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''Mrs. Pepperpot'' (''"Teskjekjerringa"'' (''"The Teaspoon Hag"'') in the original Norwegian) is the main character in a series of children's books by Norwegian author, singer and entertainer Alf Prøysen. She's a little old woman who's mostly a completely normal person -- except for the fact that she occasionally, and at seemingly random times, [[IncredibleShrinkingMan shrinks to the size of a pepperpot]] (in the original Norwegian, she's likened to a teaspoon). Usually this is a great inconvenience and happens just as she has some small job to do -- which all of a sudden becomes a humongous task. However, with a lot of courage, resourcefulness, quick thinking, and the [[SpeaksFluentAnimal curious fact that while shrunken she can talk to animals]], she always perseveres. And on a very rare occasion, it so happens that shrinking down to miniature size is ''exactly'' what the situation calls for.
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''Mrs. Pepperpot'' (''"Teskjekjerringa"'' (''"The Teaspoon Hag"'') Hag"'')) in the original Norwegian) is the main character in a series of children's books by Norwegian author, singer and entertainer Alf Prøysen. She's a little old woman who's mostly a completely normal person -- except for the fact that she occasionally, and at seemingly random times, [[IncredibleShrinkingMan shrinks to the size of a pepperpot]] (in the original Norwegian, she's likened to a teaspoon). Usually this is a great inconvenience and happens just as she has some small job to do -- which all of a sudden becomes a humongous task. However, with a lot of courage, resourcefulness, quick thinking, and the [[SpeaksFluentAnimal curious fact that while shrunken she can talk to animals]], she always perseveres. And on a very rare occasion, it so happens that shrinking down to miniature size is ''exactly'' what the situation calls for.
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''Mrs. Pepperpot'' (''"Teskjekjerringa"'' in the original Norwegian) is the main character in a series of children's books by Norwegian author, singer and entertainer Alf Prøysen. She's a little old woman who's mostly a completely normal person -- except for the fact that she occasionally, and at seemingly random times, [[IncredibleShrinkingMan shrinks to the size of a pepperpot]] (in the original Norwegian, she's likened to a teaspoon). Usually this is a great inconvenience and happens just as she has some small job to do -- which all of a sudden becomes a humongous task. However, with a lot of courage, resourcefulness, quick thinking, and the [[SpeaksFluentAnimal curious fact that while shrunken she can talk to animals]], she always perseveres. And on a very rare occasion, it so happens that shrinking down to miniature size is ''exactly'' what the situation calls for.
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''Mrs. Pepperpot'' (''"Teskjekjerringa"'' (''"The Teaspoon Hag"'') in the original Norwegian) is the main character in a series of children's books by Norwegian author, singer and entertainer Alf Prøysen. She's a little old woman who's mostly a completely normal person -- except for the fact that she occasionally, and at seemingly random times, [[IncredibleShrinkingMan shrinks to the size of a pepperpot]] (in the original Norwegian, she's likened to a teaspoon). Usually this is a great inconvenience and happens just as she has some small job to do -- which all of a sudden becomes a humongous task. However, with a lot of courage, resourcefulness, quick thinking, and the [[SpeaksFluentAnimal curious fact that while shrunken she can talk to animals]], she always perseveres. And on a very rare occasion, it so happens that shrinking down to miniature size is ''exactly'' what the situation calls for.
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* HousepetPig: In one story, Mrs. Pepper-Pot adopts a pig, whom she names Squiggly [[NamedAfterTheInjury because his lame leg makes him unable to walk in a straight line]].
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Cats Are Mean is not a universal trope. There are plenty of works where cats are friendly.
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* CatsAreMean: Completely averted. Over the course of the stories Mrs. Pepperpot owns several pet cats, and all of them are friendly. The worst that happens is that one of them tries to pounce her because it thinks she's a mouse, and it immediately apologizes when realizing its mistake.
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* NamedAfterTheInjury: In one story, the eponymous old woman adopts a piglet with a lame leg and names him Squiggly because his injury renders him unable to walk in a straight line.
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* ReadingTeaLeaves: In one of her stories, Mrs. Pepperpot reads her tea leaves and accidentally reads her husband's. According to her, tea leaves in the shape of a heart means a new loved one will arrive, a cross means she'll need a doctor, and a clear drop means tears.
