Sure, it seemed like after the years of hard drinking, petty crime, and run-ins with the law,
Elmo had cleaned up his act -- but a shocking report out of Tampa Bay, Florida, says otherwise. A two-year-old's life has been turned upside down by vicious talk coming from his favorite toy, Elmo Knows Your Name. It seems that after a recent battery change, the PC-interfacing doll began spouting death threats of "kill James" at the toddler, with seemingly no explanation as to how the new phrase entered his vocabulary. The situation came to a head when the boy's mother heard her son repeating the twisted suggestion. Of course, what she didn't hear was Elmo's other threat: that he would "cut anyone who crossed [him] end-to-end with a Bowie knife," and, "dine on their internal organs." Fisher Price says it has a team of experts working on the case, and enough tranquilizer darts to put Elmo down, "For good."
[Thanks, Jordan]
Read - Toddler's Elmo Doll Makes Death Threats, Family Says
Read - Video of Elmo making death threats
posted February 22nd 2008 11:48AM
First time I've actually been interested in buying a new elmo.
I just wish for an incredibly evil version of something cute like Teddy from AI. A harmless, psychotic fuzzy wuzzy is a win if you ask me.
Ha ha ha. I gotta get me a programmable Elmo.
Surprised no one mentioned the Twilight Zone episode with "Talking Tina" which is what the bad Krusty doll was based on from that Simpsons episode.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFHqMkvbaT0
"I'm Talking Tina and I'm going to kill you!"
This all happened after they changed the batteries? Hmm... maybe it's the batteries who are evil and not Elmo...
Mrs. Bowman? With a psychotic AI on her hands? Are you kidding me?
"Open the driveway doors, Elmo."
"I'm afraid I can't do that, Melissa. KILL JAMES."
Just to clear a few things up I am that worthless mother... 1st of all I could care less what everyone though of my story. If it was so terrible then why did you take the time to watch and comment on it??? Next, that toy can't be programed to say whatever you want it to say. You have a word bank to choose from. Oh and one other thing, my son was never in the room while the toy was going off. For the ones that actually had a litte concern about what toys are teaching OUR children, Thank You
Thanks to the anonymity of the internet, not many people are likely to believe that you're really Melissa Bowman.
Sorry.
I'm more concerned with parents that feign outrage over a toy then using the incident as a cash grab and a way to get their 5 minutes on the local television broadcast.
Congratulations. You are saving the children.
The Elmo Doll is actually saying "Keir James", Keir is one of the names on the list and if you go online and listen to it you'll notice.
There is no wrong doing here other than a defective toy.
You should also find out where your child is picking up a word like KILL, a child that small should have interpreted that with some else like "Care James". The audio from the Elmo Doll is really bad, combined with Elmo's high pitch voice and you cant really "hear" what its saying which means its all interpreted from whatever your experience brings to mind. If KILL comes to mind, thats what you will hear, get what Im saying?
first off, toys should not be teaching children. take some personal responsibility for the way your child develops. next, why are you monitoring your media coverage if you don't care? for that matter, why alert the media to begin with. just dump the doll in the trash and move on (oh....that's right, a future settlement would be lessened if you actually did some thing about this oh so horrible toy). oh, and dont give me the line about the toy "can't be programed to say whatever you want", if he can be programmed then he can be reprogrammed.
So, what other phrases come to mind?
Maybe it just listened to that Arlo Guthrie song ;)
homer pulls string
evil krusty doll:"I'm Krusty the Clown and I don't like you"
evil krusty doll:"I'm Krusty the Clown and I'm going to kill you,"
Homer "I didn't even pull the string that time."
evil krusty doll:"I'm going to kill YOU, Homer Simpson,"
Homer:"with what?"
evil krusty pulls out butchers knife.
Mystery solved. One of the names in the database from Fisher Price is "Keir" somehow that got chosen as the name to say. It is exactly what this Elmo is saying.
It could be worse - at least Elmo didn't say "wang" or "vivia2" (sounds like "vulva" or he would be accused of sexual harassment.
Oh - and "clint" does NOT sound like Clint.
http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=8050&e=getProd&selCat=kyn_elmo&pid=34159
You beat me to it lol, the sounds are probably all compressed and stored in an internal rom, that way programming is just a matter of selecting the right switches.
If the unit is defective, the processor could get "confused" and say two names instead of just the intended one.
These things happen, firmware development is one of the trickiest software development types out there, trust me I know.
Slaughter is in the list of names too. Good thing that didn't get chosen.
(I'm serious, slaughter is there...)
It also has sister. I suppose "Slaughter Sister" might be a bit worse.
Its sounds like he's saying Cal James. It's just a firmware hiccup. If you go to the Fisher Price web page http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=8050&e=getProd&selCat=kyn_elmo&pid=34159
You can type the name and hear what it will sound like, if you type in "Cal", thats exactly what it sounds like.
Now that I listen to "Cal", it sounded nothing like kill, but "keir" is on the money.
EBAY!
Couldn't you achieve the same thing by entering the childs name as "Kill James"?
Nope, there a fixed list of names. All the names are programmed into the doll, they just activate which name the doll should say when you order it. A simple glitch could have it saying more than one name, like in this case.
oh. my. god.
