The toughest of the MKR judges wants everyone to stop being so mean.

My Kitchen Rules judge Colin Fassnidge objects to the use of the word villain to describe contestants on the show.

Which is fair: It does seem rather absurd to label a couple of suburban mums or a married couple who cook spaghetti in a bag “villains”.

Villain is the kind of word applied to dastardly, frequently foiled cartoon characters, like Gargamel from The Smurfs. Now that was a villain!

“I don’t like the word villain (being used on the show) because they cop it,” Fassnidge told the Herald Sun.

“These are people with families, and we’re all human, but it’s hard when you’re on the street and people say whatever they want to you.”

#MKR @fassnidge73 what salad dressing do you use, …on your hair?

— Florence Erlenmyer (@tony_walton) March 28, 2016

For all they’re undeserving of public opprobrium, the contestants do sometimes bring it on themselves, he reckons.

“You know if you’re good or bad, so don’t talk yourself up. It’s like me going on a home renovation show and bragging. I can’t even put up a shelf.”

Might not some interesting editing, bitchy resting face, and producers’ prompting be to blame here?

Watch a promo for tonight’s episode… Post continues after video.

Nevertheless, Fassnidge himself has been the target of them haters.

“I get a little bit of grief sometimes, good and bad, but I’ve had four years to learn how to deal with it.

“For me, it’s: ‘Don’t cry about it, you’ve signed your contract, you know what you’re getting into.'”