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Hey Duggee #3 Rant

Reviewed: 06/25/2025

Brian? Isn't It Time For... DUGGEE~!

Well, my hunt for some perverse entertainment struck again thanks to Family Junior up here in Canada. I had considered revewing "The Fabulous Show with Fay and Fluffy", but the cross-dressing angle is just there and it's just a storytime segment show for the most part. It's a fun show, but it isn't qualified to be an Easter Sadism show. You need perserve, creative entertainment, where the creators just don't give an elf. That's when I saw our following subject from the UK, only this time it's a BBC show. This show is an awesome fun mess of an episode that intentionally is trying to get onto the trainwreck scale. Welcome to the Rant Shack, Hey Duggee! Just watching this show made me giggle in an amusing way because the characters and everyone making the show is fully committed to make this story stand out. Hey Duggee started out in 2014 as part of a Christmas special for the BBC and then was made into a show. The premise according to Wikipedia (DANGER! DANGER!):

The programme's characters are talking anthropomorphic animals, with Duggee communicating in woofs. The episodes are based around The Squirrel Club, an activity club for children that Duggee leads. The children – the club's Squirrels – take part in all kinds of activities, have adventures and earn badges for their accomplishments. Each episode shows the Squirrels completing an activity or adventure relating to a badge that they earn at the end of each episode. There is no set formula for every episode, with many referencing or parodying pop culture.

I disagree with the last sentence as there is a sort of set formula to the episodes, but they often would go off-script in certain ways. For example, there are always at least FIVE opening sequences in the series, each assigned depending on the Squirrel member. Like Peppa Pig, the endings are sometimes different, although more visual than audio this time around. The finishing sequences are mostly similar, but the middle is clearly like a Peppa Pig episode even with the structure of the stakes being exactly the same in all episodes: The Squirrels do stuff to earn badges. Then you have the narrator who is voiced by Alexander Armstrong, the voice of Captain Dog, who talks to Duggee, despite Duggee being a full on anthro dog with clothes on, doing human things, but talks literally like a real dog. It's Koi Fish from Fish Hooks all over again, and yes; everyone in the show somehow understands him. To be fair, at least it's not Molang where every character does the Duggee/Koi Fish speaking and you have zero way of understanding what the hell they are saying regardless of language. I've been wanting to review a bit of this show since it looks perversely entertaining to me and finding episodes on Family Junior is easy, but those episodes are more recent. I want to do the early episodes and finding them is another matter. It's not as easy as Peppa Pig, let me tell you. The episode titles speak for themselves, except for the pilot episode "Chop! Chop!" which I couldn't find even partial footage of it. Believe it or not, there were supposed to be SIX Squirrels in the group, but that got cut down. Also, the hippo Squirrel was originally supposed to be an anthro pig. I wonder who was responsible for rejecting that one?! Anyhow, this should be a fun ride. How do these episodes fare?! Let's rant on shall we..?!

All episodes are directed by Grant Orchard. Grand Orchard wrote "The Show & Tell Badge" and "The Hiccup Badge", Danny Stack wrote "The Rain Dance Badge" Sam Morrison wrote "The Paper Boat Badge", Sander Jones wrote "The Get Well Soon Badge", Jo Clegg wrote "The Rocking Horse Badge", Phillip Warner wrote "The Maze Badge" and Myles McLeod wrote "The Castle Badge". I'm not going to do tributes here. The animation is done by Studio AKA.

Opening Moment #1: This opening features Roly looking at a pinwheel with his eyes rolling with the spinning pinwheel. The title card shows a rainbow designed paper boat on water against a purple background, with white/navy blue trim on the badge.

The Paper Boat Badge: Short opens with the Squirrels playing hopstoch outside, mostly Norrie anyway. The narrator asks what Duggee has planned for the Squirrels today and Norrie says that she doesn't know because Duggee is sitting next to the hopstoch area in his lawn chair with his glasses on and the rims make smily emoji faces when Duggee is reading the newspaper. That was amusing. Duggee is apparently reading the comics because he's amused. Then the wind picks up as the kids say "windy", and this causes Duggee to lose all the pages of the newspaper into the sky. Damn, those hands of Duggee have extremely bad grip methinks. Everyone doesn't like it and the Squirrel decide to chase the pages of the newspaper for a while. They are trying to get the pages of the newspaper back, you see. Duggee teases being first to get the newspaper page, but it blows away. Norrie is near the pond as she gets the first page, Tag runs in with the second page and the rest bring in all the pages as some of them have crumbled into a ball, and at least one was shredded for some reason. Duggee gets all the newspaper page and he's not thrilled as the narrator says it all. Norrie wonders what Duggee is going to do with the pages now. Duggee woofs and then points to his chest to reveal his "Paper Boat Badge". Tag cannot believe this is real, that it's somehow possible to create a boat out of paper. Not just paper Tag, out of newspaper. As if Tag thinks this is fake news. Duggee shows how to make a paper boat as the narrator narrates what Duggee is doing. The kids are in awe of the new invention to them, even though the narrator's steps sound like it's magic than just the science of folding the newspaper into the proper shape. Duggee tosses the paper boat into the pond and it floats. It sails on the pond as Duggee does his Rob Smash Bros clap again. In comes some ants stealing stuff with spring sound effects. The kids are more impressed by the boat, I'm more impressed by the ants stealing a pepper grinder actually. Happy notices the ants in army gear as he grabs one of the plates as the Ant General accuses Happy of stealing. HA! That is projection if I ever saw it. Happy apologizes and gives the plate back. The Ant General is a red ant with a mustache, natch. I just realized that "natch" means "of course" in slang and is not an offensive word. Still, I'm going to limit it's use for obvious reasons, of course.

The ants are having a picnic at the pond, naturally. Happy claps as he is giddy. Ant Solider #1, the one who doesn't have an object, points out the obvious problem: The picnic is on the other side of the pond. Well, go around the pond, then. That's what animals do when they have to improvise. The problem is that this would end the episode without the Squirrels actually earning the badge, so of course the Squirrels have to make paper boats for the ants to cross in order to earn their badges. Also, there are army ants on the other side having their party already, complete with BBQ weenies, and I do mean tiny weenies. There is an ant playing the banjo with a boom box that is army themed. Two ants are in the water playing with a tiny beach ball. Ants style of dancing is terrible by the way. The general is panicking and swears in DUBBED ANIME STYLE ("Oh, blueberries!", the tastier version of fiddlesticks.) and wonders what to do. Happy has a plan and it involved making paper boats, which would be great if the ants were naval or marine officers in storyline. The ants are "army ants" in storyline, so this doesn't quite work out. But the Squirrels must earn this badge, so paper boats will have to do. The ants are screwed because they have no paper, despite having a plate, but the Squirrels do and it's a jolly good show. Badge scene changer of doom ensues as it's Duggee sailing the seas with Enid in a red sailing boat with Duggee wearing a blue jumper for no reason. We return with the Squirrels in a group as Happy shows off a paper of newspaper. We HIT THE MONTAGE~ with really old 1920's music with Roly putting an orange life preserver, and the end result is a giant tug boat with a flag and a paper anchor tied to a rubber band. Hey, an A for effort, but that boat is going to sink like the Titantic, I swear to PZ Meyers. The boat also gets sparkling white star as we zoom out to show the Squirrels are proud of their work. Even Duggee is amazed. The ants love it as they march and when I say march, it's bounce into the boat. Yes, they have a marching band with conductor who is dressed like a conductor and not an army person, why do you ask?! Out of nowhere is confetti. SUZY SHEEP~?! This is so absurd, because there is exactly one problem: The boat cannot move to save it's life because there is no wind. Ooops! This is why my idea of going around the pond was better. Besides, as far as I'm concerned, the Squirrels have more than earned their Paper Boat Badge here. It's not their fault the wind isn't here to finish the job. Duggee has a plan though as General Ant proclaims that they will never get to the party. He's going to be dishonorably discharged when this is over, I know it now. How do you screw up a march to a BBQ party?! How?!

Then suddenly, the ants feel the wind and it's a westerly wind since the boat is now moving with the Squirrels using the newspapers as fans. This shouldn't work as well as it is right now, but it does. That boat is lightweight and somehow manages to fit all the heavy stuff. I guess the pepper grinder didn't make the cut after all. Oh wait, it does as the boat makes it to the other side of the pond and the ants all jump out with their stuff. That boat is tougher than the Titantic. The ants all meet and greet and now we have a problem: Somehow the bottle of ketchup is on the other side of the pond. I'm sorry; but you are not topping the uber funny moment of Daddy Pig rowing on a boat blushing with Daddy Wolf in the boat acting like he lusts for Daddy Pig. Remember what I said about Hey Duggee being the first show I have seen to have a blood lusting scene and it was funny?! I completely forgot about the Daddy Pig/Daddy Wolf incident from Peppa Pig. Although that one was unintentional while the Hey Duggee one was intentional. The Squirrels gasps in horror as Giant Ant runs in and talks like the Terminator as he voluteers to save the ketchup bottle. Happy grabs the bottle and tells everyone to stay where they are. The Giant Ant is so disappointed by this. How do they save the day?! Well, they bounce on the right side of the pond, go around the pond and give them the ketchup bottle. Okay, we did a cartoon duck syndrome that was funny because they had to kill time and this was hilarious. The ants could have just went around the pond making them look like complete fools, even though the SLEDGEHAMMER OF PLOT was needed since the stakes were the Squirrels had to earn their badge. Once they made the boat, they earned it and everything else after that was perfectly acceptable. Operation Picnic is a go as now we have to waste another thirty seconds grilling tiny weenies and hamburgers. The ants offer hot dogs and hamburgers to the Squirrels and they eat up. The narrator asks if the Squirrels have done well today, and Duggee bails on all fours and returns with the badge. Here comes the parents in their vehicles, which means it's time for the DUGGEE HUG~! Duggee hug. The Squirrels giggle and bail stage left to show off their Paper Boat Badge. Hugs in stereo ensue as the kids and parent leave in their vehicles. The narrator ask if this was fun and the ants bounce and yell "Sir, Yes Sir!" in unison. Duggee laughs as the narrator says "Do stop it, Duggee" to end the episode at 6:45. A really fun episode that had to be slightly overbooked. *** 1/2 (70%).

