The Little Mermaid
Fairy taleWikipedia
65
MENTIONS
14
EPISODES
14
PODCASTS
Search complete. 65 mentions across 14 episodes found for "The Little Mermaid".
Sep 15, 2026
Shann JonesGUEST
If your nervous system isn't used to it, it's not a straightforward thing.
Shann JonesGUEST
Um, it always reminds me of The Little Mermaid in the original Grimm's Brothers version of that fairy tale, which is very dark, by the way, and this didn't make the Disney version.
Shann JonesGUEST
The Little Mermaid gets her legs, her land legs, but every step that she takes on land is, feels like walking on knives.
Shann JonesGUEST
It's hard.
Shann JonesGUEST
It's painful.
Jeff BelangerHOST
Now, as far as we know, there was never another sighting of a merman off the coast of Maine.
Jeff BelangerHOST
Still... thanks to Jocelyn's book and the popularity of mermaids over the centuries, from P.T. Barnum's obsession with mermaids in the 1840s, Hans Christian Andersen's 1837 hit book, The Little Mermaid, to the Disney movies.
Jeff BelangerHOST
I mean, mermaids never really left our psyches.
Jeff BelangerHOST
As we stroll the shores of Maine today, you can't blame us for looking out for a very angry, one-handed merman.
speaker_9NARRATOR
His 365 years were passed as the single day of the flies.
speaker_9NARRATOR
on the morning of christmas day when the sun rose the storm had ceased the tree is down the old oak our landmark on the coast exclaimed the sailors THE LITTLE MERMAID
speaker_7ADVERTISER
Hanging out at the pool is great.
speaker_7ADVERTISER
Relaxing and playing Vegas-style games on my phone at the same time.
speaker_10NARRATOR
Her skin was as clear and delicate as a rose-leaf, and her eyes as blue as the deepest sea.
speaker_10NARRATOR
But, like all the others, she had no feet, and her body ended in a tail like a fish.
speaker_10NARRATOR
at last she reached her fifteenth birthday so she said farewell and rose as lightly as a bubble to the surface of the water the sun had just set as she raised her head above the waves the sea was calm and the air mild and fresh a large ship with three masts lay becalmed on the water with only one sail set for not a breeze stirred and the sailors sat idle on deck or amongst the rigging there was music and song on board and as darkness came on a hundred colored lanterns were lighted as if the flags of all nations waved in the air the little mermaid swam close to the cabin windows and now and then as the waves lifted her up she could look in through clear glass window-panes and see a number of well-dressed people within among them was a young prince the most beautiful of all with large black eyes he was sixteen years of age and his birthday was being kept with much rejoicing the sailors were dancing on deck but when the prince came out of the cabin more than a hundred rockets rose in the air making it as bright as day the little mermaid was so startled that she dived under water and when she again stretched out her head it appeared as if all the stars of heaven were falling around her She had never seen such fireworks before.
speaker_10NARRATOR
After a while the sails were quickly unfurled, and the noble ship continued her passage.
Robert PuffHOST
In his institute, the Bohr Institute, is in Copenhagen.
Robert PuffHOST
And then there's Hans Christian Andersen, who was the creator of The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, and The Emperor's New Clothes.
Robert PuffHOST
But you may not know this, one of the most famous plays in history by William Shakespeare, Hamlet, is set in Denmark.
Robert PuffHOST
Denmark is a beautiful country, but Hamlet, in the play, calls Denmark a prison.
Megan The FangirlHOST
Okay, let me, let me give some context for people who do not know.
Megan The FangirlHOST
The original Little Mermaid, the non-Disnified Little Mermaid, is really dark and messed up because you have the mermaid in love with the guy.
Megan The FangirlHOST
She gets her legs.
Megan The FangirlHOST
His love is not true, and not because of a sea witch interfering.
Megan The FangirlHOST
[laughs] And so per her contract to be a human, she throws herself off the boat because she's due to turn into sea foam because the guy doesn't love her back.
Megan The FangirlHOST
But instead, she gets swooped up and turned into an angel, where they tell her something like, "Every child who misbehaves, we add time to your sentence, and every time a child's good, we take time off," something in that ballpark.
