Protesters gathered at the premiere of Tropic Thunder yesterday. Not just any kind of protesters. But a special kind of protesters. What? Too soon? Let me back up.

Tropic Thunder, the latest Ben Stiller vehicle, may or may not (probably not) dethrone Dark Knight at the top of this week’s box office heap. This parody of war films and the studio system, starring Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr, incited the ire of the mentality disabled with their meta film-within-a-film “Simple Jack”, complete with the tag line, “Once upon a time…there was a retard.”

Used to flesh out the Tropic Thunder universe, and to subvert the idea of actors playing mentality disabled people in a hunt for Oscar nominations, (I Am Sam, I am looking at you) mentality disabled advocate Patricia Bauer didn’t take too kindly to this, demanding that “Paramount/DreamWorks should pull all scenes and clips that include Ben Stiller’s portrayal of Simple Jack from the movie, DVD, trailers, promotional material and merchandising”. It should be noted that Paramount did take down the fake site for “Simple Jack”, but have stated that “no changes or cuts to the film will be made.”

Okay, I get it. Use of retard in a throwaway gag isn’t cool, nor is a viral marketing site about it, but what surprises me is Robert Downey Jr, in full blackface, plastered all over billboards and advertising, draws almost nothing. I mean, I was only a month old when C. Thomas Howell donned the blackface for Soul Man, and Wikipedia tells me that caused a huge stir in the African-American community. And what about the surprise cameo appearance from Tom Cruise (spoiler alert) as the Jewiest Jew who ever Jewed movie mogul?

Here’s what I’m thinking. Sure, representation of mentally handicapped people isn’t great in the media, and I can’t speak for the mentally handicapped, because I’m not. But now that I think about it, I’m more offended at someone like Cuba Gooding Jr, trying to resuscitate his post Boat Trip movie career with Radio, when you know, and I know, while he may be a football player, and he may be able to run a day care, as a daddy, he’s not mentally handicapped. What I can appreciate Tropic Thunder doing, is pulling no punches in the portrayal of actors who play mentally handicapped people. It’s satire, and it may hurt, and people might not get it. But why apologize if we can actually create a dialogue about the matter rather than cosigning the latest glory-seeking actor looking to pull an Oscar by going “full retard”.

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