A grandmother in Canada says she was more than a little surprised when the dancing cactus toy she bought for her toddler granddaughter started rapping in Polish about depression and cocaine use. "It just so happens that I am Polish and when I started to listen to the songs and I heard the words," Ania Tanner tells CTV. "I was in shock. I thought what is this, some kind of joke?" She says she bought the toy for the 15-month-old from Walmart's website, where it was described as a fun educational toy with songs in English, Spanish, and Polish. The Polish song is "Gdzie jest bialy wegorz"—"Where's the White Eel?"—by rapper Cygnis. It begins, "Only thing is my head is five grams of cocaine, fly away alone."
"These items are sold by a third-party seller on our marketplace website," a Walmart spokesperson said in a statement. "We are removing the items while we look into this complaint further." After similar complaints about the toy earlier this year, a rep for Cygnis said the Chinese manufacturer had used the song without permission and the rapper planned to take legal action. In June, a Polish woman living in Taiwan told Taiwan News that she had complained about the cactus being sold as a toddler's toy despite the explicit lyrics.
It's not clear why the toy was still on the market months after the complaints and threats of legal action. Tanner says she's relieved Walmart has now stopped selling it. Tracey Anne Duncan at Mic, however, argues that while it's clearly not a toy for children, the "perversely ironic stuffed and prickly chanteuse" should stay on the market. "Does no one see that all this apropos gift item needs is a little rebranding? Just rename it, 'Coke-craving Cactus Dancer,' and let’s all put it on our adults-only list for Santa," Duncan writes. (More strange stuff stories.)
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