History Trivia / Pingu

** "Pingu's Dream" was placed with an unofficial ban from broadcast distribution due to the Giant Walrus being too frightening and haunting for too many young viewers. It was also removed from British television in 2003. It was still broadcast in the United States however, and was also released on DVD in said region (Region 1), but it hasn't been released on VHS by BBC due to the major controversy towards this episode.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: Halfway through the second season, series creator Otmar Gutmann died of cancer in 1993.

* MeaningfulName: "Pingu" is derived from [[BilingualBonus ''Pinguin'']], the German word [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext for, well,]] [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Penguin.]] Robby for example, is derived from the German word for seal "Robbe"

* MeaningfulName: "Pingu" is derived from [[BilingualBonus ''Pinguin'']], the German word [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext for, well,]] [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Penguin.]]

RereleasedForFree: As of December 1, 2020, the official ''Pingu'' [=YouTube=] channel, which had previously uploaded only episode clips, has been uploading compilations of full episodes.

** There is a version of the show aired in Canada titled ''The Pingu Show''. It added a narrator, shuffled episodes around in no order, and edited the episodes to be more mundane. The show was also aired in the United Kingdom, and it is arguably ''worse''.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: In "Pingu's Admirer", ne of the road signs featured in the background has become well known for bearing the Russian words "Perestroika" and "Glasnost" on it in Cyrillic - two words that were extremely important considering what was happening in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe at the time.

* {{Blooper}}: The first UK VHS releases state that Pingu was first broadcast in 1991, which is actually the show's UK premiere year. The first episode was broadcast in the show's original network, RTSI in Switzerland, in 1986.

** "Pingu's Dream" was not included in VHS releases. This likely because it was too scary, so the distributors left it out.

* NoExportForYou: There were several video games made for the series across many platforms, on UsefulNotes/GameBoy, UsefulNotes/PlayStation, UsefulNotes/NintendoDS, and PC. No game from the series ever saw a release in the US, and the DS, PSX, and Game Boy games never left Japan
* OutlivedItsCreator: Series creator Otmar Gutmann died in 1993. The original Swiss series ran until 2000 before being handed to HIT Entertainment and given a continuation in the UK. It was later revived as an anime, ''Pingu in the City'' in 2017.
* ScrewedByTheLawyers: The season one episode "Music Lessons" was reedited as it contained a song the producers never bought the rights to. However, it was retained in a UK VHS release.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: One of the road signs featured in the background of an episode made in the 80's has become well known for bearing the Russian words "Perestroika" and "Glasnost" on it in Cyrillic - two words that were extremely important considering what was happening in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe at the time.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Pingu's name was originally going to be "Hugo".
** Creator/RowanAtkinson was originally going to redub the series so that everyone spoke English instead of Penguinese. Due to his plans on doing Series/{{Blackadder}} instead, the dialogue was kept unchanged. This hasn't stopped amateur gag dubs popping up on Website/YouTube though.

* NoExportForYou: There were several video games made for the series across many platforms, from UsefulNotes/GameBoy, UsefulNotes/PlayStation, UsefulNotes/NintendoDS, and PC. No game from the series ever saw a release in the US, and the DS, PS1, and Game Boy games never left Japan

* NoExportForYou: There were several video games made for the series across many platforms, from UsefulNotes/GameBoy, UsefulNotes/Playstation, UsefulNotes/NintendoDS, and PC. No game from the series ever saw a release in the US, and the DS, PS1, and Game Boy games never left Japan

* OutlivedItsCreator: Series creator Otmar Gutmann died in 1993. The original series ran until 2006 and was later revived as ''Pingu in the City'' in 2017.

* [[BannedInChina Banned In Most Of The World]]: See NightmareFuel, ToiletHumour and ScrewedByTheLawyers. While the show itself is not banned proper, several episodes are withheld from broadcast in many countries.

** Half of the series were not shown in America, though some advertisements on Creator/CartoonNetwork feature footage from the episodes that were never broadcast in America.

** "Pingu's Dream" was not licensed to VHS. As it was too scary to be put on home video, Creator/TheBBC wanted to leave out.

* ScrewedByTheLawyers: The season one episode Music Lessons was edited due to the uses of a copyrighted song in the episode that the producers never bought the rights to. The music in question was retained only in the UK VHS release in the 90's.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The original show was produced and aired in the 1980's. Coincidentally, one of the road signs featured in the background of an episode has become well known for bearing the Russian words "Perestroika" and "Glasnost" on it in Cyrillic - two words that were extremely important considering what was happening in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe at the time.

** When "Pingu and Pinga at the Kindergarten" first aired on the BBC, and subsequently released on their VHS line, a [[TranslationTrainWreck translation mistake]] resulted in the title coming off as "Pingu and ''Papa'' at the Kindergarten", even though [[AbsenteeActor Pingu's farther doesn't appear in the episode]]. Fortunately, the title was corrected for later releases.

** "Pingu's Dream" and "Mother Bird" were not licensed to VHS. As "Pingu's Dream" was too scary to be put on home video, Creator/TheBBC wanted to leave out.

* BadExportForYou: The "Canada Edition" of the show, titled ''The Pingu Show''. It added a narrator, shuffled episodes around, and edited the episodes to be more mundane. The "British Edition" takes the badness even further by rearranging and editing it ''again'' to remove even more content. This version is aired in the UK, as well as in former British colonies like Australia and New Zealand.
** When "Pingu and Pinga at the Kindergarten" first aired on the BBC, and subsequently released on their VHS line, a [[TranslationTrainWreck translation mistake]] resulted in the title coming off as "Pingu and '''Papa''' at the Kindergarten," even though [[AbsenteeActor Pingu's dad doesn't appear in the episode]]. The title was corrected for later releases.

** The made-up language spoken by the characters is commonly referred as Penguinese by a majority of fans.

** Half of the series has not been shown in America, though some advertisements on Creator/CartoonNetwork feature footage from the episodes that were never broadcast in America.
** Only the remastered episodes were included on the U.S. DVD releases, as the cost for completely restoring the original soundtracks of the first two seasons would've been horrendous.
** Pingu's Dream and Mother Bird were not licensed to VHS. Dream was too scary to be put on home video. Mother Bird was probably a BlackSheepHit that Creator/TheBBC wanted to leave out.

* TalkingToHimself: In the original series, the voice of everyone was done by a VA named Carlo Bonomi, who appeared to be Italian, like ''Franchise/{{Super Mario|Bros}}''. Unfortunately his inability to speak English resulted in his dismissal from the revived series, and two actors from London replaced him.

* ScrewedByTheLawyers: The season one episode Music Lessons was edited due to the uses of a copyrighted song in the episode that they never bought the rights to.

** Creator/RowanAtkinson was originally going to redub the series so that everyone spoke English instead of Penguinese. Due to his plans on doing Series/{{Blackadder}} instead, the dialogue was kept unchanged. This hasn't stopped amateur gag dubs popping up on YouTube though.

* MeaningfulName: "Pingu" is derived from ''Pinguin'', the German word [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext for, well,]] [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Penguin.]]

* MeaningfulName: "Pingu" is derived from ''Pinguin'', the German word [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment for, well, Penguin.]]