New York  - Children's cartoon character SpongeBob Squarepants has a new role - he features in an artist's critique of the controversial US interrogation technique called water-boarding.

The Water-Boarding Thrill Ride by artist Steven Powers opened this week at New York's Coney Island amusement park, where fun seekers can feed a dollar into a slot to watch robotic figures demonstrate the tortuous practice.

A sign on the outside of the booth shows SpongeBob saying, "It don't Gitmo better!" - a reference to Guantanamo Bay - as another character pours water over him.

Visitors can then climb a few steps to peer through a small window and see a hooded, lifesize figure leaning over another figure in a jumpsuit, his face covered with a towel, and his body strapped to a tilted plank. Water is then poured down the figure's nose and mouth, sparking violent convulsions.

Powers said that he placed the exhibit at the fair to draw attention to the practice, which is regarded as torture by several other nations and human rights groups, but not the US government.

"What's more obscene? The official position that water-boarding is not torture, or our official position that it's a thrill ride?" he was quoted as saying by the New York Times.

"It's putting a unique experience on the table," said Powers. "And it doesn't take a great leap of the imagination to look in there and say: 'That's really what's going on? That's crazy'." (dpa)