. And you can clearly hear him mumbling about getting his carpets cleaned aboard his spaceship. Whaa? I'm sure his spaceship has excellent floor coverings, maybe even oriental carpets, but does he really think the local Manhattan carpet cleaning service will come aboard while he's flaking out about Deal or no Deal? They will probably not even take his call.

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Wine Bottles and Roller Skates

The human spirit is an amazing thing. It can conquer disease, it can survive world wars, it can design Laura Ashley curtains, it can work out how to set up a broadband wireless connection (after 15 hours of phonecalls to BT India). And it can compel a man to rollerskate along a road playing the first movement of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor on wine bottles. The question must be asked did he have to drink all that wine before he was ready to go? Was there a toilet stop half way down? We’ve heard of Dutch Courage but there are limits. Surely this man is an alcoholic? If so, then those people lining the streets and cheering him on are only making his problem worse…

 

Rap Impersonation

This next clip is amazing if you can tell the difference between the rapping styles of DMX and Jay-Z. If however you live in a bungalow on the outskirts of Guildford, enjoy recreational sewing, think all rap music sounds the same and consider Cliff Richard singing ‘Devil Woman’ is the height of Rock and Roll… it won’t mean anything to you.

 

Titanic Sequel

Are you a teenage girl with an obsession about death? Did you watch Titanic 175 times? Do you love Jack Dawson so much it makes your eyes spontaneously combust when you hear his name? Do you wear dirty old lace wedding dresses and scuffed up Doc Martens? Are you sitting there in candlelight writing hundreds of letters to James Cameron in your own blood pleading with him to make a sequel? Well this clip could be about to fulfil your ultimate dreams!! Mind you, in the wake of the terrible awful thing that is Rocky Balboa, perhaps Hollywood doesn’t consider a Titanic Sequel entirely out of the question?

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Friends

Was Friends ever funny? Or were we all just under a mid-nineties collective hallucinogenic mind spell induced by our admiration of the size of their flats and temporary blindness from the sheen emanating from Jennifer Aniston’s hair. Is it time for a critical re-assessment? Maybe Marcel the monkey was funny after all?

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And so that’s it for this week – you can catch all of these clips on our website www.tuffsheet.com.

And please please send us things that you like on the wwweb. For a start it makes our job easier and give us more time to plot our revolutionary agenda or eat cakes. We’ll meet again in a couple of weeks….

You can see all our older newsletters with more spoofs on our website.

And finally here’s a clip of a fat boy nearly dying on a rollercoaster (nice one Janice). We know it’s not a spoof (ha - rules are for losers!) but just purely for your entertainment - everyone loves a bonus track…

 

TUFFSHEET BLOG - This week our favourite ad spoofs:

January 23rd, 2007 by admin

We made our Dove spoof as a playful homage to the original. A wise man – it may have been Ross Kemp – once said that you can only spoof something you love. If you’re indifferent to something, you ignore it. How very true, Ross, how very true.

This week our favourite ad spoofs:

The Infamous Sony bravia ad spoofed so beautifully by Tango in Swansea. Anyway, it’s very good. Apart from the freakily goofy woman at the end. Do we want to look like that if we drink fizzy orange stuff? No, we don’t.

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The old Mastercard classic, but hey, everyone loves a blowjob joke, right? Except men with no penises. They probably just feel very resentful.

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Wow. Citroen’s breakdancing car. How many people love that ad? Ten? Twenty? 500? It’s no good asking us. We have no idea. But it’s certainly inspired some excellent spoofs. Except that the dancing English breakfast makes us feel both queasy and strangely aroused.

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Not so much a spoof as a nosebleed techno remix of the Michael Winner e-sure ads. Is Michael Winner the greatest Englishman of all time? It’s possible. He’s definitely better than Churchill, who also tries to sell us car insurance.

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A spoof of the smug teeth chattering Honda choir. Alright we know you can make the sound of a windscreen wiper and quite frankly that’s pretty amazing, but why does that make us want to buy your car? If it’s not something arty like that, it’s an actor pretending to be some bloke called Barry Scott flogging bog cleaner. We want fantasies. Diet Coke man, that bird having a bath eating a flake. We want the power of dreams. We want sexy people telling us if we buy their sexy product we’ll be really sexy and have lots of sexy sex. Make us feel good for 30 seconds. It’s more than we’re getting normally.