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* ReadingTeaLeaves: In one of her stories, Mrs. Pepperpot reads her tea leaves and accidentally reads her husband's. leaves. According to her, tea leaves in the shape of a heart means a new loved one will arrive, arrive (which she generally interprets as getting a new pet or a new animal to look after), a cross means she'll need a doctor, and a clear drop means tears.tears. In that particular story she sees both a cross and a clear drop, and spends most of it dreading the tears and injury that's coming her way -- at the end of the story her husband comes home having crashed his bicycle. and she realizes that she accidentally read ''his'' tea leaves and not her own.
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* VagueAge: The Pepperpot couple. From the different illustrations, we can state that the mrs is a married woman in her prime - somewhere between fourty and fifty. The word "Kjerring" as seen in the citation, does not determine a woman as particularly ''old'', however, just that she is ''married''. That is the conventional use of the word in the home area (rural) of the author. Norwegian language conventions ''can'' be tricky. On the other hand, it is stated somewhere that she has grown children - which still may render her in the same age slot as stated.
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* VagueAge: The Pepperpot couple. From the different illustrations, we can state that the mrs is a married woman in her prime - somewhere between fourty forty and fifty. The word "Kjerring" as seen in the citation, does not determine a woman as particularly ''old'', however, just that she is ''married''. That is the conventional use of the word in the home area (rural) of the author. Norwegian language conventions ''can'' be tricky. On the other hand, it is stated somewhere that she has grown children - which still may render her in the same age slot as stated.
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The character's first appearance was in 1955, on the Norwegian Children's Hour radio. Since then, she's appeared in several books and radio stories which have been translated into over twenty languages. There was also a Swedish-produced live-action TV series in 1967, a 130-episode-long anime ("''Supūn Obasan''" or "Auntie Spoon") in 1983, and even an opera in 2011.
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The character's first appearance was in 1955, on the Norwegian Children's Hour radio. Since then, she's appeared in several books and radio stories which have been translated into over twenty languages. There was also a Swedish-produced live-action TV series in 1967, a 130-episode-long anime ("''Supūn Obasan''" or "Auntie Spoon") Spoon", featuring an episode written and storyboarded by Creator/MamoruOshii) in 1983, and even an opera in 2011.
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* CoolHorse: The cat, who often lets Mrs. Pepperpot ride on her back.
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* CoolHorse: The cat, who often lets Mrs. Pepperpot ride on her back. Subverted in ''Mrs. Pepperpot's Outing,'' where the kitten is too small and weak to carry her -- so it resolves to just dragging her along by her skirt instead. It's neither as cool nor as quick as riding a cat, but Mrs. Pepperpot plays along because she realizes that this is all the kitten manages.
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* ActingOutADaydream: Once, Mrs. Pepperpot imagines herself as a detective and says, "Hands up!" to her husband. [[EpicFail Who, without even blinking, replies "No thanks, no soup for me."]]
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* ActingOutADaydream: Once, Mrs. Pepperpot imagines herself as a detective and says, "Hands up!" to her husband. [[EpicFail Who, without even blinking, replies "No thanks, no soup for me."]]Who mishears and thinks she's talking about supper.]]
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* ActingOutADaydream: Once, Mrs. Pepperpot imagines herself as a detective and says, "Hands up!" to her husband.
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* ActingOutADaydream: Once, Mrs. Pepperpot imagines herself as a detective and says, "Hands up!" to her husband. [[EpicFail Who, without even blinking, replies "No thanks, no soup for me."]]
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* AdaptationExpansion: The anime expands greatly on some of the stories -- that is, when it doesn't just ignore the original plots and just tell its own stories instead. The most notable expansion is in the very first episode, which takes quite a bit of time to show Mrs, Pepperpot's initial confusion at her first shrinking, as well as her difficulties in adapting to her new size. This doesn't come up at all in the original story, where she immediately treats her first time shrinking down as NoBigDeal, focusing more on how she's going to get her household chores done than on why she's suddenly the size of a pepperpot.
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* AdaptationExpansion: The anime expands greatly on some of the stories -- that is, when it doesn't just ignore the original plots and just tell its own stories instead. The most notable expansion is in the very first episode, which takes quite a bit of time to show Mrs, Pepperpot's initial confusion at her first shrinking, as well as her difficulties in adapting to her new size. This doesn't come up at all in the original story, where she immediately treats her first time shrinking down as NoBigDeal, no big deal, focusing more on how she's going to get her household chores done than on why she's suddenly the size of a pepperpot.
