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'Dangerous' Peppa Pig Episode pulled from Australian TV - Again

Uzzy

Member
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-...you-episode-pulled-off-air-in-australia-again

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A controversial episode of Peppa Pig has been pulled off the air in Australia for a second time, after complaints it told children to pick up and play with dangerous spiders.

In the offending episode, Daddy Pig tells a frightened Peppa that spiders are “very very small” and “can’t hurt you” after the eponymous arachnid enters her room. The children are then depicted picking the spider up, tucking it into bed and offering it some tea.

This advice from the British-produced show was deemed to be “inappropriate for Australian audiences” and the ABC banned it from future broadcast. The episode had not been broadcast on TV because of its unsuitability, but was “accidentally published online due to a technical problem”, the ABC said at the time.

On 25 August, the episode was aired again on Nick Jr, a children’s channel affiliated with Nickelodeon and available on the Australian pay TV service Foxtel.

A Sydney mother, named only as Jess, told Fairfax Media she complained to Nick Jr. The channel initially refused to pull the episode, saying Mister Skinny Legs “did not look real”.

“The episode is light-hearted, friendly and very mild in impact; the overarching message of the episode is about respecting all creatures,” it said.

“The context of the way the spider is portrayed in the episode lessens any impact of scariness or danger; the spider does not look real, it has a smiley face and is shown in context of a show with other talking animals.”

But after being contacted by media, Nick Jr said it would remove the episode from programming rotation, despite continuing to maintain that it “does meet our criteria”.

Jump in a muddy puddle if old.
 
I understand both sides of the argument. The episode was well-intentioned, but they forgot that Australia is a land where deadly spiders are a dime a dozen.
 

hidys

Member
To be clear most spiders in Australia are harmless but I actually can understand why that's not a good message for kids, especially in this country.

I was a little worried when I read the title because I thought it might be because some dickhead in a Murdoch paper complained that the show promoted cultural Marxism or some bullshit which has happened in the past.

We have spiders, snakes and even dropbears but nothing in this country is more dangerous than the infamous 'dickhead.'
 
It's the Mister Skinny Legs episode! I know that one way too well since my kids watched that one a lot. Totally understandable with the ban and not something that would have crossed my mind.
 
Let's see:

Peppa Pig
Pedro Pony
Suzy Sheep
Stuart Spider

Perfect. We now have a new character.

<This is what happens when you have a 2 year old>
 

Syder

Member
This makes sense. Picking up spiders in Britain and picking them up in Australia are very different.
 
Okay so I had to look up the episode and I love how George is the one who finds the spider and then Peppa just literally steals it from him.
 
USA has black widows, but I've honestly only ever seen them in the woods.
We also have brown recluses whom are also dangerous, but I've never seen one period.
So the 'spiders are harmless' thing flies here too.
 

sTiTcH AU

Member
My boys have seen the episode countless times, but they would never go near an actual spider.

I can understand why they would pull the episode though. If even one child picks up a redback (which are everywhere here) because they saw it was OK on Peppa Pig and got bitten...well the outcome has the potential to be very bad.
 
It's silly... unless you are in Australia where the spiders actually can kill you lol.

Seriously the messaging is fine that spiders and insects are "mostly" harmless but I see where people are coming from in this case especially in Aussyland.
 
None at all.
Staff at the hospital have since confirmed to the newspaper that they are investigating whether the bite caused Mrs Gough-Irwin's death, and her family will be meeting with hospital managers. If the creature was the cause, she will become the first known person to have died in the UK as a result of a spider bite.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...ing-bitten-by-false-widow-spider-9851990.html

I don't see a follow-up but what I see makes it look like an infection that killed her.
It's silly... unless you are in Australia where the spiders actually can kill you lol.

Seriously the messaging is fine that spiders and insects are "mostly" harmless but I see where people are coming from in this case especially in Aussyland.
One person in Australia has been killed by spider in almost 40 years.

There might even be more deaths from spiders proportionately in the US (I haven't seen undisputed data on it).
 
While I get what the show is trying to say, I can certainly see this being an issue in Australia. Heck, I have black widows all around my house, and several have managed to get inside the house. I caught my dog playing with one. I've also seen brown recluses at my grandmother's house. I'd hate for my daughter to see this, then grab one of those spiders.
 
While I get what the show is trying to say, I can certainly see this being an issue in Australia. Heck, I have black widows all around my house, and several have managed to get inside the house. I caught my dog playing with one. I've also seen brown recluses at my grandmother's house. I'd hate for my daughter to see this, then grab one of those spiders.

Why haven't you burned your house down yet
 
None at all.

Isn't the Flase Widow now indigenous to the UK after decades of exposure to our climate? Or was that just a scare story a few years back? Not lethal on bite, per se, but still harmful.

I know the Lace Web can poison too, but again nothing that can't be treated here.

Edit:

On the pic, it's extra creepy since they got George half-lidded. He looks way too into it.
 
I understand both sides of the argument. The episode was well-intentioned, but they forgot that Australia is a land where deadly spiders are a dime a dozen.

Yeah, this. There are no native dangerous spiders here in the UK where Peppa Pig is made, but obviously that rule doesn't apply to Australia so it makes sense to pull it from airing over there.
 

CTLance

Member
Shame that there wasn't enough budget to add some exceptions and examples of dangerous spiders to the episode instead. I feel like it would have been useful to the young'uns.
Why haven't you burned your house down yet
You know how it is, kill one, and suddenly friends and family show up for the funeral. What do you think will happen when it's not just a single individual, but an entire house covered in spiders?
 
I've been in Sydney for 2 months and i've never seen the spiders usually posted here (in the wild or houses).

It's been better than my home country, lol.
 

Khoryos

Member
Surely there are some dangerous spiders in the UK.

Over the centuries we've basically murdered the fuck out of all the dangerous wildlife in the UK.

I mean, bulls can gore you if you fuck around in their fields, but that's it. Our only surviving native venomous snake is the Adder, which is basically a pussy.
 

jdstorm

Banned
USA has black widows, but I've honestly only ever seen them in the woods.
We also have brown recluses whom are also dangerous, but I've never seen one period.
So the 'spiders are harmless' thing flies here too.

The Australian equivalent of a Black Widow (red back) is common to its most populous city (Sydney) to the point that you need to teach children to be careful playing around tree stumps or other places with dark crevices and it isn't even the most dangerous common spider.
 
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