Childminder becomes accidental TikTok star thanks to her ‘childish sense of humour’ and frying bacon in Peppa Pig suit

A childminder in her 60s thinks her “childish sense of humour” might have helped her accidentally become TikTok famous after posting “silly videos” about how different household items would walk – and causing outrage by dressing up as kids’ cartoon character Peppa Pig to cook bacon.

Jane Mckennan, 64, from Plymouth wore a 50p Peppa Pig suit she originally bought for the children she looked after to star in her first, controversial viral video that gained 1.5 million views and upset some vegans.

Since then, she’s entertained people in a quirky video where she does a range of cheese-inspired walks – moving snootily like brie and doing a boxy walk for cheddar – while one of her videos, where she pretends to arrive at a school reunion, has notched up a phenomenal 22 million views.

Jane, who is happily single, is quite incredulous about how her online fame has taken off since she posted her first TikTok video in March 2021 and that she has been scouted to appear on Britain’s Got Talent – an invitation she is keen to take up.

She laughed: “Imagine watching Simon Cowell’s face if he saw me walking like a Mars bar or something!”

A childminder for 30 years, until July this year when two families she worked for relocated, Jane thinks her youthful humour might be the key to her unexpected success, saying: “It’s just crazy at my age.”

She added: “I think a lot of people my age might do grandmother cooking videos and a lot of people comment saying I’m really young in my ways, so they can relate to that.”

And she added: “I think everyone is quite surprised about how I think. Maybe I’ve got a childish sense of humour!”

But Jane, who goes by the username “The Devon Maid” because she has lived in Plymouth, Devon, for 30 years and “maid” is an old-fashioned slang term for “girl”, doesn’t please everyone with her antics.

“I get mainly positive comments but I get some trolls saying, ‘I hate you, old woman go to bingo or go knit’,” she admitted.

“They’re not going to change my life, they should go and do something more positive with theirs.”

Now open to having TikTok as her full-time job, Jane is just as resilient when it comes to the Peppa Pig backlash, after some viewers were not amused by her frying bacon dressed as the character while the audio introduced each of Peppa’s family members sizzling in the pan.

“You’re always going to get somebody who hates it.

“A vegan made a video about me saying that it isn’t funny to make fun of pigs being murdered for food.

“But my video wasn’t about cruelty to pigs, the pan wasn’t even alight and it was funny because a woman my age was in a kid’s Peppa Pig costume.”

Four-foot 11 Jane bought the outfit for the children she minded at a car boot sale last year.

“I got it for 50p and didn’t buy it for me but it came in handy,” she laughed.

Born in Dunfermline, Scotland, and spending short stints living in Singapore from ages 1 to 2, and London in her early twenties, Jane now considers herself Devonian and has a strong west-country accent that is often praised in her online comments.

In early 2020, a friend sent her some comedy TikTok videos with no idea what they were setting off.

Jane said: “I just thought it was funny and I thought, ‘well I can do that’.”

In March 2020, she posted her first video of her miming the words to Abba’s Angel Eyes but making the videos turned out to be trickier than she expected at first.

She said: “Filming my first TikTok video, my hands were shaking and I used to have the camera the wrong way round.

“It only got a few views, not even my friends and family watched it.”

But her Peppa video, posted in May boosted her profile and since then she has created no less than 43 videos with over a million views each.

‘Gran Love Island’ where she recreated Love Island outfits, such as dressing up as a devil in a red lace bodysuit and relatable comedy sketches about everyday occurrences, like thoughts we have queuing at the supermarket, have been big hits.

Some of Jane’s family and friends have been impressed by her success.

Her mum, Margret, 90, has featured in some videos dancing, and Jane said: “I think she quite likes it. She tells all her friends.”

She added: “My cousin from London, who I don’t see apart from at weddings and funerals, wrote in a Christmas card to my mum that she watches Jane on TikTok.

“Some of my friends laugh about it, and I drag them in.

“But some of them don’t know why I’m on it – they say, ‘why do you do it, you silly thing’.”

She has also been recognised when out and about in Devon, recalling: “I was on a train and then this group of young girls started looking at their phones then looking at me. They came over and said hello.

“I get people commenting saying they saw me in Penzance or I saw you at so and so. And I replied, ‘well, why didn’t you speak?’ They said, ‘oh, we were too shy’.”

And she is especially pleased when her videos have a positive effect on people she has never met.

“I actually had one guy say that my walking videos help people who are deaf, which I never even thought about,” she said.

“With my walking ones, I use expressions and everything and it does the job for deaf people. So it’s using expressions without having to use words.”

Positive comments matter to her, she said: “It makes me feel really good, sometimes I go, ‘why am I doing these silly videos?’ but then if you’re helping somebody, even if they’re silly videos, it’s worth it and cheers them up.”

She added: “The comments come from all around the world. I had one from a young Polish girl the other day, and she said I made her day.

“Those sorts of things do make you feel good, and you’re bringing a smile to somebody’s face.”