Oscar bait Reader" (2008). In the film "Tropic Thunder" (2008), characters Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) and Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) discuss the concept regarding Speedman's former role in the fictional film "Simple Jack", in which Lazarus notes that "you never go full retard", contrasting the Oscar successes of Dustin Hoffman ("Rain Man", 1988) and Tom Hanks ("Forrest Gump", 1994) with Sean Penn's failure to win an award for his role in "I Am Sam" (2001). "Tropic Thunder" received protests from disability rights organisations due to its constant use of the word "retard"; Stiller defended the scene as being intended to lampoon
Forrest Gump (character) had never seen anything so beautiful in my life," he would later say of her, "she was like an angel." The two became close friends, often playing around a large nearby tree. Forrest described their relationship saying, "Jenny and me was like peas and carrots." Jenny was one of the few people besides his mother to accept Forrest as he was, helping him learn to read and stand up to bullies who harassed him. However, Jenny's home life was not nearly as happy as Forrest's: her mother had died when she was five and her father was an abusive alcoholic