Thursday was the wildest day for Mr. Potato Head in…ever? It was announced the shape-shifting doll toy, which since 1952 has delighted kids who like to swap out random human-like features on a plastic potato, would be getting a bit of a makeover. Indeed, he would become gender neutral, presumably in reaction to a society becoming ever more tolerant of non-binary lifestyles. Conservatives were pissed at the toy news.
But perhaps it was all for nought. Hours after their line of potato toys started trending for almost certainly the first time in Twitter history, Hasbro issued a statement clarifying that neither Mr. nor Mrs. Potato Head weren’t going anywhere, thus restoring faith in the traditional family unit of toys that look like root vegetables.
What they were changing was the name of the overall Mr. Potato Head brand, shortening it to simply “Potato Head.” The Mr. and the Mrs. would still be sold. The slight re-branding wasn’t to be progressive, a spokesperson for Hasbro told The New York Post, but “to better reflect the full line.” (Indeed, it does seem like sloppy and confusing marketing to sell Mrs. Potato Head under a Mr. Potato Head umbrella, now that we think about it.)
What’s more, there will also be a “family kit,” which will include enough potato parts and accessories for kids to “create all types of families,” the spokesperson said.
Will this calm the conservative beast? Probably not! Surely the whole “create all types of families” line will fuel three sweaty Don Jr. videos alone, not to mention a week of Fox and Friends. But some wondered if Thursday night’s Fox News hosts wouldn’t suddenly have to do some 11th hour rewrites on their scaredy cat monologues.
Tucker Carlson producers rewriting tonight’s show in light of breaking news that Mr. Potato Head is here to stay after all pic.twitter.com/7SEgogSAhK
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 25, 2021
(Via The New York Post)