Introducing... Did Furbys Spy on Us?
Joanne McNally Investigates
BBC
4.3 • 598 Ratings
🗓️ 3 September 2024
⏱️ 4 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Joanne McNally is back on the investigative trail…. and with the Avril / Melissa theory no longer giving her sleepless nights, she’s keen to find a new story to get her teeth into.
Top of her list, after some deliberation is a story from the late 90’s… about a soft toy, the Furby, which took over the world and became the no.1 gift for Christmas. But Joanne has found headlines that claim the toy was banned, suspected of being a spy, linked to international espionage… there couldn’t be any truth to it… could there?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:06.3 | Hello, stop right there, please. Put down your bit on the side, top up your glass of pino, and get ready, because Joanne McNally investigates is back. |
| 0:15.0 | I am Joanne McNally, and I've moved on from Avrilavre, sorry, Aviv, because there's a new bigger mystery in town. |
| 0:21.7 | This time I'm investigating one of the most bonkers, bananas and surprising stories |
| 0:27.0 | you'll ever hear in your adult life. |
| 0:30.0 | It's a story of global espionage, life and death and cuddly toys. |
| 0:35.5 | Hey, me, for me! |
| 0:38.2 | Long ago in 1998, before I was personally born, |
| 0:42.2 | a certain colourful creature became the ultimate must-have toy of the decade. |
| 0:46.4 | This Christmas, it's Furby. |
| 0:48.3 | You likely won't spot one on store shelves, though. |
| 0:51.1 | There's just too many people. |
| 0:52.2 | The Furby was ahead of its time, |
| 1:00.2 | a soft toy with pointy ears which would talk to you, learn from you and listen to you? |
| 1:06.4 | Some talk a lot, some just be really quiet and then they suddenly wake up and you forget there's batteries and it makes you jump. |
| 1:11.2 | But according to some, this toy was capable of much more because the Furby that we know in love |
| 1:13.3 | was actually accused of being an international spy. |
| 1:17.4 | They assumed it was doing things it wasn't doing. |
| 1:20.0 | They didn't know if it was sending out strange signals, |
| 1:22.8 | just crazy stuff would start happening. |
| 1:27.6 | They were barred from aeroplanes, removed from hospitals, |
| 1:31.7 | and the US Security Service even banned them from all classified buildings. |
... |
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