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* ReadingTeaLeaves: In one of her stories, Mrs. Pepperpot reads her tea leaves and accidentally reads her husband's. According to her, tea leaves in the shape of a heart means a new loved one will arrive, a cross means she'll need a doctor, and a clear drop means tears.
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-->''There was an old woman who went to bed at night, as old women usually do, and in the morning she woke up, as old women usually do. But on this particular morning, she found herself shrunk to the size of a pepperpot, and old women usually don't do that.''
'''Mrs. Pepperpot''' (''"Teskjekjerringa" in the original Norwegian'') is the main character in a series of children's books by Norwegian author, singer and entertainer Alf Prøysen. She's a little old woman who's mostly a completely normal person -- except for the fact that she occasionally, and at seemingly random times, [[IncredibleShrinkingMan shrinks to the size of a pepperpot]] (in the original Norwegian, she's likened to a teaspoon). Usually this is a great inconvenience and happens just as she has some small job to do -- which all of a sudden becomes a humongous task. However, with a lot of courage, resourcefulness, quick thinking, and the [[SpeaksFluentAnimal curious fact that while shrunken she can talk to animals]], she always perseveres. And on a very rare occasion, it so happens that shrinking down to miniature size is ''exactly'' what the situation calls for.
'''Mrs. Pepperpot''' (''"Teskjekjerringa" in the original Norwegian'') is the main character in a series of children's books by Norwegian author, singer and entertainer Alf Prøysen. She's a little old woman who's mostly a completely normal person -- except for the fact that she occasionally, and at seemingly random times, [[IncredibleShrinkingMan shrinks to the size of a pepperpot]] (in the original Norwegian, she's likened to a teaspoon). Usually this is a great inconvenience and happens just as she has some small job to do -- which all of a sudden becomes a humongous task. However, with a lot of courage, resourcefulness, quick thinking, and the [[SpeaksFluentAnimal curious fact that while shrunken she can talk to animals]], she always perseveres. And on a very rare occasion, it so happens that shrinking down to miniature size is ''exactly'' what the situation calls for.
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->''There was an old woman who went to bed at night, as old women usually do, and in the morning she woke up, as old women usually do. But on this particular morning, she found herself shrunk to the size of a pepperpot, and old women usually don't do that.''
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* ActingOutADaydream: Once, Mrs. Pepperpot imagines herself as a detective and says, "Hands up!" to her husband.
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** It's even lampshaded in ''Mrs. Pepperpot's Outing,'' where a fox laments that everyone accuses him of always tricking others and being dishonest, when in these stories he's usually the victim of trickery rather than the instigator. Mrs. Pepperpot admits that probably his reputation as shifty and untrustworthy isn't wholly deserved.
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* AdaptationExpansion: The anime expands greatly on some of the stories -- that is, when it doesn't just ignore the original plots and just tell its own stories instead. The most notable expansion is in the very first episode, which takes quite a bit of time to show Mrs, Pepperpot's initial confusion af her first shrinking, as well as her difficulties in adapting to her new size. This doesn't come up at all in the original story.
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* AdaptationExpansion: The anime expands greatly on some of the stories -- that is, when it doesn't just ignore the original plots and just tell its own stories instead. The most notable expansion is in the very first episode, which takes quite a bit of time to show Mrs, Pepperpot's initial confusion af at her first shrinking, as well as her difficulties in adapting to her new size. This doesn't come up at all in the original story.story, where she immediately treats her first time shrinking down as NoBigDeal, focusing more on how she's going to get her household chores done than on why she's suddenly the size of a pepperpot.
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* InjuredLimbEpisode: In one episode, Mrs Pepperpot adopts a pig with a broken leg named Squiggly.
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* KarmicTrickster: Mrs. Pepperpot often takes on this role when shrunken down. A lot of foolish or nasty people and animals find themselves humiliated or inconvenienced by her and her animal friends.
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* SpeaksFluentAnimal: Mrs. Pepperpot, but ''only'' when she's shrunken down.
