Tag Archives: censorship

After a long day yesterday, I was excited to see that Tropic Thunder, the hilarious Vietnam War movie-within-a-movie, was playing on FX. So I settled on the couch, prepared to laugh away my lethargy. But I was soon too annoyed to enjoy the film.

Why?

One of my favorite scenes in the movie — which is also one of the most controversial — was censored.  As in bleeped.  When no curse words were used.

In the scene, actors Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey, Jr.), a five-time Oscar winner, and Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), an action hero whose career is definitely waning, are discussing Tugg’s recent performance in the movie Simple Jack, where Tugg portrayed a mentally challenged boy ala Forrest Gump.

The conversation pokes fun at actors — how they choose these roles to garner major awards — and not at the characters they portray.  But the comedy is apparently too subtle for some, because FX bleeped out certain words in Lazarus’s speech, thereby killing the scene and the movie (for me).

If he had belittled the Simple Jack character, that would be one thing.  But the whole scene made fun of actors.

Actors!

Trust me, they can take it.  And hopefully have maintained their sense of humor.