About this Site

We are geeks. We mock things. What more do you need?

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For the Retarded is a website based on lighthearted humor, pop culture observations, and good old fashioned fun. Although the word “retarded” is used in the domain and site name, the authors in no way wish any harm or insult on any persons of mental or physical handicap. It’s just a word. It means nothing. It sounds good. And god damn, it’s funny. So please, if you want to bomb the authors with hate mail, feel free, but they’ve seen it a thousand times before. And they’re not changing the name. Ever. In fact, the site will probably outlast you, so learn to live with it.

But how did this all come to be?

In the mid-1990s, four friends were doing time in a mom-and-pop video store in suburban Atlanta. In order to pass the time on those slow weekday afternoons, they began to write musings to one another on the antiquated POS computers they worked on. One day, a (very) short subjective on Citizen Kane was penned with the title “Movie Criticism for the Retarded”. A concept had been born.

Soon after that, more short reviews were being tossed around under the “Movie Criticism for the Retarded” banner. After a few months, a nice little collection of rants and reviews had been compiled.

In early 1998, the video store shut its doors. The creators of the content felt the urge to share their musings with the rest of the world. Unfortunately, there was no way to save the data into a portable format, so all they had were an incomplete collection of their words printed from a dot matrix printer. The material that hadn’d disappeared into the ether was painstakingly transcribed into cyberspace, and “Movie Criticism for the Retarded” made its debut on the web in the summer of 1998 on a free server.

The site was updated sporadically for the next couple of years, but stagnated and was nearly forgotten. After some redesigning efforts and obtaining a new domain name, the site was relaunched in 2002 with its own dedicated host. Over the course of the next few years, the site steadily grew in popularity as the subjects began to expand beyond the world of cinema and into other facets of entertainment and culture. A couple of redesigns followed, as well as the introduction of some popular new features and the incorpration of new forms of media, until real life began overwhelming the site’s creator and it began to lay dormant again.

In late 2009, work toward a relaunch began again. This time, the authors decided it best to no longer limit themselves to focusing almost exclusively on movies, and “Movie Criticism for the Retarded” became simply For the Retarded. What you’re seeing here is the culmination of over a dozen years worth of ups and downs.

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11 Comments »

Linda Gray said:

Just found your site, and I think it’s hysterical. Hey, do you hold legal copyright to all of the text that’s posted here? If so–wanna book deal? I do a lot of editing for a publisher that produces movie books (among other things)–if I can get them to look past the “retarded” issue, I think they’d love to do a book of the reviews posted on your site. Let me know if you’re interested.
Cheeries,
Linda

# 15 February 2007 at 8:45 pm

Alice said:

Noel, you are the bomb! I loved your insights into the 2002 Oscars (somehow I got directed to your site, specifically that page). Keep up the good (funny) work.

# 29 April 2007 at 11:11 am

blogcabins said:

Like your site and will link to it on mine. You ought to check out one of my latest posts – it’s right up your alley: my favorite “special” characters. :)

# 27 June 2007 at 10:21 pm

Dadtovunerablekids said:

Hi,

No hate mail here people. Only facts and observations. You say you’ve “heard it all before” and that “we in no way wish any harm or insult on any persons of mental or physical handicap. It’s a term we toss around like it’s a tennis ball. It means nothing.” I’m gonna take a stab in the dark and guess that you haven’t heard this one before…

I have 2 children that have Down syndrome. They are wonderful children that happen to have an extra chromozone. I was blessed with my son of nine years as my only birth child. 3 years later my wife and I adopted his little sister who’s mom gave her up because she had Down syndrome, saying that if she’d only known early enough in the pregnantcy she would have aborted her. Fact is over 80% of people with a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome choose to abort. So now you know a little about what brings me to your site.

I’m all for li1ght hearted good ole fashion fun. Just not at my childrens expense. You toss the term “Retarded” around like it’s a tennis ball and claim that it means nothing. Well friends, it does mean something. It’s become a way to degrade and laugh at people who you see as lessor than yourselve’s. You’ve probably heard that part before.

