oops -- i meant robert downey jr

Oh yeah, I remember Morton Downey, Jr! He had a late night tv show with a giant mouth as his logo.

I think the movie very much points out that RDJ's character is a pompous, clueless ass, and is making an embarrassment of himself to all of humanity with his blackface, so I see it as more of a ironic jab at the history of film & entertainment.

Frankly, I felt way more awkward with the whole Love Guru thing. It wasn't ironic and it wasn't an in-joke, so that came off more like real "brown-face" for me.

Morton Downey Jr. in blackface would have caused riots. But RDJ? They manage to pull it off, at least in the trailers - it feels clever rather than offensive. I don't know that many other actors could have pulled it off, but I'm pretty psyched to see the whole movie.

Actually, I just had this discussion with someone comparing this to the Spanish Olympic team's "slant eye" scandal. It's all about the context.

First the basketball team, then the tennis team. Gar.

Not to open up a can of worms, but what was their comparison? I am curious about the "context" part of the dicussion you had. They are both about race and about mockery of racial differences, but did the other person think there was a parallel in intent/result/context?

Well, the person (who is Asian, actually) claimed that people needed to grow a thicker skin because no harm was meant by the basketball/tennis teams. And then said, "Why has no one made as big of a deal of RDJ in blackface?" (He also made a few other comparisons like to the Samurai Hotel skit in SNL, etc...)

But, I said that the context was completely different. While I'm not as offended as some by the Spain thing, I can completely understand why. They are international representatives of their country and should be expected to behave as such. You wouldn't find it surprising if, say, the US basketball team took photos of themselves all wearing turbans and giant beards. They (or whoever handles their PR) should have known that it was considered offensive in other cultures.

In Tropic Thunder, I pretty much said what you said above, just not quite as succinctly :P Just that it was meant to show how ridiculous it was and was meant to be ironic.

Interestingly enough, one of the guys in the Spanish basketball team also plays for the LA Lakers, so you'd think having spent time in the US, which is far more heterogeneous than Spain, he's know better. I have also read that Spain has its share of immigrants, especially from North Africa, and that racial mockery is something that they aren't 100% clueless about.

The Spanish soccer team has also been widely known for making monkey noises whenever they play a team that has black/African members.

Ouch, that's bad. But there's also a difference (aside from the guy who plays for the Lakers o_O) between knowing about racial mockery and *really* understanding it.

For instance, in Japan, you can regularly see bad racial jokes. They know that racism is bad, per se, but "come on, it's all just a joke so it's okay!" is the pervasive mentality.

Totally agree 100%. Which was the point I was trying to make to my friend.

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