Operation: Body Humor

Aubrey is at an interesting age. Body-related humor is extremely funny these days, so much so that the mere mention of something like, say, underwear, will send her into a fit of giggles so severe she cannot breathe. This is especially relevant now, as she received the game Operation for Christmas. This is a fun game, as I remembered it. When I played as a little kid, we removed a tiny plastic wishbone, a heart, a rubber band for a pulled muscle, and a bucket for water on the knee. The only sound effects we heard were the ones we caused by touching the tweezers to the metallic sides. Well, now we're in the 21st century and though Operation still buzzes if you touch the sides, genius upgrades now include more sound effects, like "boing" for a pulled muscle. The heart is gone. The wishbone is gone. In its place we have wonderful things like, "bad plumbing", "burp bubbles", and Aubrey's favorite, "toxic gas," that need to be removed from Cavity Sam. And they all have corresponding sound effects. In fact, the way you play the game now is to listen to the sound effect to know what to take out. And just so you remember what you're supposed to remove, Cavity Sam repeats the noise over and over and over, until it's out. Aubrey just about falls apart when that noise happens to be toxic gas. I had no idea Operation had become so primeval, and yet so appealing to body humor fascinated six year olds. Unfortunately, it's Aubrey favorite game now. On the flip side, it's been great to talk about what it is and is not appropriate to do. And about the importance of an "excuse me" and other such things. I'd rather not talk about it at all though. And the game does not solely consist of gross body humor things... I mean, he's also got cell phone finger, a bird brain, a frog in his throat, etc. But I miss the old school version and its lack of vulgar noises. Hey, Hasbro! Bring back the wishbone and the heart! Take away the toxic gas, and take away Aubrey's fixation on body humor with you!