Rodeo Clown Who Wore Obama Mask Banned From State Fair

By Mark Memmott / NPR

Published August 13, 2013 at 1:23 AM PDT

This story was published more than 11 years ago.

A photo taken of the clown who wore a mask resembling President Obama during a rodeo at the Missouri State Fair on Saturday.

Missouri State Fair officials have now banned the rodeo clown who wore a President Obama mask during a performance that mocked the president.

Fair officials also say they are reviewing their contract with the Missouri Rodeo Cowboys Association, which ran the event, and that the association's personnel and performers must undergo sensitivity training if they are to work with the fair again. That association, meanwhile, has issued a statement saying it wishes to "extend a sincere apology for the inappropriate act during the Bull Riding at the Saturday performance of the MRCA Rodeo."

If you haven't heard, we posted Monday about the outrage and apologies that followed what happened at the fair Saturday. As videos taken by a spectator showed, then-Cowboy Association President Mark Ficken (the announcer at the event) could be heard saying that Obama was "gonna have to just stay there." A clown (possibly the man in the mask) could be heard saying that a bull was coming for "Obama" and that "he's gonna getcha, getcha, getcha, getcha!" According to a spectator, one of the clowns "ran up and started bobbling the lips on the mask and the people went crazy." A performer also said of Obama, "I know I'm a clown, he just run [sic] around acting like one [and] doesn't know he is one."

Become a KPBS sponsor

Several news outlets have identified the performer in the Obama mask. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, one of those outlets, quotes a relative of that man as saying the clown's act was "entertainment. ... He's supposed to make the crowd laugh, and just like those shows, he made the crowd laugh."

NPR has not independently confirmed the clown's identity.

According to the newspaper, Ficken's attorney says his client has quit as the Cowboy Association's president.

Meanwhile, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Monday said that President Obama is partly to blame. The Los Angeles Times writes that Limbaugh said, "when the president of the United States more often than not connects with the American people on late-night comedy shows ... what else can happen other than the diminishing of the office?"