Robert Mapplethorpe (November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits, photos of flowers and naked men. The frank, homosexual eroticism of some of the work of his middle period triggered a more general controversy about the public funding of artworks.

Mapplethorpe is shown getting his start as a carnival caricaturist, offering to draw a young boy's favorite baseball player, in this case outfielder Reggie Jackson, performing the infamous "Cleveland steamer" in A Picture's Worth a Thousand Bucks and was voiced by Joey Slotnick.