Nicholas Thurkettle

Originally posted 6/21/04

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Writer: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Producers: Stuart Cornfeld, Ben Stiller
Stars: Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, Christine Taylor, Rip Torn, Justin Long, Stephen Root

The non sequiter is the redheaded stepchild of American humor, particularly in movies and television. Executives at world-straddling conglomerates are uncomfortable with things that don’t make sense, and would feel much better if every joke was obvious enough for everyone to know it was a joke. If it turns out to not be funny because of this, they can always blame the zeitgeist for shifting and reach for their golden parachute.

Which is why it’s such a rare pleasure to see a movie like Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, which hurls jokes at you that, provided you could stop laughing, you still wouldn’t be able to explain why they’re funny.

Sure it’s dumb. But, if you follow me, it’s smart about how it’s dumb. And it’s clichéd, too – notice how a key prop is labeled Deus Ex Machina. But, since the filmmakers know that all the sports movies have clichés, and we know they’re clichés, and they know that we know that they’re clichés, they’re nimble enough to subversively riff on those clichés even as they’re building a plot out of them.

The bottom line must be, does it make you laugh? In spite of some sloppiness, and a few less-than-inspired bad-taste moments, it does. Louder than you may be willing to admit to afterwards.
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