When good toys go bad II: toy cellphone botches "six"

There's acceptable ways to drop the H-Bomb and F-Bomb, and there's "when good toys go bad." Presumably turning a joyous, thrilling Christmas morning into one giant moment of awkwardness, a South Carolina mum was aghast when her son's toy phone, which was purchased from K-Mart as an innocent symbol of motherly love, vocalized "profanity" (mmkay?) instead of "the number six" when pressed. The phone reportedly shouts out numbers when the respective keys are mashed, but unfortunately for Brandy Cunningham, "six" didn't exactly turn out like it should have. Leading to eventual embarrassment, she claims her son has repeated the taboo vocabulary in places like "church" and "the grocery store," leaving the parent in quite a predicament. She even purchased yet another one just in case the phone was a one-time mishap, but found that not to be the case. A spokeperson for Sears / K-Mart has assured everyone that the company is investigating the incident and the toy itself, as it doesn't "intend to sell children's products that contain profanity." It's just a hunch and all, but we think somebody in the manufacturing line is going to have a little explaining to do if all this proves accurate.

[Simon @ Dec 31st 2006 9:23AM]

I'ld like to know what brand that phone was. The German word for "six", "sechs", sounds exactly like "sex". So, this phone isn't profane at all, it's multi-lingual :)

Also, there is nothing profane about sex anyway.

[Blackster @ Dec 31st 2006 9:54AM]

ssshhtt, you're talking about americans. you know their behaviour about nekkid tits and everything else ;)

ps: just kidding ^o^

[ajt @ Dec 31st 2006 10:28AM]

Perhaps they intended to sell it also in Sweden (in swedish 'sex' means 'six').

[BriGuy20 @ Dec 31st 2006 9:28AM]

Maybe it's the time of year, but this reminds me of the "fudge" moment in A Christmas Story.

I wonder if the kid got his mouth washed out with soap.

[Nick Gerard @ Dec 31st 2006 9:35AM]

some people...

[Jeff @ Dec 31st 2006 10:31AM]

So we'll swing by and pick you up. How about six? Six is good. You got a problem with six? What? What?

[Andy @ Dec 31st 2006 4:37PM]

She confused "six" with "sex"?...

It's two completely different sounds. "ih" and "eh".

[tiuk @ Dec 31st 2006 5:25PM]

Andy - He's quoting Seinfeld. There's an episode where Jerry is going out with a deaf girl, but can communicate with her because she can speak and read lips. Apparently (at least in the show) the lip movements for "six" and "sex" are the same, so she gets offended.

[dpk @ Dec 31st 2006 10:48AM]

Er, this is the Internet, you can tell us what this "profanity" was. Everyone here's an adult or a child who's parents allow them on the Internet, so it's totally OK. No need to mask it with "?-Bomb" comments.

[Stoo @ Dec 31st 2006 11:41AM]

She sounds like the hardcore religious type - he probably pressed it three times and upon hearing "666" the mother thought it was possessed by Satan or something.

[Kibi @ Dec 31st 2006 10:54AM]

What - "sex" instead of "six"? How the hell can anyone tell from a little toy phone speaker.
Sorry, this is not even a story IMO.

[Charles R Hamilton @ Dec 31st 2006 11:11AM]

Maybe these phones are from the 'hood. When you press the button, they say "SIX, Motherfu@@er"

[Tavis Veighey @ Dec 31st 2006 11:44AM]

I guess toy manafacturere are going to have to use Bose Speakers in their toys, and also stop compressing the audio. They better step up, because this excessive compression and substandard speakers is really causing nothing but trouble. It is almost once a month I see a news article that talks about some toy that says some dirty word.

However when I hear the toy on TV (Or even in the store) I have no idea WHAT it is saying! It could be saying just about anything from a cute saying, to a demand for certian sexual favors from a hooker.

[robk @ Dec 31st 2006 3:48PM]

to bad bose speakers suck

[Tavis Veighey @ Dec 31st 2006 4:34PM]

BOSE speakers are actually good. However alot of the time they are overpriced for what you get. Bose does have the occotional product that is far better than anything else out there. (My aunt just got some SWEET earbuds that sound better than any I have ever heard. And we have been trying out earbuds for MONTHS looking for the perfect set!)

But most of the time you are paying for the name, and not just for the product. I have a set of 7.1 creative labs speakers for my computer that blow away nearly everything else I have ever heard.

[saivior @ Jan 1st 2007 11:14AM]

This is stupid.
1. Do you expect the speakers in a toy phone from KMART to not have distortion?
2. How old was the son, because my son in 2 and he mispronounces many, many words, which sometimes sound like profanity.
3. "Six" only sounds like "Sex" when the buttons are mashed...This is a toy phone from KMART!

[chenry @ Dec 31st 2006 1:31PM]

so what the heck did the phone say anyway? besides, i'm betting when she heard it first she went crazy, the kid thought it was funny, and now the kid says the word because mum goes nuts. it's a hoot.

[Bad Beaver @ Dec 31st 2006 12:51PM]

Tavis, Bose speakers are not likely to make things better ;)

[The Crox @ Jan 1st 2007 3:32AM]

Had to to a bit of googling but the phone infact makes a sound the parrents interperated as "a word that sounds like witch" bitch. there, i said it, bitch. how the hell are we suposed to get anything out of the news when its so sensored that we as the audience cant judge for ourselves if a)the word is offencive and b) the sound is even simialir to the word in question? well, thats america for you

[Jaffa @ Dec 31st 2006 1:07PM]

She could have used this as a teaching exercise, apparently Mary got pregnant without having six!

