# Is This Song Racist/Offensive? (The Wiggles Pappadum Song) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 25, 2020, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-song-racist-offensive-the-wiggles-pappadum-song/923839 "2020-10-25T16:31:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-song-racist-offensive-the-wiggles-pappadum-song/923839/21 "2020-10-26T16:02:14Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > Having a female Wiggle was a bit of a deliberate branding move and was a bit controversial Wow, really? Why was it controversial? That’s disheartening. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-song-racist-offensive-the-wiggles-pappadum-song/923839/22 "2020-10-26T16:09:37Z")
Goofy song aside, that guy has some some _serious_ bass notes. As a song for toddlers that just involves repeating the word “poppadum” over and over, I don’t find it particularly offensive but then it’s not my ox being gored. For a more adult version of the same basic principle - which is still not racist and probably just as puerile - you need to go to [Hale and Pace](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnKMehoLaF8): [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gnKMehoLaF8/hqdefault.jpg "Hale and Pace - William Tell Overture") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnKMehoLaF8) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-song-racist-offensive-the-wiggles-pappadum-song/923839/23 "2020-10-26T16:36:10Z")
That’s fantastic. The original one? People dressing up in other folks’ culture as a cutesy stereotype for kids and trying to do cultural dances, especially when they’re super bad at dancing, pings my “c’mon, guys” level of racism, like a 1.5 on a scale of 1-10. They’d be better off not doing that. Without the costumes, just singing “pappadum” over and over, it’d be fine. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-song-racist-offensive-the-wiggles-pappadum-song/923839/24 "2020-10-26T20:10:06Z")
People don’t like change. But actually I wasn’t that keen either because she’s quite “girlified” - big bow in her hair, little-girl pigtails, poofy skirt. There’s a bit of an infantilizing vibe there. All the people like me with feminist leanings would have been much more on board if she’d just stuck with the bright skivvy and trousers theme, because they’re all just regular humans together doing their thing equally. Meanwhile, the more conservative wing of society just wanted it to stay a bunch of blokes because That’s How It Had Always Been. Basically they got it in the neck from both sides, and there was no real way to win. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-song-racist-offensive-the-wiggles-pappadum-song/923839/25 "2020-10-26T23:43:48Z")
> [@am77494](#): > > Racial programming starts early with trivializing other cultures. Just because the audience is preschoolers is no excuse. Didn’t the Australian government ban some episode of Peppa pig (another preschooler show) where they were playing with spiders ? That episode wasn’t banned because of cultural differences, it was banned because of faunal differences. Saying “spiders are pretty harmless” in the land of “everything wants to kill you” is a good way to get dead/damaged kids. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2020, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-song-racist-offensive-the-wiggles-pappadum-song/923839/26 "2020-10-27T04:31:08Z")
Skivvy? I know “skivvies” as an old-time word for “underpants.” ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2020, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-song-racist-offensive-the-wiggles-pappadum-song/923839/27 "2020-10-27T05:03:44Z")
Apparently it’s a turtle-neck for you? > **[Polo neck](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polo_neck)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > A polo neck, roll-neck (United Kingdom, South Africa), turtleneck (United States, Canada), or skivvy (Australia, New Zealand, United States) is a garment—usually a sweater—with a close-fitting collar that folds over and covers the neck. It can also refer to the type of neckline, the style of collar itself, or be used as an adjective ("polo necked"). > A simpler variant of the standard polo neck is the mock polo neck (or mock turtleneck), that res... Still not as embarrassing a linguistic distinction as “thong”. Or “rubber”. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2020, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-song-racist-offensive-the-wiggles-pappadum-song/923839/28 "2020-10-27T06:22:07Z")
do they even show the wiggles in the US anymore? the last show they had on sprout/universal kids wAs a low budget clip show [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-song-racist-offensive-the-wiggles-pappadum-song/923839.md?page=1)