photo credit AFP
Hats off to the intellectually disabled and the Special Olympics for not tolerating Hollywood and their excuses. They want Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder boycotted. And so they should. I'm an uncle of a main-streamed nephew living with Down's Syndrome. And although I was somewhat of a conscious kid [my mother pinched my arm whenever I said anything that insulted others], I was guilty of using the term "retard" on a few occasions and garnered many satisfying laughs when I did. You know, like the time Becky Haufman, born with severe Leg Length Discrepancy, limped into a spelling bee and I mocked her [my mother was called of course, and boy, did I get a pinching]. But it wasn't until my brother's first son was born unexpectedly with Down's Syndrome did I really understand the impact of the term. The horror behind it. The ignorance and the insecurity.
Hollywood is a ticket-selling machine. There are certainly lots of development execs who possess much integrity [I've met them], but they're not the shinning stars of Tinseltown. It's the other ones. The ones who think dwarfs dancing with strippers is innocent fun. The ones who believe exploited obesity is a sure box office draw. The ones who insist that sassy, neck-rolling, ghetto-speaking black women is humor in its purest form. And when you challenge it, like the time I challenged a joke about an elderly woman copulating with a dog, I was told, Get over it. It's a joke. It's comedy. Jeez.
During my Hollywood tenure it was quite clear that those running the show were mostly non-creative types with no interest in cultural sensitivity or social responsibility. You know, adolescent boys in men's suits who believed everything and -body was fair game when it came to making money [excluding themselves]. They didn't have any more interest in the repercussions of gang-banger movies than they did with comedies that reeked with homophobia or Hillybilly-hate. A ticket sale was a ticket sale.
So, it's no surprise that the intellectually disabled and the Special Olympics are not being heard in Hollywood. I'm sure some young exec is sitting at his desk in Burbank thinking: It's a satire, for crissakes. Stop the whining and get over this victim mentality. Asians, gays, blacks, and other possible institutional complainers aren't raising concern. [Well, that's a lie, I mentioned Robert Downing Jr. and his blackface character in a post a while ago here at TheRoot.] But you understand my point.
Don't get me wrong, I love a good laugh. In fact, I often dreamed of being a stand-up comedian. But intellectual insensitivity and/or racial irresponsibility need to be challenged in Hollywood. Relentlessly. Then maybe one day every fat, gay, black, ugly, misogynist, retard joke is wiped clean from comedy. But wait, what would Hollywood joke about? What would we laugh at? Now I'm thinking boycotts like the one protesting "retard" could very well put an end to the comedic movie. Uh oh.
