Hurry Down the Chimney Tonight

Birth of a fetish: The Register reports an unfortunate MSN messenger encounter between two young girls and Microsoft's badly programmed Santa chat bot.

Apparently "RoboSanta" has "a shocking predeliction for casually dropping in that it likes to talk about a certain sex act." The Register (El Reg, below) replicated the conversation, starting out by offering St. Nick a piece of pizza:

El Reg says: pizza (pi)
Santa says: Yum! What do you want for Christmas, El Reg?
El Reg says: Maybe you shouldn't eat so much! You are quite large!
Santa says: My elves will get right on that. And what else are you wishing for this year, El Reg?
El Reg says: Maybe you shouldn't eat it?
Santa says: See if you can get someone else to eat it!
El Reg says: Eat it
Santa says: No thank you. I don't eat things!
El Reg says: Eat it
Santa says: See if you can get someone else to eat it!
El Reg says: Eat it
Santa says: You want me to eat what?!? It's fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else...

Does anyone do outrage as well as the Brits? El Reg trims their article with phrases such as "festive fellatio outrage," "unprecedented torrent of filth," "shocking predeliction," and "sickening results."

The reader says that his nieces "do not fully still believe in Santa but they still like the magic and are unsure either way -- this has pretty much made their minds up!"

Don't bother trying to replicate the chat yourself -- The Register contacted Microsoft, and reports that "Redmond's wholesomeness committee" fixed things and has launched an investigation.

(Hat tip: Consumerist.)