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* SpeaksFluentAnimal: Mrs. Pepperpot, but ''only'' when she's shrunken down. In one story, her pet cat keeps following her around and meowing, clearly trying to tell her something, and she laments the fact that she doesn't understand animals when she's her regular size.
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* VagueAge: The Pepperpot couple. From the different illustrations, we can state that the mrs is a married woman in her prime - somewhere between fourty and fifty. The word "Kjerring" as seen in the citation, does not determine a woman as particularly ''old'', however, just that she is ''married''. That is the conventional use of the word in the home area (rural) of the author. Norwegian language conventions ''can'' be tricky. On the other hand, it is stated somewhere that she has grown children - which still may render her in the same age slot as stated.
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* CatsAreMean: Completely averted. Over the course of the stories Mrs. Pepperpot owns several pet cats, and all of them are friendly. The worst that happens is that one of them tries to pounce her because it thinks she's a mouse, and it immediately apologizes when realizing its mistake.
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* CatsAreMean: Completely averted. Over the course of the stories Mrs. Pepperpot owns several pet cats, and all of them are friendly. The worst that happens is that one of them tries to pounce her because it thinks she's a mouse, and it immediately apologizes when realizing its mistake.
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* CatsAreMean: Completely averted. Over the course of the stories CursedWithAwesome: Mrs. Pepperpot owns several pet cats, can't control or even predict when she'll shrink down, or how long she'll stay small; it tends to happen at the most inconvenient moments and all makes her life a lot more difficult... but her shrinking also allows her to have a lot of them are friendly. The worst really cool adventures, help out a number of children and animals, and learn a lot of useful things that happens is she wouldn't have been able to at her normal size. Especially with the additional ability to [[SpeaksFluentAnimal talk to animals]] that one of them tries to pounce her because it thinks she's a mouse, and it immediately apologizes when realizing its mistake.the shrinking brings.
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* OverlyLongGag: In ''Mrs. Pepperpot's Outing'', while getting water for his overheated car, Mr. Pepperpot worries that his wife may have shrunk down and got lost, so he asks the farmer whether he's seen a little doll somewhere. The farmer says that he hasn't seen any dolls, but he'll ask his wife. The wife, when asked, says that she hasn't seen any dolls, but she'll ask her oldest daughter. The daughter, when asked, says that she hasn't seen any dolls, but she'll ask her sister. The sister, when asked, says that she hasn't seen any dolls, but she'll ask her other sister -- and so it goes until the question has gone to all the eight children on the farm and none of them has seen any dolls. Mr. Pepperpot then decides to hurry back to the car and look for his wife there, and then he can't find the bucket that he was carrying the water in. So he turns to ask the farmer whether he's seen a bucket somewhere. The farmer says that he hasn't seen any buckets, but he'll ask his wife. ''And they go through the entire thing again.''
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** A curious subversion is when Mrs, Pepperpot goes out of her way to help a little girl who starts out as nothing but rude and unfriendly. When the girl at the end of the story asks why Mrs. Pepperpot wanted to help her out when she was so horrid to begin with, Mrs. Pepperpot asnwers: "Perhaps it was because you ''were'' so horrid."
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** A curious subversion is when Mrs, Pepperpot goes out of her way to help a little girl who starts out as nothing but rude and unfriendly. When the girl at the end of the story asks why Mrs. Pepperpot wanted to help her out when she was so horrid to begin with, Mrs. Pepperpot asnwers: answers: "Perhaps it was because you ''were'' so horrid."
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The character's first appearance was in 1955, on the Norwegian Children's Hour radio. Since then, she's appeared in several books and radio stories which have been translated into over twenty languages. There was also a Swedish-produced live-action TV series in 1967, a 130-episode-long anime ("''Supūn Obasan''") in 1983, and even an opera in 2011.
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The character's first appearance was in 1955, on the Norwegian Children's Hour radio. Since then, she's appeared in several books and radio stories which have been translated into over twenty languages. There was also a Swedish-produced live-action TV series in 1967, a 130-episode-long anime ("''Supūn Obasan''") Obasan''" or "Auntie Spoon") in 1983, and even an opera in 2011.
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The character's first appearance was in 1955, on the Norwegian Children's Hour radio. Since then, she's appeared in several books and radio stories, there was a Swedish-produced live-action TV series in 1967, a 130-episode-long anime ("''Supūn Obasan''") in 1983, and even an opera in 2011.
