Clairo’s bringing home the bacon in the alt-pop world, but she can’t win the love of Peppa Pig.
Allow us to translate: Peppa Pig (the fictional children’s program character) took a swipe at Clairo (the very real musician from Carlisle) in the latest episode of “Over/Under”, an interview series by Pitchfork that asks artists if certain subjects are overrated or underrated.
So it’s not real, you’re thinking. This beef is totally made-up. To which we ask, would a “totally made-up beef” reference one of the greatest inter-pop-star insults of all time, in essence creating a cultural beef-ception? (Moreover, it is real, because someone had to write that script, and then a voice actor got paid to read it. So.)
In Peppa’s episode, Pitchfork asked the four-year-old British piglet her thoughts about afterparties (overrated), shoegaze (no comment), and baked beans (underrated, but kind of a sick thing to ask a pig, when you consider where pork and hot dogs come from). The interview also prompted her to speak about PinkPantheress (underrated, because she is also pink, a very egotistical take), and about pop stars as a whole.
Peppa went hog-wild. “Pop stars make the best music,” she gushed. “I like Rihanna, P!nk, Kelly Clarkson, Sabina Carpenter” — at this point the camera begins zooming in on her — “Britney Spears, Olivia Rodrigo, Beyoncé, Cher, Dua Lipa. Oh! And Shakira!”
But when it came time to give her opinion on Clairo specifically, Peppa gave a wry smile and said “I don’t know her.”
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The comment is a reference to a Mariah Carey quip that’s so catty it has its own Wikipedia page. During an interview in the early aughts, a German outlet asked Carey what she thought of Jennifer Lopez, one of her rivals at the time. Carey smiled and said “I don’t know her.” It was the ultimate jab — it followed the “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” rule, while also implying that Lopez is totally irrelevant. Peppa Pig may have butchered this interview, but she does know her celebrity lore.
Here’s where it gets juicy: When Pitchfork asked Clairo about Peppa Pig in the same interview series seven years ago, she said: “Can I tell you something about Peppa Pig? Just a fun fact? She is 7’1″. You look up Peppa Pig, she’s literally the tallest person ever — she’s the tallest pig in the world. So I’m going to say underrated because I don’t know any taller pigs.”
Wow.
On X this week, Clairo posted texts from Charli XCX in which the fellow pop star sent a screenshot of the Peppa interview with the message “let’s fuck her up.” PinkPantheress also posted to X about the ordeal, rejecting the praise from Peppa and stating “ain’t shit sweet until you put respect on Clairo.”
This is stupid, you’re thinking. You have got to be kidding me. Perhaps you’ve noticed, but everything is stupid lately. At least we got to milk some decent puns out of this particular instance.
— claire cottrill (@clairo) July 7, 2026