Wow. Kind of hard to believe that someone at Apple wouldn’t have expected the backlash the company received this week over an iPhone app that essentially pokes a little fun at the subject of shaken babies.

After initially offering the app for sale through its Apple store, the company reversed course this week and pulled the plug on the controversial program, according to Suzanne Choney at MSNBC.

Child protection groups were outraged by the 99-cent app for the iPhone and iPhone touch, which encourages those frustrated with babies’ crying to shake them, or in this case, shake their devices to change drawings of a crying baby to a calm one.

So what’s all the fuss about? Let’s look at how the application’s maker described the product:

“On a plane, on the bus, in a theater. Babies are everywhere you don’t want them to be! They’re always distracting you from preparing for that big presentation at work with their incessant crying. Before Baby Shaker there was nothing you could do about it.

“Now, Baby Shaker gives you a charming drawing of a baby sure to make those with a less than iron will fawn. True to life, it begins to annoy you immediately. See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!”

And then, we have the reminder:

“Never, never shake a baby.”

So, are we being too sensitive here? I doubt many people believe the designers of Baby Shaker really want to see infants hurt. But it’s also pretty clear there are a lot of people who think this was not even close to being funny.