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The character's first appearance was in 1955, on the Norwegian Children's Hour radio. Since then, she's appeared in several books and radio stories, there stories which have been translated into over twenty languages. There was also a Swedish-produced live-action TV series in 1967, a 130-episode-long anime ("''Supūn Obasan''") in 1983, and even an opera in 2011.
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** A curious subversion is when Mrs, Pepperpot goes out of her way to help a little girl who starts out as nothing but rude and unfriendly. When the girl at the end of the story asks why Mrs. Pepperpot wanted to help her out when she was so horrid to begin with, Mrs. Pepperpot asnwers: "Perhaps it was because you''were'' so horrid."
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** A curious subversion is when Mrs, Pepperpot goes out of her way to help a little girl who starts out as nothing but rude and unfriendly. When the girl at the end of the story asks why Mrs. Pepperpot wanted to help her out when she was so horrid to begin with, Mrs. Pepperpot asnwers: "Perhaps it was because you''were'' you ''were'' so horrid."
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* FailedASpotCheck: A recurring trait in almost all the humans in the story. How many times does the shrunken-down Mrs. Pepperpot end up in a difficult situation because nobody saw she was there?
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[[caption-width-right:350:some caption text]]
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'''Mrs. Pepperpot''' (''"Teskjekjerringa" in the original Norwegian'') is the main character in a series of children's books by Norwegian author, singer and entertainer Alf Prøysen. She's a little old woman who's mostly a completely normal person -- except for the fact that she occasionally, and at seemingly random times, [[IncredibleShrinkingMan shrinks to the size of a pepperpot]] (in the original Norwegian, she's likened to a teaspoon). Usually this is a great inconvenience and happens just as she has some small job to do -- which all of a sudden becomes a humongous task. However, with a lot of courage, resourcefulness, quick thinking, and the {{SpeaksFluentAnimal curious fact that while shrunken she can talk to animals]], she always perseveres. And on a very rare occasion, it so happens that shrinking down to miniature size is ''exactly'' what the situation calls for.
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'''Mrs. Pepperpot''' (''"Teskjekjerringa" in the original Norwegian'') is the main character in a series of children's books by Norwegian author, singer and entertainer Alf Prøysen. She's a little old woman who's mostly a completely normal person -- except for the fact that she occasionally, and at seemingly random times, [[IncredibleShrinkingMan shrinks to the size of a pepperpot]] (in the original Norwegian, she's likened to a teaspoon). Usually this is a great inconvenience and happens just as she has some small job to do -- which all of a sudden becomes a humongous task. However, with a lot of courage, resourcefulness, quick thinking, and the {{SpeaksFluentAnimal [[SpeaksFluentAnimal curious fact that while shrunken she can talk to animals]], she always perseveres. And on a very rare occasion, it so happens that shrinking down to miniature size is ''exactly'' what the situation calls for.
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* AcceptableTargets: High society people and "fancy ladies" are generally treated as silly and essentially useless.
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nightdragon.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:some caption text]]
-->''There was an old woman who went to bed at night, as old women usually do, and in the morning she woke up, as old women usually do. But on this particular morning, she found herself shrunk to the size of a pepperpot, and old women usually don't do that.''
'''Mrs. Pepperpot''' (''"Teskjekjerringa" in the original Norwegian'') is the main character in a series of children's books by Norwegian author, singer and entertainer Alf Prøysen. She's a little old woman who's mostly a completely normal person -- except for the fact that she occasionally, and at seemingly random times, [[IncredibleShrinkingMan shrinks to the size of a pepperpot]] (in the original Norwegian, she's likened to a teaspoon). Usually this is a great inconvenience and happens just as she has some small job to do -- which all of a sudden becomes a humongous task. However, with a lot of courage, resourcefulness, quick thinking, and the {{SpeaksFluentAnimal curious fact that while shrunken she can talk to animals]], she always perseveres. And on a very rare occasion, it so happens that shrinking down to miniature size is ''exactly'' what the situation calls for.
