Peppa Pig has entered her villain era, and she is taking names.
The fictional cartoon pig, beloved by toddlers, feared apparently by recording artists, has accumulated an impressive list of celebrity feuds over the years. The latest arrived this week when Peppa sat down with Pitchfork for what may be the most unexpected interview the music publication has ever published.
Asked whether indie singer-songwriter Clairo was overrated or underrated, Peppa delivered her verdict with the precision of someone who has been doing this for a while: “I don’t know her.” The line was a clear reference to Mariah Carey’s famously icy response when asked about Jennifer Lopez in the early 2000s. The pig knew exactly what she was doing.
Clairo did not take it quietly. She shared a screenshot of her texts with Charli xcx, who had four words on the matter: “let’s f*ck her up.” PinkPantheress also weighed in, writing: “ain’t shit sweet until you put respect on clairo.”
So Peppa Pig now has Charli xcx and PinkPantheress against her simultaneously. Most celebrities would consider this a bad week. Peppa appears unbothered.
This is not new behaviour
The Clairo incident is simply the latest entry in a feud list that stretches back years and spans genres, continents, and levels of seriousness.
In 2021, when Kanye West released DONDA to a Pitchfork score of 6/10, Peppa’s album Peppa’s Adventures had already scored 6.5 from the same publication. She marked the occasion with a now-deleted tweet: “Peppa didn’t need to host listening parties in Mercedes-Benz Stadium to get that .5.” West did not publicly respond, which was probably the right call.
In 2019, Peppa and Iggy Azalea released albums on the same day. Azalea graciously acknowledged the situation online, writing: “It’s over for me now.” Peppa responded with a GIF referencing Azalea’s own hit “Fancy,” captioned: “Peppa’s so fancy, you already know.” Azalea fired back: “Collab with me now or you’ll end up a breakfast special peppa.” The collaboration never materialised.
That same year, Cardi B took to social media to hold Peppa personally responsible for her daughter’s puddle-jumping phase, writing: “Fin up her uggs… Deum you peppa pig… COUNT YOUR FING DAYS!” Peppa, to her credit, let that one go.
Even Adele was not entirely immune
During a fan livestream, Adele was asked if she would ever collaborate with Peppa Pig. “No,” she said, and moved on. Peppa appeared on Capital FM shortly after and said she was “really sad” about the response, asking: “Why not? Don’t you like me?”
Adele, to be fair, walked it back immediately. “I felt terrible the second I said it,” she said, adding that she had spent three years watching the show with her son and that any time Peppa wanted to go jumping in muddy puddles, she was in.
Peppa accepted the apology, or at least did not publicly reject it.
What is actually happening here
The feuds are, of course, the work of Hasbro Entertainment’s social media team, who have spent years turning Peppa Pig’s official online presence into something genuinely chaotic. The Pitchfork interview this week was a produced segment, Peppa’s “I don’t know her” was a scripted bit, not an off-the-cuff dismissal.
But the reason it keeps working is that the bit is genuinely well-executed. Peppa Pig clocking Clairo with a Mariah Carey reference is a joke that requires cultural fluency to land, and it did. Charli xcx and PinkPantheress responding in character added fuel, and by Tuesday afternoon the whole thing had done exactly what it was designed to do.
The villain era is a brand strategy. It is also, by any measure, working.
