The Strange Story Behind One of Elmo’s Most Disturbing Toy Controversies
· Vice
In 2005, Publications International, Ltd. released Potty Time With Elmo, an interactive children’s storybook featuring the furry red Muppet from Sesame Street. In it, Elmo teaches his doll, Baby David, how to go to the bathroom using a toilet. As the story progresses, the book instructs its young readers to press certain built-in buttons that are supposed to play specific sounds.
Here’s an example of how that worked with the original version:
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So, uh…any chance you also just heard Elmo ask, “Who wants to die?” Because you’re not alone. Interestingly, the company that produced the book only got a single complaint when it first came out, but after a second person went to the media about it the following year, the bizarre dialogue started receiving national attention. However, the senior vice president of marketing for Publications International, Chris Campbell, insisted that everyone was mishearing what Elmo actually said.
An Elmo Children’s Book Once Accidentally Asked Kids a Very Disturbing Question
“It really says, ‘Uh-oh! Who has to go?’” Campbell explained. “Some people hear something different,” he continued. As for the cause of the confusion, Campbell chalked it up to the cheap computer chips the audio was transferred to. This evidently resulted in voice actor Kevin Clash’s words sounding more compressed on a number of the copies that were distributed.
Overall, it was estimated that roughly 50,000 books were affected, but they weren’t recalled, and, of course, quickly became collector’s items. The publisher did offer free replacements for anyone who ended up with a defective version, though. They eventually replaced the dialogue altogether on future releases. Nowadays, when you press that button, Elmo can be heard saying, “Let’s try to use the potty!”
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