Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story

Dodgeball is the dumbest smart comedy of the 2000s — a film that knows exactly how stupid it is and weaponizes that stupidity into a relentlessly quotable, endlessly rewatchable sports parody. Vince Vaughn's Peter LaFleur leads a team of misfits against Ben Stiller's White Goodman, the narcissistic owner of a mega-gym, in a dodgeball tournament to save their beloved Average Joe's Gymnasium.

Ben Stiller's White Goodman is one of the great comedy villains — a preening, spray-tanned narcissist whose motivational posters feature only himself and whose gym caters exclusively to beautiful people. Stiller's physical transformation and commitment to the vanity is so complete that Goodman becomes genuinely menacing in his patheticness. Rip Torn's Patches O'Houlihan — the wheelchair-bound dodgeball coach whose training methods include throwing wrenches — delivers the film's thesis: 'If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.'

The ESPN 8 'The Ocho' commentary by Gary Cole and Jason Bateman is the funniest sports broadcasting parody ever filmed. The tournament structure gives the film real stakes despite its absurdity. And the alternate ending — where the heroes lose — was actually the original ending before test audiences revolted. Dodgeball understood something fundamental: audiences will accept any amount of stupidity if the film commits to it completely.