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Mrs Pepperpot

163 statements
31 feature instances
8 referencing feature instances

Mrs Pepperpot	type	TVTItem
Mrs Pepperpot	label	Mrs Pepperpot
Mrs Pepperpot	page	MrsPepperpot
Mrs Pepperpot	comment	Mrs. Pepperpot ("Teskjekjerringa" ("The Teaspoon Hag")) in the original Norwegian) is the main character in a series of children's books by Norwegian author, singer and entertainer Alf PrÃ¸ysen. She's a little old woman who's mostly a completely normal person — except for the fact that she occasionally, and at seemingly random times, shrinks to the size of a pepperpot (in the original Norwegian, she's likened to a teaspoon). Usually this is a great inconvenience and happens just as she has some small job to do — which all of a sudden becomes a humongous task. However, with a lot of courage, resourcefulness, quick thinking, and the curious fact that while shrunken she can talk to animals, she always perseveres. And on a very rare occasion, it so happens that shrinking down to miniature size is exactly what the situation calls for.Though Mrs. Pepperpot takes her shrinking well, she's not eager to let other adults know about her condition. She has no problem with animals or children knowing, and the majority of her adventures do seem to involve either helping out or being helped by a child or an animal, but she never tells another adult about her shrinking, nor does she let them see her in her shrunken state (unless she's impersonating a doll or something similar). This might simply be because of her husband, Mr. Pepperpot, the only adult who knows about her shrinking and who treats the entire thing as an embarrassment more than anything else; he's certain that he'll become a laughingstock if it ever came up that his wife is occasionally the size of a pepperpot.The character's first appearance was in 1955, on the Norwegian Children's Hour radio. Since then, she's appeared in several books and radio stories which have been translated into over twenty languages. There was also a Swedish-produced live-action TV series in 1967, a 130-episode-long anime ("SupÅ«n Obasan" or "Auntie Spoon", featuring an episode written and storyboarded by Mamoru Oshii) in 1983, and even an opera in 2011.
Mrs Pepperpot	fetched	2024-01-19T19:29:56Z
Mrs Pepperpot	parsed	2024-01-19T19:29:56Z
Mrs Pepperpot	isPartOf	DBTropes
Mrs Pepperpot / int_113480b7	type	Canon Foreigner
Mrs Pepperpot / int_113480b7	comment	Canon Foreigner: Lily in the anime. She's a major character in the series but never appears in the original stories; she's more of an amalgamation of the various children who appear in the stories.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_21e5b9c7	type	Failed a Spot Check
Mrs Pepperpot / int_21e5b9c7	comment	Failed a Spot Check: A recurring trait in almost all the humans in the story. How many times does the shrunken-down Mrs. Pepperpot end up in a difficult situation because nobody saw she was there?
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_23473ae7	type	Adaptation Expansion
Mrs Pepperpot / int_23473ae7	comment	Adaptation Expansion: The anime expands greatly on some of the stories — that is, when it doesn't just ignore the original plots and just tell its own stories instead. The most notable expansion is in the very first episode, which takes quite a bit of time to show Mrs, Pepperpot's initial confusion at her first shrinking, as well as her difficulties in adapting to her new size. This doesn't come up at all in the original story, where she immediately treats her first time shrinking down as no big deal, focusing more on how she's going to get her household chores done than on why she's suddenly the size of a pepperpot.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_28a5213a	type	Small Name, Big Ego
Mrs Pepperpot / int_28a5213a	comment	Small Name, Big Ego: Mr. Pepperpot has traits of this at times, often thinking that he's a lot more clever and competent than he actually is.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_2a02e5c9	type	Guile Hero
Mrs Pepperpot / int_2a02e5c9	comment	Guile Hero: By necessity, Mrs. Pepperpot becomes one whenever she's shrunken. Too small to handle most normal tasks, she relies on trickery, bribery, scare tactics, or just asking politely, to get others (usually animals) to help her or even do the entire job for her.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_309b8806	type	Cursed with Awesome
Mrs Pepperpot / int_309b8806	comment	Cursed with Awesome: Mrs. Pepperpot can't control or even predict when she'll shrink down, or how long she'll stay small; it tends to happen at the most inconvenient moments and makes her life a lot more difficult... but her shrinking also allows her to have a lot of really cool adventures, help out a number of children and animals, and learn a lot of useful things that she wouldn't have been able to at her normal size. Especially with the additional ability to talk to animals that the shrinking brings.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_4781adbb	type	Jerk with a Heart of Gold
Mrs Pepperpot / int_4781adbb	comment	Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Mr. Pepperpot, who can be blustery, self-centered and unreasonable, but who genuinely loves his wife and at the end of the day will do the right thing.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_565106b3	type	Women Are Wiser
Mrs Pepperpot / int_565106b3	comment	Women Are Wiser: Played very straight with Mrs. Pepperpot and her husband. While she does have her moments of folly, on the whole she's a clever and resourceful person. This is definitely not the case with Mr. Pepperpot.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_651ec44d	type	Injured Limb Episode
Mrs Pepperpot / int_651ec44d	comment	Injured Limb Episode: In one episode, Mrs Pepperpot adopts a pig with a broken leg named Squiggly.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_738d1a0f	type	Because You Were Nice to Me
Mrs Pepperpot / int_738d1a0f	comment	Because You Were Nice to Me: A frequent trope in the stories. Usually invoked with animals who help out because Mrs. Pepperpot has been kind to them in the past, but happens with people sometimes too. A curious subversion is when Mrs, Pepperpot goes out of her way to help a little girl who starts out as nothing but rude and unfriendly. When the girl at the end of the story asks why Mrs. Pepperpot wanted to help her out when she was so horrid to begin with, Mrs. Pepperpot answers: "Perhaps it was because you were so horrid."
