(Video from the Hartford Courant)

Local disability advocates protested last night in various places against the nationwide release of the summer comedy “Tropic Thunder,” citing concerns about the repeated use of the term “retard” and the “Simple Jack” subplot, a satirical portrayal of a farmhand with an intellectual disability.

As part of the protests, the Special Olympics and other leading disability groups have started a national campaign to eliminate what they call “the r-word”. An excerpt from the site:

The r-word is hate speech that perpetuates the negative stereotypes that face people with intellectual disabilities every day. Yet, its use continues to gain in popularity….

For more nationwide coverage:

• LIers protest ‘Tropic Thunder’ over ‘hurtful’ word – Newsday (New York
• Protesters decry ‘Tropic Thunder’ in Vermont – Boston Globe and Protesters decry ‘Tropic Thunder’ characterizations - Times Argus (Vermont)
• Words Such As ‘Retarded’ In Movie ‘Tropic Thunder’ Draw Protests - The Hartford Courant (Connecticut) and Movie irks Down Syndrome Congress - Middletown Press (Connecticut)
• Protestors aim anger at war farce - Baltimore Sun (Maryland)
• Access Atlanta Blog: Locals protest R-word in ‘Tropic Thunder’ – Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Georgia)
• A Premiere Protest - [Long Beach] Press-Telegram (California)
• ‘Tropic Thunder’ protest comes to Delaware - The News Journal (Delaware)

• (more…)

The media storm over “Tropic Thunder” is well underway. Here’s just a sampling of today’s coverage. (To be updated as the day goes on.)

Tropic Thunder: Laughs and controversy — Interview on ABC Good morning America. Ben Stiller and Jack Black are asked about the controversy and protests over the word “retard.” Footage of protesters is shown with signs that say “R-word is hate speech.” An excerpt:

Q: Obviously, you know it’s a derogatory word. You surprised by the reaction?

Stiller: Well, we screened the movie so many times and this didn’t come up until very late, and I think the people who are spearheading it, at least the guy who is spearheading it, hasn’t seen the movie yet. So in the context of the film, it’s really clear we’re making fun of the actors, and actors who try to use serious subjects to win awards. It’s about actors and self-importance. So I think in the context of the movie it’s pretty clear.

‘Tropic’ demonstrators chant ‘Ban the movie! Ban the word!’ - Los Angeles Times blog

Disability groups protest ‘Tropic Thunder’ premiere - UCLA Daily Bruin

War may be hell, but Hollywood is even worse — Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. An excerpt:

Despite what you may have read lately, the biggest target of ridicule in “Tropic Thunder,” a flashy, nasty, on-and-off funny and assaultive sendup of the film industry, is not the mentally retarded. Rather, the true targets of this extreme comedy’s free-flowing contempt are the stars, makers, brokers, miscellaneous supplicants and even die-hard fans of the movies, who are all portrayed as challenged in some fashion …

Commentary: Critics of ‘Tropic Thunder’ are missing the point – by Neil Miller on CNN.com. Excerpt follows.

While groups still have every right to be upset over the use of the word “retard” or any other “disrespectful depictions,” it is the nature of their response that should be questioned. Being upset about a movie is one thing, but holding Hollywood responsible for intolerance in America is something altogether different.

Commentary: Why ‘Tropic Thunder’ shouldn’t be seen — by Timothy Shriver on CNN.com. Excerpt follows:

Some may think we ought to lighten up and not get so worked up because this is, after all, just a film. But films become part of pop culture and character lines are repeated in other settings time and time again. It’s clear to me that lines from this particular film will provide hurtful ammunition outside the movie theatre. While I realize that the film’s creators call this a parody and they never intended to hurt anyone, it doesn’t mean those words won’t.

How can you help? Ban the R-word. Ban the movie. Take a stand.

The Farrellys receive praise for…sensitivity - The Boston Globe

Tropic Thunder: Say What? — MTV.com. Excerpt follows.

The movie is … a welcome affront to the sort of humorless PC scolds who mobilized for the movie’s L.A. premiere on Tuesday – in numbers estimated by Entertainment Weekly to be “a few dozen.” Maybe the tide of whiny complaint is turning. Have any of these people noticed yet that the only child in the movie is a chain-smoking, gun-wielding heroin kingpin? Or is a protest poster already at the printer’s? Considering the business this picture’s going to do, good luck.

Tropic Blunder: R-rated comedies and the new offensive — www.filmschoolrejects.com

Bravo, Dreamworks! What courage it must have taken to make fun of ‘retards’ — www.mediaandmayhem.com

From CNN: Dozens protest at “Tropic Thunder” premiere

In coverage of the protest at the “Tropic Thunder” premiere, CNN’s report intercuts footage of protesters with an extended clip of the scene in which Robert Downey Jr. utters the lines “You went full retard, man. Never go full retard.”

Special Olympics chairman Tim Shriver is interviewed on camera while someone holds up a sign in the background: “Words Matter.”

Tim Shriver: We feel it is unnecessarily humiliating and degrading to people with intellectual disabilities. We feel that they are treated with total disrespect in the film … Seventeen times in this film the R-word was used, once the N-word.

Andy Imparato, CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities: They’re selling t-shirts on the internet now that say ‘Don’t go full retard.’  Well, what kind of message does that send? What kind of bullying is that going to lead to in schools?

Ben Stiller: I am confident that people will get where we were coming from in the film. And we didn’t mean to offend anybody in any way.

