At this CT Halloween funhouse, play skee ball or skeleton pong and reflect on US political divisions

Last year he built a tank. In 2017 he built a pirate ship. This Halloween, Professor Matt Warshauer built a funhouse — a funhouse of the “Untied States.”

For 20 years Warshauer has wowed, and at times irritated, members of the public with his elaborate and provocative Halloween displays outside his West Hartford home on 115 North Main St. This year’s “Untied States Funhouse” may be his last political installation.

For Warshauer, the name, a reference to a 1999 typo on Congressional pens, speaks to the “untied” nature of the American political landscape.

“We are so polarized, so divided. If a Republican said it’s sunny out, a Democrat would say it’s raining and vice versa,” Warshauer said. “It fits with the larger theme of absurdity of the whole display.”

Warshauer’s funhouse is a vivid assemblage of an America in disarray.

Welcoming visitors to the chaos is a Bozo-esque caricature of former President Donald Trump with the words “If you elect a clown, expect the circus.”

Funhouse guests can play skee ball or skeleton pong, pose in the photo-stand-in panel or funhouse mirror, or try their hand at the “Who has the power?” hammer high-striker.

But the main attraction, a six-paneled, 13-feet-in-diameter, spinning merry-go-round, mixes Halloween horror with everyday realism.

Surrounded by boxes of “Top Secret” files, a caged Donald Trump holds on to the bars. A plaque reads “2 Impeachments, 4 Criminal Indictments, 91 Felony Counts, Seditious Conspiracy.”

In another section, a skeletal, devil-horned “Ron DeSatan” sits in a lawn chair with a Bud Light can. Against the backdrop of a rainbow-adorned Cinderella’s Castle, the skeletons around him wear Mickey ears and hold a “Just say GAY” sign — a nod to Gov. Desantis’ anti-LGBTQ+ policies and ongoing battle with Disney World.

Warshauer also takes aim at the Supreme Court with nine judicially robed skeletons holding a sign that reads “America’s Supreme Court Faces a Crisis of Legitimacy. Over Half of Americans have Little or No Trust in SCOTUS.”

The last three sections hit America’s gun violence epidemic, with child-sized skeletons lay bloody beneath a wall of rifles and bullets, climate change, featuring a globe on fire, and stupidity.

Warshauer said his favorite part of the installation is a panel “defining” the GOP as a “fascist clown cult.”

“I would be lying if I didn’t say I enjoy sticking it to Republicans a little bit,” Warshauer said, adding that he will miss the “absurd, fun way” his displays poke at the Republican Party.

In response to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Warshauer created his first political Halloween display — a recreation of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in a tree with flaming trousers and the sign, “Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire.”

In the 20 years that followed, Warshauer said his displays have always tied into the thing that scares him most — “the destruction of democracy.”

“When you threaten democracy the way that I believe the Republican Party has done over the last 20 to 30 years and your attempt [and] your literal party goal is to break the system and to refuse to compromise … That is a disaster,” Warshauer said.

Warshauer said he still plans to build creative and fun Halloween installations, albeit on a smaller scale. He said the decision to end the political displays involved a number of factors.

“The Halloween displays are a lot of work. The tensions in our society are just growing so much,” Warshauer said. “It’s not like doing a display like this doesn’t involve some level of stress.”

He emphasized that he won’t turn away from Halloween installations entirely.

“I like building stuff, I like playing with ideas and I love to see people’s reactions,” Warshauer said.

On Friday, Katie and Matthias Heidsiek took a walk to Warshauer’s house to see this year’s installation.

“It’s creative and engaging,” Katie Heidsiek said. “I like the idea of making a bold social statement and seeing how people interact with it.”

Matthias Heidsiek said he appreciates that Warshauer’s displays foster dialogue on taboo topics.

“Especially these days, I feel like we’re so afraid to talk about our political affiliations and what we truly believe, and I feel like we need to engage in conversation with people who feel differently. And if we don’t do that … then we’ll never be able to understand each other and really unify again,” he said.

Warshauer said that’s exactly what he wants to accomplish.

Warshauer said it’s “incredibly important” to engage with opposing views, and as a political history professor at Central Connecticut State University, Warshauer said he tells his students he wants them to disagree.

“I wouldn’t describe myself as an ideologue,” Warshauer said. “My job is to get you to look at information and come to some determination on what you believe and why you believe it, and it doesn’t mean that you have to agree with me.”

This same mindset extends to his installations.

“I do believe that this is public art and public history and I reach more people through that Halloween display than I do through my scholarship,” Warshauer said.

When political tensions run high, Warshauer said he reminds folks that at the end of the day, the installations are about fun.

“It’s just a Halloween display,” Warshauer said. “You don’t have to get that upset about it, you don’t have to get angry. You can think what you want of me but you know what (it’s the) First Amendment (and) it’s just about fun,” Warshauer said. “Especially this year, the parents come up and see the politics, but all the kids see is fun.”