Skip to content
News
Link copied to clipboard

Obama becomes a carnival-game target - again

For the second time in a week, the use of President Obama's image in a carnival game has caused a kerfuffle.

For the second time in a week, the use of President Obama's image in a carnival game has caused a kerfuffle.

A crude likeness of the president is one of several targets in a boardwalk game in Seaside Heights. Carved with a chain saw and attached to a foam body, it's a stretch to say it resembles Obama.

But players have been paying $5 for a bucket of balls to throw them at plates held by the caricature. Break a plate, win a prize.

The game, "Walkin Charlie," also features Osama bin Laden, Michael Jackson, and Stewie from the animated TV series Family Guy.

By late afternoon Monday, the game's creator, Tommy Whalen, said a bag had been put over the Obama figure's head. The presidential target, however, will stay.

"I've got to leave it up just for the hoopla," said Whalen, the manager of Lucky Leo's Amusements, which owns the game. "If they're going to keep sending film crews, I'm leaving it up."

Whalen, 59, said he did not mean to offend anyone by adding Obama to the game a month ago. It's all for fun, he said.

"Heck, I voted for the son of a gun," Whalen said. "But I'm not real happy with some of the things going on with the health-care issue."

Though he has become a national target of criticism, Whalen has no intention of removing the figure.

"It's not like I have a bull's-eye on his head or on his private business," he said.

Last week, a carnival operator in the Lehigh Valley removed a game in which players shot darts at an Obama image.

Irvin Good Jr. received a complaint from a Massachusetts woman attending a fair in Roseto, about 20 miles north of Bethlehem, Pa. Good said his company, Hellertown-based Goodtime Amusements, would not offer the game again.

"It was just a big, big mistake in judgment, and I feel sorry about it," Good said.

That game, "Alien Attack," featured a large, painted image of a black man wearing a belt buckle with the presidential seal and holding a scroll labeled "Health Bill." Players could win prizes by hitting targets on the image's head and heart.

Whalen said he had commissioned more political figures for the boardwalk game.

"Hillary Clinton will go up today," he said. "Sarah Palin will be up in a couple of days. She'll have her great big glasses on. She'll be great to throw at."

He says he is already planning his next batch of targets: cast members from MTV's Jersey Shore, which is shooting in Seaside Heights. He hired the chain-saw artist to create a Snooki and a Situation.

"Snooki will be 4-foot-7 and wide," Whalen said. "It will be a blast."