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Walmart Pulls Children's Toy That Swears and Sings in Polish About Doing Cocaine (ctvnews.ca) 81

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
An Ontario grandmother who bought an educational toy for her 15-month-old granddaughter was shocked when the dancing cactus started swearing and singing about doing cocaine. From a report: "This toy uses swear words and talking about cocaine use," Ania Tanner told CTV News Toronto. "This is not what I ordered for my granddaughter." The cactus was sold on Walmart's website as an educational toy for about $26 and sings songs in English, Spanish and Polish. But Tanner, who is Polish, said when she listened to the Polish lyrics, the cactus was singing about doing cocaine, drug abuse, suicide, depression and used profanities. "It just so happens that I am Polish and when I started to listen to the songs and I heard the words," she said. "I was in shock. I thought what is this some kind of joke?" The song is by Polish Rapper Cypis, who is reportedly unaware his song was used by the Chinese manufacturer of the children's toy. "It's about taking five grams of cocaine and being alone ... It's a very depressing song," Tanner said. This singing cactus toy was also sold in Europe through Amazon and in July 2021 other families also noticed and complained about the lyrics that many felt were inappropriate for a children's toy.
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Walmart Pulls Children's Toy That Swears and Sings in Polish About Doing Cocaine More

Walmart Pulls Children's Toy That Swears and Sings in Polish About Doing Cocaine

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  • Hang on to yours (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Thursday November 25, 2021 @11:11AM (#62020455)

    It's gonna be one valuable collector's item. If not, it sure makes one hell of an example how China rips off everything without knowing and we buying an Chinese trash as long as it's cheap.

    • we buying any Chinese trash as long as it's cheap.

      Yep. How would that be "educational" even if it sang a squeaky-clean song?

      • It's indeed not educational -- suggesting polacks do cocaine is totally wrong. Our only drug comes in bottles!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by skam240 ( 789197 )

        It sings in three different languages. I presume the educational benefit is language learning.

  • It's a popular meme song (Score:5, Informative)

    by mobby_6kl ( 668092 ) on Thursday November 25, 2021 @11:13AM (#62020463)

    Cypis - Gdzie jest biaÅy wÄ(TM)gorz? [youtube.com]

    100% that a Chinese manufacturer came across the popular meme song and decided to put it into their toy. Because it's a funny cow! They do this all the time by printing tshirts with memes and other junk they actually have no clue about.

    • They do this all the time by printing tshirts with memes and other junk they actually have no clue about.

      I recall, back in the 1980s, a friend of mine who was from Norway had a "you-clah" T-shirt he really liked. He had no idea what "UCLA" meant though.

      • That's nothing. I have seen girls with shirts that say "bitch". Kids with shirts that say "fuck" and "I want pussy".

      • Reminds me of seeing some t-shirts in a store in India, with English vulgarity and sexual innuendos on it.

        I assume the sellers have no clue what they meant, since it would be odd for people in that area to buy such things on purpose (small town, so presumably not many English speakers).

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        It's still quite common today in the UK. Lots of people have Superdry clothing with Japanese writing on. The writing is complete nonsense, pure gibberish.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by NFN_NLN ( 633283 )

      > Walmart Pulls Children's Toy That Swears and Sings in Polish About Doing Cocaine

      It wasn't flammable, it wasn't full of melamine or cadmium. I think this was a win for Chinese manufacturing. They've come a long way.

    • Surplus "logo T" shirts from the US are often dumped (for free) in impoverished countries because they were a one time thing. Like concert tour shirts from no-name bands, conference swag, etc. Sometimes they have rather amusing results and contain profanity or drug refernces. I seem to recall seeing a picture of a child in a famine-riddled country wearing an "all you can eat buffet" shirt for example.

      • I am pretty sure what's going on in China is a bit different. I think there are two cases and one fits close to what you say. Instead of being dumped in a more post-retail sense, they are extras that don't meet quality control or the order somehow changed.

        The other case, is they genuinely put words they don't understand on the shirts because they think it's funny. Some of them might know what the word means but they say they can easily "declare" ignorance after the fact.

        FYI, I live in China.

    • You mean akin to people getting tattoos with Chinese signs they know fuck all about and are a total ass to the tattoo artist, so they go home with a Chinese soup menu on their forearm?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by chill ( 34294 )

        I miss George Carlin.

      • The number of pornstars with Chinese tattoos is actually a rather interesting fact.

        • ... that's something I'll have to do some ... research about.

          • Riley Reid is one. Down the spine. I live in China but don't know the language that well yet. I think the last character is "you" so we can imagine it's something about sex acts.

            Seen similar tattoos on a few others. Some Chinese girls have these too, like a yoga teacher I know but tattoos in China can be a huge issue for jobs, so it's primarily club girls or yoga teachers.

