Girl Gets Cabbage Patch Doll With Obscene Message

[nickel]

*click on the slideshow
http://www.click2houston.com/news/4050844/detail.html

Serial Numbers Generated By Computer

POSTED: 2:58 pm EST January 5, 2005

SAN DIEGO -- Christmas Day brought an unwelcome gift for an Augusta, Ga., girl.

Diamond Robinson, 9, received a Cabbage Patch doll from her parents.

The doll comes with adoption paperwork, but in Diamond's case, the serial number was obscene.

Her parents are angry that their daughter had to wake up to profanity on the special day.

"She was like, 'Dad, you need to see this.' She showed it to my wife and my wife called me and they showed it to me and I couldn't believe it," said Lucius Robinson, Diamond's dad.

The Play-Along Company makes Cabbage Patch Dolls and said the serial number was generated by computer and was not deliberate.

Two million of the dolls are sold in the United States every year.

[cadetevon]

*click on the slideshow
http://www.click2houston.com/news/4050844/detail.html

I wonder though, you think it might be faked? Not the story, I believe that. But do you suppose that the parents could have faked it?

[welfareloser]

*sigh* why is this poor little girl getting her picture plastered all over? what a waste of time. i don't know whether to blame it on overzealous reporters or parents looking to make a buck, but i knows i don't likes it.

and if the parents decide to sue, it'll quickly come out that they faked it, if that's the case. i doubt they thought of everything necessary for a truly good fake.

does this really need to be an actual news story? big deal... so the IT people at play-along need a 1 kb program to filter out random expletives it's hardly enough to ruin christmas... she's nine. a quick explanation of random letters and/or 1000 monkeys at 1000 typewriters should soothe the trauma. now, if the cabbage patch kid was actually SAYING "f*** me!" that's a whole other ball o wax...

a few years ago there was some local hullabaloo over a teletubby doll... it was supposedly saying something in chinese, but it sounded like it was saying "bite my butt." so they played it over and over on the news, and some pissed off redneck dad was throwing a fit that his kid's toy cooed "bite my buuuuuuuuuuutt..." probably because he thought he could get rich off it somehow. it was so dumb.

[BrewMaster]

i dunno WL, that's pretty damn funny. sweet innocent cabbage patch dolls with fu*k me in the serial number should at least make the funny news columns.

[Gothic Girl]

i dunno WL, that's pretty damn funny. sweet innocent cabbage patch dolls with fu*k me in the serial number should at least make the funny news columns.

That was pretty funny. But you guys all know how some people are. Remember about 9 or 10 years ago when that one mom told everyone that her kid was watching Aladin and they heard someone whisper "good teenagers take off their clothes"? Some people have WAY too much time on their hands.

[welfareloser]

sorry, i didn't mean it shouldn't be posted and repeated for a chuckle... but the parents seem genuinely outraged, and the news story seemed to take itself awfully seriously... this just isn't a serious problem.

[chrissy]

So you mean to tell me that that 9 yr old girl knew what that abrivation meant?

[BrewMaster]

i think they covered part of the word for the picture. i don't think it was abbreviated.

[chrissy]

ohh, looked like a J...

I guess it could have been half a U

[Airencracken]

They should auction it off on eBay, they'd make some cash.

[x1337xD335C1P13x]

They should auction it off on eBay, they'd make some cash.

just like the bread with the supposed face of i think mary that sold for something like 10k...yea...

[oblongmelon]

Hey remember Furbies? If you put two of them together-they would talk to each other. My three nieces were over one night and were playing with theirs-put all three together and the things cursed at each other-yep, they were saying things like F-off, and eat sh*t. I wouldn't have believed it unless I heard it first hand.

Now as far as things like the Aladdin movies..Alot if not all of those disney movies have alot of very subliminal suggestions added in..so do alot of magazine adds-if you look hard enough at glasses with ice cubes, chances are you will find obscene words, naked bodies or worse..you can always check things out on the movies by doing a search for "easter eggs" in movies....crazy stuff I tell ya.

[Gothic Girl]

They should auction it off on eBay, they'd make some cash.

Hey I'd buy it! I'd love to have that one! LOL

[WhiskeyPapa]

There is no way that this is random. Either the parents faked it (unlikely) or some disgruntled or mischievious employee purposly did it (most likely.) What are the odds that six random characters would spell that phrase perfectly? I bet it's one in billions, if not trillions.

While were on the subject, there was some kids software several years ago called "The Secret Writer's Society" that would allow children to type in short phrases which the computer would speak back. Of course, the the program was designed so if the kid typed a naughty word, it wouldn't say it. BUT, if the kids typed in too much, and were impatiently clicking the mouse repeatedly, the program would suddently read aloud the full list of "banned" words!

[welfareloser]

There is no way that this is random.

of course there is.

Either the parents faked it (unlikely) or some disgruntled or mischievious employee purposly did it (most likely.)

i'd agree that it is more likely that someone did it on purpose than that it was random.

