Did a voice actor drop an F-bomb in one of Disney’s most popular animated films?
The scene in question is from “Toy Story 3” which was a huge money-making hit for the House of Mouse back in 2010, winning two Academy Awards in the process.
The seven-second clip depicts Barbie tearing up a pair of shorts belonging to Ken, who is tied up.
“Oh Barbie: Those were vintage,” the come-to-life Ken doll loudly laments in dialogue spoken by A-list actor Michael Keaton.
In a TikTok video clip that has received about 30 million views, plus three million likes, and generated about 60,000 comments on that platform as of this writing, internet sleuth Kitty Feeley asks “Do you hear ‘Oh Barbie’ or ‘Oh f***’?”
She then answers her own question by opining that “I literally hear both.”
Watch/listen to the recording:
@kittyfeeley I literally hear both #toystory3 #yannyorlaurel ♬ original sound – Kitty Feeley
Given the direction of Disney content, at least lately, anything is possible perhaps, but it nonetheless does sound like the word Barbie is clearly enunciated.
Readers/listeners can decide for themselves, however, assuming this is even a story or just an example of some folks having too much spare time.
The reaction on social media to the fuss, moreover, seems to be all over the place, with many claiming that they hear both words.
Others claim that they don’t hear the word Barbie at all. “I only hear ‘Oh Barbie’ if I’m consciously trying to hear it,” one TikTok commenter asserted.
Another commenter quipped, “Both are so clear I feel like I’m losing my mind,” while a third person wrote, “It’s different for me each time.”
Quite a few responders compared this scenario to the Yanny or Laurel audio-illusion controversy that emerged in May 2018.
Trump’s hilarious answer on ‘Yanny vs. Laurel’ is THE BEST thing to come out of the bizarre debate yet https://t.co/GMQQGIIXSZ pic.twitter.com/eC9Z7jZB5N
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) May 18, 2018
According to the IFLScience website, “Though we’d hesitate to call it the definitive answer, it does seem similar in nature to something called the McGurk effect….this is a phenomenon where your brain can be tricked into hearing different things based on the visual information you are perceiving at the time…In terms of ‘Barbie” vs ‘f**k’, the sound information is likely overridden not by what you’re seeing at the time, but by what you’re expecting to hear.”
Here is just of sample of the divergent reaction on Twitter to the debate about the line in the “vintage” Disney movie (*Warning for language):
Doesn’t work with the original scene tho , just the recording pic.twitter.com/xuqerrVk2w
— James The Nerd (@james_the_nerd) November 26, 2022
Yeah, same here. Saw the clip without reading, definitely heard “oh fuck” but now that I know the line is “oh Barbie”, I can’t hear “oh fuck” no matter how hard I try
— democracytaylor (@democracytaylor) November 27, 2022
It's definitely the opposite
— Fourside (@FoursideKM) November 28, 2022
Switch to headphones and you'll hear "oh Barbie"
— ProspectYagi 🎴 (@prospectyagi) November 27, 2022
If you listen closely and try to force him to say “Fuck” he says “Barbie” quite clearly everytime, this only works when the volume is low, you’re hearing it for the first few times, or you have bad hearing
— Colby Cheesiner (@DarkSniper11Z) November 27, 2022
if i turn the volume down reaaaaaaaaaally low i can hear the hardest K ever lol
— KvVortex (@KvVortex) November 27, 2022
I could only hear “fuck” until I watched this original clip and then the recording sounded like “Farbie” for 1 time. Then back to “fuck”
— Wky defey (@DefeyWik) November 26, 2022
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