Opening Moment #2: This opening features Happy popping up from a table containing fish food and a bowl containing water and a goldfish. When the narrator speaks the name, Happy pops up more with a spring sound effect. When Happy yells "DUGGEE~!", he runs out and the goldfish is in awe over this, as if the goldfish has never seen Happy do this. That was funny. The title card shows a shield designed badge with a castle against a yellow background, with black trim and brown stiching.

The Castle Badge: Short opens outside with Duggee and the Squirrels drawing and painting the mountains with half rainbow swirls in between the rock below and the snow on top. The narrator asks the obvious to us and the Squirrels show off their pictures. Tag and Happy are drawing the side mountains and despite the color look really detailed, so nice continuity from the Drawing Badge. Norrie draws a tree and it needs some more work, maybe some apples drawn or something. Betty draws the sun, badly and Roly draws MUD because he has to scream. At least this is more believable than drawing a banana that looks like an ear of corn, so props to Roly on that front, I guess. Duggee's drawing is a lot less detailed than the "Bunny Conquers Cliff" drawing he drew in "The Drawing Badge", I'm so sad he was humbled like that. Then the fog rolls in and that means picture drawing time is over, much to the Squirrels groans. The narrator says it all and sounds like the narrator from Peppa Pig now, except in Captain Dog's voice. Tag calls it spooky, I call it dangerous. Thick fog can cause mass fatal car crashes as demonstrated many times on the news, and there's even a Forensic Files episode based on deadly fog and how it came about. Betty blows it off and claims that strange noises make it spooky. Then someone shout "hello" and sounds literally like a "phantom" from the old Scooby Doo episodes, and the Squirrels act like it's friendly and are not scared. Duggee's ear literally turn into a periscope. Periscopes work with eyes, not ear Duggee. Somehow, it works and everyone bails stage left. Duggee is literally Scooby-Doo at this point, only a lot less scared than the dog from the late 1960's would ever be. Tag claims that the noises are coming from a castle and Betty is like "what castle"? Tag points and then the fog lifts to reveal a castle and judging by the shield on the front, it's a double bone castle. The castle is on the hill, so Duggee rides up with the kids on his back, despite the Squirrels walking well on their own without it. There are statues on each side of the castle door, they have a clear scruffy dog motif to them. Tag tries to push the door, but it doesn't budge. GEEK! Norrie asks how to get in and Duggee points to his chest to reveal his "Castle Badge". Duggee woofs that he knows how to get inside the castle. He steps back and rings the out of nowhere doorbell that no one saw until Duggee stepped back in previous shots. SUZY SHEEP~?!

This opens the castle door showing the steps inside, the worst security system I have ever seen. Scene changer ensues with a badge of the Duggee helmet and damn it, it's the scariest thingie on the show, which means it's not scary at all. The grill opens to reveal Duggee doing the wink sound effect while winking to annoy me. The castle lobby has a lot of flags, none of them seem to be stolen designs from certain flags. There is a picture of a dragon and the king seems to be a white dog, har har! There are swords on the wall with bone hilts, which did make me laugh. The blades are as dull as Baloo's sword from Paradise Lost I should note. Apparently, the religious symbol for this show is a dog's bone in a X instead of a cross which was used for castles in Peppa Pig I do say. Somehow, as Norrie and the Squirrels are yelling and their voices echo, the dragon in the picture is blinking in the far shot. That was odd, they usually do that in close up shots to indicate that someone is watching them. Betty wonders where the sound is coming from as Duggee looks at the picture of the King White Dog as two Naughty Mice run from right to left. I know this because they are wearing pants of different colors and are giggling. They hide inside an upside down goblet and then move stage left to steal it, because these mice are naughty like the Naughty Monkey, you see. The mice make it to the western side of the table as Tag and Norrie turn around towards the goblet after hearing the noise. Norrie and Tag's exchange was hilarious as Tag's "I don't know" sounds sarcastic even though his body language was genuine. Happy, Betty and Roly are in awe of the suit of armor and that looked more impressive than the one Duggee wore in the scene changer. Roly bangs on it and it makes a bell sound, that was funny. I'll give Roly this: Him liking funny loud noises is funny; but it ceases being funny when he screams loud for no reason. The goblet moves on the table a bit, doesn't go anywhere of note. Betty is telling Roly not to touch. Too little, too late, you wannabe CLEVER CLOGS~! Roly bangs on the suit of armor's steel gloves, just to be a dick. The helmet then turns to the left to face the kids slowly. Then they panic and run away smiling and giggling again. Remember when Scooby-Doo shows have the babyfaces running away, it was always with fear on their faces?! This is the exact opposite, it's like they are burying that show. I shouldn't be surprised though, this show showed absolutely no mercy on Dora The Explorer.

Norrie and Tag do the exact same thing when they see the goblet moving, right down to the gleeful faces. They know it's fake and they don't care about exposing the business. It's even more obvious, when they are actually screaming in fear during this. Duggee's like "what the hell?!" and the business is further exposed when the suit of armor chases the Squirrels and the noises it makes are absolutely hideously hilarious. There is no way I take anything in this sequence seriously and I howled with laughter. Duggee's reaction is "Why did I sign up for this show?". Duggee chases after the suit of armor woofing with amusement as he does the "adult bumps into vase and it doesn't fall much less shatter" spot. More antics with the mice and goblet on the table. The naughty nice pop up. The purple pants one blows them off as the orange pants one giggles, even though none of them had anything to do with the Squirrels running away. Such smug ass rats! Their nose color matches the color of their pants, I wonder if they wear nose warmers. Scooby-Doo chase sequence the Hey Duggee edition ensues with Duggee being the chaser! That was funny! Up and down the stairs they go! Let's do the old whack-a-mole six doors spot for a while to kill time in a nearly seven minute episode. The only thing missing in this sequence was a licensed singing song. It's too bad "The Stick Badge" didn't exist at this point, because the "Stick! Stick! Stick!" song would have been a riot for this scene, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. Trapdoors pop up, Brady Bunch sequence of windows with Roly being in the dungeon, to play the role of Daffeny being kidnapped all the time. Duggee and the suit of armor appear later and everyone laughs. Head outside on the ramparts as the Squirrels jump over a pile of cannon balls. However, Tag trips and the cannon balls line up and somehow don't roll away on their own. SUZY SHEEP~?! Suit of armor rolls on the cannon balls, slams itself to the ground and all the armor parts go flying in various directions. The helmet is the only thing somewhat intact and it pops open to reveal three more naughty mice giggling right in front of the Squirrels. These naughty mice are also really stupid. One of them is Johnny as the blue noser points it out much to the disappointment of the Squirrels. The red noser proclaims that it's time to bounce and the mice bail stage left and that is that. The kids have this look of "we have been played" and they are right. Betty does the Gruffi pose and proclaims that she wasn't scared. Of course you were not, Betty. The emoting doesn't even come close to being scared.

Then the phantom howling is now "Hallou", for no reason. Tag points to the sound's location which is this conveniently placed tower, which is what Windy Castle looked like in Peppa Pig actually. Duggee woofs and everyone runs up to the top of the tower and we discover who is up there: It's a black Scottish territor dog wearing a bonnet, blue vest, white shirt, red bowtie and a kilt. By the way, Nova Scotia means New Scotland, but it's in Latin. In an ironic twist, the narrator identifies him as Lord Fingal, meaning "Fair Stranger" or even "White Stranger" in Scottish Gaelic even though Fingal's fur is black in color. Right away, I realize a possible motive for Lord Fingal's screaming: He was calling for help because he ran out of dog food, which is clearly shown with an open can of dog food right on the ground. Lord Fingal also has a staff with a bone end on top. Apparently, the naughty mice chased him up to the top of the tower, which is a "what a wimp" moment if I ever heard one. No surprise that Fingal has a burly Scottish accent here and missing at least one tooth. The castle is called the Sky Castle according to the narrator as it also has a modern phone since Lord Fingal claims that the mice might have chewed on the phone cable. The kids blow off the mice for doing naughty things of course. It's almost sunset as we zoom out to show where the castle is in terms of where the barn is because the fog is now gone. Nice little detail of showing the mountain to the right, but no rainbow swirls anymore? SUZY SHEEP~?! Anyhow, the kids are in awe and it's time to draw as we get a scene changer of a time-lasped drawing of a castle that was really neat. The kids show off their finished drawings, I think the scene changer castle was closer to Betty's drawing while Roly draws mud, just to be a troll. Lord Fingal don't care, it works for him. Duggee then bails on all fours stage right and returns with the Castle Badge, and their drawings disappear on that shot. SUZY SHEEP~?! They appear to be closer to the barn as the castle is way into the background, which makes sense since here comes the parents in their vehicles. Time for the DUGGEE HUG~! Duggee hug. The kids bail stage left and show off the badges to the parents. Hugs in stereo ensue as the kids and parents leave stage left in their vehicles. The narrator asks if this was fun and Duggee in similar gear to Lord Fingal and Lord Fingal do a Scottish jig with bagpipe music. That was funny as the narrator tells them to stop to end the episode at 6:45. I loved this episode despite the logic breaks and the ending was a perfect chef's kiss to the whole thing. **** (80%).

Opening Moment #3: This opening features Norrie playing hopstoch and apparently is wearing spring shoes due to the sound effect. The title card shows a bunch of items against a black background with blue trim on the badge. The items are a blue butterfly, a green maple leaf, a worm, a stopwatch, a feather, a purple star, a goblet and a bone.

