"Would you like a dog, like a dog, like Kipper, Kipper the dog?"
They call him Kipper...
Kipper the Dog.
The dog with the slipper...
That's Kipper. Kipper the dog.
By the way, that's a toad, not a frog.
Kipper the Dog.
The dog with the slipper...
That's Kipper. Kipper the dog.
By the way, that's a toad, not a frog.
Kipper is a British CITV show, running from 1997 to 2000 and aired on Nick Jr. in the US. It was based on the book series by Mick Inkpen.
The show follows the lives of Kipper, an anthropomorphic dog (voiced by Martin Clunes), and his friends, Tiger the Scottish Terrier, Pig the pig, Pig's baby cousin Arnold, and Jake the sheepdog.
Although never formally released as a full series, many DVDs are available, and these DVDs have also been made available on Amazon as streaming video compilations, free to watch to subscribers. reruns of the series also aired at one time on Sprout.
Compare Wibbly Pig and Future-coming Furry Tales, two other series created by Mick Inkpen and with a somewhat similar character design style and feel.
Tropes in Kipper:
- Amusing Alien: The Bleepers.
- Annoying Patient: In "Tiger's Cold", Tiger has a cold and Kipper takes care of him. It turns out Tiger was faking it the whole time.
- Babysitting Episode: "Looking After Arnold" deals with Kipper watching over Arnold while Pig is away.
- Balloonacy: Occurs in "Arnold's Balloon Trip", where Arnold's balloon carries him up to a candy mountain in the clouds, and the others follow him to get him down.
- Beach Episode:
- "The Seaside" has Kipper and Tiger going to the beach. Kipper wants to enjoy his time, while Tiger is busy being a camp base.
- "The Holiday" has Kipper and Tiger go on holiday at the beach.
- "The Rescue" has Kipper, Tiger, Pig and Arnold at the beach.
- Berserk Button: The gosling does not like ducks at all. Even chicks anger it because they look like ducks.
- Big Eater:
- When describing Rolly-Polly to Pig, Kipper says that Rolly is always hungry. This is illustrated when Kipper gives Rolly the rest of his slice of cake. Rolly shoves the piece into his mouth in one bite.Kipper: He keeps his food in his cheeks. Look.
- Pig also qualifies. In certain episodes, such as "Clay Time" and "The Fair," food is his primary motivation. This was later deconstructed in "Pig's Shop" when he gets a stomachache from eating too much candy. For more information, see Didn't Think This Through below.
- When describing Rolly-Polly to Pig, Kipper says that Rolly is always hungry. This is illustrated when Kipper gives Rolly the rest of his slice of cake. Rolly shoves the piece into his mouth in one bite.
- Birthday Episode:
- "Pig's Present" is about Pig's birthday and it deals with Kipper trying to find a pet for his friend's birthday.
- "The Missing Tape Mystery" is about Arnold's birthday, which later turns into a whodunnit mystery over who misplaced the music tape needed to play on Arnold's cassette player he got as a present from Pig.
- "Surprise Party" is about Jake's birthday, and he initially thinks everyone has forgotten his birthday, but in reality, everyone was planning a surprise party for him, where Kipper took Jake out on an outing at the park, while Tiger, Pig and Arnold get the party ready at Jake's house.
- Character Title: Featuring the lead dog of our show, Kipper.
- Cheated Angle: Kipper has a huge forehead when seen from the front, but his forehead shrinks when he turns to the side.
- Cheaters Never Prosper:
- In "Pig's Shop", Tiger claims to have an unbeatable conker that he challenges Kipper with. Turns out it's just a gobstopper that Tiger bought from Pig.
- In "The Big Race", Tiger gets on his bike during the race, pointing out they never said what kind of race it is. He promptly crashes into the duck pond.
- Chekhov's Gun: At the start of "The Rescue", Kipper, Arnold and Pig find a pedalboat. After Kipper and Tiger were marooned at a small rock after the tide came in, Pig and Arnold were able to rescue the two using the boat from earlier.
- Cute Mute: Arnold.
- A Dog Named "Cat": Tiger is a Scottish terrier, not a tiger.
- A Dog Named "Dog":
- The pig is named "Pig" and the mouse is named "Mouse." Averted with everyone else.
- In "Kipper the Hero", Jake has a kitten that he named "Kitten."