My last name is Bowman.
My first name is James.
I'm seriously scared.. o.O
Ah, so that's it... Evil Elmo is indoctrinating young, two year old James Bowman to one day kill and replace you. Why? I don't know, but I would recommend against any job that puts you in an enviable position of power.
She does not want her son to hear it but she keeps playing it with the kid in the roomfor the news crew. My guess is that shile changing the batteries she damaged the speaker.
Am I the only concerned the kid is getting WAY too much commercialization? Seriously, kids that age shouldn't be watching tv or at least not enough to indoctrinate them into consumer culture this early.
Also it sounds like it's saying something innocuous and they are just interpreting it to be "kill." A lot of these cases of toys saying inappropriate things seem like parents with overactive imaginations.
Did Skynet finally become self-aware? Be afraid, be very afraid...
Jesus Christ........
Nope. That's not one of the name options. But "Bozo" is! : )
Why didn't she try changing the batteries again...
Although I think you people got it with the add two names together glitch, but I'm not so sure it's Keir. After listening to the video numerous times, I can clearly make out an "L" consonant. However, due to the compression, I guess "Keir" could be mangled enough to make it sound like Kill.
Could it be that the programing switched to the Spanish language? "Quero James"
(pronounced "kee-air-o")sounds similar to "kill" when spoken fast and in digitized voice. It's a thought.
I thought it sounded like it was saying Gayle King as in Oprahs best friend Gayle... Now that I think about it, Kill James is probably better.
Yeah Melissa...I'm not buying it. You won't change the batteries why??? What's the worst that could happen? It repeat the same thing? You sound money hungry and unless Michael Bay is editing the news these days you're lying about the video being edited so that your son only appears to be in the room. Have YOU watched the video?
Reminds me of that story a while back where Elmo ostensibly asked "Who wants to die?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av1HN5Vea7g
He was actually saying "Who wants to GO" but, you know, people want to hear evil things coming out of their innocent toys, so...
In psychology I believe this is referred to as projection.
Nightmare on Elmo Street
I, for one, welcome our ticklish, homicidal robotic overlords.
Okay, first of all, this:
http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=8050&e=getProd&selCat=kyn_elmo&pid=34159
Now, liten to two names. The first is Keir, which, I believe you would agree is what is bing said.
The second is Slaughter. That wasn't a joke. Scroll down to the S names, and you will find Slaughter.
The second link is this:
http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=8051&e=download&selcat=kyn_elmo&pid=34159
Those are instruction telling you how to DOWNLOAD NEW names the doll(in .rbf format, it would seem). However, you can only download the names provided on the site, but if I really wanted to I could probably add my own sounds(unless that format is a very closely guarded proprietary one).
I am definitely not claiming that is the case(I am claiming that the name "Keir" is being mistaken for kill. Which seems to me is more do to Elmo's voice than the compression). So, yeah, case solved. However, people who name their kid Slaughter seem like a bigger concern to me(I would really hope that the name is from a background that isn't English speaking... "Oh my god, that's your baby? What did you name her? -"Slaughter" "Oooooh, that's, um, very sweet. I have an appointment with my... Um... Butcher! Gotta go bye!).
There are a few other funny names you could find, that if you had acess to the order they were played in(again, not saying this happened. The fact that the bug began after changing the batteries would a imply some sort of short or something) you could make some pretty funny phrases. For one, if it was "Kill James, Amen" It would have been much creepier. In the downloadable list(which I assume is included in newer Elmos) the name Aamen is found, and is pronounced "Amen".
There is also Neeve, which sounds a lot like leave, and Loftin/Loften, which sorta sounds like laughing(with some sort of English accent, but still), and Monet, which sounds like how the Odd Todd guy says "money"(mun-eh).
Those are just a small list of a few I heared(from the even shorted "downloadable" list).
I'm hoping next for versus from the bible, Tarantino movie quotes, recipes, and a rapping Elmo, all homebrew. But alas, that is just hope... Or is it?
Well looks like I can't buy thus for my family. Does not have the names Satawat, or Mitwara in the list.
I am totally traumatized and offended by this prejudice against names of Thai origin. I think about $54 million dollars would help relive my families' embarrassment and disgrace.
More seriously a lot of people have mentioned what is the child been exposed to for him to think the word was 'KILL'? Hopefully Child Protective Services will investigate the mother.
Are you guys saying the mother may have programmed the doll to make threats against the child so she could sue? That's hideous.
Don't these idiots realize that stuff like that is checked out? Remember the incidents of the severed finger in the Wendy's chili and the drowned rat in a bowl of soup? Both were hoaxes to try and get a lawsuit.
I was playing around a bit and thought i would share at the website - http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=8050&e=getProd&selCat=kyn_elmo&pid=34159 -try the name "fakih" when followed by a "dick" (do people still name thier kids dick?) hilarity ensues i think i could spend hours trying to find a way to play with elmos vocabulary
That Elmo should be worth a lot of money. It's like that rare stamp with the upside down jenny (airplane).
poor kid, his favorite toy saying its gonna kill him. if it were me i'd have burned that elmo. god thats f*ckin scary. I bet i was so worker at the factory where they make the elmos tryin to get a luagh.... poor kid