Tropic Thunder

This is a no-nonsense zine about the movie Tropic Thunder, starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. Plotline: Through a series of freak occurrences, a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie are forced to become... [more]

This is a no-nonsense zine about the movie Tropic Thunder, starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr.

Plotline: Through a series of freak occurrences, a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying.

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'Tropic Thunder' Spoof 'Simple Jack' Just Got Very Complicated

Written by bigpicture on

From: www.getthebigpicture.net

I don't have a whole lot of use for comedy that makes fun of the mentally disabled. I certainly don't consider it inspired or daring in any way. In fact, I kind of think of it as a very easy target that requires no great skill to hit. I don't use the word "retard" or say "That's so retarded," although I imply that same meaning using other words.

Am I some moralist? No, not really. I just don't find it funny. Ben Stiller, apparently, thinks it's fair game, and that's his business. In Tropic Thunder, his character, Tugg Speedman, is Hollywood's biggest action star, but when he wants to be taken seriously, he gets the title role in Simple Jack. Robert Downey Jr. plays award-winner Kirk Lazarus and tells Speedman the reason the character in Simple Jack didn't work was because you never go "full retard."

As an industry joke, that's very funny and probably even more accurate. But The New York Times is reporting that the American Association of People with Disabilities has organized a meeting between DreamWorks and over a dozen disabilities groups to discuss the portrayal of the mentally challenged in the film. “We want to be really plain about what our issues are with the movie,” says Anne Sommers, policy counsel for AAPD.

Publicly, Dreamworks says that the laugh is not at the expense of the character or mental retardation, but rather the motion picture community. That's exactly the way I feel. Here's one of the offending clips, incidentally. See what you think:

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