Barbie talar ut

Don't ask me. I'm just a girl!

- Den talande dockan Malibu Stacy i The Simpsons (s5ep14)

Jag trodde att den där dockan var ett skämt. Det var den praktiskt taget inte:

In July 1992 Mattel released Teen Talk Barbie, which spoke a number of phrases including "Will we ever have enough clothes?", "I love shopping!", and "Wanna have a pizza party?" Each doll was programmed to say four out of 270 possible phrases, so that no two dolls were likely to be the same. One of these 270 phrases was "Math class is tough!" (often misquoted as "Math is hard"). Although only about 1.5% of all the dolls sold said the phrase, it led to criticism from the American Association of University Women. In October 1992 Mattel announced that Teen Talk Barbie would no longer say the phrase, and offered a swap to anyone who owned a doll that did.

- Wikipedia: Barbie

Så Barbie-citatet "Math is hard" är, noga räknat, fel. Men inte mycket. Och originalet räckte för att en påstötargrupp skulle, om inte få bort frasen (noga räknat) så åtminstone hindra att den spelades upp.

The Teen Talk Barbie, which costs about $25, will remain in stores. But the computer chip that randomly selects four phrases for each doll will now pick from 269 selections, not 270.

- "Teen Talk Barbie Turns Silent On Math", New York Times, 21 oktober 1992