Break out your pink T-shirts and curly tails, fellow swine enthusiasts: March 1 is National Pig Day.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the holiday was started in 1972 by sisters Ellen Stanley and Mary Lynne Rave to celebrate “one of man's most intellectual and domesticated animals.”
While our hog friends tend to get a bad rap for rolling in the mud and being filthy, Hollywood has long recognized the pig’s striking looks, delightful charm and keen intellect by featuring them in many films, cartoons and television shows.
To celebrate this special holiday, we rounded up some of the most famous hogs of all time, from Miss Piggy to the Three Little Pigs.
Miss Piggy
Blond, glamorous and feisty, we fell in love with Miss Piggy when she first appeared on The Muppet Show in 1976. On TV and on the big screen, the elegant pig is usually pining for stardom (and for a certain green amphibian). But this is one pig who won't be pushed around; when the blond beauty feels slighted in any way, she unleashes her inner diva in the form of a karate chop — which often finds Kermit the Frog as its target. “Hi-ya!”
Wilbur
E.B. White’s children’s book Charlotte’s Web is a true underdog — or underpig — story: Young Fern Arable adopts the runt of the litter from her aunt and uncle, and with the help of a friendly spider, the piglet grows up to be, well, “some pig.”
The classic tale was adapted into an animated film in 1973 and more recently into a full-length live action and animated movie starring Dakota Fanning as Fern, Dominic Scott Kay as the voice of Wilbur, and Julia Roberts as the voice of Charlotte.
Piglet
“Oh d-d-d-ear.” Winnie-the-Pooh’s little sidekick might be anxious and timid, but who bravely accompanies Pooh on his many adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood? That’s right, the skittish but undeniably courageous Piglet.
Besides playing Pooh’s number two in A.A. Milne’s classic children’s books, Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, Piglet appears in almost all of Disney’s animated adaptations of the novel — and in 2003 he took a star turn in Piglet's Big Movie.
Arnold
In the quirky world of Hooterville on the 1960s sitcom Green Acres, Fred and Doris Ziffel didn’t adopt a pig to be their pet. No, Arnold was their pig son.
To great comic effect, the talented porker attended school, knew how to paint and loved to watch TV — just like a real boy.
While we haven’t seen much of Arnold since the 1990 television movie, Return to Green Acres, there is a chance he might make an appearance on the Great White Way. According to Variety, a Broadway musical of the show could be in the works.
Porky Pig
For millions of American kids, Saturday mornings weren't complete until you heard the stuttering cry of “Th-th-th-th-that’s all folks!” which marked the end of a Looney Tunes cartoon.
Porky Pig has been charming audiences since his debut on Merrie Melodies in the 1935 episode “I Haven’t Got a Hat.” With his characteristic faltering speech, it’s no surprise that he has a bit of trouble reciting the poems "Paul Revere’s Ride" and "Charge of the Light Brigade."
Babe
Babe made us look at pigs in a whole new light after the heroic title character saved Farmer Hoggett’s sheep from a pack of stray dogs, gained the wooly animal’s trust and successfully herded them in a sheepdog trial.
The critically acclaimed 1995 movie garnered seven Academy Award nominations and won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects. That’ll do, pig.
The Three Little Pigs
Perhaps the most famous swine of all, the three little pigs won’t let that big bad wolf blow their houses down. No way. Not by the hair on their chinny chin chins.
While only one of the pigs was successful at keeping the awful beast at bay (the other two didn’t choose their materials very carefully), we’ll always think of these fairytale pigs as a famous trio that used hard work and intelligence to overcome evil. Their story is still being retold in various children's books, including The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig.
Hamm
Some of the best lines in Disney’s Toy Story films go to Hamm the piggy bank. Voiced by John Ratzenberger of Cheers fame, the know-it-all pig first made us laugh when he told Mr. Potato Head that he didn't get his Picasso face.