Good Grief

Nationwide ‘Thunder’ Boycott in the Works from the NYT, via Dirty Harry
(Like Harry, I have yet to see the film in question, but I'm not going to let that hold my tongue. He's a better man than I am)

There are so many things about this article to ridicule that I'm not sure where to start, but the beginning is always a good place:

A coalition of disabilities groups is expected as early as Monday to call for a national boycott of the film “Tropic Thunder” because of what the groups consider the movie’s open ridicule of the intellectually disabled. (All emphasis mine)

"Intellectually disabled"? I don't think I've heard that euphemism before, but I can't imagine a more offensive way to describe a person's mental capacities. Whomever came up with that apparently went so far out of their way to avoid being specifically rude that they've come full circle. It basically conveys a sense of absolute lack of potential or hope, as if the portions of a person's mind that control thought or intelligence are basically broken beyond repair, shut down.

“Not only might it happen, it will happen,” Timothy P. Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, said of the expected push for a boycott.

Mr. Shriver said that he had also begun to ask members of Congress for a resolution condemning what he called the movie’s “hate speech” and calling for stronger federal support of the intellectually disabled.

“The most disappointing thing, the most incredible thing, is that nobody caught it,” said Mr. Shriver, who, as a co-producer of the DreamWorks film Amistad, is no stranger to the studio. He spoke of what he described as the studio’s and the filmmakers’ blatant disregard for the disabled even as they stepped carefully around other potentially offensive references, notably in a story line that has Robert Downey, Jr. playing a white actor who changes his skin color to play a black soldier.

A particular sore point has been the film’s repeated use of the term “retard” in referring to a character, Simple Jack, who is played by Mr. Stiller in a subplot about an actor who chases an Oscar by portraying a mindless dolt.

In my mind, the money quote is the one accented above, in which Tim Shriver seems to assume that somehow he is gifted with this spectacular insight, that everyone else is apparently so daft that they failed to notice this supposedly ridiculously offensive material. Maybe, just maybe, the problem isn't that everyone else isn't sensitive enough to potentially offensive material, maybe the problem is actually that Mr. Shriver is way, way over the top sensitive.

Maybe the the problem is that Mr. Shriver is completely ignorant of the concept of satire, and fails to realize that by lampooning the tried-and-true Hollywood ploy of casting a respected actor as a so-called "intellectually disabled" person in order to secure at least an Oscar nomination.

In earlier interviews with The New York Times, Mr. Stiller and Stacey Snider, chief executive of the DreamWorks unit, said the movie’s humor was aimed not at the disabled but at the foolishness of actors who will go to any length in advancing their careers.

At least on the surface, this seems like a pretty clear case of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," in that even if the film isn't necessarily treating mentally handicapped (is that still an acceptable term?) people with the utmost respect, it is definitely also mocking those in Hollywood who exploit the mentally handicapped population for their own personal gain.

“I came out feeling like I had been assaulted,” said David C. Tolleson, executive director of the Down syndrome group who saw the movie.

It's a comedic satire. If I had a dollar (what's a nickel worth these days) for every film that blatantly attacked white, conservative Christians and that offended me and my beliefs and who I am as a person that wasn't a comedy or wasn't satirical, I'd be a rich man.