Tropic Thunder's Offense Isn't Simple, Jack

August 17, 2008

There’s a big difference between the way Tropic

Thunder approaches the subject of mentally and physically challenged

people and the way the Farrelly brothers did in films such as There’s

Something About , Stuck on You and (as producers of) The Ringer,

which had ny Knoxville feigning being mentally challenged to fix a Special

Olympics race.

The Farrellys don’t talk behind the backs of

mentally challenged people. They put them up on the screen to speak for

themselves, usually making more sense than the “normal”

people in starring roles. If they’re used as punching bags, the bags

always punch back. We see them as objects of ridicule only for people whom we

wouldn’t wish to be. We see them rolling with the punches, and trading a

few, too.

Sick humor is still evident but it’s

noteworthy that many of the same people now protesting Tropic Thunder

also publicly praise the Farrellys for treating mentally challenged people with

an odd dignity, sometimes casting them in roles that don’t require

someone mentally challenged. Many times they’re given the funniest lines

and most gratifying comebacks in the script. In other words, the Farrellys

treat them as anyone else would be treated, which is what they want and most of

us are usually too skittish or cruel to do.

DreamWorks flatly states that Tropic Thunder

won’t be edited or altered in any way to soothe protesters. (Although the

studio yanked a promo Web site dedicated to Simple Jack when the first

rumbles were heard.) That’s fine; they have the right to put whatever

they wish on screen. The boycott that advocacy groups are calling for

won’t dent this week’s box office take for a wildly hyped comedy

with big stars.

But when you’re sitting in the theater

watching Tropic Thunder and the topic of Simple Jack is

raised, check yourself to see if you’re laughing, and why. You may laugh,

and you may not like it.

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