Last year, I posted about some of my most memorable Christmas toys, and Baby Drowsy topped the list as my all-time favorite. I mentioned how, some 15 years later, my youngest niece got a Baby Drowsy of her own, which she promptly used to torment her older sister, earning Drowsy a new name: “the haunted baby.”
Seems another talking babydoll is the newest contender for haunted-baby accolades. I hadn’t heard the buzz until Mike told me about it a couple nights ago. A Fisher Price/Mattel doll includes some religious propaganda amidst the billing and cooing. This site describes it much better than I can — and you can listen for yourself and make up your own mind.
I can hear it clearly. Cute baby sounds and then haunted baby takes over, proclaiming “Islam is the light.” What bothers me most is the manufacturer’s matter-of-factness and basic denial that anything was amiss, not even admitting, “Oh, there might have been a problem, we’ll look into it.” (Can you not hear, people?) They apparently deleted the offending portion of the tape, without admitting anything was there in the first place. And what about all those proselytizing dollies on the shelf?
Way to demonstrate corporate social responsibility.
Clearly, someone or a group of someones messed with your doll’s tape. Doesn’t sound that implausible or that hard. Simply denying it ever happened is just lame.
Yet another reason to eschew new fad dollies (Mike and I noticed one that peed and pooped — and proudly proclaimed so on the box. Ewwww.) and stick with tried and true toys — if you can even find them anymore and feel confident they’re not going to contain lead paint or melamine or cheap plastic parts that will break off and choke your child or come in ridiculous packaging that you and your favorite hacksaw can’t penetrate. I’m almost afraid to look for Drowsy and see what she’s morphed into. Better she live forever in pleasant and funny memories.
Corporation: An ingenious device for
obtaining profit without individual responsibility.
~ Ambrose Bierce
Writing by Ear 
Leave a Reply