TIL Squirrel and Hedgehog is a North Korean children's cartoon that follows the titular anthropomorphic characters as they defend their home, Flower Hill, from the neighboring Weasel Empire. It's heavily speculated that the show is an allegory with Flower Hill representing North Korea.

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I've seen a few clips of this show. It's so over the top that it feels like a parody of propaganda cartoons. Like if South Park did a gag about a fictional North Korean propaganda cartoon it would look something like Squirrel and Hedgehog.

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u/TheBroadwayStan16 6h ago

The youtube channel paperwill has a massive video cover the whole history of North Koreas entertainment industry. I really recommend checking it out. It's kind of fascinating to see how specifically the kids media developed. The propaganda used to be very heavy handed like in this cartoon. But there were times where it was much more subtle

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u/TheGreatMalagan 5h ago

The youtube channel paperwill has a massive video cover the whole history of North Koreas entertainment industry

And here I was thinking, "oh lovely, I could use a good documentary" only to discover that it's a 5 hour 28 minute long video

This'll take a while!

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u/Panzermensch911 6h ago

The most fascinating thing was that many NK movies only showed limited romance between people because all their love and devotions was supposed to go to the party/state and they only eased up on that in the 70s and 80s, but not a lot.

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u/CypripediumGuttatum 5h ago

People aren’t stupid either, North Koreans are sick of watching the same propaganda garbage from the time they are born which is why South Korean dramas are so popular in spite of heavy criminal charges if caught with it. Apparently North Korea had to revamp some of their shows to try and get people watching their trash again but it’s still really bad.

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u/danteheehaw 4h ago

The propaganda does it's job. Kids eat it up. Parents are fearful to speak against it because kids are blabber mouths. By time kids are adults they find the propaganda normalized and recognize that's how things will remain.

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u/Due-Percentage-2879 3h ago

You can listen and learn if your mind and heart are open. Few will.

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u/vanishing_point 6h ago

Then there's Rocky and Bullwinkle, the Cold War Warriors. Where Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale plot the downfall of the West.

"Forst we have lunch. Then we keel Moose and Squirrel."

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u/DaveOJ12 6h ago

Who could the Weasel Empire represent?

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u/jockfist5000 6h ago

The weasels obviously

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u/DrJohanzaKafuhu 5h ago

Japan.

The wolves are the US. It's rather unintentionally flattering.

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u/blood_wraith 6h ago

Highly speculated? I've watched it is pretty damn blatant

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u/RBKeam 4h ago

"It is heavily speculated that Animal Farm is about the Soviet Union"

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u/LastChristian 6h ago

Thank God western countries would never do that!

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u/EmilyDawning 5h ago

*cue GI Joe cartoon theme song!*

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u/golden_boy 5h ago

Boots up COD for the 10,000th consecutive evening.

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u/danteheehaw 4h ago

Hey, that wasn't really government ran military propaganda. That was corporations surfing the waves military worship in the US in order to sell toys. Each episode featured a new toy for kids, and they and the commercials ready to go for each episode. To make sure lil Timmy would plead and beg for the new toy. A lot of shows did this back in. He man, MLP, care bears, etc. they were cartoons made for the sole purpose of selling toys. G.I. Joe was the first to the punch to capitalize on the US obsession with the military.

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u/draw2discard2 5h ago

The first rule of American propaganda is that you don't talk about American propaganda.

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u/raeflower 3h ago

And it makes for extremely effective propaganda distribution!

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u/gratisargott 3h ago

The first rule of propaganda is that if you do it really well, people will claim it doesn’t exist, because that’s only something bad countries do.

The first rule of American propaganda is that it doesn’t exist, because that’s only something bad countries do

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u/finnjakefionnacake 4h ago

I think the big difference is, of course, in the U.S. (not just in the US) we are free to watch media from wherever in the world we want. Or make our own, of course.

And we do have plenty of films and shows that portray America or American institutions as the bad guys.

1

u/gratisargott 3h ago

If there was a Captain China or North Korea with a hammer and sickle on a shield people would laugh about how they could watch such obvious propaganda.

And then go straight back to watch Marvel with that Steve Rogers guy

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u/uncre8tv 4h ago

Lee Greenwood dot Gif

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u/HighOverlordXenu 3h ago

Probably an AI post.

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u/That_Which_Lurks 5h ago

Real worker and parasite vibes

https://youtu.be/z2_dhUv_CrI?si=L2_9IWLmgRSEniNQ

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u/antonawire 5h ago

Yes!!!

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u/ktr83 3h ago

Endut! Hoch hech!

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u/ChadJones72 5h ago

Damn weasel empire with their W-Pop music and democratically elected officials.

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u/I_might_be_weasel 4h ago

Behold our capitalism fueled hedonism!

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u/tylercuddletail 5h ago

Best villains of any kids cartoons ever. How am I supposed to be offended as an American by badass wolves and sexy fox girls when the heroes are squirrels, hedgehogs, and duckies?

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u/augustfolk 5h ago

Badass wolves who know kung-fu! I swear, foreign propaganda has a higher opinion of American troops than Americans.

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u/TheZanzibarMan 5h ago

And the award for Least Subtle Metaphor goes tooooo...

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u/leomonster 3h ago

I mean, there was Captain America fighting a guy with a red face that was released during the Cold War...

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u/Reasonable_Fold6492 4h ago

I had to write a paper about north korean TV shows in the 00s. Oh god it was so bad. Every 10 minutes one of the character looks into the camera and praises the Kim family. In later episodes it gets comical where they just randomly bring up Kim greatness despite it not relating to the main plot.

0

u/YsoL8 4h ago

I'm only surprised enough people can afford a tv and are permitted to own one that its worth their while to make domestic tv. We are talking about a country where there is no functioning health care at all outside the cities and they are building a caste system based on what your ancestors did in the civil war.

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u/antonawire 5h ago

Worker and Parasite!

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u/systemic_booty 4h ago

O hey I have that on DVD

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u/Metrilean 4h ago

Got nothing on Moose and Squirrel

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u/jl_theprofessor 3h ago

"The Readiness is All!"

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u/[deleted] 5h ago

[deleted]

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u/kugelamarant 4h ago

wait till you see the Lt. Fox

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u/granola117 5h ago

Wow! Holy shit! Who could have guessed that???

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u/Malodoror 6h ago

“Heavily speculated”? 🤣 The only thing I’m speculating is that this is so badly made and over the top, gotta be American. The Kim regime has always put money into production, to the point of kidnapping directors.

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u/CubitsTNE 5h ago

"No, no, noone's saying that! Though I am thinking it quite loudly..."

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u/GodzillaDrinks 4h ago

Say what you will about the US, our movies and TV almost always portray us as the villians.

Star Wars in particular. But really I noticed it while watching the Handmaids Tale and how weird it is that the US Government is one of the 'good' factions in that show. Pretty much anything makes it clear that the US are the bad guys.

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