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_79190971	type	Karmic Trickster
Mrs Pepperpot / int_79190971	comment	Karmic Trickster: Mrs. Pepperpot often takes on this role when shrunken down. A lot of foolish or nasty people and animals find themselves humiliated or inconvenienced by her and her animal friends.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_7ec8506d	type	Animal Talk
Mrs Pepperpot / int_7ec8506d	comment	Animal Talk: Both played straight and subverted. When more than one animal is present in a scene, they can generally understand each other just fine, but it's hinted more than stated that they all have their individual languages. One story also reveals that animals from different countries also have different languages, which sometimes gets confusing even for Mrs. Pepperpot.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_7f080f98	type	Vague Age
Mrs Pepperpot / int_7f080f98	comment	Vague Age: The Pepperpot couple. From the different illustrations, we can state that the mrs is a married woman in her prime - somewhere between forty and fifty. The word "Kjerring" as seen in the citation, does not determine a woman as particularly old, however, just that she is married. That is the conventional use of the word in the home area (rural) of the author. Norwegian language conventions can be tricky. On the other hand, it is stated somewhere that she has grown children - which still may render her in the same age slot as stated.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_913c0a60	type	Named After the Injury
Mrs Pepperpot / int_913c0a60	comment	Named After the Injury: In one story, the eponymous old woman adopts a piglet with a lame leg and names him Squiggly because his injury renders him unable to walk in a straight line.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_9c8701b5	type	A Day in the Limelight
Mrs Pepperpot / int_9c8701b5	comment	A Day in the Limelight: Though a frequent plot-mover and provider of motivation for his wife, Mr. Pepperpot usually doesn't play a big role in the stories. This is actually Lampshaded in one story, where the narration points out that we've got to know Mrs. Pepperpot pretty well now, but we barely know her husband at all. Needless to say, this is one of the few chapters where he's the main character.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_9e8e5e8f	type	Acting Out a Daydream
Mrs Pepperpot / int_9e8e5e8f	comment	Acting Out a Daydream: Once, Mrs. Pepperpot imagines herself as a detective and says, "Hands up!" to her husband. Who mishears and thinks she's talking about supper.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_9eac6c0a	type	Housepet Pig
Mrs Pepperpot / int_9eac6c0a	comment	Housepet Pig: In one story, Mrs. Pepper-Pot adopts a pig, whom she names Squiggly because his lame leg makes him unable to walk in a straight line.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_9f970427	type	Secret-Keeper
Mrs Pepperpot / int_9f970427	comment	Secret-Keeper: Mr. Pepperpot knows about his wife's tendency to shrink. He really doesn't like it, partly because he worries about her and partly because he thinks people will laugh if they find out.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_a188ac4b	type	Overly Long Gag
Mrs Pepperpot / int_a188ac4b	comment	Overly Long Gag: In Mrs. Pepperpot's Outing, while getting water for his overheated car, Mr. Pepperpot worries that his wife may have shrunk down and got lost, so he asks the farmer whether he's seen a little doll somewhere. The farmer says that he hasn't seen any dolls, but he'll ask his wife. The wife, when asked, says that she hasn't seen any dolls, but she'll ask her oldest daughter. The daughter, when asked, says that she hasn't seen any dolls, but she'll ask her sister. The sister, when asked, says that she hasn't seen any dolls, but she'll ask her other sister — and so it goes until the question has gone to all the eight children on the farm and none of them has seen any dolls. Mr. Pepperpot then decides to hurry back to the car and look for his wife there, and then he can't find the bucket that he was carrying the water in. So he turns to ask the farmer whether he's seen a bucket somewhere. The farmer says that he hasn't seen any buckets, but he'll ask his wife. And they go through the entire thing again.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_a588c1cf	type	Cool Horse
Mrs Pepperpot / int_a588c1cf	comment	Cool Horse: The cat, who often lets Mrs. Pepperpot ride on her back. Subverted in Mrs. Pepperpot's Outing, where the kitten is too small and weak to carry her — so it resolves to just dragging her along by her skirt instead. It's neither as cool nor as quick as riding a cat, but Mrs. Pepperpot plays along because she realizes that this is all the kitten manages.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_ae3d6438	type	Deadpan Snarker