The Show & Tell Badge: Short opens with almost the exact same spot that was done in "The Bouncing Badge". The only difference is the narrator telling them that Duggee has something to show them. The glass ruby is on the shelf, it's day to day with an ego bruise. The kids bail stage left and knock over all the blocks in the process. Cut to Duggee at a coffee table with something under a white sheet as the window trim on the bottom is shaped like a log, probably the one used to point out the "splinter" in the eye compared to the log in their own eye. Duggee does the sing woof and the cover is revealed to be a planted CACTUS JACK OF DOOM. POW! OUCH! Ummmm...I mean a planted cactus. The Squirrels are amused by this, probably due to the Windows 95 jingle more than anything else. Tag tries to touch the catcus and gets spiked. HA! Betty of course tells him to be careful AFTER he touched the thing, not before. Now THAT is a smugass! Edmond Elephant is much kinder in this regard. The narrator then makes the fatal error of asking what it is and Betty is in full CLEVER CLOGS/Smartass mode here. Duggee woofs with approval as he gives one drop of water to the plant and it grows back an ear. Oh come on, now! That's clearly a Mick Foley reference now. Why did someone punch me in the kisser for that?! Cactus Jack is not sleazy, the source who accused Mick of that is projecting like a screen the size of the multiverse. I'm going to move on before CM Punk runs in and asks "Who's projecting?!" This was interesting, I won't lie and Roly has to screech the word because this show will not allow this loud gimmick to die a horrible death. The kids giggle anyway as Duggee points to his chest to reveal the "Show & Tell Badge". Norrie and Roly cut promo about the badge and then Duggee woofs with approval. The kids cheer with Happy doing a circle dance for my amusement as this leads to the stylized scene changer. It's Duggee cosplaying the sun with his head rising about the hilly area. Cut to outside with the Squirrels as the narrator gives the instructions for the show and tell session. The kids split up as Norrie alone goes west while the rest of the kids go east. Duggee just stands there smiling. Then Norries comes back, says "wrong way" and then runs east. I don't know why other than to kill time, but that was funny. We head to the bushes who are not sucking branches thank goodness. Tag runs in and finds a purple ball behind them.

By the way, in fictional worlds, I find bouncing the ball and going a great height only to come down to be not interesting, but it is interesting when you compare it to the real world's gravity and physics. That ball has a lot of bounce in that context. Tag chases the bouncing ball stage left as Betty is somehow back in the barn's clubhouse reading books. SUZY SHEEP~?! Betty is reading a lime green book about the solar system, which in Duggee's world is four planets, with two of them being in literally the same plane as the other two. SUZY SHEEP~?! Betty's eyes are reading and moving like a typewriter complete with typewriter sound effect. Hey, at least it's different than the blinking eye sound effect. Roly is outside at the mountain and he's found a "ROCK". I admit, the way he pronounced the word where screaming was funny. The narrator is impressed, but it's too big to take back to Duggee, so Roly decides to improvise because he's committed to bringing a "ROCK" back to Duggee. Roly bails and then returns rolling a giant boulder. HAHA! Roly managing to roll a rock about a billion times his own mass. Big Show, Bruan Stronman, even Mark Henry, be jealous! Even better, Roly did it without jacks! Even the narrator has to concede this as we jump back to the clubhouse...AGAIN! Keep in mind: All five Squirrels went away from the barn which is where the clubhouse. Somehow, two of them returned inside the clubhouse despite us clearly seeing that they went to the forest. There has to be a teleportation device somewhere in this world. This time, Happy is in the kitchen standing there holding a glass of water because Happy's gimmick is that he loves water. I always love the animators when it comes to Happy talking, since half of the time, his nose and mouth look like smiling emojis. I'm wasting everyone's time like this show because Happy is with a glass of water. I have nothing to work with here. The narrator is fine as long as he's careful taking it to Duggee. Happy ponders this over hard, then Happy is like "fuck this!" and runs away stage right splashing water. That was funny. The narrator ignores this and cuts to outside with Norrie at an actual branch sucking bush! That was one perverted payoff to my own joke in the Leaf Badge if I do say so myself. By the way, I was suppose to type "egg sucking dog" in the Leaf Badge and somehow got that wrong. I realize Terry Funk is dead, but that was disrespectful of me to make that obvious mistake.

Moving right along, Norrie is looking at a ladybug on a leaf of that branch sucking bush. I should note that the show was produced in Britian, so it's a ladybird and that will be it's name/pronoun until the show tells me otherwise. Ladybird says that it's not interesting, but the bland monotone voice makes it's interesting by default. It's like that time in WCW where Oklahoma -- the really abelist Jim Ross gimmick -- was on commentary during a match where he was putting over Dr. Death Steve Williams resume as if it was a total joke even though the way he did it only served to make Dr. Death look like a badass, which is not what the speaker intended but it made Dr. Death the star and everyone else look like a geek. This is the non-offensive version of the same thing. Norrie agrees with me, but Ladybird is having none of it and it only proves my and Norrie's point. Norrie grabs Ladybird in the most safest position ever and giggles. She is so not buying what Ladybird is selling as Norrie asks if she can take it to Duggee and Duggee might find it interesting. Ladybird says "ooookkkkaaayyyy", like when I write the word sometimes. That was funny. Norrie spins around in victory and Ladybird asks Norrie not to do that because Ladybird is dizzy now. I guess airplane spins are out of the question now. Norrie apologizes and then walks away stage right. We hear the banjo part of the Hey Duggee theme and everytime I hear the ending to that piece, I yell "Kick Out!", which matches with Duggee kicking his legs out when he does his dance in the opening sequence. We head back to the Squirrels group in front of the barn for the Show & Tell. Somehow, Happy's glass of water is still intact with water. 2:1 odds that it will be empty when presented to Duggee, otherwise Happy's sequence will not be payed off properly. Roly is bouncing around laughing loud like he has spring shoes on his feet and is being tickled in a spot you should not tickle. The narrator asks the Squirrels if they should show off the "interesting" stuff and the Squirrels say yes. There are only two things that was legit interesting to me: Roly's Rolling Rock which might as well be the Heindenkarana of interesting objects and Ladybird who has Imposter Syndrome basically. Betty's book would be number three if Betty wasn't so cocky. After all, I would love to know how two planets can be on the same circular rotation plane and not crush each other if one of them reverses direction. Tag introduces his ball and bounces up into the air so high it doesn't come down. Yes, Peppa Pig stole that spot for the tennis/badminton episode where Danny Dog bounced his tennis ball so high into the air it never came down. It's supposed to be a sight gag, not a logic break. Still...SUZY SHEEP~?!

Betty is still typewriting looking at her book. Happy drinks the glass of water because the writers booked themselves into a corner here, but Duggee has seen the full glass so it doesn't matter. Roly brings his Rolling Rock and somehow it appears out of nowhere despite not being there in the first shot. SUZY SHEEP~?! Roly has magical powers now, I swear to Kit Cloudkicker. Duggee is shocked and then impressed by this dark magic from Roly. Roly's barely six years old, maybe eight years old for crying out loud! Norrie is last as the narrator calls it very interesting, so even the narrator is not buying Ladybird's Imposter Syndrome at this point. Ladybird gets the Windows 95 sound treatment and Ladybird blows it off. Norrie says that the more interesting thing about Ladybird is it's spots. I was daring her to say "your speaking", but no one would get it except probably me, so this is for the best. The narrator backs Norrie up on her claims as Duggee woofs with approval. Then we get a sky shot of Ladybird with six black spots and this leads to a counting sequence with colored numbers inside the spots. Norrie then claims that this is the number of interesting things they found. Wait a second?! There are only five kids and they found five things! How did they get six out of this? SU....Oh wait, they are counting Duggee's cactus plant from the beginning. Okay, that makes sense as shown in the Brady Bunch-equse sequence of counting with the objects...and Ladybird being last. Ladybird then concedes that it is interesting after all and the narrator thinks everyone is interesting. Well, it has to be, otherwise no one would watch this show. Miss Rabbit and later Reggie Rabbit were the biggest reasons I continued watching and reviewing Peppa Pig. Roly of course screams for fun as the narrator calls this a brilliant show and tell. Duggee woofs and then bails on all fours to return with the "Show And Tell" badge. Sadly, Ladybird didn't earn one. Here come the parent in their vehicles because it's time for the DUGGEE HUG~! Duggee hug. Ladybird didn't get it which is understandable since insects can be easily crushed. The kids bail and show off their badges to the parents. Hugs in stereo ensue as the parents and kids leave in their vehicles. The narrator asks if that was fun as Duggee waves goodbye to the Squirrels. Ladybird is on top of Duggee's head and Ladybird proclaims that it was interesting. HA! Ladybird's not wrong, see Roly's giant boulder for evidence. Everyone laughs to end the episode at 6:45. A really fun mess with Roly's rock being legit interesting and Ladybird just being itself. *** 1/2 (70%).

Opening Moment #4: This opening features Betty doing the exact same thing as in "The Treasure Hunt Badge". I think the book cover is a reference to the question of "which came first: the egg or the chicken". This would have worked perfectly if there was a question mark on the front cover as well. When Betty puts the book down, it shows the egg, so that's Betty's answer to the question, then. The title card shows a cyan blue rocking horse against a peach background with the badge showing cyan blue/yellow trim. The rocking horse looks better designed than Horsey Twinkletoes by the way.

