We Todd Did.

By Alison Willmore on 08/14/2008

While the folks behind "Tropic Thunder" had obviously soldiered up in advance for -- and were probably counting on -- controversy surrounding Robert Downey Jr.'s (totally hilarious) turn as a method actor in surgically applied blackface, the vehement protests surrounding the film's frequent, gleeful use of the work "retarded" seem to have blindsided them. Bonnie Goldstein at Slate points to the 11-page kit released by a group that includes the American Association of People With Disabilities and the National Down Syndrome Congress, encouraging boycotting and picketing of theaters throughout this week. Timothy Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics and another vocal opponent of the movie, admitted to NPR that, in true movie-protest tradition, he hadn't actually seen the film beyond the key r-word sequences and didn't plan to, a fact director/star Ben Stiller leapt on on Good Morning America yesterday:

"We screened the movie so many times and this didn't come up until very late and I think the guy spearheading [the protest] hasn't seen the movie. So in the context of the film I think it's really clear, they were making fun of the actors and actors who try to use serious subjects to win awards. It's about actors and self-importance. I think the context of the movie it's pretty clear."

And screenwriter Justin Theroux pointed out to New York that "Simple Jack," the film within the film in which Stiller's character plays a broader than broad caricature of a mentally disabled man in hopes that it'd lead him to an Oscar, isn't that much of an exaggeration from projects that have actually been made: "There are MANY films we're lampooning there, and TV movies included, just a bunch of movies we found completely outrageous."

So, sure, Hollywood is the ultimate butt of all the jokes. And sure, what Orlando critic Roger Moore is attempting to label "the New Outrageousness" is also turning out to be a convenient way to pack in all the -ist jokes that will fit while crying no foul because, hey, those jokes aren't aimed at who they seem to be aimed at. But I particularly enjoyed a judicious bit of word choice in Manohla Dargis' review in the New York Times, in which she twice uses "retard" as it's utilized in the film: "one misbegotten attempt to bait Oscar with a weepie called 'Simple Jack,' in which he played a bucktoothed retarded man," and "Kirk's explanation for why Tugg's performance as a retarded man in 'Simple Jack' doomed his chances for an Oscar." The PC copy-edit would be "mentally disabled," though the Times seems to use both terms freely, but why not apply the term directly to the role? Stiller's "Simple Jack" character bears about as much resemblance to someone with an actual disability as Mickey Rooney did an Asian person in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" -- maybe "retarded" could become something like "minstrelsy," used only to describe offensively bad roles in films, like, say, "Riding the Bus with My Sister."

[Photo: "Tropic Thunder," DreamWorks, 2008]

+ How To Picket Tropic Thunder (Slate)
+ Disabled Group Calls For 'Tropic Thunder' Boycott (NRP)
+ Ben Stiller: Taking Chances with "Tropic Thunder" (ABC News)
+ 'Tropic Thunder' Writer Justin Theroux on 'Simple Jack,' 'Iron Man 2,' and Stupid Actors (New York)
+ War May Be Hell, but Hollywood Is Even Worse (NY Times)