Miniature truthful winner banned as spicy inspiration uncovered – if you realize you realize

A miniature fair winner found himself in hot water after officials discovered his entry was inspired by an adult content set most of us probably don’t want to admit to being familiar with.

Preston Poling, who goes by “The Bearded Miniaturist” online, initially won third place for his piece in the miniatures exhibit at Kentucky State Fair before it was disqualified and deemed inappropriate.

Poling’s piece, titled ‘The Casting Couch’, seemed innocent at first glance – depicting a typical office set-up with a couch, desk, computer and camera. However, when he shared his work on social media, some users quickly recognised it as a miniature version of a popular spicy film set…. If you know you know.

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The fair’s officials, upon realising the reference, decided to remove Poling’s entry from the display. Speaking to WDRB about the situation, Poling explained: “I created it piece-by-piece to be an identical replica of the one that we’re all familiar with, or we don’t want to admit that we’re familiar with.”

Things escalated when officials at the fair got involved. “That’s when I found out the fair board was considering stripping all of my awards for this year and disqualifying me completely as an artist,” Poling said.

In response, Lexie Ratterman from Kentucky Venues issued a statement saying: “Entries submitted to the fair are routinely reviewed throughout the event, and the entry in question has been removed from display at this time.”

Poling insisted his work wasn’t meant to offend anyone but was more of a light-hearted “tongue-in-cheek joke”. He added: “The joke’s not on the judges. The joke isn’t on people who are offended by this. The joke is to submit something that you either get or you don’t get.”

Poling managed to keep the ribbons he won for his other pieces. One of his entries, inspired by the TV show ‘The Walking Dead’ even won Best in Show. He also received a craftsmanship award for a miniature based on the classic children’s book ‘Goodnight Moon’. Both of these pieces remain on display at the fair.

He concluded: “The superintendent of the fair board asked me to use a little sensitivity in the future because some things might be controversial.”

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