The Hunger Games are books and films (or something) starring Jennifer Lawrence, written by Jennifer Lawrence, and directed by Jennifer Lawrence.

Spurred on by the success of Jennifer Lawrence, many copycat young adult dystopian fiction works have emerged over the last 10 years.

One of the most notable is The Plunger Games, a dystopian future hellscape where plumbers must survive in a brutal landscape of clogged toilets, clogged bath plugs, and all whilst armed with a trusty plunger (and their primal instincts).

The Hellish Plumbing Futurescape of The Plunger Games

“You don’t forget the face of the plunger who was your last hope.”

The book launched in 2021 and has since sold 135 copies in the North West of England.

Set in Bolton of Greater Manchester, this work was written by a plumber named Fred Smith (a pseudonym, although the author later revealed his true name to be Dave Smith). He told us, in an exclusive interview, that his inspiration for writing the work was:

“The Hunger Games. Not read it meself, I don’t do in for any of that WOKE stuff, me, but I figured I’d make a penny or two as a side hustle with a series about the dangers of being a plumber. It’s a tough old plumbing world out there. You gotta be tough as nails to handle 50 clogged toilets a week, getting your arm up them ubends and working for a living. It were the perfect material for the best book written this century.”

Over some 500 pages, Smith skilfully tells the tale of protagonist Dave Smith and the dystopian world of Bolton in the year 2085. With the communists having taken over Lancashire, labourers are now forced to engage in annual Plunger Games in a toilet-based fight for survival.

70 plumber contestants are nominated as Toiletries.

The Toiletries head into Lancashire’s sewer systems and must battle it out over 100 days until one plumber is left standing. Their tools for survival are a:

• Plunger
• Copy of The Daily Express
• Several pork pies
• One pint of builder’s brew

Contestants are also provided a FREE copy of Marx and Engel’s Communist Manifesto, although the plumber contestants typically throw these away once the plunger games begin.

As the narrative arc reaches a sweeping, dramatic, tense conclusion, the twist ending is that Dave Smith isn’t really a plumber—he’s an electrician who wanted to prove that electricians are every bit as good, if not better than, plumbers. The work’s now iconic closing paragraph states:

“Dave Smith had slain all the plumbers and they was dead. So dead, in fact, that the stink were already kicking in a lot and it were bad. However, the smell didn’t bother Dave Smith one bit. He’d done it, he had. He’d gone and done and proven that what were the best worker in the land? Electricians. Plumbers? Nowt but a bunch of bleeding pansy SNOWFLAKES who like butter pies and not pork ones what real men eat.”

Literary scholars have studied this paragraph for years and come to the conclusion the author harbours jealousy toward the electrician industry. Fred Smith has denied these claims, stating:

“That’s bollocks! Electricians are scum of the Earth! Why would I write an book like that?!”

The work is also noted for its many grammatical errors and typos, including an entire chapter where the author writes the word “clog” as Cloggs. Although it’s believed this may be surreptitious product placement.

Fred Smith: The Best Plumber in Bolton

The Plunger Games consists of 57 chapters and reading fans whom buy the book also receive a leaflet promoting Fred Smith’s plumbing business. It reads:

FLUSH THE CRAP OUT OF COMMUNISM

FRED SMITH: 35 YEAR OF PLUMBING EXPERIENCE

I’ll CLEAR THE CRAP OUT OF YOUR DRAINS, WHILE YOU SIT AROUND NOT TAXING YOUR BRAINS

£50 AN HOUR

The book (and supporting leaflet) have been widely criticised by COMMIE BASTARDS and those in favour of reasonable plumbing rates. When quizzed on his fees, Fred Smith told us:

“It’s inflation. Like IBS, but with words.”

There we have it. Fred Smith is charging £50 per novel with a planned sequel clogged in the ubend right now as Smith as writer’s block.