Brandon “Bug” Hall has fired back at critics of his viral GoFundMe campaign for his sixth child.
The former child star, 41, who played Alfalfa in 1994’s “The Little Rascals,” launched the fundraiser last week with a modest $2,000 target after what he described as six years of refusing to ask for public help. Hall, who left Hollywood and took what he has called a “vow of poverty,” wrote on the GoFundMe page that he had “avoided” creating a campaign despite his self-imposed financial constraints.
“I always said this was my choice, and so I didn’t want to offload the glorious burden of it unless there was no other choice. Well here we are,” he penned on the platform.
Hall explained that he had “fallen a little behind” on his family’s limited bills and lacked materials needed before the baby’s arrival. “We’re all overjoyed to be where we are, and we’re even enjoying roughing it, but baby six is less than a month away, and I really need some help getting the last few things buttoned up beforehand,” he claimed.
The campaign rapidly drew both donations and intense backlash. One critic wrote on the fundraiser: “That pitch of his is disgusting. He hasn’t fallen on hard times, he’s chosen them and then in begging as a result has brought shame down on raising families, the Catholic faith and himself, a shame he appears not to even recognize.”
Another commenter told Hall to put his “pride down and get a real job,” adding: “This is embarrassing, stop impregnating your wife when you can’t even keep your family afloat.”
Hall responded directly to that criticism with a defiant statement on the platform: “I’m going to keep impregnating my wife.”
When someone else shot back, “Don’t beg us for money than,” Hall continued engaging with detractors. He also claimed at one point that his account had been “frozen thanks to my haters,” as some questioned why he kept the fundraiser active after it blew past its original goal.
The campaign has now raised over $27,000, more than thirteen times its target, though Hall indicated that payout complications had emerged due to reports filed against the account.
Hall lives off-grid with his wife, Jill DeGroff, and their five existing children—four daughters and one son. His social media presence has stirred controversy before: he has referred to his son as his “heir” while calling his daughters “dishwashers,” and he was previously banned from X after posting in support of marital duty and corporal punishment of minors regarding his two daughters at that time. His X bio still identifies him as a “rascal.”
Despite the wave of criticism, some supporters have contributed to the fundraiser while others have expressed concern that Hall’s children receive adequate support regardless of their father’s choices.
Hall’s departure from Hollywood followed his childhood fame as the bow-tied Alfalfa in the 1994 family comedy “The Little Rascals,” a role that made him one of the most recognizable young actors of the mid-1990s. He has since embraced what he describes as “radical Catholic extremism” and gave up the money he earned as a child performer.