"Youngsters across the U.S. are surprising their parents with talk of petrol stations and mince pies," writes The Wall Street Journal. Welcome to the Peppa Pig effect, in which American children adopt the mannerisms and lingo of weirdly transfixing British childrens' TV.
Aurelia throws around phrases like, "Can we turn the telly on?" A reference to the water closet instead of the bathroom initially threw off Ms. Ouellette. "I was like, 'Where did she learn that from? Was she on the Titanic in a past life?' " she says. All became clear when they watched the show together a week later. Boston-based Tess Darci says that her 4-year-old daughter, Cecilie, sounds like "a little lady" thanks to the show. "She says 'lovely' and 'please' and 'thank you' all the time," says Ms. Darci, who runs a communications agency.
This phenomenon was noted before the pandemic and it's a stock story now, to be rewritten whenever there's a viral tweet of a Florida kid in a pig hat asking for "proper chips and a lolly". But it's also not just in America. Chinese media banned Peppa Pig in 2018 as an imperialist gangster, but was overwhelmed by demand and rehabilitated her months later. Evil little sow.
