Laughing Jackass

McKinney, Texas

In 2017 developer Don Day cut down a number of trees on a piece of property that he wanted to turn into a beer garden. He didn't get permission from the town, which fined him $44,000. Day was angry.

In May 2021 the beer garden still wasn't finished, but Don Day had erected something else on the roadside property: a larger-than-life limestone statue of a sitting, laughing jackass with "LMAO" on its pedestal and a chiseled set of lip-prints on its posterior. Day described the statue as "beautiful" and "whimsical" to the local press, and said that he was simply providing an easy-to-find place for those who disagreed with him to put their lips.

The statue, carved by McKinney sculptor Jake Dobscha, cost Day an additional $22,000, but this time he didn't seem to mind the expense.