John Luckhurst was horrified when his two-year old son started saying a four letter word that he learned from his talking toy dog, My Pal Scout.
Thomas’s My Pal Scout plaything would sing: “If you’re happy and you know it, f*** with me” instead of “bark with me”. But John, 33, found out only after the toddler innocently repeated the smutty ditty at a kids’ party.
The shocked dad of two – who sent an apology to other parents – said: “I was totally perplexed as to how he could have made up his own words to the song, especially using f***. Then I sat with him as he played with the dog and was horrified. I guess it’s supposed to sing, ‘Bark with me’, but it definitely sounds like f***, not bark.”
Leap-Frog, the US-based maker of the cuddly toy, is to change the song after a number of complaints from him and other parents.
A spokesman said: “We take great care when designing our toys. But we have recently heard from a handful of UK customers that, apparently due to our voice actor’s under-articulation of a word, a youngster could instead interpret this to be a common curse word. We’re working on recording a replacement phrase that will eliminate any misinterpretation.”
Here’s a video of the singing My Pal Scout, you be the judge: