It's Political Correctness Gone Stupid

Posted on Monday August 11, 2008, 17:13 by Olly Richards in Empire States

You've probably heard in the news today about this New York Times piece covering a protest against Tropic Thunder, which is being released in the US on Friday. A number of groups representing those with disabilities, including the organisers of The Special Olympics, are calling for a boycott of the comedy over its depiction of mentally impaired people. Sigh...

The crux of the groups objections is the footage of 'Simple Jack', a film within a film that sees Ben Stiller's character, an action star in search of credibility, playing a horribly stereotypical mentally impaired man. They also object to the multiple uses of the word retard. What they seem to have missed, as so many of these protests do, is that it's the people expressing the less than enlightened views who are being mocked, not the people they are themselves mocking. Stiller's character is a bad actor who thinks that playing a disabled character – with stoopid voice and buck teeth – will win him awards. There's a whole riff in the movie that sees Robert Downey Jr's absurdly method performer, to the point that he's undergone a major skin operation so that he can play a black character, discusses how you only win Oscars for playing partially mentally disabled characters, not by going "full retard". The joke is on certain vapid denizens of Hollywood, who see themselves as the most important thing in the world and make every misguided decision with a complete lack of self-awareness. 'Look at these idiots', the film is saying, but it's pointing at Stiller's character, not the character his character is playing, if you follow my meaning.

Why must every film that features anything that could be considered remotely controversial, if you take it in the most literal and over-sensitive fashion, be subject to protest? It happened with Golden Compass when it was, absurdly, felt that it would be an anti-religious tract. Even Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers faced calls to change its title, which some considered insensitive after 9/11. All this ever does is bring more publicity to the film, defeating the purpose of the placard-brandishing protestor. And the arguments are usually so over zealous – Timothy Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, talks of discussions with congress to stop further "hate speech" – that they make the groups look humourless and out of touch. Tropic Thunder is not a hateful movie towards anyone except, arguably, actors and studio heads. It does, at certain times, make fun of almost everyone, but it never does so with any malice. Shouldn't that just mean that we're all in on the joke?