Every Halloween, a few celebrities are called out for their choice of costume.

Regular folk are called out, too, like that father who dressed his five-year-old up as Adolf Hitler. Not your finest work, pops.

Anyway, this year’s award for ‘celeb who bungled their Halloween outfit’ goes to Shaun White, once known as ‘the Flying Tomato’, who is probably the most famous snowboarder in the world.

Over the weekend, he went along to a party, snapped a few pictures, and crushed a few cold ones with the boys. Then, the backlash began.

First up, here’s the picture that has done the rounds, which White uploaded to his Instagram account:

Tropic Thunder fans will know that’s Simple Jack, but a side-by-side might help those who are in the dark:

You’ll see the white face paint in this clip below:

Yeah, it’s safe to say that White won’t feature on any list of best-dressed Halloween celebs.

Why is this such a blunder? Here’s CBS:

The 32-year-old White elected to dress up as Simple Jack, a special needs character from the 2008 film “Tropic Thunder.” In the context of the movie, the Simple Jack character serves as an over-the-top, intentionally offensive vehicle to mock Hollywood’s tendency to use the stories of disabled people for the purpose of creating emotional films that often garner Oscar buzz.

The backlash was swift, and the Special Olympics soon weighed in:

“We are truly disappointed that Shaun White, an acclaimed Olympian, would choose this costume which is so offensive and causes so much pain,” Soeren Palumbo, co-founder of Special Olympics’ Spread the Word to End the Word Campaign, said in a statement. “Disability is not a joke nor should it be a punchline. We hope that Shaun White and others learn that this just continues stigma, stereotypes and discrimination.”

The snowboarder first deleted the post from his Instagram account, and then offered this apology:

It was a dumb move, and he was always going to get called out for it. At least the Special Olympics are ready to move on:

Another bumper weekend of daft Halloween costumes awaits us.

[source:cbs]