The Rocking Horse Badge: Short opens in the clubhouse with the Squirrels playing as usual. This time: Norrie is having a tea party with a white bear, Happy is playing with building blocks, Tag is playing with a parking lot model car set, Roly is playing with a spinning top and Betty, the CLEVER CLOGS~ of this outfit is reading books, probably to curse Al Khan into the Phantom Zone judging by the horseshoe with star in the middle on the front cover of said book. The narrator asks about what is Duggee planning for the Squirrels today. If he has a storage rental locker like in Peppa Pig Tales....I'm not doing that joke as the Squirrels bail stage left giggling. Jump cut to Duggee pulling on a rope that is inside his empty storage closet. Uh-oh! Duggee is hanging someone. Or not. The Squirrels run in asking Duggee what he is doing. Thankfully, it's to pull out some stuck cupboards and not something more sinister. Leave that shit to Peppa Pig. The Squirrels want to help and they pull with Duggee while being ankle biters in the process. HAHA! We have found a spot where the kids are ankle biters and it was actually funny. Duggee's reaction is priceless and I do mean priceless. They somehow pull it out and everyone takes an off-screen bump complete with pans bangings. I hope Duggee took that bump and it was safe because if the kids took it, bad idea. I discover that in Britian, a storage closet is literally called a cupboard. That makes no sense. I mention this because they pulled out a pink rocking horse with X eyes, indicating that the rocking horse is dead despite not being a living thing. That made me laugh. It's also old due to the amount of spider-webs on it, despite spiderwebs not needing to be there. The narrator points out the obvious and yes, the rocking horse has a name: Buckee. This isn't the last name they tried this naming convention as a future friend of Duggee arrives whom has a scout troupe named the Humming Birds, one of them is their answer to Mandy Mouse, one of them is their answer to Gerald Giraffe and they would have a complete episode to themselves in this very show! I would love to review that episode, but I need the episode of their origins in order to bring context to their existance and sadly, Hey Duggee preservation is beyond the pale horrible compared to Peppa Pig. Norrie asks if he rode Buckee as a child and Duggee woofs yes.

Then we get a flashback cloud with Duggee literally marking out his own childhood of cosplaying a cowboy on a rocking horse. I'm sorry, but you are not topping "Pedro The Cowboy", show. I love Hey Duggee a lot more than Peppa Pig, but you cannot top Pedro Fucking Pony here. You couldn't even top "Naughty Tortoise" for goodness sake which was the absolute high point for Suzy Sheep. Also, "Chop the tree down!", another bloodlusting spot that was actually funny. Apparently, the room was wallpapered with horseshoes and cactii cyan blue themed wallpaper before this, so Duggee's doghouse might even have TARDIS powers. Betty asks if he can ride it and Duggee woofs "yes". He shows his chest to reveal the "Rocking Horse" badge. This is why I love this show: Who in real life would have a "rocking horse" badge and it's riding it, instead of creating it and have it be a "carpentary" badge or something. The Squirrels dare Duggee to ride it as an adult. Duggee accepts and he doesn't do it slowly and carefully. He jumps on top of Buckee and rides it; somehow, this horse is tougher than Steve Williams. Buckee is tougher than any government mule in the real world at this point. Somehow, Duggee did all this with a pink background and none of the spiderwebs were affected. SUZY SHEEP~?! It gets better: We hear a horse neighing, which unless it's a noise from outside is implying that Duggee is a horse's ass. The kids all cheer as Enid comes in and notices Buckee. Enid is gravely offended by this rocking horse and pulls a panel in the rocking horse's ass and this is enough to collapse and destroy the rocking horse. That was funny. Duggee couldn't break this horse, but Enid could with what is effectively judo. Even the eye got taken off as Enid meows and bails stage left. The Squirrels gasp in horror, I'm laughing my ass off. The Squirrels blame Enid for this, and they are right! Duggee is cringing and gasping in horror, almost wimpering as all his badges are gone from the chest. SUZY SHEEP~?! Norrie and Betty tell Duggee not to worry, because they are going to fix Buckee and raise it from the dead. The narrator calls this a good idea. Then the Squirrels do something stupid and cruel: They all try to pull on the rope to move the rocking horse, but it's no go. Don't do that! If you do that to real horses, animal welfare is going to be on your ass! Now, Duggee decides to intervene and at this point it's a wooden rocking horse. All Duggee has to do is lift Buckee and carry him to the work table area. Nothing wrong about that, because the horse is fake and wooden. Nope!

Duggee steadys the rope, clicks his tongue and that's enough for Buckee to move via rope pull stage right. Whatever, move on. I do admit, that spot bothered me. It shouldn't have since I'm no horse expert, but it did. The kids cheer and follow Duggee as we HIT THE MONTAGE~! Lots of gluing, drilling, screwing and Roly doing nothing which is for the best. Roly cannot wash a car to save his life as the bubbles are distracting him. More oiling, painting and Roly dancing make Gregory Weagle something something. By the way, the whole area Roly is dancing is a bubble bath as he yells bubbles in a normal volume this time. Betty combs a fake rocking horse's mane for no reason. Apparently, the ear is the least stiff part of the horse methinks. Norrie adds a saddle, Happy is painting a pink smile on the horse. We have an aqua blue rocking horse with rainbow mane and tail and colored stars with white rockers on the bottom. The Squirrels all channel Mario Party because it's finished. Buckee looks much better than the old one actually. Buckee also gets a sky blue background with white stars sprinkled about. We head outside with the Squirrels and the narrator exchanging notes as Duggee is such a mark for this rocking horse. Roly screams "Let's ride!" of course and laughs. Roly runs in and gets on Buckee, although it does take a slight struggle on his part. Roly yells Yee-Haw (oy vey on myself this time) as we get a dream sequence of Roly cosplaying a cowboy on Buckee with a wild west background. I should note this: The hats they wear are about one to two inches above the head. SUZY SHEEP~?! At least in Peppa Pig Tales, even though the hats are completely oversized, at least those hats made contact with said head. The Hey Duggee theme song plays as Buckee rocks and sways on a hot sunny day. Roly sees a "baddie" and then invokes the LASSO OF BANE TO ALL ACTION CARTOONS EVERYWHERE and captures a robber bear with a red mask and black hat on carrying a sack of money. If you are going to do a BS&P version of the "white hats vs. black hats" thingie, make sure the "heel" doesn't have a black hat or even white hat on. That's racist. I was hoping though that he lassoed Duggee or one of the Squirrels, but no, he lassoed a brown teddy bear. Too bad, since Duggee has similar colored fur to the teddy bear. The kids giggle, Duggee does his ROB Smash clap.

Norrie is next as she bounces in with spring shoes and easily jumps onto Buckee. The dream sequence involes Norrie wisper yelling at Buckee to put on a show and it's basically her dressed up as an acrobat with umbrella that matches her pink striped suit and pink ear warmers with white stars. She does stunts on Buckee for a long ass whomping time. Her reality was much closer than Roly's dream sequence as we get canned pops and cheering. Duggee does his ROB clap again. Now Roly's hat is on his head for real and it's on his head. SUZY SHEEP~?! This show is like Darkwing Duck, only at least Hey Duggee does a much better job trying to keep the logic straight. Tag is next and in pops a knight's helmet, so he's playing the Social Knight today. Fun fact: That is the Japanese name for the Cavalier class in Fire Emblem. Drums and a kazoo are playing, so Adam Copeland and Jay Renso are in this show now. (Jay: Happy? You had a father, and your father is dead.) Tag is on Buckee and has probably the funniest BS&P lance of all time. The end literally has a wooden cork, so I assumed that the candy cane part of the lance was literally a painted plastic or glass tube. His dream sequence involves him against a giant green dragon with a helmet, probably the cousin of Draggy from the TaleSpin comic character where Kit is considered the messiah in storyline. This is one story I would love to see in the TaleSpin reboot, but I expect it to be part of the Darkwing Duck reboot because you know...There is a purple castle with park roofs in the background. The dragon growls and literally breathes fire, but cannot crank it's neck down to make any sort of contact with Tag, let alone be an actual threat. Tag is in awe because he knows he's won as he rocks the horse in, uses the cork end of the lance to lightly bonk into the dragon's toe and the dragon sells it like he broke his toe so badly that he wouldn't make it past first day of wrestling training school. That made me giggle. The dragon bails doing the foot grabbing spot so badly that I laughed some more. By the way, Tag was using a broom, which might have been more threating than that fake lance with the cork end. Everyone cheers after Tag scared away the dragon. That dragon is going to sue them for emotional distress, I swear to myself. Betty is next and her dream sequence is literally running with the roses. Horse racing, Kentucky Derby style, really z-grade announcer voice in the background.

By the way, she beat three horses who are literally anthros to win by default. Okay, here's the big problem with this: In horse racing, if the rider of the horse is off the horse, the horse is disqualified. You can not win the race with the horse alone because that's cheating since the rider weighs down the horse. The gag they did here assures Betty wins by default and makes her look weak. The gag should have horses on rocking horses since the point of the gag is fantaises involving the rocking horse and then Betty makes the comeback and wins. This spot was a major misstep in this episode. By the way, did I menton Betty looks Canadian on that outfit, and that the "one" was a dead giveaway that she would win?! I know it's a fantasy, but at least stack the deck against yourself instead of for yourself Betty! That was stupid. Rainbow confetti falls down as Betty wins by forfeit basically. The kids love it because they don't understand horse racing rules; which is fine. When the writers don't understand the rules of horse racing, that's terrible. Heck, even Duggee or even the narrator not getting it is understandable here. Happy is last as he runs in and the kids are confused by Happy's chewing noises. That's because Happy is cosplaying a farmer feeding Buckee apples. Okay, that is the second best one of the lot, next to Tag. Norrie is third. Tag is confused, but Happy at least eliminates the confusion because Buckee worked hard today. Good sound logical reason, I like it! The kids hearts have melted, they run in giggling. Happy continues to feed Buckee while everyone exhanges notes for a while. They all hug Buckee with hearts popping out of Buckee, in reverse DUGGEE HUG position. The narrator proclaims that the Squirrels have done well as Duggee woofs yes. Duggee bails on all fours stage left and then returns with the "Rocking Horse" Badge. Hey they created it, Happy and Tag did a great job, so there you go. The kids all cheer as the parents arrive in their vehicles. Time for the DUGGEE HUG~! Duggee hug. The kids bail stage left to show off the badge to their parents. The parents all hug the kids in stereo and leave in their vehicles. The narrator asks if this was fun and Duggee is on Buckee with his one inch over his head hat. HAHA! Make the joke and then pay it off. Duggee clicks his tongue and laughs as the narrator tells him to stop it to end the episode at 6:45. I'm mixed with this one: The episode itself was very good, but Betty's dream sequence was really stupid, Roly's dream sequence was fine if they got rid of the hats, and the logic was off in places. I'm going to call this *** 1/4 (65%).