I wonder what sort of things are in your life, or the life of your family that are so tremendously painful that you feel the need to degrade the most vunerable people in the world. Maybe it helps you to laugh. If that’s your desire then so be it.

# 13 August 2008 at 3:14 pm

Mike said:

Dear Dadtovenerablekids:

I am also the parent of a child with special needs. I can see that you are trying to reason with these losers who toss around the word retard like a tennis ball. The fact is they just don’t care. It doesn’t bother them. They don’t see our kids as having any value. They actually say that it’s not a big deal unless you’re retarded. I guess what they don’t get is that we’re all a heartbeat a way from a disability. I’m kind of wishing that I could see into the future. Watching one of those clowns who started this site end up in some rehab after an accident. They spent their lives in a chair having the drool wiped from their chin while their aide calls them a retard behind their back. Well, I can wish can’t I?
Don’t bother trying to reason with them or call them friends. They are not your friend. They are pathetic excuses for human beings who have zero compassion and don’t deserve your kind words.
Bet they sit around in their underwear watching Tropic Thunder reruns.

# 15 January 2010 at 9:49 pm

Matt said:

I am a special needs child and I think this site is the bombshitdiggity.

# 19 January 2010 at 4:54 pm

Timmy said:

I am a Timmy! special needs child Timmy! and I think this site is Timmy! the bombshitdiggity Timmy!

# 25 January 2010 at 4:53 am

Michael N. said:

I’m the brother of a special-needs person (Cornelia de Lange Syndrome -look it up) and I believe that a sense of humor is important. Important especially when dealing with serious issues. As long as people don’t have deliberately malicious intent (and clearly these “Retarded” clowns do not), let’s not escalate any perceived impoliteness by pouring more rhetorical gasoline on the fire. Simple words, innocently uttered, cannot hurt anybody. Life is already full-enough of diplomatic conflict. We should be saving our ire (and our efforts) for the truly hateful people who deserve it.

# 27 January 2010 at 11:05 am

Baldy said:

Regardless of opinions on the use of the word “retarded,” I would like to specially thank Mike for showing his ass so publicly. Mike, which is worse? One person callously throws around a word that is held by some to be offensive. Another wishes grave bodily harm on someone because of use of the word.

Mike, you’re not a good person. Go do some good with your life and stop wishing evil onto others.

# 1 March 2010 at 5:37 pm

DudeDazz said:

Hello,

This is a great site you have. I have a movie review website that I am currently running and I would like to have more people read my reviews. I was just wondering if you could possibly put a link to my website on your site and I will, in exchange, put a link to your website on mine.

This is the link: http://www.dudedazzmoviereviews.wordpress.com

Regards

DudeDazz

# 14 May 2010 at 4:53 pm

TooLittleTooLate said:

Oh wowwww, some people are way too sensitive. I wish I had read these comments sooner!

I don’t recall anyone calling anybody else’s children/family members ‘retarded’ beyond own their relatives doing so. My mother taught me that it’s not what people call you that matters, it’s what you answer to. If your kid/relative isn’t retarded, then no one is talking to you or about them.

Dadtovunerablekids, you called your own kids retarded because I am pretty certain that no one responsible for creating this website has ever even met your kids, and so the term is useless unless you give life to it in your own mind. I’m sure if the site’s creators would have met your children, they wouldn’t have even for one minute made the correlation between fortheretarded.com and your kids. They didn’t have a clue about your children’s existence let alone their extra chromosomes, which means you alone had that knowledge. Therefore you are the one who judged your own kids as being retarded, and now you’re feigning offense because of the name of this site? YOU made that correlation all by yourself. Shame on you.

Ditto for Mike and Michael N. because you people clearly don’t get it. Word to the wise–or the totally clueless in this instance–if it doesn’t apply to you, if YOU don’t believe that your kids are retarded, then don’t respond.

# 24 February 2013 at 10:56 pm