Monday, May 10, 2010

Talking Toy Dog Teaches Kids the F-Word

Dad John Luckhurst was horrified when his son, aged two, picked up a four letter word - from his talking toy dog. Thomas's My Pal Scout plaything would bizarrely sing: "If you're happy and you know it, f*** with me" instead of "bark with me". But John, 33, found out only after the toddler innocently repeated the smutty ditty at a kids' party.

The shocked dad of two - who sent an apology to other parents - said: "I was totally perplexed as to how he could have made up his own words to the song, especially using f***. Then I sat with him as he played with the dog and was horrified. I guess it's supposed to sing, 'Bark with me', but it definitely sounds like f***, not bark."


WTF?

John, of Southampton, had his worst fears confirmed when he played the tune to pals. Now Leap-Frog, the US-based maker of the £19.99 cuddly toy, is to change the song after a number of complaints from him and other parents.

A spokesman said: "We take great care when designing our toys.

"But we have recently heard from a handful of UK customers that, apparently due to our voice actor's under-articulation of a word, a youngster could instead interpret this to be a common curse word.
"We're working on recording a replacement phrase that will eliminate any misinterpretation."

Life With Dogs

Euan Stretch, Winnipeg Free Press

14 comments:

  1. Huh. We have a toddler toy from them that pronounces letter sounds. My husband has been trying for a year to make it say a curse but they've put in safeguards. He's DETERMINED to find the one naughty word they didn't think to censor.

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  2. Hilarious! And very familiar. When my daughter was a toddler, she thought airplanes looked like sharks. (I think she had seen a picture of a WWII plane with a shark face painted on.) But she couldn't pronounce "shark" well. At all. It sounded like "f@#*". So imagine the looks we got when waiting to take off at the San Francisco International Airport one day. She was so excited to see the airplanes/sharks on the runway, and every time she saw a new one coming close, she's exclaim, "Airplane! F@$*! F@$*! F@#*!" On the airplane the shy little girl opened up to the flight attendant. "I'm on a big F@#*!" was her first line. The fun didn't stop 'til we landed at JFK and got far, far from the airport...

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  3. Ah, HAIL!!! Now why does ever'thing these days haftuh to be so farkin' SMUTTY?!?!

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  4. When toy animals go bad...

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  5. How funny and mortifying at the same time! LOL

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  6. Ok Nigel tell me how the heck did you manage to change the words to a song in a toy? Cause we all know it HAD to be you!!!

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  7. Sounds like somebody in quality control was asleep at the wheel!

    Pat
    www.critteralley.blogspot.com

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  8. Now I have this vision of a Nigel's deep voice singing that song! How did he infiltrate the factory?

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  9. Do we dare say that is hysterical
    Benny & Lily

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  10. I really love swearing toys! It's a wonder how these toys get past quality control!

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  11. OMG that is awesome!! I WANT ONE!!!!!!

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  12. Oh pullllllllllleeeeeeez.....can't take it....ROTFL.............POTF.......BOL........

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  13. These will be collectors' items. They could rebrand them as "Potty-mouth Puppy" and charge much more for them.

    wags, Lola the marketing dog

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