Opening Moment #5: This opening features Norrie...sick in bed with what appears to be a rash as per "Not Very Well" from Peppa Pig. The narrator starts the spiel and then realizes when Norrie pops up to show the narrator that she is sick. The narrator then tells Norrie to get some rest and get well soon. Norrie smiles and then the opening sequence cuts to the stereo driving by the parents, only Norrie's car is clearly not in evidence which extends to the stereo hug and the ending flourish to the opening sequence. This wasn't funny, but it wasn't suppose to be since sickness is not a laughing matter anyway, but this was the first opening sequence where there was a twist to the proceedings. If you want a really funny twist to the opening sequence, I'll mention it at the end of this rant when I reveal the video of opening sequences. There's some good ones in that video, including the funniest one ever that is even funnier than Happy's sunbathing opening. The title card shows a bear with a themometer in it's mouth against a green background with lighter shades of green on the trim of the badge.

The Get Well Soon Badge: Short opens back with the opening sequence pose except it's a sunny day and everyone laughing for no reason. That's kind of mean to Norrie in my view and then Betty stops selling and gasps because Norrie isn't here. Duggee responds saying that he knows, so Norrie's Mum did contact Duggee beforehand, or Duggee does watch his own show. Either one is acceptable at this point as the narrator points out that Norrie is not very well today. Norrie in storyline is basically Peppa Pig if Peppa Pig was not seen as a troll. The male kids gasps in horror and Tag wonders if Norrie will ever come back. It's just a rash, she's under the weather, not fatally sick. The narrator points out the same thing I did in roundabout terms. The kids decide to do something to cheer up Norrie as Roly has to scream while singing a song; Gigi Gazelle got the cringe ear again. Happy ponders over and states the most reasonable thing to do: make a sympathy card for Norrie. Hey, she's a better Peppa Pig than Peppa Pig is, so why not?! Tag asks Duggee to help and Duggee will because he has a badge for getting well soon. He does bring in art supplies from his hand like a magician, for the first SUZY SHEEP~ moment of the episode. The kids all cheer in a contrived fashion and then we HIT THE MONTAGE~! This one complete with ragtime music. Tag is shaking stars and sprinkles on his card, while Happy is shredding construction paper for a while, while saying "shred" over and over again. Roly loves feather and glues feathers over his own body before throwing them into the air. Kit is like "That's it, I'm out of here."; and Roly's wet fantasy is that he wants to be a scary bird or something. At least he's not telling anyone what to do in this wet dream job. Betty is coloring inside the lines, so they are making one sympathy card for Norrie, which made me sad because I wanted to see Roly's card. More drawing and putting on feather as it ends with Norrie's face being painted with some extra details and it is a Mario Party finished! By the way, when they zoom out, the Squirrels being a mess was better than the card. I laughed hard at Roly for being such a bird brain. The narrator likes the card and let's take it to Norrie. This leads to the badge scene change of Duggee driving a post van with Enid the cat apparently honking the horn. This would have been funnier if Enid was the driver, but this is a more serious episode than usual, so I can see why Sander Jones held back here. Okay, here's the idiot plot in action: If they were smart, Duggee gives it to the post officer and the post officer delivers it to Norrie. That is what normal people do. However, this is Duggee's world and Duggee needs some exericse anyway, so let's have Duggee be the animal for the Squirrels to ride on stage left.

Personally, I do love this spot though and I can see adult Kit Cloudkicker being the horse for adult Molly to ride on. It's not like Kit and Molly haven't done this spot before as kids in "It Came From Beneath The SeaDuck".The kids are chanting "We are going to Norrie's house" for a while as we head to a bamboo shoot area and this is the official debut of Chew Chew The Panda. Chew Chew is enomorous, no other way to explain it. She loves bamboo shoots as seen when she's sitting on the ground. Chew Chew is voiced by the same voice talent as Hennie I should note. Also of note: Chew Chew speaks in the third person when the meet and greet is executed. She doesn't like being hungry and apparently, bamboo shoots do not fix this hunger. Oh wait, she cannot sit up to grab the branches, therefore she needs help. The kids offer to help and Duggee's tail is wagging in excitement, just like in Peppa Pig with Danny Dog. The kids form an anthro chain to allow Roly to grab the bamboo shoot while Chew Chew directs traffic. Roly comes down screaming and Chew Chew is relieved. She can take the loud gimmick better than I can. As I discover, she loves the leaves more than the branches, which explains why she needed help as she couldn't reach the leaves anyway. Chew Chew thanks them and the Squirrels bail stage left telling her to get well soon, even though she's well. We continue the journey west as we head to the small pond where Delta Frog lives on a lilypad. I'm so disappointed that it's just frog when the kids wave hello. Delta Frog sounds funny for some reason, outside of the fact that it's triangle shaped. It looks like it swallowed something that it shouldn't. Betty claims that the frog is seasick despite not being even close to the sea. More like pond sick to me and even that is pushing it. I like puddle sick is more closer to the nose. Happy basically says "I got this" and then he does the stupidest thing ever: Happy bounces stage left and jumps literally in the pond off-screen. WHAT?! Happy then comes up pushing up the lilypad and Delta Frog recovers just like that. This cannot work in this world, I just cannot. Happy then comes out of the water and places Delta Frog onto the ground and that is that. Yeah, that is how this segment ends. The kids bail stage left telling him to get well soon, I cannot believe this frog isn't traumatized after that one. Happy waves goodbye and follows the kids as the Delta Frog looks into the hard camera and ribbits. Don't do that spot kids, it's not worth it. Jump cut to Duggee being the horse to the kids chanting the same thing going west into the forest. We see a rainbow colored caterpillar on a chewed up plant, which I'm sure in real life looks like this one in Duggee, but I'm too tired to check which spieces version that one is. Caterpillar is coughing after the meet and greet and it's so bad that it roars like a lion from Apes Of Wrath in DARKWING...DUCK~!

The Squirrels take it well, Delta Frog flips into the pond, Chew Chew is on her back, Ethel The Elephant on pink roller skates wearing a pink helmet rolls backwards and the mountain side somehow sells it. Thankfully, the caterpillar stops before any damage could be done to this world in an awful way. Chew Chew don't care, she loves leave as Duggee is shocked and appalled by this cough. The Squirrels bail stage left to console the caterpillar, who is female according to the dialogue. Caterpillar has a zoom in shot of herself as she's snuggled in blue covers with a bowl of green grapes and a red hot water bottle. Everyone's hearts melts as Roly screams "Norrie's house" as they have made it to Norrie's residence because she lives in a tree literally. There is music in the background as the kids cheer, which leads to a whip-lashing jump cut of Duggee ringing the doorbell. Norrie's Dad, who looks like an officer worker answers the door and Betty addresses him as Norrie's dad in name. That was funny. Norrie's dad has a thick accent that I couldn't hear half of what he was saying, but he did ask them to come in. We see Norrie in bed with her rash and her room is kind of interesting in the case of the unicorn drawing which she won a lavander ribbon for. There is also a pink picture with white trim showing off her badges and a blue ribbon. The dresser has a vase of flowers next to the bed on her right, along with a red window trim and curtains. Otherwise, a very clean room. The kids all run in for the meet and greet. Betty presents Norrie with the sympathy card as her bed blankets are rainbow colored diamonds. Roly points and screams and I have zero clue what he said there. Norrie takes the card and thanks them for the card. Norrie proclaims that she feels better already and the second she says this, her rash disappears right on cue. Damn, even Peppa Pig's rash disappearing was more believable than this. The narrator says it all as Duggee presents them with the badge, Norrie doesn't do her cheer this time, she rocks from side to side instead. Here come the remaining parents with their vehicles. Time for the DUGGEE HUG~! Duggee hug, and yes; Norrie got it in her pjs no less. All of them show off the badge and stereo hugs ensue, even Norrie was involved here. The parents and kids minus Norrie's dad and Norrie leave in their vehicles. Norrie and her dad join Duggee with the narrator asking if it was fun. Caterpillar still coughs and then says yes. Everyone laughs to end the episode at 6:45. Even though this was an idiot plot of sorts, it leads to many getting better and the writers handled this aspect well. Except for poor Delta Frog, that was terrible and my respect for Happy went down a notch. **** (80%).

Opening Moment #6: This opening features Norrie playing her yellow guitar as seen in "The Drawing Badge". After what happened in the previous episode, I thought they would give her a new opening, but alas. Don't worry, they'll start giving us more unique versions of this in later series. The title card shows the worm from "The Treasure Hunt Badge" with it's mouth open. Apparently, the star and orange circles are the visual sound for a hiccup. The worm is againest a yellow background with blue trim on the badge.

