Kids all over are going bananas over the latest Despicable Me franchise, Minions, but not all parents share their enthusiasm. As part of its latest Happy Meal, McDonald’s has included toy minions that utter the characters’ trademark gobbledygook.
In case you didn’t know, the loveably mischievous minions stole the show in the first two Despicable movies, earning them their own feature-length film. They don’t actually speak, but simply spout a kind of delightfully nonsensical babble.
However, some parents in the US swear that at least one of the three phrases uttered by the McDonald’s toys contains profanity.
“Honestly, the beginning, I don’t know what it’s saying, but the last few words sound like ‘W-T-F,’” said an Alabama mom.
Parents from Florida and Ohio also complained about what they think the toys are saying.
But McDonald’s is urging parents to calm the eff down.
“Minions speak ‘Minionese,’ which is a random combination of many languages and nonsense words and sounds,” said McD’s spokesperson Lisa McComb.
“The Minion Caveman Happy Meal toy includes three phrases: ‘para la bukay,’ ‘hahaha,’ and ‘eh eh.’ Any perceived similarities to actual English words are purely coincidental.”
Basically the minions are just spouting gibberish, and any resemblance to the human language is nothing more than happenstance.
Psychologist and swearing expert, Timothy Jay, author of What To Do When Your Kids Talk Dirty concurs. He told Yahoo that parents are likely hearing things based on their own experience and may inadvertently be drawing attention to exactly what they want their kids to avoid:
“Parents who hear [the swearing] are given a blueprint for what’s there and so they’re going to hear that. Kids just think they’re hearing some funny little Minion thing.”
For parents worried about the possible profanity, best not head to McDonald’s for the summer. More for me to collect. Hahaha eh eh
Image Source: YouTube
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