X-Games legend and three-time Winter Olympics gold medalist snowboarder Shaun White has come under intense scrutiny because of a Halloween costume White dawned at a party that impersonated infamous Tropic Thunder (2008) character ‘Simple Jack’.
Simple Jack, played by Ben Stiller in one of the biggest comedies of that year was already an extremely controversial character when the movie first debuted, as Stiller mockingly spoofed an intellectually handicapped man with frequent usages of the ‘R-Word’ in the film.
Producers of the movie eventually had to censor some of the scenes with Simple Jack out of the theatrical version entirely, including the fake Simple Jack trailer at the beginning of Tropic Thunder, as disability groups denounced the movie as hateful and offensive.
White uploaded the picture to Instagram to his over 1.2 million followers before deleting the post soon thereafter when it became apparent that White’s attempt at a humorous outfit was being interpreted as incredibly distasteful.
White would later delete the post, instead, posting this apology in its place.
"I owe everyone in the Special Olympics community an apology for my poor choice of Halloween costume the other night; It was a last minute decision. It was the wrong one… The Special Olympics were right to call me out on it. They do great work supporting so many tremendous athletes and I am sorry for being insensitive. Lesson learned."
-- Shaun White