Ben Stiller and Tom Cruise's Tropic Thunder 'offensive to the disabled'

Stiller plays an actor who has the title role in a film called Simple Jack, which carries the tagline: "Once upon a time... there was a retard."

The intention is to spoof Hollywood actors who believe playing a disabled character will guarantee them an Oscar nod. But the joke has backfired.

"We fell that the use of the word 'retard' throughout the film, 15 or more times, is done without any regard for the dignity of people with intellectual disabilities. The caricatures of people with intellectual disabilities are almost hateful, and we want this to be the beginning of the end. We want this to be the end of Hollywood treating this population as the butt of jokes," said Tim Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics disability group.

Movie studio DreamWorks invited representatives from various groups to a private screening of the film in advance of the premiere, hoping to allay their fears.

But Andrew J Iparato, president of the AAPD, branded it "tasteless" and "offensive from start to finish".

He said: "I have a sense of humour. There were parts of the movie where I laughed, but it seems to me that the movie tried really hard to go too far and then pull back on everything that was offensive except the issue of people with intellectual disability. I just think Ben Stiller and the people involved in this movie just didn't think it was going to be offensive."