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[Jason R]

Kids Bop - The F Word
McDonald's Kidz Bop CD Pulled for Kid-Unfriendly Language

by Brett Singer May 15th 2009 6:00AM
Categories: In the news, Weird but true
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Is McDonald's teaching kids to swear? Photo courtesy of sxc.hu.



Some Alabama parents are upset about a track on the Kidz Bop 6 CD that is being given away with McDonald's Happy Meals. They say the supposedly kid-friendly version of Gavin De Graw's "I Don't Want To Be" includes the F-word. The Boaz, Alabama McDonald's has pulled the potentially offending CD from the Happy Meals after parents complained. One parent told station WAFF-TV: "In the song the word is supposed to be 'looking,' but they're saying the f-word with the -ing on the end." (Friending? Finding? Frying? No, not those...)

Sounds pretty innocuous, right? Then parents started listening to the free CDs. Some thought they heard something they didn't expect on the Kidz Bp cover version of Gavin DeGraw's "I Don't Want To Be." What were they hearing? Well, there are a couple of options.

Here's the original lyric from DeGraw's tune (emphasis added):
I'm tired of looking 'round rooms wondering what I gotta do
You can watch the video for the song ; the lyric in question occurs about 45 seconds in.

What some parents think they hear on the Kidz Bop disc is the following:
I'm tired of f**king 'round rooms wondering what I gotta do

Dangerous Toys


CPSC
[COLOR=#5B544C]11 photos [/COLOR]




[COLOR=#5B544C]The New Easy Bake Oven
New, and unfortunately not-so-improved, the oven caused 77 burns, 16 of them second or third-degree, and one that resulted in a partial finger amputation.[/COLOR]

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Dangerous Toys

• The New Easy Bake Oven
  New, and unfortunately not-so-improved, the oven caused 77 burns, 16 of them second or third-degree, and one that resulted in a partial finger amputation.
  CPSC
  Aquadots
  When you add water to these little plastic balls, the coating produces effects similar to GHB -- the date rape drug. Pleasant. Thankfully they were recalled.
  Aquadots
  Lead paint
  Speaking of things you shouldn't put in your mouth, how about any toy from China? Hundreds have been recalled thanks to the high levels of lead in the paint used to coat these toys
  sensoryedge.com
  Magnetic toys
  Particularly magnets that are small enough to swallow. When positive and negative magnets are floating around your digestive tract, they're drawn to one another, which can do some serious, life-threatening damage.
  amazon.com
  Snack time Cabbage Patch
  This little doll was so hungry, it had a habit of chewing little kids' fingers, hair, and whatever else was unfortunate enough to get stuck in its mouth. It was quickly recalled.
  strawberrybonkers.com
  Mini-hammock
  According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission: "the mini-hammock can twist around a child's neck as he/she is getting into or out of the mini-hammock, resulting in strangulation and death." All 3 million were recalled.
  CPSC
  Lawn Darts
  These have been banned for years in the US, as they had a tendency to wind up stuck in kids, not the ground.
  gardengames.co.uk
  Johnny Reb Cannon
  This bad boy fired plastic cannon balls up to 35 feet. Even a pellet gun would be less dangerous -- at least you can aim a gun.
  Johnny Reb Cannon
  Atomic Energy Lab
  Good thing this atomic energy set only came with "very low-level" radioactive sources, because that's not dangerous. Oh wait -- yes, yes it is.
  americanmemorabilia.com
  Water Yo-Yo Balls
  Speaking of getting strangled to death, these yo-yo balls came under scrutiny after the stringy cord got wrapped around children's necks. They've been banned in Illinois, but have yet to be recalled by the CPSC.
  sz-wholesale.com

Is this a horrible marketing error, or a case of parents overreacting? One ParentDish reader told us that she doesn't know what all the fuss is about. "I listened to the whole thing twice and heard no F Bombs - 'tired of lookin' round' in the chorus was the closest thing..."

KidzBop.com has a video of the song in question; again, the lyric we're talking about is about 45 seconds in. Our take: It may or may not say that four-letter word. It definitely has a weird giant dog in it and makes very little sense. To make things a little easier for us, NBC New York put the versions together. The first version is DeGraw's, the second is the Kidz. Click here to listen. Same content warning applies.

Personally, I think it's just poor diction. I doubt that anyone at Kidz Bop would risk their popular franchise by changing a song's lyric to something dirty. Heck, even Weird Al doesn't do that. That said, I do think that in the Kidz version, it sounds quite a bit like they are saying the f-word.

So listen (with headphones on if you're at work) and tell us what you think. Does the new "kid-friendly" version of the song put an extra "f" in "fast food"? Or, to paraphrase another part of Mr. DeGraw's song, are we surrounded by liars everywhere we turn?
Brett Singer is the editor-in-chief of DaddyTips.com. You can follow his tweets at Twitter.com/brettsinger.
Source


I Dont Want To Be - Kidz Bop



My take: Fifty seconds in. I love the F word. It has very strategic and humorous uses. I don't think kids should be using it. And I ain't no prude or trouble seeker.

However. I really do hear "I'm tired of f-ing round rooms" in the lyric. It was so clear to me I couldn't stop laughing.

[Jason R]

Whoever mixed the second version did an awful job on that line. The noise makes it sound like they're saying "I'm tired of f-ing round rooms".

[Dulce]

That CD should not be in there at all.

[spurs178]

Aquadots
When you add water to these little plastic balls, the coating produces effects similar to GHB -- the date rape drug. Pleasant. Thankfully they were recalled.
Aquadots

I never heard of these.