Megan The FangirlHOST
So it's really a weird, twisted, dark fairy tale about, "Behave, children, or poor Little Mermaid is gonna suffer."
The Bagel GhostHOST
Like the Scissorman in the German fairy- You know the Scissorman in the German fairy tales?
Essie FoxGUEST
And I also think fairy tales, I think children's fairy tales, although now I do fear that now everything's a little bit too sanitized and prettified.
Essie FoxGUEST
So, you know, the Little Mermaid, the Disney version of that, which most people would know now, is nothing like the dark original fairy tale.
Essie FoxGUEST
Hans Christian Andersen, Little Mermaid, which has got so many underlying themes of his...
Essie FoxGUEST
He was undoubtedly homosexual and this whole idea about... you know, the mermaid wanting feet to walk, you know, about changing your whole persona and your appearance.
Essie FoxGUEST
And it's actually quite heartbreaking, the whole story about not, because he was in love with somebody who didn't, you know, didn't respond.
Emma StilesGUEST
And
Essie FoxGUEST
this whole idea, if you think of the story of The Little Mermaid, it's all about this prince who marries somebody else and the little mermaid ends up with, you know, cut feet, no tongue in her mouth and all that.
Essie FoxGUEST
And the children's
Craig SilvaHOST
If you could adapt another folklore tale through a modern queer sapphic lens, what would you want to tackle?
Saratoga SchaeferGUEST
I feel like I really would be interested in doing something with The Little Mermaid because that original tale is so dark already and so upsetting.
Saratoga SchaeferGUEST
And I also love like you can tell this from the last time we drowned but i love a fucked up mermaid and i love like a creepy siren so yeah i could totally see a cool sapphic retelling of that story all
Craig SilvaHOST
right well i'll hopefully look forward to it so um last one if you could pick anyone who would be your dream blurb for one of your books
speaker_10NARRATOR
Translated by H.P. Paul.
speaker_10NARRATOR
The Little Mermaid, Part One.
speaker_10NARRATOR
Far out in the ocean, where the water is as blue as the prettiest cornflower and as clear as crystal, it is very, very deep.
speaker_10NARRATOR
So deep indeed that no cable could fathom it.
13 MINS LATER
speaker_10NARRATOR
"Well now you are grown-up,” said the old dowager, her grandmother, “so you must let me adorn you like your other sisters.” And she placed a wreath of white lilies in her hair, and every flower leaf was half a pearl.
speaker_10NARRATOR
Then the old lady ordered eight great oysters to attach themselves to the tail of the princess to show her high rank.
speaker_10NARRATOR
"But they hurt me so," said the little mermaid.
speaker_10NARRATOR
"Pride must suffer pain," replied the old lady.
speaker_1NARRATOR
Searching the house for your daughters, you also find your overstayed houseguest from Denmark, Hans Christian Andersen.
speaker_1NARRATOR
famed author of fairy tales like The Little Mermaid and The Ugly Duckling, face down on the grass, in the middle of a complete meltdown on your lawn, after receiving news of a bad book review.
speaker_1NARRATOR
The Victorian era remains the measuring stick for, ostensibly, respectable domesticity, where emotions are repressed and ankles sequestered in attempts at control.
speaker_1NARRATOR
Nonetheless, here lies Anderson, actively proving that even great authors were one lawn tantrum away from tearing at this veneer of respectability.
SarahHOST
We're, we're from a starting point that the characters have already talked about things, but we, the p- the person viewing, do not know the full scope of, like, what they're talking about and then jump back in order to get more context.
SarahHOST
I think that's actually, that's a fun way of, uh, kind of doing nonlinear storytelling where-
RunaHOST
Yeah
SarahHOST
...
1 HR 48 MINS LATER
SarahHOST
... engage with things about boys.
SarahHOST
[laughs]
RunaHOST
Or, like, me telling Sarah about, uh, narrative storytelling and trading card games.
RunaHOST
Uh, uh, our Umineko crew gathering to talk about Riverdale.
4 more episodes mention The Little Mermaid.
Create an account to see the whole feed, search across every transcript, and follow the entities you care about.