It was perhaps the most surreal moment in recent British politics. In the middle of a speech to the CBIThe Confederation of British Industry is an organisation that lobbies on behalf of British companies. It claims to represent 190,000 businesses., the most important business organisation in the UK, prime minister Boris Johnson asked: "Hands up if you've been to Peppa Pig World!"

The delegates from Britain's most important industries were not impressed. Nor were many of Johnson's colleagues in government.

It is easy to see why the prime minister might have been preoccupied with Peppa. There is much about her that does not make sense. Everyone lives on an individual hill. Almost every job is carried out by a rabbit named Miss Rabbit. All the characters are anthropomorphicAnthropomorphism is when humans ascribe human-like traits, for instance personalities and emotions, to non-human things (including animals). animals, yet there are also ordinary animals.

Then there is the question of her height. Back in 2019, a Google search revealed that Peppa stands at seven foot one inch tall. This makes her family roughly the same size as grizzly bearsA kind of large bear native to North America..

Peppa Pig's success might seem difficult to understand. She started in 2004 as the brainchildAn original idea or invention. of a small animation firm. Now the franchise is worth more than £1bn a year. There are Peppa theme parks in the UK, China and the USA.

Peppa has worked with the UK Labour Party, and received endorsements from a former Australian prime minister and the Chinese army. She is so popular in the USA that children have started using British expressions, like "petrol" instead of "gas" and "biscuit" instead of "cookie".

Critics of Peppa accuse her of heteronormativitySomething that reinforces the idea that heterosexuality is the normal or better sexual orientation.. Almost everyone belongs to a traditional nuclear familyA family group consisting of a married couple, typically assumed to be straight, and the children they share., with a working father and a stay-at-home mother.

Defenders of the programme argue it is popular because it shows children spending time with their families.

Regardless of the family structures, some in the LGBTQ+ community have claimed Peppa as their own. This goes back to a song Peppa released called Expert Daddy Pig, about her inept father. What her animators did not know is that in gay culture, "expert daddy pig" can refer to a male partner of a certain age and expertise.

Peppa also has a darker side. In 2017, a writer noticed that YouTube algorithms were responding to kids' Peppa addiction by producing automatically-generated videos featuring their favourite pig. Some showed Peppa being tortured by the dentist, drinking bleach and eating her father.

So Peppa provides a rare insight into the bizarre corners of 21st-Century culture. An unexpected capitalist success story, a socially traditional show with LGBTQ+ worshippers, a victim of Google's algorithms: and now a favourite of the British prime minister.

Yes. Peppa can tell us much about our times: about how the global economy will pick up popular franchises and wring all the profit out of them, how algorithms malfunction in their effort to get more views and how anything can be appropriated and reused on the internet.

No. Children's TV shows rarely make sense to anyone other than children. Peppa just hit a winning formula. Her appropriation and subversion, and the various sticky ends she meets on YouTube, are simply because she is so widely recognisable: she does not have much meaning in herself.

CBI - The Confederation of British Industry is an organisation that lobbies on behalf of British companies. It claims to represent 190,000 businesses.

Anthropomorphic - Anthropomorphism is when humans ascribe human-like traits, for instance personalities and emotions, to non-human things (including animals).

Grizzly bears - A kind of large bear native to North America.

Brainchild - An original idea or invention.

Heteronormativity - Something that reinforces the idea that heterosexuality is the normal or better sexual orientation.

Nuclear family - A family group consisting of a married couple, typically assumed to be straight, and the children they share.