Though Mrs. Pepperpot takes her shrinking well, she's not eager to let other adults know about her condition. She has no problem with animals or children knowing, and the majority of her adventures do seem to involve either helping out or being helped by a child or an animal, but she never tells another adult about her shrinking, nor does she let them see her in her shrunken state (unless she's impersonating a doll or something similar). This might simply be because of her husband, Mr. Pepperpot, [[SecretKeeper the only adult who knows about her shrinking]] and who treats the entire thing as an embarrassment more than anything else; he's certain that he'll become a laughingstock if it ever came up that his wife is occasionally the size of a pepperpot.
The character's first appearance was in 1955, on the Norwegian Children's Hour radio. Since then, she's appeared in several books and radio stories, there was a Swedish-produced live-action TV series in 1967, a 130-episode-long anime ("''Supūn Obasan''") in 1983, and even an opera in 2011.
----
!!The books provide examples of:
* AcceptableTargets: High society people and "fancy ladies" are generally treated as silly and essentially useless.
* AdaptationExpansion: The anime expands greatly on some of the stories -- that is, when it doesn't just ignore the original plots and just tell its own stories instead. The most notable expansion is in the very first episode, which takes quite a bit of time to show Mrs, Pepperpot's initial confusion af her first shrinking, as well as her difficulties in adapting to her new size. This doesn't come up at all in the original story.
* AnimalTalk: Both played straight and subverted. When more than one animal is present in a scene, they can generally understand each other just fine, but it's hinted more than stated that they all have their individual languages. One story also reveals that animals from different countries also have different languages, which sometimes gets confusing even for Mrs. Pepperpot.
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: A frequent trope in the stories. Usually invoked with animals who help out because Mrs. Pepperpot has been kind to them in the past, but happens with people sometimes too.
** A curious subversion is when Mrs, Pepperpot goes out of her way to help a little girl who starts out as nothing but rude and unfriendly. When the girl at the end of the story asks why Mrs. Pepperpot wanted to help her out when she was so horrid to begin with, Mrs. Pepperpot asnwers: "Perhaps it was because you''were'' so horrid."
* BerserkButton: Mrs. Pepperpot is amiable for the most part, but there are two things she can't stand: Cruelty to children and cruelty to animals. Anyone who indulges in either had better be prepared to be "taught a lesson" by her.
* CanonForeigner: Lily in the anime. She's a major character in the series but never appears in the original stories; she's more of an [[CompositeCharacter amalgamation of the various children who appear in the stories.]]
* CoolHorse: The cat, who often lets Mrs. Pepperpot ride on her back.
* CunningLikeAFox: Played with. Whenever a fox appears in the stories, it tends to believe itself to be the wiliest and most cunning of creatures -- only to get tricked itself by Mrs. Pepperpot.
* CatsAreMean: Completely averted. Over the course of the stories Mrs. Pepperpot owns several pet cats, and all of them are friendly. The worst that happens is that one of them tries to pounce her because it thinks she's a mouse, and it immediately apologizes when realizing its mistake.
* ADayInTheLimelight: Though a frequent plot-mover and provider of motivation for his wife, Mr. Pepperpot usually doesn't play a big role in the stories. This is actually {{Lampshaded}} in one story, where the narration points out that we've got to know Mrs. Pepperpot pretty well now, but we barely know her husband at all. Needless to say, this is one of the few chapters where he's the main character.
* DeadpanSnarker: Mrs. Pepperpot is a fairly mild example. Usually she's at her snarkiest when she's talking to herself and nobody else can hear her; when actually talking to people her sarcasms are a lot subtler.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Mrs. Pepperpot loves animals and will go out of her way to help or care for any animal in distress. The animals repay her by helping her when she's in need.
* GuileHero: By necessity, Mrs. Pepperpot becomes one whenever she's shrunken. Too small to handle most normal tasks, she relies on trickery, bribery, scare tactics, or just asking politely, to get others (usually animals) to help her or even do the entire job for her.
* IncredibleShrinkingMan: Mrs. Pepperpot, of course. She can never choose when to shrink, and it's never explained just why she randomly shrinks -- she just ''does''.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Mr. Pepperpot, who can be blustery, self-centered and unreasonable, but who genuinely loves his wife and at the end of the day will do the right thing.
* MagicRealism: For the most part, the stories are pretty mundane, everyday happenings -- made remarkable by the two consistent supernatural aspects: Mrs. Pepperpot's random shrinking, and her ability to [[SpeaksFluentAnimal Speak Fluent Animal]]. There are occasional stories that hint of a bigger magical world, but this is only very briefly seen -- for the most part, the stories take place in a quite normal, rural setting.
