Barbie’s Most Embarrassing Fails with Maddie Wiener and Leah Rudick | 81

The Big Flop

Wondery

Society & Culture, Comedy, Business

4.6 • 884 Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Think you know everything about Barbie? Think again. We're pulling back the pink curtain on three Mattel missteps that had parents lining up for refunds and PR teams working overtime. From pregnant Midge to “gay” Ken, these Barbie blunders had executives screaming ""Oh no!"" instead of ""Oh Barbie!""

Maddie Wiener and Leah Rudick join Misha to unbox some of the weirdest Barbie products of all time

Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletter

Listen to The Big Flop on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/the-big-flop/ now.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Picture this. You're lounging on your couch, ready to indulge in another hilariously disastrous
0:05.8	episode of The Big Flop, but then, bam, an ad. Don't let that be you. With Wondery Plus,
0:14.6	you can enjoy The Big Flop a whole week early and completely ad-free. It's like having a fast pass to the front row of the VIP section.
0:24.4	Upgrade your listening experience and join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts.
0:30.7	Your uninterrupted flop fix awaits.
0:33.2	Thank you. It may be hard to remember a time when Barbie wasn't everywhere. But did you know,
0:46.9	there are some Barbie products that Mattel would love for you to forget about. I'm talking
0:52.1	toys, they pulled off those shelves so fast you'd think they
0:54.6	never even existed. Well, they did exist. And today on the big flop, we're looking at Barbies who got
1:00.8	disinvited from the Dream House. It's a trio of epic Barbie Family Fails. Parents were not happy about
1:09.9	this doll. A lot of them complained.
1:11.7	They said she was inappropriate.
1:13.5	It depicted Barbie as an incompetent computer engineer that needs the help of dudes to kind of figure out things like, I don't know, rebooting her computer.
1:21.9	This is the most iconic, if not infamous Ken of all time. We are on a sinking ship.
1:35.0	Who can I talk to?
1:37.1	Can anyone relate to what I'm going through?
1:40.3	Who else understands what it's like to have cancer?
1:43.9	Sometimes you don't want to talk about cancer with people you know.
1:47.0	You just want to talk with someone who knows how you feel.
1:50.0	Open 24-7, Macmillan Cancer Supports online community is a safe space
1:55.0	to connect with people who understand what it's like to have cancer.
1:59.0	It's free to use and anonymous.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Wondery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Wondery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.