Working in the public eye means taking the risk that, sooner or later, you will do something that’s deemed problematic. This is true whether you’re a man or a woman, a real human being or a two-dimensional cartoon pig.
Peppa Pig, beloved star of the British children’s program Peppa Pig, has since learned this the hard way when a dark clip from her past emerged over the weekend. The Telegraph reports that on Sunday, the London Fire Brigade called out Peppa for a 2009 episode in which the narrator says “Mummy Pig’s dressed as a fireman.” Peppa, instead of using this opportunity as a teaching moment, merely responds by snorting and saying “Mummy!”
“Come on @peppapig, we’ve not been fireman for 30 years. You have a huge influence on kids & using out of date stereotypical gender specific wording prevents young girls from becoming firefighters,” they wrote on Twitter. “Join our #Firefightingsexism campaign.”
This is hardly the first brush with controversy for Peppa, aged 4, who’s also been criticized for not wearing a seat belt. So, is she going to get canceled this time? Is this a scandal exclusively devised to get Piers Morgan rock hard with indignation? And, most importantly: Oy, wots all this then?
Well, most of the reaction has simply been poking fun at the initial Fire Brigade’s tweet — hence what caused it to blow up into a “controversy” in the first place. And yes, as always, Morgan was provided adequate fuel for his daily, red-faced, pants-ruining meltdown.
Peppa, meanwhile, has stayed notably silent on the matter.