centipeetle:

(inhale)

I’m seriously disgusted by what I’m seeing on my dashboard. I know, I know - you figure you can just say anything you want because you’re cool, because you’re detached and above it all. Well, it just doesn’t work that way. You might be content in dragging others down but I’m not about that - I’m about love. I’m about uplifting people. That’s why I need to iterate that Peppa Pig is a children’s television program. Each episode is approximately 5 minutes long. The show revolves around Peppa, an anthropomorphic female pig, and her family and friends. Each of her friends is a different species of mammal.  Episodes tend to feature everyday activities such as attending playgroup, going swimming, visiting their grandparents, cousins, going to the playground or riding their bikes. The characters wear clothes, live in houses, and drive cars, but still display some characteristics of the animals on which they are based. Peppa and her family snort like pigs during conversations in which they are speaking in English, the other animals make their respective noises when they talk, with some exhibiting other characteristics, such as the Rabbit family’s communications of squeaking sounds and their enjoyment of carrots. The Rabbits are also the sole exception to the rule of human-like habitation, in that they live in a burrow in a hill, although it does have windows and is furnished in the same way as the other houses.

 The characters also blush when embarrassed and their mouths are used to express other emotions such as sadness, happiness, irritation, bewilderment and confusion. Although the mammals are anthropomorphic, other animals are not, for example, Tiddles the tortoise, Polly Parrot, and the ducks. In addition, the narrator of the series John Sparkes reinforces the action and humour, saying things like “Oh, dear” when something unfortunate happens (such as George starts crying) or “Look out!” when a character is doing something unsafe (such as Peppa riding her bicycle without looking where she’s going).  Peppa and her family did not wear seat belts in the first two series. After receiving several complaints, Astley Baker Davies announced that all future animation would include characters wearing seat belts, and that the relevant scenes in the first two series would be re-animated to include them.  In 2012, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation received a complaint that the episode “Mister Skinnylegs” was not appropriate for Australian audiences, since it encouraged befriending spiders. Given the toxicity of some common Australian spiders, notably the Redback Spider, the complaint was upheld and the episode not aired again. 

• Base-Breaking Character: Peppa can be either funny, or a whiny, obnoxious Bratty Half-Pint.
• Most Annoying Sound: George when he starts crying. It doesn’t help that the same audio clip is used when it happens.
• Fridge Horror: In the episode “Pumpkin Party” Suzy says that she’s dressed up as a vampire. When Peppa asks what a vampire is, Mummy Sheep answers by saying “A person who sleeps all day, and is awake all night”. This gets creepy when you know that in Real Life vampires eat the blood of cattle, like sheep, cows, or pigs.
  
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: Grandpa Pig got away with saying “stupid” in at least one episode, which isn’t ideal for little kids (the target audience) to hear.
• Artistic License – Biology: In “George Catches a Cold”, George walks into the rain without a hat and suffers the common cold. This is a myth, as cold is caused by viruses, not coldness and wetness.
• Rosie and Robbie Rabbit are born in a few minutes in “Mummy Rabbit’s Bump”. In real life, childbirth lasts hours for humans, but this would be about right for rabbits.