Film

DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story

A gleefully stupid underdog sports comedy that pits Vince Vaughn's shambling gym rats against Ben Stiller's spray-tanned bodybuilding tyrant in a winner-takes-all dodgeball tournament. It's broad, quotable, cameo-stuffed (Chuck Norris, David Hasselhoff) and proudly dumb in the best mid-2000s way. Good for a night when you want jokes about wrenches to the face and nothing resembling nutrition.

TMDb rating6.4

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Zoolander2001

Ben Stiller's other great idiot-villain vehicle, this time playing the moron instead of the megalomaniac. Same commitment to absurdity, same willingness to make its lead look ridiculous for the joke.

But The fashion-world satire is dated and some jokes have aged badly, particularly around gender and disability humor.

Zoolander poster

Old School2003

Vince Vaughn doing his loose, riffing, half-improvised thing alongside Will Ferrell and Luke Wilson, in a comedy that's basically Dodgeball's frat-house cousin.

But Very much a product of early-2000s bro comedy, and the midlife-crisis premise hasn't aged into anything more interesting than it was.

Old School poster

Kingpin1996

A Farrelly Brothers underdog-sports comedy with the same gleeful cruelty and cartoonish villain energy, this time transplanted to bowling with Woody Harrelson and a hilariously vile Bill Murray.

But Gross-out gags land harder or softer depending on your tolerance for 90s bad taste; not everyone's stomach for it.

Kingpin poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters2007

Same underdog-versus-arrogant-champion structure and absurd-competition setting, but true, which makes the satire in Dodgeball look almost restrained by comparison.

A documentary about competitive Donkey Kong that plays exactly like Dodgeball's plot performed by real people: a hapless underdog challenger, an insufferable smug champion, a ridiculous subculture taking itself deadly seriously.

But It's a documentary with no comic exaggeration cushioning the cruelty — the villain here is a real person, which changes how funny it feels to laugh.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters poster
More like this (8)

Major League1989

The granddaddy template: hopeless team, ridiculous owner scheme, foul-mouthed misfits pulling together. Funnier and more character-driven than most sports comedies that followed it.

But Baseball-specific jokes and 80s references may not land if you don't know or care about the sport.

Major League poster

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby2006

Will Ferrell's NASCAR fable has the same commitment to a stupid premise played completely straight, with a rival almost as gloriously camp as White Goodman.

But Ferrell's shtick is an acquired taste, and the film runs long for a joke this simple.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby poster

Semi-Pro2008no page yet

Ferrell again, this time as a delusional ABA basketball owner-player, in a comedy that leans just as hard into 70s absurdity and team-of-losers charm.

But Widely considered a step down from his other sports comedies — some good bits stretched thin over a saggy plot.

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy2004

Same year, same comedy ecosystem, same commitment to full-tilt stupidity from a cast who clearly know exactly how dumb they're being.

But More quote-machine than plot, and its news-desk satire is thinner than its jokes suggest.

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy poster

Wedding Crashers2005

Vaughn back in his natural habitat, fast-talking and improvising alongside Owen Wilson, if you want more of exactly what made him fun in Dodgeball.

But Rom-com plotting eventually takes over from the comedy, and the back half gets sappier than the setup promises.

Wedding Crashers poster

The Sandlot1993

A gentler, more nostalgic underdog-team story, but the scrappy-misfits-vs-the-world shape is identical, just with more heart and fewer wrenches to the face.

But Family-friendly and sentimental where Dodgeball is crude — a real tonal switch if you came for the raunch.

The Sandlot poster

The Bad News Bears1976

This is the ancestor of every scrappy-underdog-team comedy since, Dodgeball included; it's harsher, funnier in a meaner way, and shows where the formula came from.

The mean, foul-mouthed original template for the ragtag-team-of-losers sports comedy — Walter Matthau as a drunk coaching a Little League team of misfits nobody else wanted.

But Genuinely un-PC by today's standards — kids swearing and smoking on screen — and its cynicism has little of Dodgeball's cartoonish softness.

The Bad News Bears poster

Shaolin Soccer2001

Both turn a sport into an excuse for cartoonish physical comedy and impossible trick shots — same engine, different national comedy tradition and a lot more wire-fu.

A Hong Kong action-comedy where disgraced kung fu masters use martial arts to win soccer matches, with the same slapstick-violence-as-sport gag taken even further into physical absurdity.

But Subtitled, wildly over-the-top even by Dodgeball standards, and its humor leans on visual gags and genre parody that may feel unfamiliar.

Shaolin Soccer poster

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Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Shaolin Soccer, Zoolander, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Kingpin, Bring It On, Step Brothers, Old School, Cool Runnings, Pumping Iron, Major League, Wedding Crashers, Eddie the Eagle