In what’s either a sign of the network’s continuing tween-focused savvy or the onset of a language-mangling aphasia, Nickelodeon has announced that it’s giving a 20-episode order to Pinky Malinky, a new mockumentary cartoon about a talking hot dog’s high school experience. Stemming from the pen of animator Chris Garbutt—who originally developed the character for a Cartoon Network short back in 2009—the show follows a young boy who finds himself transformed into a CGI sausage on the first day of high school, and who maintains a screechy-voiced, parent-deafening optimism through the frequent use of reality TV-inspired confessional cams.
Working with Rikke Asbjoern and Scott Kreamer, Garbutt’s series won’t confine itself to TV screens, or, as kids these days know them, “Giant, fragile smartphones that can’t do texts.” As such, the show will be heavily supplemented with short clips designed for social media, thus ensuring that parents will never be far from the sound of Pinky Malinky’s soothing, dulcet voice (which you can experience for yourself in an auto-playing clip found over here, since we’ve done you the favor of not embedding it on our site.)