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There are many urban myths: if you smoke a banana skin you get high; a sneeze is the same as an 1/8 of an orgasm, the earth is round. But amazingly that thing about dropping a mentos in a bottle of Diet Coke is true. Does it work with a classic pint of bitter…?

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A final happy Christmas clip that will warm your cockles. Is there anything more Christmassey than the cozy sounds of Aled Jones’ ‘I’m walking in the air’. One for the mums…

Christmas in a Box

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That’s it for now . Time is money. Places to go, people to see. Actually, that’s not true. We have no places to go, and no-one to see. We’re just sitting here all night, playing Tetris and refreshing our email. But don’t worry. You haven’t heard the last of us. There’ll be more spoofs here soon. Very soon.

 

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More Background on CampaignAgainstRealLife.com

Campaign Against Real Life: An Exploration of a Controversial Satire Website In the early 2000s, a satirical website called Campaign Against Real Life emerged as a provocative voice in online humor. This comprehensive article will examine the history, content, and cultural impact of this controversial site, drawing on various sources to paint a detailed picture of its significance in internet culture.

 

Origins and History

Campaign Against Real Life, also known as CARL or TuffSheet.com, was launched in the early 2000s as a satirical blog and content aggregator. The exact launch date is unclear from available sources, but the site appears to have been active primarily between 2004-2010. It was created by a group of anonymous British writers and comedians who aimed to skewer contemporary culture, politics, and media through biting satire and parody. The site's creators adopted exaggerated personas, describing themselves as "insanely attractive underground renegades" living in an offshore castle and working to bring about "anarchy and revolution." This over-the-top self-description set the tone for the irreverent and absurdist humor that would define the site's content.

 

Content and Style

Campaign Against Real Life featured a mix of original satirical articles, parody videos, and curated humorous content from around the web. The site's writers adopted a cynical, world-weary tone in their commentary on current events, pop culture, and everyday life frustrations. Some of the site's most popular recurring features included:

• "Tuffsheet Blog" - A regular blog featuring sardonic observations on news, culture, and mundane aspects of daily life.
• Video spoofs and parodies of popular ads, TV shows, and public figures.
• Curated collections of humorous viral videos and memes.
• Fake news articles and headlines pushing absurdist premises to their logical extremes.

The humor often pushed boundaries with edgy, politically incorrect jokes and commentary. Nothing was off-limits for mockery, from celebrity culture to politics to social issues. This unrestrained approach earned the site a reputation for being provocative and controversial.

 

Target Audience and Popularity

Campaign Against Real Life cultivated an audience of young, media-savvy internet users who appreciated its irreverent take on popular culture. The site's cynical worldview and insider references to internet culture resonated particularly with millennials coming of age in the mid-2000s. At its peak, the site claimed to receive hundreds of thousands of unique visitors per month, though exact traffic numbers are difficult to verify. Its popularity was driven largely by viral sharing of its content on early social media platforms and forums. The site found particular success in the UK, where its distinctly British sense of humor and cultural references struck a chord. However, it also developed a cult following internationally among English-speaking internet users who appreciated its brand of satire.

 

Notable Campaigns and Viral Hits

While comprehensive records of the site's content are not readily available, several of Campaign Against Real Life's satirical campaigns and videos achieved viral popularity during its run:

• A series of video spoofs parodying popular ad campaigns, including send-ups of Dove's "Real Beauty" ads and Nike commercials.
• Fake movie trailers for absurd premises, like "Titanic 2" and a gritty reboot of "Friends."
• A satirical campaign advocating for "real beauty" in men's deodorant ads, mocking the objectification in Lynx/Axe commercials.
• Parody public service announcements on topics like social media addiction and celebrity worship.

These viral hits helped expand the site's reach and cemented its reputation for biting cultural commentary disguised as humor.

