Or Breaking Bad “action figures” if you prefer. Breaking Bad actor Bryan Cranston’s funny response to a Florida mom got some media coverage (of course it did–he’s a star) and a few hip-hip-hurrays from the just-relax-will-you crowd. But even those hurrays seemed half-hearted. After all, these characters are meth dealers. What kind of kid’s toy store needs to sell meth dealer dolls? How bad is business?
The aforementioned Florida mom is circulating a petition to get the action figures banned because they’re a “bad influence on children.” Whether children are indeed influenced by inanimate toys–and it isn’t proven in any scientific literature–it remains the case that Walter White (Cranston’s character) and friends aren’t what anybody would call role models. Cranston gleefully wrote in response to the protest that “I’m so mad, I’m burning my Florida Mom action figure in protest.” It’s a cute and funny response. Some media people called it the “perfect response.” But Malcolm in the Middle‘s dad wouldn’t have liked it at all.
