OK, you all ready for some mixed — nay, tossed! — metaphors? Let’s go fishing in the what’s-appropriate-satire-and-what’s-not with a can of politically-correct worms that’s being opened just for the halibut. What on earth am I talking about? Tropic Thunder, of course!

Although I sincerely hope the movie is funnier than the above paragraph.

A subplot of Tropic Thunder, starring Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr., is a satire of how Hollywood doles out its rewards. In the movie, Stiller’s character plays a guy with intellectual disabilities (ID) called Simple Jack. That’s probably enough to raise the ire of advocates, but there’s a bunch of dialog on how “simple” Jack can be played, or, in the words of the movie, the dangers of going “full retard.” And so a whole host of disability rights groups, including ARC, AAPD and so on, are protesting the movie, plus calling for a boycott.

Anyone who’s been the target of the R-word as a result of their disability knows it’s painful, it’d be ridiculous to deny it’s a hurtful word. But for years and years, many of us have tried to get the media, especially Hollywood, to realize that it’s even more hurtful to push disability-fueled inspiration and pity in order to get a prize of some sort. You wanna get an Oscar nomination? Play a guy who can only use his left foot, or a severely depressed blind guy who can tell how pretty a woman is by her perfume, or a guy who’s so simple he runs across the country on a whim and finds himself central to tremendous historical events that he has no understanding of … and people watch these flicks and they think, oh, how heroic. Oh, how wonderful that cripple could overcome adversity. Oh, how tragic that cripple must live such an awful life through no fault of her own … no wonder she wanted her coach to kill her. And on and on and on. Movies like these keep every idiotic disability stereotype solidly in place. It makes me sick.

So you know what? When Stiller’s character grapples with how retarded to act in order to win an Oscar, it’s kind of refreshing that someone on the inside is finally being honest about how the system works. That’s damn good satire.

I agree it is sounds like funny satire. Reading about the movie and seeing the trailer, it seems the point of the movie is to make fun of the Hollywood system and the way people get "warm fuzzies" when they see an actor "playing" a person with a disability, and how these portrayals have become a "rubber stamp" for instant Oscar material. The movie looks like it is making fun of an actor that--while not having a disability--is so self centered and clueless that he doesn't get how wrong and offensive the word "retard" is. This premise is what makes Larry David so funny in Curb Your Enthusiasm. The protestors say the word "retard" is used 17 times in the movie-- which is so far over the top that it is (hopefully) funny. For me what would be really offensive is if they used a word like "handicappable" 17 times. Making a huge deal out of a word gives the word power--and in the end makes it more hurtful. However if I pay $10 and this movie isn't funny--now THAT is offensive!

After reading Josie's blog and the ARC and AARC protests against Tropic Thunder I gave in and went to my local theatre and plunked down $10 bucks to see what the fuss was all about. Bottom line, the movie is WAY over the top and very funny!!! The whole point of the movie is Hollywood making fun of itself, including the way it misuses and over uses stereotypes. Very funny--I give it two thumbs up!

After reading Josie's blog and the ARC and AARC protests against Tropic Thunder I gave in and went to my local theatre and plunked down $10 bucks to see what the fuss was all about. Bottom line, the movie is WAY over the top and very funny!!! The whole point of the movie is Hollywood making fun of itself, including the way it misuses and over uses stereotypes. Very funny--I give it two thumbs up!

I love Ben Stiller and Larry David's humor. I didn't see the movie or the trailer (is it even out yet?) But I did see the PSA it prompted produced by the ARC of Virginia and Northern Virginia and I think it played well. It is unfortunate that the ARC is a victim of it's own history of the vernacular it put forth to describe a whole population of people. They can change their name in a flash, but it will take a lot longer to change the impact of words they no longer like to use.