Actor Jack Black: Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, obviously that’s what America’s all about. If you’ve got something to say, you are free to say it.

The report ends with a shot of chanting protesters wearing shirts with the slogan: Tropic Blunder.  People with intellectual disabilities deserve better. Eliminate the “R” word.

A new t-shirt from Cafepress.com: Never go full Stiller.

From the Associated Press: “Mental disability groups protest Tropic Thunder”

AP reports that “dozens” of protesters turned out for the “Tropic Thunder” premiere in Westwood, carrying sings with slogans such as “Call me by my name, not by my label.” They chanted phrases like “Ban the movie, ban the word. Among those shown in accompanying photos was Special Olympics chairman Tim Shriver (at left). An excerpt:

… “When I heard about it, I felt really hurt inside,” said Special Olympics global messenger Dustin Plunkett. “I cannot believe a writer could write something like that. It’s the not the way that we want to be portrayed. We have feelings. We don’t like the word retard. We are people. We’re just like any other people out there. We want to be ourselves and not be discriminated against.”

… “If you want to pick on people, as the old playground saying goes, pick on people your own size,” said Timothy Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, who is calling for a boycott of “Tropic Thunder” along with the other groups. “This population struggles too much with the basics to have to struggle against Hollywood. We’re sending a message that this hate speech is no longer acceptable.”

With photos.

USA Today describes the protesters as “at least 50 people, chanting and holding signs such as “Eliminate the R word.” Headline: “Disability groups vs. Tropic Thunder.” An excerpt:

The protesters called for a boycott of the movie and want it pulled from release. Timothy Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, said: “I don’t have any illusions about that happening, but I’d like people not to see it. I’d like (disabled) kids going back to school in the fall to not have to deal with other kids saying, ‘Are you a full retard?’ “

See also:

• Is Ben Stiller a ‘Tropic’ Blunder? audio from National Public Radio. Essay by Lennard J. Davis, professor of disability studies at the University of Chicago. “If one group laughs at the expense of another, we don’t call that humor. We call that humiliation.”
• Stiller’s ‘Thunder’ under fire from disability groups, with video from ABC News
• Local disability activists join boycott of film, with video, from ABC24-TV in Memphis. In an extended interview, intercut with clips from the film, Diane Grovers says it’s time for abusive language to stop. “He’s trying to have a few laughs at the expense of my daughter, and I’m not okay with that,” she says.

Etan Coen says family experience shaped his vision of disability

From MTV.com:

Ben Stiller and co-writer Etan Coen tell MTV that disability rights protesters have missed the point of who is being mocked in the film “Tropic Thunder.” Hollywood portrayals of disability are at issue here, they say — not people with intellectual disabilities themselves. An excerpt:

“Some people have taken this as making fun of handicapped people, but we’re really trying to make fun of the actors who use this material as fodder for acclaim,” co-writer Etan Cohen [said]. “The last thing you want is for people to think you’re making fun of the victims in this who are having their lives turned into fodder for people to win Oscars.”

The joke, then, is really on people like Dustin Hoffman (“Rain Man”), Sean Penn, (“I Am Sam”) and Tom Hanks (“Forrest Gump”), actors who do more harm than good by denying the painful realities of the illness and instead paint their characters as too sunny or bright, Cohen said.

“Movies about the mentally retarded is something we talked about for a long time. My grandfather was adopted by a mentally retarded man, a man who shouldn’t have been allowed to adopt a kid,” Cohen revealed. “When he saw ‘Forrest Gump,’ you never saw a guy angrier than him. It was not such a picnic to be raised by that guy.”

Coen’s filmography at imdb.com lists him as the writer, director and producer of the 2007 comedy short “My Wife is Retarded.”

And from accesshollywood.com: Disability advocates call for ‘Tropic Thunder’ protest; Stiller responds

Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver writes in the Washington Post that he has not yet been permitted to see “Tropic Thunder.” But on the basis of previews, excerpts and written accounts, he concludes that the film is “an unchecked assault on the humanity of people with intellectual disabilities — an affront to dignity, hope and respect.”

Shriver objects to a world in which people with intellectual disabilities routinely face discrimination, abuse, insult and institutionalization, are denied medical treatment and excluded from social movements. He cites Gallup poll data that found most Americans don’t want a person with an intellectual disability in their child’s school.

The use of language, he says, perpetuates and amplifies the public view that these people are “hopeless.”

Sadly, they’re such an easy target that many people don’t realize whom they are making fun of when they use the word “retard.” Most people just think it’s funny. “Stupid, idiot, moron, retard.” Ha, ha, ha.

I know: I could be too sensitive. But I was taught that mean isn’t funny.

… So, enough. Stop the hurtful jokes. Talk to your children about language that is bullying and mean. Ask your friends, your educators, your religious leaders to help us to end the stubborn myth that people with intellectual disabilities are hopeless. Ask Hollywood to get on the right side of dignity.

I hope others will join me in shutting this movie out of our lives and our pocketbooks. We don’t live in times when labeling and humiliating others is funny. And we should send that message far and wide.

Related coverage:

• Advocates for disabled to protest ‘Tropic Thunder’ (Reuters)
• Rant: I’m boycotting political correctness (Slashfilm.com)
• Can Angry Disabled Groups Help ‘The Dark Knight’ Stay Alive at the Box Office? (New York Entertainment)

Earlier post: Tropic Thunder boycott expected