In 2008 a film called Tropic Thunder came out, and it is one of my favourite films. It was such a brilliant satire of so many things that are wrong with Hollywood. However, the film was very contraversial at the time, and still so today. There were many controversies with the film, but the one I’m going to be talking about is the character called Simple Jack, a character from a film within a film, the film also being called Simple Jack.
Simple Jack is an intellectually disabled character who says things like, “I ain’t got a -g-g-good brain,” and “Goodbye Mama, now you can have ice cream in heaven!” And he displays many traits that are associated with offensive portrayals of intellectually disabled and neurodivergent people. There were many protests from disability groups at the time, and I get it, there have been so many horrible depictions of disabled communities over the years that it looks like Tropic Thunder was just adding one more. So given how this blog is an attempt to in some small way make the world a better place for neurodivergent people, why the hell would I defend this character? It’s because characters like Simple Jack are a satire of problematic portrayals of neurodivergent and intellectually disabled characters that already existed. Without these previous portrayals, there would be no Simple Jack. Simple Jack is a response to the problem, not the problem itself.
First, it would be useful to give an overview of what type of Hollywood stuff that Tropic Thunder makes fun of. It is mainly about actors who will go to any length to be taken seriously in their craft. One of the most memorable characters is Kirk Lazarus, played by Robert Downey Junior, who is a satire of the “method” actors who were very prominent at the time Tropic Thunder was released. Kirk Lazarus was willing to go through a controversial surgery to change his skin to black for a role. (Yes, this does mean that Robert Downey Jr does blackface in the film Tropic Thunder. While as a white person I don’t think it’s for me to say whether this was right or wrong, I think it’s important to understand the context of it, it’s a satire of actors who are so “method” that they lose touch with reality.) The actor Jeff Portnoy, played by Jack Black, starred in a film called, “The Fatties”, about an overweight family where Jeff Portnoy plays every character. This is a satire of the kind of films Eddie Murphy used to do where he used to play most of the characters, often playing overweight characters, such as “The Nutty Professor” and “Norbit”.
So I hope this gives some context to the kind of humour that Tropic Thunder employs. Any ridiculous tropes that Hollywood kept churning out over and over again were ruthlessly satirized in the film. So, it was a given that Hollywood’s ridiculous, and offensive depiction of neurodivergent people would be given the same treatment.
Because before Tropic Thunder, there were a lot of “Oscar Bait” films where a neurotypical able bodied actor played a neurodivergent disabled person, because the perception was that these films were “powerful” and “bold” and, “other good sounding word”. Rain Man was kind of a grey area, while it contained tropes about autistic people that should not be repeated in future films, it probably gave people some kind of introduction to what autism was like. But then we had Forrest Gump, Tom Hanks playing an inspirational wonderful man with an unspecified intellectual disability! I almost feel bad for taking a shot at Forrest Gump because I know how much people love it, but nevertheless I think it’s got some bad tropes about neurodivergent people. And then in 2001 came I Am Sam, Sean Penn playing a man with some sort of intellectual disability, who must fight for custody of his daughter. Listening to Sean Penn trying to do an impression of somebody with an intellectual disability is painful to hear, and by this time critics were starting to agree, as this film is now generally seen as an embarrassment, and to a lesser extent, was seen so at the time.
So, what’s going on with all these disabled person/neurodivergent person films? Well, tv tropes, the source of all the tropes ever, has a page on it if you’re interested:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InspirationallyDisadvantaged
It’s the inspirationally disadvantaged trope, YAAAAAAY! It’s where a disabled and/or neurodivergent person is portrayed as wonderful and special and amazing so that everyone else can feel better about themselves! Wow, a disabled person managed to put on their shoes in the morning, from this point on I am inspired to LIVE LIFE TO THE FULL!
The disability rights activist Stella Young (who sadly died in 2014) had a term for this kind of depiction of disabled people, she called it “inspiration porn”. She talks about how when she was fifteen she was offered a community achievement award for, well, not doing anything, just having a disability. She talks about this and other relevant experiences in her excellent Ted talk here:
Tropic Thunder anticipated “Music” by Sia By Over Thirteen Years
In 2021, Sia released a film called “Music”. Music was about a mentally impaired farm hand who can talk to animals. Kidding! That’s a line from Tropic Thunder! But Music was so bad, so offensive to the autistic community, that it might as well have been about a person who’s head movies make their eyes rain. Okay I’ll stop it now! Its depiction of an autistic person wasn’t for the benefit of the autistic community. In fact, I can barely watch it, and I mean that literally. It’s such an assault on the senses that even an autistic person with mild sensory issues such as myself finds it difficult to watch, Sia obviously made a film about an autistic person, that wasn’t for autistic people at all. It goes beyond the “inspirationally disadvantaged” and “inspiration porn” tropes, and is actually dangerous for autistic people, the film depicts the autistic character being restrained in a way that has actually killed autistic people and other disabled people:
https://themighty.com/topic/autism-spectrum-disorder/sia-music-prone-restraint-autistic-meltdown/
Fortunately, this terrible film was pretty much universally panned. But I remember the first you tube videos by autistic people giving their opinions on it, and many of them said that it’s as if somebody went ahead and made the film “Simple Jack” for real. So I think Tropic Thunder played a part, and maybe only a small part but some part, in bringing us to the point where horrific depictions of autistic people and other types of disabled people are considered a horrible throwback to an age when people were less educated about these topics.
Should A Film Like Tropic Thunder Be Made Again In This Day And Age?
I suppose I should clarify that this is just as I perceive it, as a low support needs autistic person. Maybe high support needs autistic people often have a different view, maybe people with other types of disabilities or neurodivergences have a different view. I’m not even necessarily saying that other low support needs autistic people agree with me. While I think the satire in Tropic Thunder is valuable, there is a danger of crossing a very thin line, the line between satirizing the treatment of the disabled community and making fun of them.
It’s great when abled bodied or neurotypical people want to highlight the shitty treatment of disabled people or neurodivergent people in our media, but it should be done with great caution, or it could inadvertently perpetuate the stereotypes it’s trying to abolish. So that’s why I think able bodied people shouldn’t make such satires without a very strong contribution from disabled people. And not just “I met a disabled guy once and he seemed nice”, but disabled and or neurodivergent people need to be present to read the script and make sure there’s nothing in it that’s hurtful to their communities. This role is called a sensitivity reader, and fortunately, it’s getting more and more common to use sensitivity readers to make sure the depictions of other people’s communities are depicted fairly and accurately. Or, what I hope we’ll see more of in the future is these kind of satires being made by disabled people.
Speaking of which, would you like to see a short film that satires ableism created by disabled people?
This film is Jeremy the Dud, a brilliant satire of the treatment of disabled people. Everyone involved in it except the main character (who plays an able bodied character) is disabled. This film depicts a world where most people are disabled, and all of the patronizing treatment of disabled people is applied to able bodied people. Poor Jeremy is repeatedly congratulated for completing simple tasks, is denied work in jobs he could easily do, being told by the boss that he is, “Not running a charity,” and when he lashes out at the horrible way he is treated he is patronizingly told that he is just tired and needs a rest. So what are you doing still listening to me for? Watch Jeremy the Dud because it’s frickin’ awesome!
Ponderings Of An Autist 