The Hiccup Badge: Short opens outside of the barn as Duggee is putting flowers into a vase on a stool (NOT THAT ONE!). The narrator decides to make small talk with Duggee as the white petal flower is drooping as Duggee is trying to make it be straight. Duggee woofs that he is flower arranging, as per the narrator. The narrator points out that he needs more than white and pink flowers in this arrangement, clearly style shaming. I know this because the pink flower droops in hideously hilarious fashion complete with whistle sound effects. Duggee concedes defeat here as the narrator asks where the kids are and we zoom out to see all kinds of flowers when we see the Squirrels running around chasing whatever. Tag is chasing butterflies, Roly has bloodlust for a couple of giant sunflower as Norrie runs in off-camera from the east. Norrie is running to a growth in the ground, which is the signal for the second appearance of the earthworm from "The Treasure Hunt Badge". Norrie is confused as the rest of the kids run in. The kids are confused and the narrator is confused. To be fair, I have no idea what this worm is doing either and I think the worm is shy. Finally the worm pops out and Norrie identifies it as such. Worm is spitting dirt out and hates dirt despite being an earthworm, which implies that it likes dirt. I love the logic of this show. Norrie asks if it swallowed too much dirt and the worm nods. Then the worm finally hiccups for real, and at least it is consistent with the badge, unlike the "Get Well Soon Badge", where it was Norrie who was sick and the badge doesn't show Norrie. Roly is giggling with glee like the troll that he is. In other words, he has watched Peppa Pig's version of this episode which aired ten years ago. It's not George's fault that Peppa Pig failed to move when George unintentionally tossed the ball while hiccuping and it landed on Peppa's head. Norrie blows off Roly for not being nice. It's not nice, but it's accurate. Roly actually laughs out loud now and Norrie is claiming that Roly wouldn't like it if he had hiccups. Knowing Roly and his loud gimmick, I beg to differ Norrie. It would be an improvement actually. Then Roly hiccups and Norrie laughs at his expense. See, I was right all along, it is funny and an improvement. The Squirrels who don't hiccup giggle a lot as the narrator claims that this is not really funny. I beg to differ and then Betty gets hiccups. Then everyone hiccups and it's sounds like a hip-hop song gone hilariously wrong. The narrator claims that hiccupping thingie is getting out of hand, and it's time for Duggee's help.

The Squirrels run stage left giggling and we get a sequence where the brown rectangle cows are shocked and appalled by the hiccupping, which only two kids hiccup and somehow one of the cows hiccup. Oh come on, now! Hiccupping is not a catching infection, you are all just acting now! The sheep not only hiccups in the background, it turns into a wooly balloon. That was funny, but come on still! The birds on a tree branch are doing a tweet rehearsal, Roly hiccups and then the birds hiccup. By the way, the song they did was the Duggee theme song which was playing in the background. The kids hiccup four times in that entire sequence, way less than when they started. I think this hiccupping is somewhat under control, just to make the narrator look like a geek. We head inside the clubhouse with Duggee still flower arranging with the droopy white flower as the kids run in looking concerned, which is a better emotion than the giggling and smiling one they used during scare scenes. The kids try to explain, but they hiccup. Then the narrator tries to translate this to Duggee and now Duggee hiccups. That white flower doesn't sell it and I'm waiting for it to hiccup itself straight. No such luck of course. Norrie finally says it as Duggee tells everyone to calm down and points to his chest to reveal the "Hiccup Badge". Norrie asks if he knows how to stop hiccups and Duggee woofs yes as we jump cut to a zoom in shot of a glass being filled with water. Then a shot of Duggee drinking said glass of water as he's in the kitchen with the narrator pointing out the obvious to us. Norrie asks if he has hiccups and Duggee absolutely kills his own gimmick saying no, instead of shaking his head and woofing. SUZY SHEEP~?! The kids all cheer as if Duggee said a word other than "a" and "woof". Brady Brunch-equse sequence of the kids hiccupping before drinking their water with Duggee watching on. Tag and Betty are using straws, Happy is drinking from the side view to show his nose and mouth making a sad face and Norrie and Roly are drinking FPS-style. The Squirrels apparently are cured since they ponder it over and say that they don't have the hiccups. The Squirrels then decide to give water to the animals, so this is where Doctor Hamster got her medical vet advice from which makes this even worse for Doctor Hamster and her license. Stylized scene changer of doom, it's the same one where Duggee channels the baby sun from Teletubbies. We return with Norrie carefully bringing trays containing glasses of water as the narrator praises her and Norrie thanks her. Surprisely, the hiccups do not come back.

Tag and Happy are carefully carrying plastic buckets of water, Betty has a tray of juice container and two glasses of colored juice and Roly is carrying a goldfish bowl of water. Uh-oh! Roly seems to like fish and when I mean fish, I mean eating one. Happy literally stops and wants to drink up because his gimmick is that he has a bloodlusting thirst for water. I've seen and heard far worse lusts in this very show alone, start with Roly and Duggee. The theme music is in the background which means the bird get to hiccup the "Kick Out" portion of the song, that was funny. The birds drink up and are refreshed, as there are four colored cups instead of two. SUZY SHEEP~?! The birds tweet with approval as this was Betty's tray. Next up is the balloon hiccupping sheep and Roly gives the sheep water from the goldfish bowl, just to body shame the sheep when it hiccups. The sheep drinks up and we head to the steel tub as water is poured by Tag, and then Happy pops out lusting for water right in front of the two brown cows as the third one is written out by teleport. Of course, it's SUZY SHEEP's~ magic striking again! The cows moo in response as everyone is cured of the hiccups except for the worm who is hiccupping some more. Norrie comes in with the tiniest glass of water and straw in capitivity. The worm drinks up and is relieved as the worm says it has no hiccups. The kids all cheer and yell "brilliant" Worm is happy and giggling as it pops down into the ground. Norrie is now confused and everyone else is, including me for that matter. Then, the worm starts sucking flowers down into the ground and teases a heel turn, much to the confusion of everyone. Then the worm pops up and has all the flowers in a bunch and thanks them for the service, basically giving Duggee flowers for the vase. This gets sound effects as the narrator says it all. The narrator asks if the kids did well and Duggee woofs, bails on all fours stage right and returns with the badge. Norrie has earned the badge and her flowers for the last episode it seems. Here come the parents in their vehicles, which means DUGGEE HUG~! Duggee hug. The kids bail and show their badges to the parents, leading to hugs in stereo. The parents and kids leave in their vehicles stage left. The narrator asks if this was fun, which leads to the vase and table showing up. SUZY SHEEP~?! Oh, and Duggee's flowers have grown double in size as worm pops out giggling. Worm says yes, and everyone laughs to end the episode at 6:45. I like this episode more than Hiccups from Peppa Pig because there was no trollish scares nor unintentional concussions occurred and it was still just as funny. *** 1/2 (70%).

Opening Moment #7: This opening features Betty doing the exact same thing as in "The Treasure Hunt Badge". Betty has the best expressive face and voice acting of the openings I should note. The title card shows a hedge maze with Duggee's face in the middle of the maze against a biege background with matching green trim on the badge.

The Maze Badge: Short opens with the Squirrels building a castle with building blocks inside the clubhouse. The narrator asks what Duggee has planned for them today as the kids all run stage left. Except for Roly, who teases staying and then he runs stage left destroying the castle in the process. I howled with laughter, Mr. Bull probably had a tear in his glass eye after that one. Duggee has a brush and a green dust lifter as the closet is full now. Duggee is so not happy here as the kids run in and sounds like Isabella from Phineas & Ferb. Duggee points and woofs claiming that he's cleaning the workshop as his eye emoting indicates that he hates doing this. Because the closet is stuffed and everything has to be taken out, you see. Ah, considering the badge theme, I think I know where this is going. The kids want to help and Duggee is happy as glee to let them help. This leads to the stylized badge scene changer and this is a good one: It's Duggee teasing being a white shadow of himself, and then a rainbow feather duster comes out as it's really white dust and it shows Duggee! That gag was hilarious and the bigots can go pound sand on this one. We return outside with a zoom out shot of the gang bringing out boxes, and whomever did this forgot to make sure the treehouse wasn't in the shot since the Tree House Badge hasn't been shown yet to audiences. SUZY SHEEP~?! Tag calls this all rubbish and Duggee's eyes light up. He was gravely offended by this slur as Betty blows Tag off for being so insensitive to Duggee's stuff. By the way, one of the objects is a lamp with Norrie dressed as a hula girl. WHAT THE FUCK~?! Yes, I know Baloo had a hula girl lamp in TaleSpin, but those hula girls in TaleSpin were at least women/adults. Duggee then brings out a propeller hat of rainbow colors, making him look like a tool of course. The kids bail and bring out more stuff to waste more time in an almost seven minute episode. At least here, it's setting up the story of the episode nicely. It's basically a montage of objects that creates a giant object wall as the payoff, complete with Duggee theme music from the ending, minus the "Hey Duggee" chant from the kids. The entire shed is now clean as a whistle, so much that the objects dust shadows are clearly present in the background. I love that the kids say they can help Duggee sweep the floor, because the walls are more dusty than the floor and the floor is clean as a whistle. It's a troll move, but it's not the kids fault here.

The kids march outside yelling for Duggee as we jump cut to Duggee playing with a winter snow globe. Duggee hears the kids and then realizes that there are objects making walls in his area. Then we get the funniest troll move ever: Sky shot of the area as it's a giant object maze with Duggee in the middle as the middle is barricaded with objects and boxes, making it impossible to escape. Those cheeky naughty kids, trapping Duggee in a makeshift maze of their own making. Not even Peppa Pig and her gang could pull this...Oh wait, I forgot that Peppa Pig Tales episode with the cardboard. Then I realize Duggee's version is already much better than Peppa Pig's. Did I mention Hey Duggee is much better than Peppa Pig already?! Duggee pops up and woofs back as Tag continues to be a object bigot by calling it rubbish. Tag is going to be a crank racist at this rate if someone doesn't get Tag to take the hint, if you know what I mean. Betty blows him off as the narrator actually does blame the kids for making the maze, like the cheeky trolls that they are. I love this and it makes sense since the episode title demands it. Tag still acts like a bigot and Betty blows him off. Duggee apparently has stopped being offended, so Betty's paranoid now. Happy asks what is a maze and we find out that the propeller hat does serve a purpose in storyline: It's so Duggee can point to it to show the out of nowhere "Maze Badge". Duggee than woofs in a complete sentence and the narrator understands everything he says. The narrator says that a maze is a puzzle of paths and high walls. So, none of the kids have played Pac-Man in their lives. Okay, good to know. They also demonstrate the maze against a yellow background and the heads of the kids as icons. Then they make it to the middle of the maze and Duggee's head appears and the whole maze has pellets like Pac-Man, so the writer has played Pac-Man before. Okay, good to know. Sadly, they didn't have Roly go right on one of those dead ends and filled the maze completely. We return to reality (no, not really) as the kids yell that they are coming for Duggee and for Duggee to stay there. The kids bounce into the maze as we jump cut to Duggee sitting on a stool (NOT THAT ONE!) having tea while reading a book about ducks. Hey, it's outside so I can see why he's so patient. If Granny Sheep stops by, this will be a huge problem.The kids are running in the maze in a disorganzied fashion, then organized in the sky maze shot with the icon, only with a grass green background.

