An interview with Poundland Bandit
Poundland Bandit, the anonymous London-based Instagram account, makes hilariously accurate memes of everyone you love to hate – with an anti-gentrification slant. We chat with the man behind the account about stupid hipsters and stealing…
Name: Poundland Bandit
Age: 24
Occupation: Alcoholic
Why did you start the Poundland Bandit account?
I originally started just to post photos of friends and graffiti and funny shit I saw whilst I was out in London, that was all it was meant to be really.
What made you want to start making memes?
I follow loads of meme accounts ‘cos they make me laugh and I thought to myself it’s not that hard, fuck it, see if I can make people laugh too.
What inspired the theme of your account (starter packs of stereotypes)?
I saw the whole starter pack thing on Instagram ages ago and some were really funny but not always dead on accurate, so I was like, I’ll choose a few subcultures who I think are dicks and make a few memes out of them and see how it goes.
How long have you had this account for and what were you doing before?
I dunno since 2015? Before all the starter packs it was just graffiti and music that I liked, stuff I saw in the street or in bars.
Your Instagram has nearly 80k followers and lots of people are starting to notice you, how are you finding it?
It’s all a joke to me, I like making people laugh and I don’t take myself or the stuff I post seriously at all, I just have fun with it.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Going out drinking or to an event and overhearing people’s conversations about art, music, fashion, plus previous experiences with girls from the people I’ve met at parties.
What is the usual process of creating your memes?
I see someone, I take the piss out of them in my head, I remember what they said or were wearing, then it goes on from there basically.
Apart from running this account, what do you get up to?
Not too much, I go out a lot, do the occasional odd job for cash, DJ on occasion with my goof friend UGETBOYED, mostly ‘80s new wave and Italo disco.
What kind of people do you enjoy making memes out of most?
Posh kids whose lifestyles are funded by mum and dad but feel the need to use slang and dress like they’re from the roughest parts of London, that will never get old.
Do you get lots of backlash, i.e. the people you take the piss out of getting annoyed at you in the comments?
I get some crybabies who’ll say I’m not funny and try to take the piss out of me, but they’re fully entitled to their own opinion. I’m joking, I’m proper funny and they can go fuck themselves.
Where did the name ‘Poundland Bandit’ come from?
It started from graffiti. I was paying for paint for me to then do something illegal with it, which kind of defeats the point. So I used to nick the car paint out of a certain Poundland in South London so I could write my name on other people’s property.
Quite a lot of the stuff you make focuses on gentrification, why is that?
Because the only people who get any media coverage for talking about gentrification are the arseholes who are contributing to it in the first place. You don’t get to hear it from the side of the people being pushed out of their areas or forced to pay more to stay there.
You poke fun at gentrification a lot – what do you think of it?
I could go on forever but I’ll say this: don’t purposefully move to a rough area because you think it’s cool to live there and then cry when you get mugged because you thought that it would never happen.
Do you think social media can be useful to highlight social issues?
Definitely… raising awareness for good causes, outing people who do shitty things and continue to get away with it, education people about matters they’d be otherwise ignorant to, yeah it’s a good thing.
What’s next for Poundland Bandit?
Trying to not get assassinated by a pissed off hipster who can’t take a joke? I’m not sure, to be honest. It’d be nice to spread out into other things but I’m not sure how that would go. A bit of money would be nice as well as I’m fucking broke.