'Tropic Thunder' is now commonly understood as a maximalist shock comedy wrapped in a fig leaf quilt. A few weeks back, there was a hot debate over whether his work in 'Tropic Thunder' is better than his acclaimed acting in ' Oppenheimer,' and for a time you couldn't get away from GIFs of a painted Downey growling about being 'a dude playin' a dude, disguised as another dude.' Not long after Cooper's 'Jewface' controversy died down, another split shot of Judy Garland in horrendous Blackface next to a photo of her as Dorothy Gale rocketed around the internet, prompting rebuttals in the form of Downey as Osiris next to a picture of him as Tony Stark.ĭowney as Kirk Lazarus as Lincoln Osiris bobs to the surface of the online furor stream for any reason whatsoever. Scroll through a few threads debating whether Bradley Cooper should wear a prosthetic nose to play legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein, and there'd be the face of Downey's Lazarus as Black Army Sergeant Lincoln Osiris. The memes and references to 'Tropic Thunder' were especially prolific over the past week, however, and for reasons having nothing to do with the 2008 film's 15th anniversary, a threshold it officially crossed on Aug.13.

Benign jesters and warty trolls alike offer them up as provocative replies to any issue you can think of.

Clips featuring Downey as Kirk Lazarus are perennially popular GIFs, especially those featuring rolling transcripts of the character's most outrageous lines. It doesn't take much effort to encounter reminders of Robert Downey, Jr.'s work in 'Tropic Thunder,' no matter what year we're in.

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