- Didn't Think This Through: In "Pig's Shop", rather than let the customers taste the candy, he instead eats the candy and gives a description of what each one tastes like. However, Jake is unable to decide which candy he wants and asks for Pig to try each candy several times, resulting in Pig getting a stomachache.
- Furry Confusion: Characters like Kipper and his friends walk on two legs and speak English. Mouse and her cousins move around like real mice but speak English. Then characters like Rolly-Polly, Kitten, or the butterfly act like animals.
- Garage Sale: "The Jumbo Sale" has Pig insisting Kipper to get rid of his stuff from his cabinet to the Jumbo Sale at the park, which Kipper reluctantly agrees. Thought he was able to get his comics back after Tiger bought them.
- Gentle Giant: Jake is the tallest character in the show and also one of the friendliest.
- The Ghost: In "Pig's Present," Pig mentions Holly and Sammy, two minor characters from the books. Neither of them appear in the show.
- In-Universe Factoid Failure: A few examples, ones that Kipper corrects.
- In "The Goldfish", Tiger refers to his pet tadpole as a type of fish. At the end of the episode, when the tadpole has matured and left, Kipper explains to Tiger that tadpoles aren't fish; they're baby frogs. Tiger finds that idea ridiculous.
- In "The Butterfly", Kipper asks Pig if he knows what colors make purple. Pig says blue and green make purple, and Kipper corrects him by saying it's blue and red. However, Kipper is uncertain as to what blue and green make insteadnote .
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Both Tiger and Pig aren't very nice characters most of the time, but they do have their moments of kindness.
- MacGyvering: Subverted in "The Flying Machine". Kipper and Tiger make a flying machine out of a tricycle, balloons, and winglets. It doesn't work.
- Minimalist Cast: The show only has a total of 6 characters with only a few one offs.
- Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: The entire plot of "Nothing Ever Happens" centers around this.
- Parasol Parachute: The second half of "The Umbrella" has Kipper using his umbrella as this after falling off of a skateboard. He flew as far as the moon until he fell in the river where Tiger was fishing.
- Picnic Episode: "The Picnic" has Kipper and Tiger trying to enjoy a picnic, but it gets ruined due to multiple factors on trying to get a good spot. First it was Pig bumping into the picnic as he was kite flying. Then it was because of ants biting Kipper and Tiger and then ducks were eating the food. Later bees were swarming around them at a bench and then Pig ate the rest of the picnic. Despite that, the gang were able to get apples from a tree after getting Arnold's kite down.
- Real After All: "Jake's Friend" deals with Kipper and Tiger hanging out with Jake's friend Wilbur, who states to be invisible. The two think that Jake is just imagining his friend, but it wasn't until the three have their ice cream floats that Wilbur turns out to be real after drinking his float.
- Single Tear: Kipper sheds one in "The Robot" after the robot takes Hippo away.
- The Speechless: Arnold hardly ever says anything. Justified as he is a toddler.
- Skewed Priorities: In "The Rescue", Kipper and Tiger are stuck on a large rock surrounded by water. Tiger has this to say.Tiger: Now we're going to have to stay here all night. We'll get cold, we'll get wet, we've got nothing to do, we've got nothing to eat, we haven't got anything to drink either! It's going to be really, really boring!
- Slice of Life: Obviously, it's the children's show.
- Soda Can Shakeup: At the end of "The Picnic", when Pig and Arnold ate up his and Kipper's remaining picnic food, Tiger got even by shaking up a can and offering it to Pig.
- Title Theme Tune: "They call him Kipper, Kipper the dog..."
- The Un-Reveal: Throughout "Tiger's Torch", Kipper and Tiger were reading a book where it's about to reveal what the horrible creature is. Just as they aren't scared at the end, the episode ends with no reveal about what as the creature in the book.
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?:
- Rolly-Polly, a hamster that Kipper got for Pig as a present and got to keep at the end of the episode, is only seen in "Pig's Present" and is never seen or heard of again.
- There's a human baby in "The Butterfly," indicating that there are other humans in the world of the show. After its scene, no humans are ever shown again for the rest of the series.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
- Tiger is afraid of water, so he tries to avoid going swimming whenever he can.
- In the episode "Cousins," one of Mouse's cousins says that he "really hates spiders."
- World of Funny Animals: Played with. The only human character ever seen is a baby that appears in "The Butterfly." Other than the baby, every character is an animal, anthropomorphic or not.