Duggee is so patient and don't care if he's found, he's having a hearty laugh reading one of Betty's comics. Duggee's done and then puts the comic back and brings out the cyan blue paddle with red ball to play paddleball for a while. Take your time, Squirrels; Duggee is in no danger and at least he's stop being grumpier than Daddy Pig. The Squirrels are outside the maze as they decide to do the old Scooby-Doo split up routine. Norrie and Tag go west and Betty and Happy go east while Roly, the Scooby-Doo of this outfit stays put. Then the kids return and they ask how Roly got here despite not moving a muscle. Roly screams "I don't know!" and honestly, despite the right answer being "I didn't move!", he is still a lot more humble than most sociopaths. Just makes the kids look like total geeks. More icon head maze movement to waste time in a seven minute episode. Then Duggee finds sockpuppets in the box and of course they have rigid gender roles again. This is a lot funnier than it should be given the context of the real world now. The puppet talk like Duggee and then kiss each other on the lips complete with hearts popping. Awww, my heart melted. The kids continue to fail at this finding a giant anthro dogs who acts and speaks like a real dog and then more maze antics to waste time. The kids making the maze was much better than finding Duggee and Duggee's antics are actually the best part of this episode! Cut back to Duggee finding a trumpet from the box and he plays it blushing, and it's decent music if nothing else. The kids hear it and Betty is gravely offended by this trumpet playing and calls it awful. Oh sod off, Betty! I will not allow thee to shame Duggee's playing skill like Tag did with Duggee's stuff being called rubbish. Fair is fair! Norrie points to the direction and the kids all bounce and follow the maze properly to find Duggee in the middle. Yes, I'm going to ignore the logic break that the maze was originally sealed in the middle on the first shot. The kids all cheer as the narrator praise the Squirrels for finding Duggee, now they have to get out of the maze. The kids have no idea how to get out because they needed unintentional trumpet playing from Duggee to find him in the first place. Then we get the best "FUCK YOU" finish ever: How do the babyfaces get out of the maze?! Roly saying "up" is the second best answer. However, the "right" answer is: Duggee finds the conveniently placed double doors with a door jam, he opens it and it's the exit. This finish makes ZERO sense because they are in the middle of the maze, but I was laughing so hard it was worth it.

This is the kind of thing I want to see in an Easter Sadism show like Hey Duggee: finishes that are so stupid they are funny. There's no way the kids and Duggee could have escaped the maze without cutting the Gordian Knot and still do the next scene in time which is Duggee cleaning up the floor and the boxes being put back since that was part of the deal to earn the badge. It's an awesomely stupid funny finish that makes watching this show worthwhile. Also, it was such a simple spot that didn't need to be convoluted nor dangerous nor problematic in other areas. Norrie brings in the last box as everyone is in the barn now. The narrator asks if the Squirrels have done well today. Duggee bails on all fours and returns with the badge as the kids jump up and cheer. Even funnier, the cardboard box teases earning the badge and out pops Roly cheering with foam flying out. I should note this before I continue: Tag's cheering sequence in this is going to change in Series Two of this show because it's too similar to Norrie's victory bounce. In Series One he just jumps up and down with his arms extended up. In Series Two, he starts jumping up and down with his arms in the position that he appears to be jumping on a pogo stick. I mention this because his hands are near his groin area when he does it and with the hands stylized the way they are, it looks like he's doing the "suck my dick" gesture that Kevin Nash does in WCW. Yeah, I'm trying to extend this rant a bit more as the parents arrive in their vehicles. Now it's time for the DUGGEE HUG~! Duggee hug. The kids then bail stage left to reveal their badges to the parents and get their stereo hugs from said parents. The parents and kids leave in their vehicles stage left. The narrator asks if this was fun and Duggee puts his right hand behind his back to reveal the male sockpuppet and it woofs without Duggee's mouth moving. HAHA! Duggee is confused and looks at the narrator who is laughing his ass off telling Duggee to stop. That was funny and that ends the episode at 6:45. And to put a perfect chef's kiss to the entire episode: When the end credits roll, the sockpuppets are voiced by... wait for it...wait for it some more...Duggee. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I know the wikia says "Sander Jones", but this is much funnier. You know what this episode is getting. ***** (100%). Also, CBC Kids knew the ending was so funny that they showed the thumbnail of Duggee looking shocked at his own sockpuppet. HAHA!

Opening Moment #8: This opening features Happy in the bathtub as per "The Funny Face Badge". The title card shows a cloud with a top hat, a face and legs dancing on a puddle as it rains against a dark green background with lighter green/yellow trim on the edges of the badge.

A Note Before I Start The Episode: I was going to rant on "The Acorn Badge" or "The Balloon Badge" first since those episodes were produced after "The Rain Dance Badge" even though both episodes aired before said episode. The problem is I couldn't find a full episode of either of these episodes from CBC Kids nor from any other source. The sources that do mention it are based on the video game, not the one they officially released on television.

The Rain Dance Badge: Short opens inside the clubhouse as the Squirrels are doing the usual as Norrie and Betty are having the tea party this time. The narrator asks what Duggee has planned for them today and all the kids run stage right as we head outside with Duggee watering the flowers. Roly screeches to get Duggee's attention as they ask what Duggee is doing. Duggee is showing off his pink watering can, as the narrator explains the obvious to us. Tag asks why, are the plants thristy. The flowers droop down as the narrator explains that it's a hot day and no one outside the flowers are selling the heat. You puny flowers, it's just the sun. Duggee has one more drop to give, but the flowers are "dead" and everyone gasps in horror. Especially Happy, whose gimmick is loving water. Even though he sunbathed in the sun once and no one outside the flowers is selling the heat. Tag and Happy bounce away stage left to get some water which is at the bucket and spout near the barn. Tag twists the spout and the spout does a whacky dance and sprays once like a shower head and then no more water. Tag and Happy are shocked and appalled by this. Oh come on now, the dance the spout made was somewhat worth it. Happy is so unhappy about this, see what I did there? Betty wonders how to get water now as the other Squirrels ponder this over. Roly has his tongue stuck out during this as Happy has a fantasy of taking a shower and bubble bath combo. Then a paddling pool with a hose sprayer and then in a lake with goldfish jumping. Okay, this is overkill booking, but I love it as we get Happy enjoying rainfall. This is sweet bliss for Happy and it was great. If only real people accepted this, the world would be a better place. The sun is a meance, it's the real HELL the bible was trying to convey. Again, why make hell convoluted just to burn people to ashes when the sun does the same thing?! It's FREE, it does exactly what the bible says and it pisses off the sun worshippers! I like drizzle, fog and mist during my walks. It's heavy rain and thunderstorms I don't like for obvious reasons. Happy is one of my spirit animals now, next to Kit Cloudkicker and Molly Cunningham. Happy then dances and shouts rain as we return to reality (somehow, I cannot tell the difference here) as the narrator agrees that they need some rain. Everyone looks up and it appears completely hopeless. The narrator admits that it's too nice to rain.

Personally, I would extend this segment more to include a weather report from the radio or television that there will be no rain for the next week or so, to at least somewhat justify this angle. I realize this is Duggee's world and not the real world and I shouldn't be pointing out this, but this badge has a major problem: Rain dances and Happy praying for rain is an extremely religious thing regardless if it's nature worshippers or Jesus worshippers. Bringing in a religious aspect like this that is not grounded in reality whatsoever is not a good idea when your target audience is not of the age of reason. Yes, Peppa and Suzy often troll on us for saying "it's magic", but at least the show was smart enough to stay away from religion. Now, as a caveat: There is an episode later in the show called "The Choir Badge" which is also problematic due to the religious angle, but at least choir music is real and believable. The biggest problem there is less about the music itself and more about the chruch's disgusting treatment of choir boys and kids in general for that matter. I'll let the Friendly Atheist and the crew teach you all about that, since I'm already taking up way too much time as it is. Betty wonders how to make it rain and Duggee points to his chest proudly. I'll give the narrator props here: When he announces the badge, the narrator acts like he knows this is bullshit and is fumbling over the words. So yes, the writers and the narrator are self-aware that this is bullshit. I just hope the kids get that nuance before they start believing in such bullshit. Norrie asks what is a raindance. I answer "a bullshit supersitation"! The narrator responds by saying that it's a dance people do to try to make it rain. The "try" is what in the detective business call a clue that this is bullshit. Duggee does his dance and "kick out". I always say that when Duggee kicks out his legs during this dance. No matter how stupid this episode is, it's the little things that make this worthwhile to watch. This show is far from unwatchable. Speaking of watchable: Badge scene changer feature Duggee's face as the sun rotating to the front. Yeah, that was dumb. It should be a cloud with Duggee's face on it because you are trying to make it rain.The wink sound they used was funny though. We return with Duggee doing his infamous rain dance of doom. I'm sorry but Duggee is not topping Spongebob Squarepants infamous dance when blowing bubbles. You got to bring it around town, so to speak. The kids are laughing, so they know this is bullshit.

