Anne Woods: A Weekend for Superheroes
McDonald's Kidz Bop CD Pulled for Kid-Unfriendly Language
Filed under: In The News, Weird But True
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 here; 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
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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.
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ReaderComments (Page 5 of 12)
5-15-2009 @ 10:49AM
lightgooroo said...Hey the economy is in a slump, so what better way is there to get yourself out of financial straights than to create an issue with a company with deep pockets and hopefully get some sort of monetary settlement out of them.
Reply
5-15-2009 @ 10:58AM
judie said...The first time they sing it its not as clear and does sound like it could be the f-bomb though i doubt it but alot more clear what they are saying later in the song.
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5-15-2009 @ 11:01AM
lightgooroo said...I just wonder if mom was driving down the road and was listening to her lil one(s) singing to the song and the kids mistakenly inserted the f bomb into the song... parents with little ones need to control the road rage and not be blurting out foul language in the car or at home. not like i have ever done that (wipes tarnish off halo)
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5-15-2009 @ 11:11AM
james morris said...I have the kids bop cd in question and the one I have most definately has the F word and is quite distinct. Im not the squimish type at all and though I wouldnt want my eight year old daughter singing that I dont see what all the hype is. I mean come on, Disney and for the most part almost all media has been going out of their way to sell sex to young kids for years, this is nothing new. If a company can corrupt your kid, what does that say about you as a parent?
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5-15-2009 @ 11:09AM
Ann Littlefield said...I have listened to all the songs on the disc and I did not hear anything but "Looking Around". So there is a big difference in the word okay. Someone is trying to get a case against McDonalds I think and think they will come into money somehow. I would put the # 6 disc back in the kids meals. ...Thank You!
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5-15-2009 @ 11:10AM
Ed said...I think that MacDonald's should use some of their Kiddie's Meals profits to help those Alabamian's get some help with their hearing aids. I hear perfectly, and there is nothing that sounds like the word they say they are hearing. Might have something to do with what is on their minds, duuuuh!
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5-15-2009 @ 11:17AM
haberdash said...I know and love this song. The word in the song is "looking!" Too bad for the kiddies, their missing out on a great song from those parents who are freaking out about this.
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5-15-2009 @ 11:15AM
james morris said...There must be a clean version and an f-bomb version of this cd out there. the one we have is most definately the f-bomb version lol.
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5-15-2009 @ 1:22PM
methodistgirl said...Parents you might as well get used to it because your kids
will probably hear worse while they are growing. I've heard
little kids use language worse than that and parents laugh
at it. That is also a shame for kids as young as six cuss
and swear and give God a last name that starts with D!
I have seen parents let their kids do what they wanted because
Mom or Dad were too lazy to get off their duff and discipline
the kids and teach them the proper manners. Kids here and
grown ups are rude.
judy tooley
Reply
5-15-2009 @ 11:22AM
Ang said...Okay, I am a hearing impaired individual WITHOUT hearing aids and listened to the link in the article and a you tube link that someone posted. Both times, I heard "looking". Someone needs to get their ears checked.
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5-15-2009 @ 11:27AM
Erin said...Yea, I listened to this at least Four times and heard nothing close to an f bomb. Lay off the crack!
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5-15-2009 @ 11:30AM
jlp5133 said...I have the CD form McDonalds and they do not say the "F" word. Come on do you really think they will let kids say that espically on a kids CD. Get real people. Just someone needs to complain about something so they figured lets pick on this. Next week it will be something else.
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5-15-2009 @ 11:31AM
kouper said...I say drop the cd and give kids an actual toy. I don't care if the song says it or not, but I have young children and I don't want to suffer even more for having gone to mcdonald's. Give them something to play with.
Reply
5-15-2009 @ 11:31AM
citation said...My guess is(and i'd be willing to bet the house), it was some ghetto negro music.
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5-15-2009 @ 1:02PM
Lesa Nasser said...Wow you're as dumb as the people from Alabama. What a totally ridiculous & truly stupid comment to make. You & those parents need to get a life. I feel sorry for all of you & will say a heartfelt, sincere prayer for you to grow some intelligent brain cells.
5-15-2009 @ 7:01PM
acidbrat said...There goes the house ... Mr. DeGraw is quite Caucasian.
5-16-2009 @ 8:47AM
Tammy said...No it's not "negro" music you redneck!
5-15-2009 @ 11:54AM
JohnQ said...McDonalds should sue AOL for publishing this slanderous lie.
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5-15-2009 @ 12:08PM
Psm03 said...Gavin DeGraw is not a rap singer or anything like it. He is very much like a John Mayer singer. In fact, when my daughter first brought his CD home (about 5 years ago), I thought this was a singer that we could both listen to. My daughter is 23 yrs. old now and she censors songs for the talent show at the school she teaches at. She went out and got the happy meal and we both listened to the song. Even knowing what word to look for, we both heard "looking". I think alot of people thrive on trouble.
5-15-2009 @ 1:57PM
DK said...There is a simple explanation: Take the "f" sound from the end of the word "of". Mush that into the word "looking" and you get something that, with sloppy diction and overlapping voices, sounds like "f*cking".
I used to work for Mattel Toys in the early 80s as a recording engineer making talking toys. About once a year, there would be a lawsuit from some parent claiming that their child's talking toy was uttering an obscenity (and they were hoping to make money off of it). Each time, we engineers had to prove that there was either a defect in the product or some weird technical fluke that caused an innocent word (usually a combination of words) to come out sounding like profanity. With a little detective work, we were always able to figure it out. We found it very amusing, though I'm sure it gave the legal department headaches...
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