Folks, it’s a banner day in the world of Peppa Pig controversies. The famous cartoon pig, both loved and reviled in the world of mum’s Facebook groups, has put its bloody foot in it again.
Well, not exactly. You may or may not recall in the swamps of prehistory (i.e. 2015) that there was a great deal of controversy here in Australia over a single episode of Peppa Pig – then airing on the ABC – which allegedly taught kids terrible, terrible spider etiquette. The episode, which featured a little spider named Mr Skinnylegs, features Daddy Pig saying “spiders are very very small. […] and they can’t hurt you”.
Here is the episode in question, if you’re keen to watch a children’s cartoon on your work computer.
That is, of course, highly inadvisable advice in Australia, where small spiders are significantly worse than the big ones. The episode was banned from the ABC thanks to a complaint from a single viewer. The complaint as recorded on the ABC site is pretty funny:
A viewer complained that an episode of the animated children’s series Peppa Pig was inappropriate for an Australian audience because it said that spiders were not to be feared.
Fear them.
However, that restriction only ever applied to the ABC. Peppa Pig now airs on Foxtel courtesy of Nick Jr – and the offending episode is free to run rampage, convincing small children that it’s OK to befriend funnel webs, or whatever.
According to a report in Essential Baby, a mother-of-one complained to Nickelodeon after the episode appeared on Nick Jr back on August 25. Her complaint was run up the chain at Nickelodeon, and she wasn’t pleased with their response. No sir:
Nickelodeon has sent me an email that they’re going to still play the episode because apparently the spider looks friendly and it’s in a friendly environment. And the safety of children comes on the parents and it’s not their responsibility.
Nickelodeon Australia were truly, truly unrepentant in their response:
The Episode was classified G by Nickelodeon. Content classified G may contain classifiable elements that are very mild in impact. The Episode is light-hearted, friendly and very mild in impact; the overarching message of the Episode is about respecting all creatures and it is considered that impact of the storyline and the themes of the Episode do not exceed the G classification.
However, according to Essential Baby, Nickelodeon have now reconsidered their earlier response, and will no longer be airing the offending ep.
Folks. On behalf of PEDESTRIAN.TV to the adult children who read our website, I must stress this: do not make friends of spiders. They will bite you, and it’ll be a bad time for everyone. As a general rule, do not take safety instructions from a snarky British pig.
