Foam Finger Inventor Blasts at Miley Cyrus: Claims Singer 'Degraded an Honorable Icon'

The man credited for inventing the foam finger is the latest person to lash out at Miley Cyrus for her racy performance at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Steve Chmelar originally created the foam finger in 1971 when he was 16, to support his Iowa high school basketball team. The 59-year-old said he was disappointed by Cyrus' vulgar performance and that she "degraded" his invention.

The former Disney star, who wore a flesh-coloured plastic bikini and performed a duet of Blurred Lines with Robin Thicke, placed the foam finger on her private parts as well as his.

"For people that like that kind of entertainment, I'm sure that it met their needs," Chmelar told Fox News, "If I had a choice between Julie Andrews singing 'The Sound of Music' and Miley Cyrus doing 'Can't Stop,' I'd go the Julie Andrews route, but everyone has their choice and their decision."

"I would say that it certainly misrepresented its intent to encourage team support," he added, "She took an honorable icon that is seen in sporting venues everywhere and degraded it. Fortunately, the foam finger has been around long enough that it will survive this incident. As for Miley Cyrus, let's hope she can outlive this event and also survive."

Children's charity organisation Teddy Bear Fund also came out to criticise her performance, claiming that she has disrespected teddy bears all over the globe.

"Miley made a poor choice to use a universally loved children's teddy bear in an offensive way," the spokesperson told TMZ, "There is always good art and bad art -- unfortunately ... this was bad art. Hopefully she might consider reversing this situation by giving lots of teddy bears to children in need of comfort."