[Jeff @ Dec 31st 2006 1:38PM]

so... is it sayng sex? or shit? or what?

either way, i hardly see how this is news for engadget: there is ALWAYS some stupid over-protective whore making up her mind that the toys she buys are raising her kids poorly. My guess is that the toy sounds like any other piece of crap speaker with indistinguishable noises belching out and all of this mother's sexual repression came out when she heard the toy say "xshiss" and she blushed, looked embarrassed and snatched the toy away - showing the kid that somehow the word "xshiss" will get a reaction out of adults.

that's my guess.

:P

[Matt @ Dec 31st 2006 2:13PM]

Hey, why whats your cell number?

It's 555-sexsexsex-12sex7.

[The Linguist @ Dec 31st 2006 2:20PM]

Well, since this was a "profanity" (not a vulgarity or lewd speech), it must have been something religious. I'm assuming Hell, Damn, Goddamit, Jesus Christ or something of that nature. I'm guessing she's not a Muslim complaining that it says "Fuck Allah" when you press 6.

Of course, it's always possible that the editors here aren't careful with their choices of words and that it wasn't ACTUALLY profane, and just used the word because they flunked out of Journalism and English classes.

[m00n3r @ Dec 31st 2006 2:23PM]

By saying "Mmmkay" they were probably guessing it was an f-bomb (South Park reference)

[Andy @ Dec 31st 2006 4:45PM]

Step 1: Instead of "ass" say "bum" like "kiss my bum" or "you're a bum-hole".

Step 2: Instead of "shit" say "poo" as in: "bull-poo", "poo-head", and "this poo is cold".

Step 3: With "bitch", drop a "T" 'cause "bich" is Latin for "generosity"

Step 4: Don't say "fuck" anymore 'cause "fuck" is the worst word that you can say, so just use the word "mmkay"!

[geobeck @ Dec 31st 2006 3:39PM]

If this was the Elmo phone, maybe that little red monster is trying to break away from his innocent four-year-old image. "One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Elmo says 'Tickle this, bi$%#!'. Seven. Eight. Nine."

[Gr1zz @ Dec 31st 2006 3:25PM]

This is almost as weak a case as when aieral doll says "your-ahh-sl-ta" if you mash on the button on her back fast enough to get her to say 4 quotes from the mermade movie.

you hear what you want to hear. This mother oviousially wants to make a stink.

[Jorge @ Dec 31st 2006 3:46PM]

Waitwaitwait... Is the word "sex" a curseword? It is used on a lot of medical and insurance forms in place of gender because it takes less space on the page. I'm guessing the phone said something else sounding like cox or similar. With a toy speaker I don't know if you'd be able to tell the difference between that and six..

[Matt @ Dec 31st 2006 4:14PM]

No sound clip?
I'm guessing the parent heard shit instead of six or something. Or her son heard it somewhere else, like from her, and she's pretending she heard the phone say shit.

[Andy @ Jan 1st 2007 11:06AM]

And I was quoting George...

[tiuk @ Jan 1st 2007 11:33PM]

Heh, sorry, I'd forgotten all about that part of the episode.

[nick post @ Dec 31st 2006 8:08PM]

One Two Three Four Five Butseks Seven Eight Nine

[karan @ Dec 31st 2006 9:28PM]

Must be a New Zealander recording :D (six sounds very much like sex in NZ :D)

[David @ Dec 31st 2006 9:26PM]

Brandy Cunningham talks about her son's reaction, "He don't know it is cussing so when he goes to say it and I am at church, the grocery store, people hear those words they look at me like I taught him those words, like I say it around my kid and I don't.


He dont know them be cussing wurds!

[HC @ Jan 1st 2007 1:20PM]

http://www.wcbd.com/midatlantic/cbd/news.apx.-content-articles-CBD-2006-12-29-0002.html

Judge for yourself. I think it's nonsense.

[Simon @ Jan 1st 2007 10:44PM]

Oh my god ... it's actually true ... it sounds like 'bitch' ... someone realy screwed up

[John Gegier @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:29AM]

That does not sound like the word bitch. there is no enunciation of the B. This sounds like it was just messed up in the compression. Sounds like Sitch.

Anyway, the word Bitch is not profane in any way. It's the female version of any carnivorous animal, specifically dogs. You know the mother just decided it sounded like Bitch then went on about it in front of her kid. Like nearly everything stupid parents do, they are the model for what their children do, not the TV or a toy phone. she should have explained to her child that the word she thought it said is often used as a derogatory term for women and as such should be repeated by a child. of course she could use language more befitting a child but I figured I didn't need to dumb that down for blog readers. Anyway, My daughter hears words she isn't allowed to use in public all the time. By treating these children as morons and not young thinking humans is just going to encourage then to not tell you what they are thinking. you give them the freedom of thought and expression that all humans deserve, and then teach them the responsibility that goes with it. I don't care what the phone said. You don't like it, take it away from the child and take it back.

[John Gegier @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:31AM]

Eheh.. I should reread my stuff before posting. I said "As such it should be repeated" but that is obviously meant to say "Should Not be repeated"