10 Most Controversial Comedies Of All Time

Robert Downey Jr. wearing blackface. Ben Stiller playing a mentally-challenged character frequently referred to as a "retard." It's no wonder Tropic Thunder was such a feeding frenzy for protestors when it was released in 2008.

It was Stiller's intellectually disabled character from Simple Jack - one of Tropic Thunder's many movies-within-the-movie - that drew the biggest criticisms, though, with disability rights groups coming down hard on Stiller and Dreamworks. Members of the American Association of People With Disabilities protested the premiere, while a spokesperson for the Special Olympics took exception to the liberal use of the word "retard" sprinkled throughout the film and called for a boycott.

Stiller was quick to insist that the real target of the supposedly cruel jokes were the actors who use these types of portrayals as Oscar bait. Co-writer Etan Cohen echoed that sentiment, saying "Some people have taken this as making fun of handicapped people, but we're really trying to make fun of the actors who use this material as fodder for acclaim."

In spite of the uproar, quotes like "You never go full retard" continued to worm their way through the cultural lexicon for years afterward. And rather surprisingly, Downey suffered very little fallout for his use of blackface. In fact, he get an Oscar nom (so they clearly got the joke).