What’s Up With That Tropic Thunder Controversy?

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


mojo-photo-tropicthunder.jpg

I have to admit a slightly wary interest in the upcoming Ben Stiller war/Hollywood/Tom Cruise spoof Tropic Thunder. I still get giggly over Zoolander, and Stiller’s deadpan exaggeration of Tinseltown egomania on Extras was pretty hilarious. Moreover, the buzz about Robert Downey Jr.’s edgy portrayal of an over-eager actor putting on blackface for his part has me intrigued: how will he walk that high-wire? But the biggest controversy to emerge before the film’s release turned out to be something else: its use of the term “retard.” A little context: Ben Stiller plays a bumbling action star, and part of the film’s viral marketing is a whole history for his character, including fake trailers for (hilariously terrible) earlier films. One of those was “Simple Jack,” a clear jab at Forrest Gump (and Hollywood’s other mentally challenged characters). Simple Jack’s tagline, “Once upon a time… there was a retard,” caused an uproar among disability rights groups, and DreamWorks pulled the viral web site last week. Tropic Thunder includes clips and references to “Jack,” which caused more trouble: A representative of the National Down Syndrome Congress emerged from Thunder’s Monday premier saying, “I came out feeling like I had been assaulted,” and the chairman of the Special Olympics has appeared on various media outlets assailing the “humiliation” of “good and decent human beings.”

So, here we are again: the mockery, through exaggeration, of those who evidence stereotypes is seen as feeding the actual stereotypes. On the one hand, the use of loaded terms is always troubling, but on the other hand, I’ve always found Hanks’ Gump portrayal deeply offensive in and of itself. How better to mock it than to lay bare the prejudices of those purporting to support a cause?

Now, as we recently learned thanks to the New Yorker, satire is tough, and while I’ll always go to bat for free speech and the right to mock, that cartoon’s disastrous failure at humor and troubling whiff of racial stereotyping made it offensive, no matter how many times David Remnick went on TV to plead that the New Yorker is just doing what Stephen Colbert does. You wish, Remmy. Without seeing Tropic Thunder, it’s impossible to know whether the satire succeeded, although it’s interesting that Downey Jr.’s part has caused nary a ripple of controversy. Could this whole thing just be due to Robert Downey Jr. being a much better actor than Ben Stiller?

Either way, if disability rights activists have a problem with the term “retard,” they’ve got a fight on their hands: the term is omnipresent in sitcoms and standup. Anybody ever seen Family Guy? I’m not here to defend the term; on the contrary, it gives me a twitch just to type it. But context, as always, is everything, and I think pointing out Hollywood’s proclivity for capitalizing on disabled characters is probably a good thing.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate