Internet trailer features footage of Simple Jack
August 8th, 2008From BusinessSheet.com, the red-band trailer for Tropic Thunder, which gives more glimpses of the Simple Jack character. Ben Stiller is shown in a stereotypical bowl haircut, chasing butterflies across a field with a sledgehammer and smashing them in his hand. In the next shot, he is seen stuttering in a nasal voice to a pretty blond woman, “M-m-m-m-my pee-pee maker … tingle.”
(Note: The woman in the clip is actress Christine Taylor, Stiller’s wife.)
Also included is a clip of Robert Downey Jr. calling Stiller as Simple Jack “the dumbest M*****F******* that ever lived.”
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April 7th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Billy Bob Thornton and “Slingblade?” Was there so much outcry then? That movie was a serious portrayal and story, and yet you can find people using that character in a cartoonish sense that perhaps the movie-makers likely didn’t expect. So let’s assume, if in fact they actually did, the film’s producers and actors consulted/hired the appropriate clinicians/organizations on the portrayal of BBT’s character, you still got some undesirable results, results which are opposite to what was intended. What to do now?
April 4th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Hypothetical, all other superfluous issues aside: If mentally-challenged folks want so much to be taken just like “normal” people, then shouldn’t they open themselves up to at least being satirized once in awhile? I do believe what was being satirized is Hollywood’s portrayals of mentally-impaired people for award gain, and don’t think it was distastefully done…
Other thoughts: There are some mentally-challenged people in our society, whom, whether we like it or want to admit it or not, are quite dangerous and should be removed from the streets–same goes for non-mentally-challenged people…
Is there just simply a predisposition toward ignorance (and so many other hurtful and detrimental things) that we will never make go away? How many of those things have been in existence since the dawn of time, along with the courage to stand up for others who cannot for themselves? It’s nature, and it existed long before Hollywood, video games, etc.
Let’s face it, these days you can’t even fully trust your church or pastor…I applaud that you challenge a worthwhile cause, but a boycott just seems like a waste of time and energy and real sense…
If I see someone on the street openly berating or physically harming someone who is challenged or different in one way or another, I’m going to step in. It doesn’t make me a hypocrite, it just means I can’t control what everyone is going to do, and that I accept I can’t save the world for all time from everything.
I don’t however see us regressing to days where for example “Elephant” (didn’t Hollywood do a good job on that one?) people are on display in traveling freak-shows…
Sorry, that was all the long way of saying: If you know you have a predisposition to being easily offended, then don’t go see the movie! I guess the world needs people like you though to help keep everything in balance.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:48 am
simple jack is too good…i liked the movie…why are you people being such retarddds
August 20th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
The point of Simple Jack in Tropic Thunder isn’t to make fun of mentally retarded people. It’s to make fun of egotistical actors who play mentally retarded people in order to gain recognition for their craft. That’s GENIUS! And it’s what made me laugh the hardest when I saw the film. People are laughing at ACTORS and their one dimensional portrayals of people with disabilities, and not the actual people with disabilities. Wise up and get a sense of humor, you self-indulgent bleeding heart a**holes.
August 13th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
It is both amusing and sad how easily offended people are. DarkRider13 is absolutely correct. The movie is not poking fun at people with mental retardation. You may think it is in bad taste, but that is a wholely different debate (and perhaps you should read A Modest Proposal to achieve some level of perspective).
August 12th, 2008 at 4:50 am
I read the comments posted about this movie, and wanted to say that I am African America, and I was still planning to see this movie knowing that Robert Downey Jr would be portraying a black man. But when I saw the Simple Jack character, I was so terribly offended that I vowed that I would never see this movie. The reason is that I find it morally repugnant to try to create humor out of a disability, particularly an intellectual disability. People who take shots at those who have a harder time defending themselves are just not good people. And to those who believe that this is meant to satire movies with “magical mentally challenged individuals” I say, there are two types of people who will laugh at that- people who believe it is a satire of the indistry and people who like to laugh at disabilities. You won’t get one without the other, and pandering to the lowest common denominator only makes our society a little less kind and compasionate every single day. I don’t have a brother, sister, parent, cousin or child with a mental disability, but I am taking a stand because I believe every person should stand up for the rights of those who may not be able to fully defend themselves.
August 11th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I have a sister with Down syndrome, and was just sitting here watching the trailer with a friend who has a sister who is mentally retarded. We were laughing until we were crying.
Geez, did you all go on a humor strike or something? This movie nails the silliness of magical retarded person cliche.
Seeing an actor like Sean Penn or Cuba Gooding Jr. gamboling around in saintly retarded innocence while teaching others Important Life Lessons is far more offensive than this movie. Ben Stiller seems to be aware of the inherent stupidity of a favorite Hollywood trope, and skewers accordingly.
Your boycott will only drive people to theaters to see what it;s all about. I hope it does.
August 11th, 2008 at 11:33 am
I dont want to seem like a jerk here but this is a movie. If people get offended over movies, music, or anything else just dont see it and if your kids do make sure they dont start saying the bad things in it. People put too much blame into cinema to where a person cant even make a movie that doesnt have anything to offend anyone and yet someone comes forward saying how that movie is the anti-christ. I’m not saying this movie wouldnt offend anyone But i am exactly what Leticia said and i am a twenty year old male who owns over 470 movies and i am sure most of them would have something that would offend someone and its because the world is corrupt and there is darkness all around us in the form of corrupt politicians, school teachers who are having relations with their students, parents who never pay attention to their kids unless it is to yell at them, and even priest who have abused children. Things like that happen all the time and we blame the media when it is the fault of the people involved not a movie they watched four years ago. People learn from al kinds of things but its not like they are advertising this movie to be the biggest and best and truest statement about life to ever come out on screen, It’s a parody and the Simple Jack thing although offensive is a parody on hollywood and how they take the mentally challenged individual, a way over the top parody. Take the movie knocked up, that movie came out and yet teens arent rushing out to get pregnant everywhere, or how about Shoot em’up, a way over the top movie that for almost the whole movie there are gun fights, car chases and a what you think to be a baby gets run over. Any of this stuff happening to all the teenage boys out there? I am sorry if i have offended anybody but when you take a argument about something being offensive and you turn it into how teenage boys will do this and that with it, you are doing the same thing the movie is and insulting all teenage boys that they dont have the intelligence to see a movie and find what is offensive. So i am sorry if i have insulted or offended anyone with this but this is what i believe and if you disagree go ahead and insult me and be mad because im not trying to create a war here just trying to show you the other side of things and that its not always the movies fault but we all need something to blame and movies are the ones that take that slack.
August 9th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
This film crosses the line in so many ways, I agree with Linda that regardless of Stiller’s motives, the teenage boys who watch this sort of trash are just the type to latch on to some of the hurtful lines about the mentally challenged, and wear the film gear.
My daughter has Down syndrome too, and if I meet some kid with an offensive t-shirt on, he’s getting an earful from me! No silence here, I am already posting about this film on my blogs.
August 9th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
To DarkKnight12,
First, I don’t know where to start but how about with the quote from Jonathan Swift who also said “satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own.”
Jonathan Swift relied on creative genius to write his satires about political injustices and minority causes. Ben Stiller on the other hand, has relied on cheap shots using farce to exploit the “industry standard” depicting our family and friends.
In all honesty, Dark Knight 13 my friend, I don’t have issues with Rosie, Dustin, Sean, Cuba or anyone who wants to take on the challenge of portraying my family and friends. More power to them. If you or anyone else thinks these actors look ridiculous doing it, well maybe you don’t feel comfortable with “disability” or how it looks. Yes, sometimes “it” looks strange. Go ahead say it. Sometimes it even looks “weird” or “strange.”
Regardless, my family and friends are not their disability. They are neither “strange” or “weird.” They are people first so if their humanity can be conveyed through acting somehow, more power to the acting guild.
On the other hand, if you think Rosie, Dustin, Sean, Cuba or anybody else were trying to politicize, parody, pity, or patronize our family and friends, please use a platform different then a farce-comedy directed at the illiterati, ignorami, and idiotis with a movie tag line “never go full retard.”
August 9th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
If I am having a hard time seeing past the slaps at my children to recognize the true intent of this scene, do you think the audience of teenage boys in the intended audience will be more discerning?
And when one of those boys is in class with my teenage daughter wearing a “full r#tard” shirt or makes the remark, I don’t think it will dry her tears to know that the remark wasn’t meant for her. I don’t think she will be comforted at all that Hollywood actors are meant to be insulted, not her…
Friendly fire still kills.
August 9th, 2008 at 5:58 am
How can you all so egregiously miss the satiric point of Simple Jack? It is not making fun of those with mental retardation; instead, it is satirizing the callous actors and actresses in Hollyweird that exploit those individuals and use such roles to bolster their Oscar chances and make themselves seem socially conscious. The use of words like “retard” simply emphasize the actors’ complete lack of empathy for the subject of their portrayal. If I had a child with this disability, I’d find Sean Penn’s and Rosie o’ Donnell’s “serious” movies much more offensive than Simple Jack.
Don’t boycott Tropic Thunder…instead use that Simple Jack subplot as an example to Hollywood of what you will no longer tolerate from movies about the developmentally disabled. After all, to paraphrase Jonathan Swift, the point of satire is to point out flaws in the hopes of redeeming them.
August 8th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
You go Linda and let me handle the dark alley’s.
Peace Dude
August 8th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
It goes without saying that parents of children with disabilities should rally together and boycott “Tropic Thunder,” and any sort of merchandising of “Simple Jack.”
We, as parents of children with disabilities, should feel enough rage that we agree to calmly approach any of these such (Full Retard) t-shirt wearers and simply say something like, “My child has Down syndrome, a form of mental retardation, and I am sad that you would find your shirt humorous.” And walk away.
I’m from Small Town, Indiana. I am not afraid to approach anyone and perhaps my naivete puts me in danger of approaching the wrong person. If you read that I’ve been mortally wounded by a punk wearing this shirt, rally a cause that brings light to the situation and tell people I equated the R word with the N word. I’ve survived cancer and long ago accepted that death is a part of life. I also know I would give my life for my daughter so approaching a stranger to tell them that their shirt makes me sad will be a piece of cake.
Please don’t send me emails or advice to not approach strangers. I am not stupid. I will not confront them in a dark alley or if they’re wielding bayonets. But I will not stand by and let them pass by quietly.
To paraphrase Audre Lorde: Your silence will not protect you, nor will it protect anyone else.