Pigs in popular culture

Painting of Saint Anthony with pig in background by Piero di Cosimo c. 1480

Pigs, widely present in world cultures, have taken on many meanings and been used for many purposes in traditional arts, popular culture, and media. As one scholar puts it, people all over the world have made swine stand for "extremes of human joy or fear, celebration, ridicule, and repulsion." [1] They have become synonymous with negative attributes, especially greed, gluttony, and uncleanliness, and these ascribed attributes have often led to critical comparisons between pigs and humans.[2]

In folklore, folkways, and mythology

Pig at a German new year event, 1965.

In religion

Pig-related idioms

A number of idioms related to pigs have entered the English language.

Several of these idioms refer to the negative qualities traditionally ascribed to pigs. Thus, pigs are commonly associated with greed of various forms. The phrase "as greedy as a pig" can therefore be used in many contexts - in reference to gluttony ("to pig out") or the monopolisation of time or resources ("road hog" or "server hog", for example). Pigs are also associated with dirtiness, probably related to their habit of wallowing in mud.

As a general derogatory term, "Pig" can be used as a slang term for either a police officer or a male chauvinist, the latter term being adopted originally by the women's liberation movement in the 1960s. It has also been widely used by many revolutionary and radical organizations to describe any supporter of the status quo, including police officers, industrialists, capitalists, and soldiers.

"It's plain as a pig on a sofa"
"Clumsy as a hog on ice"
"Content as a dead pig in the sunshine"
"Wild as a peach-orchard hog"
"As independent as a hog on ice". Someone stubbornly refusing any and all help.

Places

Pigs in the world of children

The most famous children's tale concerning pigs is that of the Three Little Pigs, which has appeared in many different versions since its first publication in the 1840s.

A popular English nursery rhyme and fingerplay, "This Little Piggy", originated in the 18th century and has been used frequently in film and literature. Several Warner Brothers cartoons, such as A Tale of Two Kitties (1942) and A Hare Grows In Manhattan (1947), use the rhyme to comic effect.

Several animated cartoon series have included pigs as prominent characters. One of the earliest pigs in cartoon was the character "Piggy", who appeared in four Warner Brothers' Merrie Melodies shorts between 1931 and 1937, most notably Pigs Is Pigs. Piggy's character was rooted in the synonymy of pigs with gluttony. Warner Brothers later developed the character Porky Pig, who shared some of Piggy's character traits. Porky Pig was a prominent character in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons, as well as made brief appearances in the films Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003). The success of this character led to Warner Brothers' creating another pig character, that of Hamton J. Pig, who first appeared in the series Tiny Toon Adventures in 1990, as a student of Porky Pig's. Petunia Pig infrequently appeared in cartoons as Porky Pig's girlfriend. Two popular UK animated series with pigs as the main characters are Peppa Pig, which has been on television since 2004, and Pinky and Perky, who first appeared in the 1950s and were revived in 2008 in CGI form. Pigs also appear in Camp Lazlo and Iggy Arbuckle.

Miss Piggy is an anthropomorphized, fictional character from The Muppet Show television series, as are Captain Link Hogthrob and Dr. Julius Strangepork.

A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories and the Disney films based on them contain the supporting character, Piglet.

In the children's book Charlotte's Web, and the films based on it, the central character Wilbur is a pig who formed a relationship with a barn spider called Charlotte.

Babe and its sequel are films about a pig who wants to be a Herding dog, based on the character in the novel by Dick King-Smith. The original Babe film was released in the same year as the less successful film Gordy, which also featured a pig as its main character.

In Hong Kong, two popular children's cartoon pig characters are McDull (Chinese: 麥兜), created by Alice Mak and Brian Tse (who also created another cartoon pig called McMug). Both characters have appeared in numerous comic books, and McDull has starred in three films: My Life as McDull (2001), McDull, Prince de la Bun (2004), and McDull, the Alumni (2006).

Art, entertainment, and media

Anime and manga

Art

Pigs on Parade at the Lexington Barbecue Festival
First pig to fly, 1909.

Comics

Fictional entities

The Learned pig studying Latin grammar

Films

Literature

Music

Groups

Albums and EPs

Songs

Television

(Alphabetical by series title)

Video games

Sports

See also

References

  1. Horwitz, Richard P. (2002). Hog Ties: Pigs, Manure, and Mortality in American Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 23. ISBN 0816641838.
  2. "Fine Swine". The Daily Telegraph. 2001-02-25. Retrieved 2009-06-27.
  3. Eyers, Jonathan (2011). Don't Shoot the Albatross!: Nautical Myths and Superstitions. London, UK: A&C Black. ISBN 978-1-4081-3131-2.
  4. Sacrifice Goats, female or male.
  5. Mark 5:1-20
  6. Philo of Alexandria, De specialibus legibus, lib. 4, ch. 17-18
  7. "Wikiquote". Retrieved 2012-04-22.
  8. "Hogs Killing a Pig".
  9. 今夜は好奇心!(Fuji Television)
  10. 黒田恭史, 豚のPちゃんと32人の小学生-命の授業900日-(ミネルヴァ書房).2003
  11. s:Fragments of Heraclitus#Fragment 37
  12. The House on the Borderland
  13. What the Pig Mama Says

Further reading

External links

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