Burchill was an early critic of the fashion for denigrating lower social classes as "chavs". In 2005, she presented the Sky One documentary "In Defence of Chavs". "Picking on people worse off than you are isn't humour. It's pathetic, it's cowardly and it's bullying" she commented in an interview for "The Daily Telegraph" at the time. "It's all to do with self-loathing ... The middle classes can't bear to see people having more fun, so they attack Chavs for things like their cheap jewellery. It's jealousy, because they secretly know Chavs are better than them. They're even better looking."