The whacky world of pig racing is a complete mystery to its fans, and yet still garners a huge online audience.
The League of Pigs (TLP) is the name of a YouTube channel that presents a stream of slickly edited videos showing five pigs going ham on a mini racecourse. Boasting a massive 115,000 subscribers on its YouTube page and 102,000 followers on Instagram, every day thousands tune in to watch porky heroes like Piggy Smalls and Bear Trotsky compete against each other on the track.
TLP appears to make a steady income from Patreon donations and has been running since December 2020 when the first video aired. Nine seasons and hundreds of videos later, and still no human presence has ever been viewed on screen, except for the occasional shadow of a video operator. The races supposedly take place somewhere in “the heart of England”, according to the narrator – but that’s as much detail they give away.
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(Image: leagueofpigs/Instagram)
Aside from the frantic Grand National-esque commentary voice that narrates each race, the audience are left with few clues as to the identity of the show’s curator. The Daily Star reached out to the show but did not receive a reply, further adding to the levels of intrigue.
Not that the anonymity seems to deter TLP’s dedicated fanbase, who flock to the brand’s social media pages every time there’s a new release, many of the main pigs command a partisan fanbase and sometimes it can get rather nasty in the comment section.
The most recent video, already viewed 25,000 times on Instagram, shows a close run event with Hoishi Oinku of Japan narrowly taking the win over the UK’s own Ginger Hamilton. The win is controversial because of fan-favourite Piggy Smalls, aka Notorious P.I.G., getting hemmed in at the start of the race by rival Pepper.
(Image: leagueofpigs/Instagram)
Onlookers were perplexed by Pepper’s actions and expressed their anger in the comment section. “Justice for Piggy,” someone wrote. There were even some allegations of match fixing, with another venting: “This Game is paid… Smalls should win He is Just the best.”
A previous video sees one fan waxing lyrical: “I’ve seen World Cup finales, UFC & Boxing championship fights, even went to games at the 2012 Olympics. Nothing comes close to how tense these piggies got me.”
(Image: leagueofpigs/Instagram)
Sometimes the excitement even boils over and the pigs show hostility to each other. An infamous moment from Season Six’s finale sees Pepper and Bear having a spat while Hoishi is forced to intervene.
“You can forget for a second that you’re in an English paddock! It’s more like two big cats fighting on the African Savannah!” comes the commentator’s drawl in the background.
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