Despite the cartoon’s pink and innocuous appearance, Peppa Pig has been branded a bad influence on children as parents say their brats may mimic the porcine heroine.
The bad behaviour stops short of rioting and looting, readers will be relieved to hear, but parents are nonetheless up in arms over such outrages as jumping in puddles and refusing Cornflakes for breakfast.
“The more I see, the more alarmed I am by the choice of behaviour put into this ‘cartoon’,” a mother ranted on parenting website Mumsnet, reports The Telegraph.
“George Pig, who my son loves, says ‘Yuck’ at vegetables and only wants to eat chocolate cake.
“A day after watching that episode, my wouldn’t eat his cucumber and tomatoes.”
A father was quoted by the paper as saying that, after watching Peppa Pig, his son began jumping in muddy puddles on the way to school, an imitation of the cartoon character.
On Twitter, people have been quick to laugh at the accusation.
“Peppa Pig makes kids naughty? Cartoons a bad influence? Nonsense. Now excuse me while I go hit some cats in the face with a frying pan,” said one person.
“Peppa Pig should be hung in a dungeon for 3 weeks with a light dusting of salt, we can then slice the delinquent up and have a sarnie,” another tweeted.