 

Controversies and Criticism

The provocative nature of Campaign Against Real Life's content inevitably led to controversies and criticism throughout its run. Some of the main points of contention included:

• Accusations of crossing the line from satire into offensiveness, particularly around sensitive social issues.
• Criticism for perpetuating harmful stereotypes under the guise of irony.
• Concerns about the blurring of lines between satire and reality, with some readers mistaking fake stories for genuine news.
• Pushback from brands and public figures targeted by the site's parodies and mockery.

The site's defenders argued that its unrestrained approach to satire served an important role in challenging societal norms and hypocrisy. However, critics maintained that some of its content was needlessly cruel or promoted harmful attitudes.

 

Cultural Impact and Legacy

While Campaign Against Real Life was relatively short-lived as a website, it left a lasting impact on internet culture and satire. Some of its key contributions and influences include:

• Helping popularize the style of absurdist internet humor that would come to dominate sites like 4chan and early YouTube.
• Influencing the tone and approach of later satirical news sites like The Onion and Clickhole.
• Pushing the boundaries of what was considered acceptable in online satire and comedy.
• Cultivating a cynical, media-savvy audience that would go on to shape internet culture in the 2010s.

The site is often cited as an early example of how the internet enabled niche forms of humor to find large audiences. Its rapid rise and fall also foreshadowed the volatile nature of internet fame and meme culture.

 

Decline and Disappearance

Campaign Against Real Life appears to have ceased regular updates sometime around 2010-2011, though the exact timing is unclear. The reasons for the site's decline are not definitively known, but likely factors include:

• Increased competition from other humor sites and social media platforms.
• Shifting tastes in internet humor as its original audience aged.
• Potential legal pressure from brands and individuals targeted by its satire.
• The challenges of maintaining an anonymous collective of writers long-term.

The site's domain eventually expired, and much of its original content has been lost to time. However, archived versions of some pages and videos can still be found online, preserved by fans and internet archivists.

 

Reception and Critical Analysis

Contemporary reviews and analyses of Campaign Against Real Life were mixed, reflecting the polarizing nature of its content. Some critics praised the site for its fearless approach to satire and willingness to tackle taboo subjects. Others criticized it for prioritizing shock value over substantive commentary. Media scholar Dr. Sarah Thornton wrote in a 2009 analysis: "Campaign Against Real Life represents both the best and worst of internet-native satire. At its best, it offers incisive cultural criticism cloaked in humor. At its worst, it descends into juvenile provocations that add little to public discourse." The site's hit-or-miss nature was acknowledged even by its fans. In a 2007 forum post, one regular reader wrote: "Half the time CARL makes me laugh harder than anything else online. The other half, I'm cringing at how try-hard edgy it can be. But I keep coming back because when they nail it, they really nail it."

 

Influence on Modern Internet Culture

While Campaign Against Real Life itself has faded into obscurity, its DNA can be seen in many aspects of modern internet culture:

• The rapid-fire, reference-heavy style of humor popularized by the site is now common in memes and viral content.
• Its blending of real and fake news presaged the current struggles with misinformation online.
• The site's cultivation of an insider community around shared humor influenced how many modern online communities function.
• Its use of shock and transgression to gain attention remains a common tactic for viral content creators.

Dr. Michael Wong, a professor of digital media studies, noted in a 2018 retrospective: "Campaign Against Real Life was ahead of its time in understanding how internet communities form around shared sensibilities and in-jokes. Many of the dynamics we see in modern meme culture were present in embryonic form on CARL over a decade ago."

 

Campaign Against Real Life occupies a unique place in the history of internet culture as an early pioneer of boundary-pushing online satire. While the site itself was relatively short-lived, its influence can still be felt in the DNA of modern internet humor and commentary. Its legacy is a complex one - celebrated by some as fearless satirists and condemned by others as needlessly provocative trolls. But there's no denying that Campaign Against Real Life played a role in shaping how a generation of internet users approach humor, media criticism, and online community-building. As internet culture continues to evolve, the echoes of sites like Campaign Against Real Life serve as a reminder of the web's capacity to incubate new forms of expression and push the boundaries of acceptable discourse - for better or worse.