Owners of a boardwalk game in Seaside Heights, N.J. recently removed a caricature of President Obama from a game that requires patrons to throw baseballs at a plate near the character’s head.
According to the Associated Press, the game, called “Walkin’ Charlie,” was located at Lucky Leo’s Arcade. Since the removal of the Obama figure, caricatures of former president George W. Bush and Hilary Clinton have been put up. Likenesses of Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and Michael Jackson are also in the game.
“A lot of people are disappointed that Obama is not there anymore,” Tom Whalen, one of the owners of the arcade told The Philadelphia Inquirer. He added that he didn’t want to offend anyone and the game was all in fun.
Whalen told the AP that the game isn’t “anti-Democrat or anti-Republican.” Still, some patrons complained that it was disrespectful to use the president’s likeness. A Secret Service agent visited the arcade this past week and said none of the employees urged patrons to target the Obama caricature.
The arcade, which is in the same town in which MTV’s “Jersey Shore” show was filmed, is not the only establishment to feature a game with the president’s likeness.
According to the Inquirer, a carnival operator in Lehigh Valley, Pa. removed a game in which patrons shot darts at what appears to be Obama’s image.
Irvin Good Jr., the carnival’s operator, received a complaint from a Massachusetts woman about the game. Subsequently, he said that he would never offer the game again.
“Yes, a woman talked to me about it,” Good told Lehigh Valley Live. “She said she was offended by it. I said, ‘If you are, you might want to be. But you’re interpreting it as being Obama. We’re not interpreting it as Obama. The name of the game is ‘Alien Leader.’ If you’re offended, that’s fine, we duly note that.’”
While the game features a suited Black man holding a health care bill and wearing the presidential seal, Good says the game wasn’t meant to depict Obama.