Has Satire Really Been Lost: The Great ‘Tropic Thunder’ Debate

Has Satire Really Been Lost: The Great ‘Tropic Thunder’ Debate

This past week was the release of the much anticipated comedy starring Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black about three actors who start out to make a war film and get entangled in an actual armed conflict. The film itself is a satire about Hollywood and specifically actors and how serious they take their profession in a job that all about ‘make believe’. It satirizes the whole idea of doing several weeks of basic training to get a ‘feel’ of what’s it like to be in combat for the purpose of the film.
However, during pre-screenings there were several Disability groups who were up in arms about the use of word of the ‘retard’ in the film and the portrayal of a character named ‘Simple Jack’. While I certainly sympathize with these groups that the use of this word can be incredibly harmful and the portrayal of a character like ‘Simple Jack’ plays on traditional stereotypes of those with cognitive disabilities it is important to look at this in a larger context. The film was trying to satire why the Academy pays so much attention to people who play characters with cognitive disabilities and how that impacts Oscar voting. In the course of the film Downey Jr’s character goes down the list of American films of those characters with cognitive disabilities from Chauncey Gardner in ‘Being There’ to Sean Penn’s portrayal in ‘I am Sam’.

What I took away from this is Hollywood’s insatiable appetite for neurotypical’s to play roles of those with cognitive disabilities and seeing that as a great acting feat. Actually if people really take a step back and look at this in a larger context shows Hollywood’s contempt for both actors and the profession itself. As Downey’s character pointed out that you don’t want to go over the deep end and be ‘too moronical’…whatever that quite means!

All I know is at times we need to take a deep breath and look at all works of art in the context they are – it’s time and place. Then, we can move forward and make an informed decision. I feel that organizations have right to voice their opinion but it is critical that we all make sure that we know what the end game is when challenging any form of expression. Hopefully, there will be something positive that comes out of this.