* NoAntagonist: There aren't any villains in the Mrs. Pepperpot stories. The closest they get are unreasonable or petty-minded people, who are mostly presented as laughable rather than threatening -- or the occasional predator who wants to eat one of Mrs. Pepperpot's animal friends, which is generally treated as just being hungry.
* NoNameGiven: The original Norwegian books leave the majority of the characters nameless. Even Mrs. Pepperpot is never actually named; she's just nicknamed "Teskjekjerringa," which means "The Teaspoon Lady," on account of her occasionally being the size of a teaspoon. It's the English translation that gives her the name "Mrs. Pepperpot," and a bunch of other characters who weren't named in the original story are similarly [[NamedByTheAdaptation Named By The Translation]].
* SmallNameBigEgo: Mr. Pepperpot has traits of this at times, often thinking that he's a lot more clever and competent than he actually is.
* SecretKeeper: Mr. Pepperpot knows about his wife's tendency to shrink. He really doesn't like it, partly because he worries about her and partly because he thinks people will laugh if they find out.
* SpeaksFluentAnimal: Mrs. Pepperpot, but ''only'' when she's shrunken down.
* WomenAreWiser: Played very straight with Mrs. Pepperpot and her husband. While she does have her moments of folly, on the whole she's a clever and resourceful person. This is definitely ''not'' the case with Mr. Pepperpot.
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-->''There was an old woman who went to bed at night, as old women usually do, and in the morning she woke up, as old women usually do. But on this particular morning, she found herself shrunk to the size of a pepperpot, and old women usually don't do that.''
'''Mrs. Pepperpot''' (''"Teskjekjerringa" in the original Norwegian'') is the main character in a series of children's books by Norwegian author, singer and entertainer Alf Prøysen. She's a little old woman who's mostly a completely normal person -- except for the fact that she occasionally, and at seemingly random times, [[IncredibleShrinkingMan shrinks to the size of a pepperpot]] (in the original Norwegian, she's likened to a teaspoon). Usually this is a great inconvenience and happens just as she has some small job to do -- which all of a sudden becomes a humongous task. However, with a lot of courage, resourcefulness, quick thinking, and the {{SpeaksFluentAnimal curious fact that while shrunken she can talk to animals]], she always perseveres. And on a very rare occasion, it so happens that shrinking down to miniature size is ''exactly'' what the situation calls for.
Though Mrs. Pepperpot takes her shrinking well, she's not eager to let other adults know about her condition. She has no problem with animals or children knowing, and the majority of her adventures do seem to involve either helping out or being helped by a child or an animal, but she never tells another adult about her shrinking, nor does she let them see her in her shrunken state (unless she's impersonating a doll or something similar). This might simply be because of her husband, Mr. Pepperpot, [[SecretKeeper the only adult who knows about her shrinking]] and who treats the entire thing as an embarrassment more than anything else; he's certain that he'll become a laughingstock if it ever came up that his wife is occasionally the size of a pepperpot.
The character's first appearance was in 1955, on the Norwegian Children's Hour radio. Since then, she's appeared in several books and radio stories, there was a Swedish-produced live-action TV series in 1967, a 130-episode-long anime ("''Supūn Obasan''") in 1983, and even an opera in 2011.
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!!The books provide examples of:
* AcceptableTargets: High society people and "fancy ladies" are generally treated as silly and essentially useless.
* AdaptationExpansion: The anime expands greatly on some of the stories -- that is, when it doesn't just ignore the original plots and just tell its own stories instead. The most notable expansion is in the very first episode, which takes quite a bit of time to show Mrs, Pepperpot's initial confusion af her first shrinking, as well as her difficulties in adapting to her new size. This doesn't come up at all in the original story.
* AnimalTalk: Both played straight and subverted. When more than one animal is present in a scene, they can generally understand each other just fine, but it's hinted more than stated that they all have their individual languages. One story also reveals that animals from different countries also have different languages, which sometimes gets confusing even for Mrs. Pepperpot.
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: A frequent trope in the stories. Usually invoked with animals who help out because Mrs. Pepperpot has been kind to them in the past, but happens with people sometimes too.