            If you find a really classy girl, she has a tattoo in Tibetan.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dhaen ( 892570 )
        It's one thing to have an article of clothing, but to have something written permanently on my skin without knowing the precise meaning?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by HiThere ( 15173 )

      Well.. .. my wife used to tell me about a friend visiting Japan who left his clothes with a business whose sign said "Laundromat". When he came back the clothes had been carefully put into a parking space. The business actually was a parking lot. The owner thought that "Laudromat" was a good decorative motif.

      In the US I've seen arabic used that same way. AFAIK nobody has a clue as to what the signs mean, I sure didn't, but it *was* decorative.

  • Reminds me of (Score:5, Funny)

    by lsllll ( 830002 ) on Thursday November 25, 2021 @11:14AM (#62020471)
    Reminds me of this banned commercial [youtube.com].

    • Nope. That wouldn't be banned in Holland.

      • This. In Australia you're not allowed to say Fuck on the radio. I visit the Netherlands turn on Radio538 and one random afternoon they had a segment called "What the Fuck" where the intro was just audio clips of people from movies saying "What the Fuck" over and over again. There was more swearing in those 5 minutes than in a whole Quentin Tarantino movie staring Samuel L Jackson.

        • In Scotland they sell Peppa Pig toys that talk just like in the cartoons [youtube.com]. 'Onnist.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by The_Noid ( 28819 )

        It wasn't banned in the Netherlands. The text at the end of the AD is Dutch and I remember seeing it on TV :)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jd ( 1658 )

      The "banned" claim seems to have been clickbait.

    • This is probably the funnest of all of these types of toys.

      A dollar store in Dayton, Ohio is selling a magic wand that reveals the horrifying image of a demon girl cutting herself!

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
      • Amazing how some Youtubers can take a 10 second topic and stretch it into minutes with bad editing. Cuts every 5 seconds. Ugh..

  • Is this the "dancing Polish cow" song?

  • Where they'll learn much more profanity and drugs...

  • Speaking of banned products (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OzPeter ( 195038 ) on Thursday November 25, 2021 @11:39AM (#62020579)

    This was also removed [youtu.be] from shelves at some big box stores.

  • "I want a refund!" (Score:3)

    by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Thursday November 25, 2021 @11:40AM (#62020581) Homepage Journal

    Her: it started swearing and singing about cocaine!
    Me: where can I get one?

  • Not a Walmart product (Score:5, Informative)

    by Dwedit ( 232252 ) on Thursday November 25, 2021 @11:50AM (#62020621) Homepage

    It's not from Walmart, it's from a third-party seller who sells things through Walmart's website. It's just like a random eBay seller.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by RitchCraft ( 6454710 )
      If it's on Walmart's web site, it's a Walmart product. Doesn't matter the source, Walmart is endorsing it by allowing it on their site.
  • for being able to preserve such a clear mind. I guess I would freak out when seeing a dancing cactus rapping obscenities in Polish. And asking myself what variant of Covid have I contracted...

  • What a surprise, chinese vendor steals and cheats. Somehow I thought it wasn't going to be a US, Norwegian or Polish vendor

  • So the Chinese decided to make a toy that have songs in 3 languages and they choose English, Spanish and ... Polish?! Wouldn't something like French or Mandarin be more appropriate on such a short list?

    • Presumably because the polish song is from an internet meme and kids don't like eating mandarins while listening to French?

    • Probably due to some market investigation. If the target destination is North America, Poles make quite a big part of the population there. The French are rather unlikely to buy Chinese toys to sing to them in French. The Chinese people may have their own taste too and do not see a cactus as a part of their culture.
      • Wouldn't Italian be a better candidate then? Or are they most English speaking now a days perhaps.

    • Polish was cheap because they didn't have to buy so many vowels.

  • Fuck the swearing, the scaring kids, the profanity...this is copyrightmurderpiracy.

  • Hey, I believe the great American icon Barbie said it best: (Paraphrasing)

    "Meth is hard!"

    -Yo Grark

  • Any kid playing with this thing can relate to a lonely cactus singing about doin' a bump -- in Polish.
    I'm thinking the Chinese nailed it...

  • Hi, I'm Chucky, Wanna Play?

  • > The Polish artist said he planned to take legal action against the Chinese company for using his song without permission.

    LOL gl

  • But which one?

  • Here you are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] The original video, by the "artist" himself. Please don't judge all Poles by the quality of this "song". Actually not that many people listen to this s**t.

  • " ... many felt were inappropriate for a children's toy."

    There are some that thought it was appropriate?

  • The real story here is that the Chinese took the song without obtaining rights to the IP.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • The Spanish song is the wholesome La Quemona [youtube.com].
  • I wouldn't touch one of those with a ten-foot pole.

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