FURBY (mini episode)

American Hysteria

W!ZARD Studios

Society & Culture

4.4 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 September 2019

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

AFTER SHOCK: Many of us were gifted a strange robotic creature in the last years of the 1990s, a furry animatronic friend that children taught to speak, or so America believed. With misconceptions around the technology of Furby came strange urban legends and conspiracy theories about its possible use as spy equipment, the possibility of it crashing planes and stopping life support machines, and its alleged demonic possession that left an entire generation of kids haunted for years to come. American Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Produced and edited by Clear Commo Studios Co-written by Riley Smith Become a Patron for extra episodes, interviews, and videos monthly! Follow American Hysteria on social media: Twitter: @AmerHysteria Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is American hysteria's aftershock, where I share with you a story that didn't make it into the main episode.
0:13.8	I'm your host, Chelsea Weber-Smith.
0:15.8	And today, we're talking about Furby.
0:19.8	Hey, oh, house cow. Hey, boom, house cool.
0:22.6	Hey, ah, ah, hey, ah, hey, ah, bobi.
0:27.6	Hey, boom, house cool.
0:30.6	Hey, my God, Ruby.
0:45.2	Since we are all hella old, Furbies are now found most often on the smooth wooden shelves of haunted antique stores.
0:52.4	Their eyes open or closed into eternity, batteryless, but nonetheless, I assume,
0:57.3	awakening in the middle of the night to garble out a few demonic words.
1:08.8	From the alleged government experiment arcade game, Polybius, to the Bush-era rumors that Saddam Hussein was crafting weapons of mass destruction out of PlayStation 2 consoles,
1:13.0	urban legends have always abounded about children's toys and games.
1:19.5	Wherever kids are having fun, there are always wild rumors or conspiracy theories to go along with them. But no toy has attracted quite as many urban legends and conspiracy theories as that big-eyed, thick-eylashed, yellow-beaked robot gremlin, known, of course,
1:31.0	as Furby. Most millennials either had a Furby or at least knew someone who did, likely throwing it
1:36.9	out a window at some point or cooking it in a microwave, only to have it reappear on the desk in
1:42.3	your room. Furby emerged as one of the first computerized robot toys,
1:46.7	before the popular and endless supply of robot dogs I certainly had in the very beginning of the 2000s,
1:52.8	such as Hootie, Aisibi, and The Eye Dog, all deeply disappointing technology.
1:59.3	When Furby debuted in 1998, it seemed to be unprecedented in its
2:03.7	level of artificial intelligence, and people went absolutely nuts with stores selling out all over
2:09.7	the country. Furby was marketed as a toy that actually learned from its owner. When you first
2:15.8	bought a Furby, it would only speak in this language known as
	...

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