That means Duggee is the only one who believes that this dance is going to work. GEEK OF THE WEEK~! Apparently, this dance causes flashing colored background. Thankfully, they are slow enough to reduce seizures, but not slow enough to annoy my eyes sadly. Swirly rainbow background ensues. I'm not grading Duggee's dance, it's awesome; but it's moot because the only thing that matter is if it rains and if it doesn't, the dance is an epic fail and the more awesome the dance get, the bigger the epic failure. Norrie and Betty are now confused if this is a dance at all. Don't worry, it's a dance. It's called the GEEK OF THE WEEK~ dance. Duggee finishes with a flourish with pink background and then you will not guess what happens next: A dark cloud comes down like it's on a rope in awkward fashion, it teases spitting a giant rain drop...then it sucks it back up and the cloud just sits there. Wow, I was expecting nothing AND THE ROCK SAYS NOTHING, and yet Duggee almost pulls this off anyway. This is exactly what should have happened in Funfair in Peppa Pig: Daddy Pig uses the hammer, the metal ball goes up and stops just a few mm's away from hitting the bell and then goes down. Then Mr. Bull bodyshames him, Mummy Pig says "Give me that hammer!", Mummy Pig hits the bell over and over again and wins all the bears! Daddy Pig never got a chance to lose the game and made him look stupid while not doing anything to be stupid. Here, Duggee is being an idiot and almost got away with it in the end. AWESOME! Duggee looks up and groans. HAHA! The Squirrels decide to do their own dance moves because now that they know it is possible in Duggee's world to do something the real world puny humans cannot do. Roly's dance is basically to channel Grandpa Simpson, which is much funnier than Grandpa because at least Roly is doing it for a good reason even if this tact lacks reason. Happy goes over to console the plants as the dances continue with Roly doing the clap dance which causes the background color to change and at least it doesn't hurt my eyes any. My ears on the other paw, not so much. There were two Brady Bunch-equse sequences of dances. The dances quality doesn't matter as they are as good as they can be done by little kids. Roly is the funniest because he's not really dancing. However, it doesn't matter if the dances don't cause rain, so they will fail. Because rain dances are such bullshit.

Duggee listens and is at first confused, but then smiles. I think Duggee loves the dances, but knows this is not going to work anyway. Delta chickens get involved and then Duggee joins in as they sing this song to kill time in a seven minute episode. Four sheep get involved in Brady Bunch style as Delta Frog in somewhere in the desert for no reason whatsoever. The birds dance on a tree, their dance sucks as Roly should run in and scare them. Somehow, Delta Frog is with the group now. SUZY SHEEP~?! The dance is finally done and there is nothing...AND THE....Sod off, you're no help Final Boss! The narrator fumbles over his words saying that sometimes it's doesn't work, because the narrator knows that this is bullshit. Then a raindrop lands on Happy and it rains. GRANNY SHEEP~?! My theory on Granny Sheep being a rain magnet is more believable than this because it seems I get lucky with the weather when I need to go out most of the time. We zoom out to see the rain coming down onto everything as the kids all bail stage left into the barn. Except for Happy, because his somewhat wellness fantasy is in play and he's splashing. Ladybird crawls into the bottom of a mushroom when spotted. Then we get a turtle with a emote mustache and hat withdraw into it's shell. And yes, there is a literal squirrel in the trees taking a bubble bath in the rain, scrubbing itself. That was funny and it was also whistling the theme song. Jump cut to the barn window on an outside shot as the Squirrels are watching the rain. Betty loves this as the rain stops, the clouds split and out comes the sun. Norrie wants to go outside and check on the droopy flowers. The kids all run out with glee as the flowers are still selling that the water wasn't enough. Then on their close up, the flowers stop selling and become straight flowers. Yup, they got enough water. The rest of the flowers all rise up from other pots in the area, as well as the pond Delta Frog is in and then the trees are flowering with the colored birds. There are flowers everyone as Tag says it all. The kids all cheer as the narrator says it all, the cue for Duggee to bail on all fours stage left. He returns with the badge and the kids all cheer. Here come the parents in their vehicles. DUGGEE HUG~! Duggee Hug complete with popping flowers in the background. Kids show off badge, stereo hugs and then they leave with their parents. The narrator asks if this was fun, the tortoise pops up and says "Yes!" in an accent and everyone laughs to end the episode at 6:45. A really stupid episode that it was fun enough to watch through because the dances themselves were peversely entertaining to me. *** 3/4 (75%).

I end this with this Youtube video on some of the opening sequences used in the show. One of them features an actual adult furry doing this same sequence near the end and it's the funniest one of all time, even funnier than Happy sunbathing. I might as well rant on it. There is a goat milk delivery furry with a milk truck. The furry goes over and drops a bottle of milk at Norrie's house while whistling. All of a sudden, the narrator says "Isn't it time for...?!". I'm like "No, no you are not doing this!", and the furry yells "DUGGEE~!" in the most absurd voice ever. He gets into his truck and drives to the barn just like in the opening sequence for the Squirrels and then when the narrator says "Duggee?!" the furry walks over with a bottle milk as Duggee comes out of the barn walking like a human being in blue pjs and accepts the bottle of milk. Duggee turns around and drinks to end the segment. I howled with laughter because this is why Duggee is so great: No one expected a milkman to get the opening sequence since the show has kids in the main event! GREAT! That deserves five stars just for that moment. Tag pedaling a ten-speed backwards after saying Duggee was also funny because that should not be possible. SUZY SHEEP~?! Tag also has a great one where he literally runs out of bed and exits from the front rather than the side like most people. At least that one was believable compared to the ten speed one. Roly's best one is when he cosplays the Karate Kid in meditation. All of Betty's openings are good due to the acting alone, but the cardboard spaceship and chemical set opening are the best. Happy's sunbathing and the bubble bath are the best. Outside of the "Get Well Soon Badge" opening, Norrie's doesn't have a real stand out. I think the one which she cuddles with the animals is the best one, but it doesn't stand out like the other openings do.

THE REVIEW LINE

Well, I end this show overall on a really high note. The Maze Badge alone deserves the nod for the best episode of Series One and our first full monty episode ever. Yes, it contained one creepy moment with the hula girl lamp and a really absurd deus ex machina finish involving the double doors, but outside of the lamp, I was laughing so hard it was worth it. Duggee was a real ham in this episode that even though he was trapped in a maze, he didn't care at all. He was enjoying himself while the Squirrels tried and failed to rescue him from the maze of their own creation. The finish was completely absurd, but it stays barely outside the bounds of logic that it wasn't problematic nor bad. The ending was also funny as it was the payoff with Duggee and his sockpuppets complete with chef kiss bonus of the voice talent being Duggee in the credits literally! I betcha this show will top this one later on, but so far it's the best one. The Get Well Soon Badge was also great, although Happy's plan to cure Delta Frog was actually horrible. It was really important since the show showed that while the stakes are always the same, the journey to the stakes will always be different, which is what we watch these shows for anyway. The Castle Badge was also a hilarious one inspite of the logic breaks as the ending was more than worth the loose logic present in the show which is always a problem. The Rain Dance Badge was better than expected, but that is mostly due to the dances themselves. Advice: Rain dances do not work to bring rain, I'm just saying. The rest were fun, although the Rocking Horse badge with Betty's dream sequence needed a rewrite since it was so stupid even in Duggee's world. Overall, a really good series of shorts to end my rants on this show.

That's it for Hey Duggee since I ran out of Series One episodes to rant on and most of the other episodes are in video game form and not on television. I'm sad to leave this show for now because it's really great in the short time I have watched it. Duggee is a hilarious scoutmaster who adores the kids despite them being naughty cheeky kids for most of the time. Most of the side characters are fun in their own gimmicks, but most of them do not stand out as characters as a whole at this point. Hennie is the best one due to her health guru gimmick and the Delta Chickens do have some character development, but it's going to take some more time before the show starts fleshing them out, and goodness me they succeeded in that. Chew Chew was okay as well, but her character development is still a ways away at this point. Most of the character development is on the main kids and Duggee, most of the parents have barely been touched at this point, outside of Tag's birthday and Norrie being sick. Norrie is surprisely bland at this point compared to the rest of the group. It's almost like they are trying not to make her like Peppa Pig, even though Peppa Pig does have a lot of upside, it's just that there are times when Peppa Pig is really bad. Roly has finally grown on me and was good when he's not being loud although The Scarecrow Badge was awesome. Happy needs to be fleshed out more; but his water gimmick more than makes me happy at this point. Betty is the best character of the show: Her acting is great and her gimmick is basically what Edmond Elephant does and most of the time I love it. Tag is the second best character of the show as he feels like Danny Dog without being nearly as stupid as Happy can be. I do admit, the story itself is more straight forward than Peppa Pig ever was due to the fact that stakes are always the same where Peppa's stakes are either different or non-existent. The animation is good, the artwork is what it is and the show's chaos is what makes it great. They made Roly's bloodlust for birds hilariously funny and Roly even come his comeupperance. I love that kind of chaos and funny fuck finishes like The Maze Badge. Even the little things made me laugh, this show is responsible for my "branch sucking bush" line. I enjoyed this show and even from a critical lens, I still enjoy it more than Peppa Pig, where the show is just getting blander and blander as it goes along. Hopefully one day, the rest of Series One and beyond gets released on Youtube.

Again, I thank CBC Kids for most of the episodes reviewed on this set and a huge sod off to everyone who wants to defund it. The final tally for now is: Eight thumbs up, one thumbs down and 15 thumbs in the middle. And a special nod to the milkman for being awesome! So, it's back to Peppa Pig Tales and maybe start working on moving all my TaleSpin material to 50Webs. So...

Thumbs up for The Castle Badge, The Maze Badge,The Get Well Soon Badge and a million billion thumbs up for the milkman. Thumbs in the middle for the rest, and I'll see you all next time.

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