Western Animation / Hey Duggee

"Isn't it time for...?"

Hey Duggee is an Edutainment Show made by Studio AKA for The BBC.

Duggee is a dog who has a lot of badges and is the founder a group called The Squirrels. The Squirrels consist of 5 animals: a rhino named Tag, a hippo named Roly, an octopus named Betty, a mouse named Norrie, and a crocodile named Happy. The show airs on CBeebies in the UK and NickJr in the US.

---

Duggee and the Tropes Badge

• All Drummers Are Animals: Norrie plays this trope ingredibly straight before the Squirrels practiced in the episode "The Making Music Badge". However, this is later averted after they practiced.
• Animals Not to Scale: Sizes are all over the place. Norrie's size is on par with the other kids despite being an animal much smaller than them. Happy's mother (an elephant) is smaller and more anthropomorphic than Elanor (also an elephant). And then there's Henny the ostrich, Captain Frank the turtle, and Gerbie the snake, who are practically kaiju.
• Animate Inanimate Object: Jelly Belly Dancers in several episodes.
• Art Shift:
  • "The Key Badge", where The Squirrels imagine that they are in a video game, and the animation style changes from 2D to 3D.
  • All of the "First Day" episodes use a more simplistic art style for the flashbacks.
• Big Friendly Dog: Duggee, for, obvious reasons.
• Body Wipe: In "The Shape Badge", Roly runs right through the camera when dodging the rain at the end.
• By the Lights of Their Eyes: In "The Train Badge", "The Brave Banana Badge" and "The Shadow Badge" when the lights go out, and in "The Fossil Badge" during the scene where Duggee invents a window.
• Censor Suds: In one of the openings, Happy's crotch is censored by suds.
• Chekhov's Gag: Hedgley popping bubbles is treated as a friendly gag in "The Bubble Badge", but when the bubble goes loose, it threatens to pop on Hedgley
• Cool Boat: Betty's dad's submarine. It can go on land!
• Cool Old Guy: The Squirrel's grandparents.
• Couch Gag: Every episode opens with a Squirrel doing some sort of morning activity. "Isn't it time for.... DUGGEE!"
• Cultural Translation: The narrator is female in the Korean dub and the Swedish dub.
• The Diaper Change: In "The Puppy Badge," Duggee's nephew Duggly is visiting and soils his nappy early in the episode. Fortunately, Duggee has his puppy badge and is able to take care of it.
• Disney Acid Sequence: Done to represent the squirrel's memories in "The Memory Badge".
  • Done before at one point in "The Pottery Badge", to represent the squirrel's pottery creations (which are literal to their thoughts, as they made regular cups in reality).
• The Ditz: Subverted for Roly, he isn't stupid by any means, but he sometimes shows signs of not being very bright.
• Dance Party Ending: At the end of "The Stick Badge".
• Eat the Camera: Duggee's nephew does this to the camera in "The Puppy Badge", in reverse mode.

• Every Episode Ending: Each episode ends with the Squirrels earning another badge, which leaves time for just one more thing: Duggee Hug!
• Funny Octopus: Betty, who can walk on land.
• Furry Confusion: The cast is filled with both anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic animals.

• Green Aesop: "The Green Planet Badge", featuring none other than David Attenborough. It was made to coincide with the launch of his new series The Green Planet.
• Happily Adopted: Implied with Happy the Crocodile, whose mom is an elephant.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All episodes are named "The (noun) Badge", referring to what badge is earned as well as the episode’s topic.
• Intelligible Unintelligible: Duggee can only speak in woofs, but the Squirrels and the Narrator can understand him.

• Interrupted Bath: One of the Couch Gag openings has Happy in the bath, only to be asked "Isn't it time for.... DUGGEE!"
• Like Father, Like Son: "The Big Day Out Badge" shows that each of the squirrels got many of their mannerisms from their parents.
• Lovable Lizard: Happy is a friendly, kind, and well... happy crocodile.
• Queer Establishing Moment: If it wasn't already clear enough, John and Nigel Crab have an anniversary in "The Telling Time Badge". This makes it one of the first CBeebies shows to feature LGBTQ+ themes.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Norrie is shown to be the oldest of 11 children in "Norrie's First Day". She claims there's now 72.
• Medium Blending:
  • This was used in the puppet show segment of "The Puppet Show Badge".
  • "The Welcome Badge" features the cast of Mavka: The Forest Song, still in CGI.
• Parental Bonus: Shout out to Groucho Marx in episodes "The Comedy Badge" and "The Key Badge". Frank Sinatra's "Got You Under My Skin" is reworded in "The Sandcastle Badge".
• Puppet Shows: Obviously used in the "Puppet Show Badge" episode.
• Scout-Out: The Squirrels.
• Shout-Out:
  • "The Hair Badge" has Duggee's hair decorated at one point like Homer Simpson. He doesn't take kindly to it.
    Duggee: D'oh!
  • "The Spooky Badge" rather appropriately has the Squirrels end up dressed as the main cast from Scooby-Doo.
  • "The Cheese Badge" has a scene which is based off of Stranger Things.
  • "The Game Show Badge" has many references, particularly game show ones such as "Who Wants to Be a Winner" and "Megamind":
    • "Who's You?" and "The Taxman Cometh", which are nods to Guess Who and Monopoly, are two of the board games shown at the start of the episode.
    • One round is based on the conveyer belt round of The Generation Game. And yes, there is a cuddly toy.
• Slow "NO!": In "The Shape Badge", Roly screams this when the rain begins after he fits the ladybird into the shape.
• Stock Sound Effects: Any time a baby-ish character, such as Duggee's nephew Duggly laughs, it will be this, though not the particular one described on that page. It sounds like the same laugh that was used for Baby Kate on Arthur.

---