The Queen’s agent, Peppa Pig, has American kids talking all British again
Children's binge-watching during the pandemic quarantine is a boon to influencer wannabe parents everywhere
TV Features Peppa Pig
Ring the alarms: British mole agent, Peppa Pig, is corrupting our American youth yet again, goddamnit. Despite seeming like a harmless cartoon character designed to entertain children, she has been uncovered as an agent of British cultural hegemony actively working to undermine the sovereignty of nations around the globe. As the Wall Street Journal reports, thanks to a year-and-a-half’s worth of pandemic-induced stay-at-home life, parents are noticing their kids talking nonsense about “lorries,” “petrol stations,” and “biscuits” to their beloved “mummies and daddies.” The culprit? Hours of Peppa Pig binge-watching.
One 6-year-old Rhode Island girl spent last December “[insisting] on the British holiday traditions of wearing a crown and baking mince pies for ‘Father Christmas.’”
“Mummy, are you going to the optician?” a California kindergartener named Dani apparently asked their mom (say it right!) the other day. “We were like, ‘the what?’ That’s like a college-level word… At least, I wasn’t using it,” Dani’s self-deprecating father, Matias Cavallin, told the WSJ. As parents like Cavallin balanced work and raising children, they increasingly relied on kids’ programming to help distract and educate during their Zoom meetings and work-from-home scenarios. Soon, “The Peppa Effect,” as some call it, became a nationwide epidemic.
…And yet, evidence of “some children snorting like pigs and using cheeky Britishisms” was documented long before COVID-19's appearance. After states implemented lockdowns, however, kids “gorged on the cartoon in a silo away from their usual social interactions, amplifying the effect.” Now, kids across the country are insisting on asking to turn on the “telly” for further Anglophilic indoctrination lessons from Her Majesty, Peppa. The company behind Peppa Pig, for its part, believes that kids are basically just imitating the character because they “see her as a friend.”
According to the researchers at Parrot Analytics, Ltd., a consulting firm tracking entertainment analytics via social media discussions and streaming statistics, Peppa Pig leapt from 103rd-most to 50th-most in-demand show in any genre over the past year. More terrifyingly, it’s the world’s second-place most in-demand children’s show over the past 12 months, with only SpongeBob Squarepants ahead of it but you don’t hear a bunch of 6-year-olds running around sounding like SpongeBob, Squidward, or Sandy, innit?
Oh no….
[via BoingBoing]
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23 Comments
Peppa Pig promotes gangster attitudes.
That’s comparatively minor damage compared to what Peppa’s been up to in Australia. Apparently one episode was designed to teach children not to be afraid of spiders. A good lesson in Britain, and more or less a good lesson in America. But a terrible lesson in Australia! (the episode won’t be aired there again).
Harmless little Mister Skinny Legs?
Hey kids, a red hourglass on the abdomen means its “time” to play!
Don’t worry – Bluey is returning the favour.
I admit it. I actually miss Peppa Pig. And I used to love it when my kids would call the shopping cart the trolley and the jungle gym the climbing frame after watching the show.Hopefully all these kids aren’t flopping to the ground with hysterical laughter whenever they think something’s funny.
I heard of something similar happening with Portuguese children watching Brazilian YouTubers.
Yeah, but that direction makes sense, the Brazilians being the more numerous and less formal colonials who are “ruining the language” the way Americans are accused of doing for English. It’s funnier the other way around.
Pig ! – BritishandProud, Uk, United Kingdom, August 2015
Re-education camps for the lot of them! Don’t let them out until they know what a cookie is, dammit!
As someone whose non American kids use words like soda, sidewalk and trunk due to so much US TV and YouTube I say ha! Now you guys know how it feels!
That being said, calling a sidewalk a “pavement” doesn’t make any sense in an era in which both the sidewalk and street are paved.
I’d say that paving roads (as opposed to tarmacking them) is still insufficiently common to undermine a well understood word live pavement.
*like
Over here the street usually is covered in tarmac , and the pavement quite often is paved ( or is made of concrete) so it still works!
“Eye, eye, eye! You look ‘armless! ‘Op in!”
Exposing young children to Brian Blessed’s voice can only be a good thing, as far as I’m concerned.
Blimey!!!
Get these kids some Karl Pilkington and have them speaking like a proper Manc knob stat!
Between Bluey, the Wiggles, Peppa Pig and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, there’s only a 1/4 chance my kid will speak English with an American accent.
You’re welcome.
We haven’t watched Peppa Pig in years, but we still say “holiday house” for a vacation home. It’s a great phrase. We also call RVs “camper vans”, and occasionally follow up with a Camper Van Beethoven joke.