Mrs Pepperpot / int_ae3d6438	comment	Deadpan Snarker: Mrs. Pepperpot is a fairly mild example. Usually she's at her snarkiest when she's talking to herself and nobody else can hear her; when actually talking to people her sarcasms are a lot subtler.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_bab7fceb	type	Incredible Shrinking Man
Mrs Pepperpot / int_bab7fceb	comment	Incredible Shrinking Man: Mrs. Pepperpot, of course. She can never choose when to shrink, and it's never explained just why she randomly shrinks — she just does.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_bc74ef27	type	Berserk Button
Mrs Pepperpot / int_bc74ef27	comment	Berserk Button: Mrs. Pepperpot is amiable for the most part, but there are two things she can't stand: Cruelty to children and cruelty to animals. Anyone who indulges in either had better be prepared to be "taught a lesson" by her.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_bf414570	type	Cunning Like a Fox
Mrs Pepperpot / int_bf414570	comment	Cunning Like a Fox: Played with. Whenever a fox appears in the stories, it tends to believe itself to be the wiliest and most cunning of creatures — only to get tricked itself by Mrs. Pepperpot. It's even lampshaded in Mrs. Pepperpot's Outing, where a fox laments that everyone accuses him of always tricking others and being dishonest, when in these stories he's usually the victim of trickery rather than the instigator. Mrs. Pepperpot admits that probably his reputation as shifty and untrustworthy isn't wholly deserved.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_c25a3f85	type	Reading Tea Leaves
Mrs Pepperpot / int_c25a3f85	comment	Reading Tea Leaves: In one of her stories, Mrs. Pepperpot reads her tea leaves. According to her, tea leaves in the shape of a heart means a new loved one will arrive (which she generally interprets as getting a new pet or a new animal to look after), a cross means she'll need a doctor, and a clear drop means tears. In that particular story she sees both a cross and a clear drop, and spends most of it dreading the tears and injury that's coming her way — at the end of the story her husband comes home having crashed his bicycle. and she realizes that she accidentally read his tea leaves and not her own.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_ca87e3ec	type	No Name Given
Mrs Pepperpot / int_ca87e3ec	comment	No Name Given: The original Norwegian books leave the majority of the characters nameless. Even Mrs. Pepperpot is never actually named; she's just nicknamed "Teskjekjerringa," which means "The Teaspoon Lady," on account of her occasionally being the size of a teaspoon. It's the English translation that gives her the name "Mrs. Pepperpot," and a bunch of other characters who weren't named in the original story are similarly Named By The Translation.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_e0aed924	type	No Antagonist
Mrs Pepperpot / int_e0aed924	comment	No Antagonist: There aren't any villains in the Mrs. Pepperpot stories. The closest they get are unreasonable or petty-minded people, who are mostly presented as laughable rather than threatening — or the occasional predator who wants to eat one of Mrs. Pepperpot's animal friends, which is generally treated as just being hungry.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_e21faf11	type	Friend to All Living Things
Mrs Pepperpot / int_e21faf11	comment	Friend to All Living Things: Mrs. Pepperpot loves animals and will go out of her way to help or care for any animal in distress. The animals repay her by helping her when she's in need.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_e6ab61d	type	Magic Realism
Mrs Pepperpot / int_e6ab61d	comment	Magic Realism: For the most part, the stories are pretty mundane, everyday happenings — made remarkable by the two consistent supernatural aspects: Mrs. Pepperpot's random shrinking, and her ability to Speak Fluent Animal. There are occasional stories that hint of a bigger magical world, but this is only very briefly seen — for the most part, the stories take place in a quite normal, rural setting.
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Mrs Pepperpot / int_f1356f5e	type	Speaks Fluent Animal
Mrs Pepperpot / int_f1356f5e	comment	Speaks Fluent Animal: Mrs. Pepperpot, but only when she's shrunken down. In one story, her pet cat keeps following her around and meowing, clearly trying to tell her something, and she laments the fact that she doesn't understand animals when she's her regular size.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Mrs Pepperpot	hasFeature	Acting Out a Daydream / int_f839dfb2
Mrs Pepperpot	hasFeature	Children's Literature / int_f839dfb2
Mrs Pepperpot	hasFeature	Injured Limb Episode / int_f839dfb2
Mrs Pepperpot	hasFeature	Kodomomuke / int_f839dfb2
Mrs Pepperpot	hasFeature	Named After the Injury / int_f839dfb2
Mrs Pepperpot	hasFeature	Pet Baby Wild Animal / int_f839dfb2
Mrs Pepperpot	hasFeature	Reading Tea Leaves / int_f839dfb2
Mrs Pepperpot	hasFeature	Ski-Resort Episode / int_f839dfb2

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