Have you heard about the new Ben Stiller and the controversy?
By philjas
@philjas (1134)
United States
August 12, 2008 11:48pm CST
I don't know the name of it, I just heard about this on the news tonight. It's a comedy and the word "retard" is used many times in it. Advocates for the mentally disabled are protesting and trying to have the movie banned. My feeling personally is that Ben Stiller should know better (he wrote the movie.) He's around the same age I am, and while he grew up with famous parents and that might have something to do with it, anybody our age who grew up in middle class America should remember how that word was so common when we were kids. Kids who today would be called "special" were called that by mean kids, and it was hateful. And it was often used towards ANY kid who momentarily got somebody else mad. I think it's now widely known as a really bad insult word and shouldn't be used in a comedy movie like this.
1 response
@_sketch_ (5742)
• United States
13 Aug 08
Comedy is always going to insult someone. People just need to chill out and put their energy into something more important like ending world hunger or something. I'm really not trying to be rude to you or mentally challenged people. I know sometimes words can be hurtful, but things like this are what made the word retard a bad one. Retard was originally just a synonym for slow. What I'm trying to say is that everyone is always making such a big deal about equality, but by doing that we are just making the differences stand out. Anyways, no movie should be banned. This is america and we have freedom of speech, even if it's offensive speech. Noone is forced to watch this movie.
