It's hard to explain why undeniable stupidity is sometimes ha-ha funnier than smart comedy. We go to the movies and rejoice that at last there is a ha-ha comedy that we can guiltlessly enjoy. The problem is we usually only smile, we hardly ever bust a gut laughing. After all, who's going to admit that Juno or Ratatouille made them pee their pants? Not likely, instead they made us feel nostalgic; they tickled us with their charms and welcomed us to a nice, positive ambiance. On the other hand, a lot of people would probably admit that though they hated Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Blades of Glory, or Knocked Up, they were pretty damned funny. Why is that society has embraced stupidity over humorous whimsy? When did comedies stop being so smart? When did comedy protagonists become so stupid? When was the wit of Billy Crystal replaced with the balls of Will Ferrell? (Quite literally I might add, if you've seen Step Brothers) When was the boyish exasperation of Tom Hanks replaced with the greasy clownishness of Jack Black? And is this why Tom Hanks was forced to abandon all his comedy roots and go all dramatic on us?

It's possible that Hollywood, being the fat, balding, swearing studio boss that it is, simply noticed that Americans were starting to crave different types of comedies, and so they reevaluated their focus. It's as if America has categorized its own funny sensibilities into four major food groups: comedic food for teenagers, which was irreverent, sexy and shocking; comedic food for children, which was usually sassy, cute and trite; comedic food for sappy lovers, which features popular actors of the day toning their "act" down just enough to play sweet and silly; (see Will Ferrell in Stranger Than Fiction and Steve Carell in Dan In Real Life) and finally, Apatowian humor which is dumb humor pretending to be smart. Sadly, the truly funny comedies of yesterday, the ones defined by their wit, are long gone. Maybe we periodically see them on television--to be honest, I wouldn't know.

All I do know is that the big screen loves stupid and Tropic Thunder does the unthinkable by trying to class "stupid" up just a tad. Tropic Thunder is a movie satire that does have a great concept: we have the right to laugh at actors who are so egoistic that they can't honestly laugh at themselves. The same actors that play straight-faced gay priests, washed up action heroes, and mentally retarded farm boys, deserve special derision because they honestly believe they are doing something worthwhile. It's about time someone lampooned this topical thunder. In fact, the opening scenes of Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder were nothing short of brilliant. Pretentious movie trailers were spoofed, soulless rap stars were mocked and even sacred "war movie" cliches were humiliated in a way I haven't seen since Monty Python and The Holy Grail. The movie only sounded more entertaining to me when I heard Robert Downey Jr. was playing an Australian Oscar-winner who undergoes radical surgery to legitimately play an afroed black man.

Unfortunately, the movie ran out of steam about the halfway point. Like so many Saturday Night Live specialties, the movie thinks so much of its high concept that it forgot to include any true wit beyond the most obvious observations. (Example: the real black man asks the black-faced actor, "What do you mean, you people?") Another example would be Tom Cruise's cameo appearance in a fat-suit, playing a foul-mouthed, irredeemably evil studio boss. A brilliant casting job and an outrageous performance by Cruise that is exhilarating, for sure. Unfortunately, again, Cruise doesn't have much to work with besides the most obvious one-liners. (For a much better evil Cruise performance witness his brilliant turn as an eccentric womanizer in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia)

I am not blaming the "film" as an inanimate entity for this lack of intelligence. That honor has to go to Ben Stiller, who wrote, directed and produced a film that tried so hard and ended up accomplishing very little. I've never truly respect Stiller's writing and directing abilities. I've heard that he has created quality work before (Reality Bites, The Ben Stiller Show) but all I see on a consistent basis is his bratty and bullying style of humor. Like Ferrell, Ben Stiller thinks that an overly aggressive man being reduced to a laughing stock is the epitome of modern humor. That may be so, but for us old folks stuck in the age of When Harry Met Sally or Annie Hall , the joke is lost on us. Ben Stiller works best when he is controlled such as in There's Something About Mary. When he directs himself or is given a nameless director to push around, it's way too much of a good thing.

Stiller goes all out to ham it up in Tropic Thunder, and in doing so, has offended various disability groups for his faux portrayal of a retarded man named Simple Jack. Oddly enough, this got even more attention than Robert Downey Jr. playing black-faced. How long has it been since an actor got away with that? Nevertheless, I was very disappointed in the film because I was neither offended nor reduced to guilty tearful laughter. The two-hour film is not nearly as offensive as a half hour of South Park, and is not anywhere near the subversive brilliance of The Larry Sanders Show, my personal favorite showbiz send-up.

To me, Ben Stiller did his usual shtick in the real world. He tried so hard to make an aggressive and envelope-pushing farce, but then promptly humiliated himself and all the other actors involved, to no particular revelation or great comedic high. At this point in his career, the average retarded person has more wit and dignity than Stiller does. At least the mentally handicapped still take pride in their lives and in what they do. Stiller only seems to be content when he's finding brand new ways to play really stupid. Stiller aspires to be "retarded", hence, he deserves to be called a retard. Grade: C-