What are the odds that six random characters would spell that phrase perfectly? I bet it's one in billions, if not trillions.

yes, the odds are in the [ ]illions... same as the odds for any other character combination. it had to be some combination, why not that one?

While were on the subject, there was some kids software several years ago called "The Secret Writer's Society" that would allow children to type in short phrases which the computer would speak back. Of course, the the program was designed so if the kid typed a naughty word, it wouldn't say it. BUT, if the kids typed in too much, and were impatiently clicking the mouse repeatedly, the program would suddently read aloud the full list of "banned" words!

ahhh... the men behind the curtains do love to f*** with the poor consumers, don't they? stuff like that happens all the time... heck, it's even become an institution now, in the form of easter eggs on dvds. so yeah, the sheer prevalence of such naughtiness does tend to indicate that this may have been deliberate... but it's in no way impossible that it was random.

[WhiskeyPapa]

yes, the odds are in the [ ]illions... same as the odds for any other character combination. it had to be some combination, why not that one?

Because the odds are not just in the [ ]illions, but in the [ ]illions of [ ]illions of [ ]illions and then some. This is not just any combination of letters, but a combination of two words which would generate a more adverse reaction than almost any other combination of six letters. It is beyond any reasonable comprehension that these words were random.

I realize that we *want* to believe it's random, because it's more fun to think the child was rudely solicited by her Cabbage Patch Doll due to some bizarre cosmic misfortune, than to realize it was plain and simply some perverts poor idea of a joke.

Not only is it "more likely" that someone did it on purpose, it is infinitely more likely. So infinite, that it falls into the realm of pure certainty.

[welfareloser]

no.

it's as likely as any other combination. why would it NOT be that? there was nothing in place to prevent naughty words. it's as likely a combination as 24tb2m.

and, for the record, taking all numbers and letters, it's a 1 in 36^6 chance, or 1 in 2.1 billion. over the last 20+ years, how many cabbage patch dolls do you think have been made? let's say a million. if every serial number has to be different... the chance of SOME naughty word showing up SOMEWHERE is hardly astronomical.

[BigJon]

no.

it's as likely as any other combination. why would it NOT be that? there was nothing in place to prevent naughty words. it's as likely a combination as 24tb2m.

and, for the record, taking all numbers and letters, it's a 1 in 36^6 chance, or 1 in 2.1 billion. over the last 20+ years, how many cabbage patch dolls do you think have been made? let's say a million. if every serial number has to be different... the chance of SOME naughty word showing up SOMEWHERE is hardly astronomical.

question though....assuming they don't serial their dolls randomly...but in sequence...wouldn't that mean there are dolls with the code "F*CKMF, F*CKMG, etc." ?

[welfareloser]

well, with as long as the serial number is, they would likely be random, not sequential.

and an additional thought... the cahnces are actually much higher than 1 in 2.1 bil ... becuase that particular sequence could have occured at MANY different points in the serial # (ie, each serial # has several chances to hit the jackpot.)

now, let's look at it this way: this is the first report we've had of an obscenity in all the (1 million?) cabbage patch kids out there... how many different combinations could be offensive? i mean, how many offensive words are there in this language? lets say 100 that would raise eyebrows.

so... lets say the serial # is 20 digits long... there are 1 million cabbage patch kids... and 100 offensive words.

hmmm. statistically, it's actually improbable that it would take a full 30 years for a dirty word to finally crop up like it did. i smell a conspiracy

[WhiskeyPapa]

You yourself have quoted Achems Razor in this forum. It also applies to this situation.

The 1 in 2.1 billion statistic is wrong. It does not have to be just any random string of six characters, but it has to be an actual word or phrase. Then it has to be an actual offensive word or phrase. The most logical conclusion is that an individual manually entered that portion of the serial number.

[welfareloser]

right... i'm still with you on the fact that it is likely that someone did it on purpose, but you're saying that it's impossible that it was random, and that's wrong.

i'm pretty sure i'm right on the 1 in 2.1 bil. someone who knows more about statistics might be able to clarify, but... there is a 1 in 36 chance that any given character would be an f. once that is done, there is a 1 in 36 chance that the next character would be a u. there is a 1 in 36^2 chance that you would get the combo "fu." once that's done, there is a 1 in 36 chance that the next letter is a c. hence, a 1 in 36^3 chance that you will get "fuc." etc.

and the rest of it stands... each serial number, having more than 6 digits, has multiple chances to come up with any given 6-digit series. there is more than one combo that we might consider offensive.... there is more than one cabbage patch doll out there...

the chances of it happening randomly were pretty durned reasonable.

[brainsmile]

sigh... someone had one too many drinks

[welfareloser]

who, me? what? am i that far off? who are you? what are we talking about? and WHY ARE YOU WEARING MY CLOTHES?!?!?!?!?