179 Torture Simulated and Real Sara Brady Scenes from the Coney Island Waterboarding Thrill Ride Smack in the middle of the Coney Island Arcade, Spongebob lies face up on a table. His nemesis, Squidward, stands over him, wearing a mean face and holding a watering can—ready to pour. In a speech bubble Spongebob exclaims, “IT DONT GITMO BETTER.” Welcome to the Waterboarding Thrill Ride. But Spongebob is only the teaser. He’s painted on a wall of a “jail cell” housing the Thrill Ride. Riders need to climb three steps to peer through a small opening protected by rusty bars to see what’s inside. What they find is not that exciting: a small, dark room with a dirty sink and two mannequins, one in an orange jumpsuit and one in a black hooded sweatshirt. If they follow the directions placed on the outside wall and insert a dollar into a slot, riders will get the full effect: the mannequins start to move; music starts to play (music inspired by the tunes played in detainee cells and during interrogations at Guantánamo Bay 1 ); lights come on; the back wall is lit to reveal the message “Don’t Worry It’s Only a Dream”; and for 15 seconds, the two mannequins reveal their true nature—animatrons. The orange-clad “detainee” convulses as the black- sweatshirted interrogator pours water over the detainee’s cloth-covered face. This is waterboarding, folks. Made available to all: “It’s about time,” says Steve Powers, who designed the 2008 installation for the public art presenter