** A curious subversion is when Mrs, Pepperpot goes out of her way to help a little girl who starts out as nothing but rude and unfriendly. When the girl at the end of the story asks why Mrs. Pepperpot wanted to help her out when she was so horrid to begin with, Mrs. Pepperpot asnwers: "Perhaps it was because you''were'' so horrid."
* BerserkButton: Mrs. Pepperpot is amiable for the most part, but there are two things she can't stand: Cruelty to children and cruelty to animals. Anyone who indulges in either had better be prepared to be "taught a lesson" by her.
* CanonForeigner: Lily in the anime. She's a major character in the series but never appears in the original stories; she's more of an [[CompositeCharacter amalgamation of the various children who appear in the stories.]]
* CoolHorse: The cat, who often lets Mrs. Pepperpot ride on her back.
* CunningLikeAFox: Played with. Whenever a fox appears in the stories, it tends to believe itself to be the wiliest and most cunning of creatures -- only to get tricked itself by Mrs. Pepperpot.
* CatsAreMean: Completely averted. Over the course of the stories Mrs. Pepperpot owns several pet cats, and all of them are friendly. The worst that happens is that one of them tries to pounce her because it thinks she's a mouse, and it immediately apologizes when realizing its mistake.
* ADayInTheLimelight: Though a frequent plot-mover and provider of motivation for his wife, Mr. Pepperpot usually doesn't play a big role in the stories. This is actually {{Lampshaded}} in one story, where the narration points out that we've got to know Mrs. Pepperpot pretty well now, but we barely know her husband at all. Needless to say, this is one of the few chapters where he's the main character.
* DeadpanSnarker: Mrs. Pepperpot is a fairly mild example. Usually she's at her snarkiest when she's talking to herself and nobody else can hear her; when actually talking to people her sarcasms are a lot subtler.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Mrs. Pepperpot loves animals and will go out of her way to help or care for any animal in distress. The animals repay her by helping her when she's in need.
* GuileHero: By necessity, Mrs. Pepperpot becomes one whenever she's shrunken. Too small to handle most normal tasks, she relies on trickery, bribery, scare tactics, or just asking politely, to get others (usually animals) to help her or even do the entire job for her.
* IncredibleShrinkingMan: Mrs. Pepperpot, of course. She can never choose when to shrink, and it's never explained just why she randomly shrinks -- she just ''does''.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Mr. Pepperpot, who can be blustery, self-centered and unreasonable, but who genuinely loves his wife and at the end of the day will do the right thing.
* MagicRealism: For the most part, the stories are pretty mundane, everyday happenings -- made remarkable by the two consistent supernatural aspects: Mrs. Pepperpot's random shrinking, and her ability to [[SpeaksFluentAnimal Speak Fluent Animal]]. There are occasional stories that hint of a bigger magical world, but this is only very briefly seen -- for the most part, the stories take place in a quite normal, rural setting.
* NoAntagonist: There aren't any villains in the Mrs. Pepperpot stories. The closest they get are unreasonable or petty-minded people, who are mostly presented as laughable rather than threatening -- or the occasional predator who wants to eat one of Mrs. Pepperpot's animal friends, which is generally treated as just being hungry.
* NoNameGiven: The original Norwegian books leave the majority of the characters nameless. Even Mrs. Pepperpot is never actually named; she's just nicknamed "Teskjekjerringa," which means "The Teaspoon Lady," on account of her occasionally being the size of a teaspoon. It's the English translation that gives her the name "Mrs. Pepperpot," and a bunch of other characters who weren't named in the original story are similarly [[NamedByTheAdaptation Named By The Translation]].
* SmallNameBigEgo: Mr. Pepperpot has traits of this at times, often thinking that he's a lot more clever and competent than he actually is.
* SecretKeeper: Mr. Pepperpot knows about his wife's tendency to shrink. He really doesn't like it, partly because he worries about her and partly because he thinks people will laugh if they find out.
* SpeaksFluentAnimal: Mrs. Pepperpot, but ''only'' when she's shrunken down.
* WomenAreWiser: Played very straight with Mrs. Pepperpot and her husband. While she does have her moments of folly, on the whole she's a clever and resourceful person. This is definitely ''not'' the case with Mr. Pepperpot.
