Marriage; tick. Right to adopt; tick. Legal protection from discrimination; tick. Visibility in cartoons about twee, porcine adventures; massive cross. Last week, my niece’s favourite programme, Peppa Pig, was scrutinised by Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb (who, fittingly, sounds a bit like a character off the show himself) for its dearth of lesbian characters. And he’s absolutely right. In the fantastically popular cartoon’s entire cast of misshapen anthropomorphic freak beasts, not a single one of them is an out and proud gay.
So I’ve, frankly, done us all a favour by writing some much needed lesbianism into an episode of Peppa Pig…
***
[Insanely annoying musical intro]Narrator with “I have a comforting formation of pixels where my penis should be” voice: Mummy Pig Tips the Velvet
Ext. the Pig household, night. An owl is hooting.
Narrator: It’s nighttime. Peppa, George and Daddy Pig are are fast asleep. But Mummy Pig is still awake…
Int. Mummy and Daddy Pig’s bedroom. Daddy Pig is snoring loudly. Mummy Pig looks cross. She nudges him.
Mummy Pig: Daddy Pig… DADDY PIG!
[Daddy Pig wakes up with a start]Daddy Pig: SNORT. Wha – goodness me, what is the matter, Mummy Pig?
Mummy Pig: You were snoring again.
Daddy Pig: No I wasn’t. I know when I’m snoring.
[Mummy Pig closes her eyes and raises her weird pig hands in an “I give up” sort of gesture]Mummy Pig: Daddy Pig. We need to talk.
Daddy Pig: Nighttime isn’t for talking, Mummy Pig. You’ll wake up Peppa and George.
Mummy Pig: Well, your snoring hasn’t woken them up, has it?
[Daddy Pig snorts indignantly]Mummy Pig: Listen, Daddy Pig…
Daddy Pig: What?
Mummy Pig: Are you… happy?
Daddy Pig: As happy as anybody in a bizarre, post-nuclear dreamscape where everyone’s nose is on the side of their head can be. Why?
Mummy Pig: Well, I’m not.
Daddy Pig: Oh. Is it Peppa? Look, yes, we’ve raised an obnoxious little shit. But it’s not entirely our fault…
Mummy Pig: No, it’s not Peppa. Yes, she’s a nightmare and I have no idea how we managed to spawn the living Devil, but that’s beside the point. It’s you, Daddy Pig. It’s us.
Daddy Pig: What do you mean?
Mummy Pig: Daddy Pig. I love you. I love George. I even love Peppa, in a way. But I’ve been dishonest with you for a while. I’m a –
Daddy Pig: Don’t say it, Mummy Pig. Do not sit here and tell me you’re a –
Mummy Pig: Lesbian.
Daddy Pig: Sweet Jesus.
[Daddy Pig starts bawling uncontrollably]Daddy Pig: [through tears] Oh it all makes so much sense now. Those sensible shoes…
Mummy Pig: Now hold on a sec – there’s only one type of shoe in this universe and we all wear it. You can hardly –
Daddy Pig: [ignoring her] the life-size sculpture of Gillian Anderson you bought on eBay, “for a joke”. Your completely irrational aversion to my hideous, foot-long corkscrew pig penis…
Mummy Pig: [in a soothing tone] Look, Daddy Pig…
[Daddy Pig continues to expel a stream of loud sobs, punctuated by snorts]Daddy Pig: So is there… is there a woman?
Mummy Pig: [sighs] Yes. Donna Dolphin.
Daddy Pig: So you’re leaving me then? For a dolphin? Does she even live on land? What is this fucked up world we live in where lesbian dolphins live on land? That nuclear fallout really has done a number on us all.
Mummy Pig: We’re in love.
[Daddy Pig jumps out of bed and starts pacing, head in hands]Mummy Pig: Daddy Pig, I know how hard this must be, but –
[Daddy Pig opens a window]Daddy Pig: [Shouting out the window] GOOD NEWS EVERYBODY. MY WIFE IS IN LOVE WITH A DOLPHIN. A FEMALE DOLPHIN.
Mummy Pig: [furious] DADDY PIG.
[The bedroom door opens. Peppa and George enter, rubbing their eyes]Peppa: Why are you crying, daddy? I’m scared.
George: [snort]
Daddy Pig: Children, your mother has something to tell you.
Peppa: Oh, did you tell him, Mummy? About you being a lesbinum?
[Daddy Pig’s mouth drops wide open]Peppa: Silly daddy. Everyone knows mummy is a lesbinum. Even George worked it out. And the only word he knows is “dinosaur”.
George: Dinosaur, rawr!
[Daddy Pig silently curls into a foetal position on the floor]Peppa: Mummy, when I grow up, can I be a lesbinum? Boys are yucky.
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