67 Fun Facts About Dodgeball

Which actor plays Peter LaFleur, the owner of the run-down Average Joe's gym?

Vince Vaughn plays Peter LaFleur, the laid-back owner of Average Joe's Gym, whose misfit regulars enter a dodgeball tournament to stop the flashy fitness chain across the street from swallowing the gym.

In which magazine does Gordon find the dodgeball tournament that could save Average Joe's?

Gordon spots the tournament in Obscure Sports Quarterly, whose open event carries a cash prize that exactly matches the gym's debt, giving Average Joe's its only realistic way to stay open.

Which fundraiser do the Average Joe's regulars try before dodgeball?

A car wash is the gym's first idea for raising the $50,000 it owes, but a rival wash staffed by women in bikinis opens across the street the same day, and the stunt ends up costing Average Joe's money.

In which city do Average Joe's and Globo Gym meet in the dodgeball tournament final?

Las Vegas hosts the International Dodgeball Open, which the team picks because its $50,000 prize is exactly what the gym owes and any side that wins a regional qualifier can enter.

What is the name of Globo Gym's dodgeball team?

The Purple Cobras are formed by Globo Gym's owner to stop Average Joe's taking the prize, and they skip the qualifying match altogether because he is a personal friend of the dodgeball chancellor.

Who plays Patches O'Houlihan, the wheelchair-using dodgeball legend who coaches Average Joe's?

Rip Torn plays Patches O'Houlihan, the star of the team's old training film, who turns up in person after watching Globo Gym's owner taunt them and simply announces that he is their new coach.

What does Patches throw at the team during training to teach them to dodge?

Wrenches: Patches hurls them at the players in practice on the theory that anyone who can dodge a wrench can dodge a ball, then sends the team into traffic for the same lesson.

Who beats Average Joe's at the sub-regional qualifier, only to be disqualified?

A Girl Scout troop thrashes Average Joe's in the qualifier, but the scouts are disqualified when one of them tests positive for steroids, so Average Joe's advances by default.

What is the profession of Kate Veatch, who ends up playing for Average Joe's?

Attorney: Kate handles real estate and tax law for the bank and is assigned to the gym's foreclosure; she joins Peter's team only after Globo Gym's owner gets her fired so that he can date her.

Which Average Joe's member believes he is a pirate?

Steve 'The Pirate' Cowan quits after Peter mocks him, comes back looking normal, then reverts the moment the winnings are called 'buried treasure'.

Which real-life athlete gives Peter a pep talk that sends him back to face Globo Gym in the final?

Lance Armstrong, playing himself, shames Peter at the airport by recalling how he beat cancer and went on to win the Tour de France five times; in 2012 he was stripped of every one of those titles for doping.

Whose tie-breaking vote on the judging panel reinstates Average Joe's after their forfeit?

Chuck Norris, playing himself as the third judge, gives the thumbs-up that overturns the forfeit; in the closing credits the defeated Goodman is still cursing him by name.

Which Baywatch star cameos as the coach of the German team Blitzkrieg?

David Hasselhoff plays himself as coach of the German team Blitzkrieg, casting that trades on his real chart career in Germany, where his single 'Looking for Freedom' was number one for eight weeks in 1989.

How does Peter win the sudden-death showdown against Goodman?

Blindfolded, with a shot to the face: with the final down to the two gym owners, Peter remembers Patches' training, ties on a blindfold, dodges Goodman's throw and hits him.

What did Peter do with the $100,000 Goodman paid him for the gym's deed?

Bet it on his own team: at 50-to-1 the wager turns Goodman's $100,000 into $5 million, enough to buy a controlling stake in the publicly traded Globo Gym and fire its founder.

How did the original test-screening ending of Dodgeball differ from the released version?

Average Joe's lost the final in the cut shown to test audiences, which faded to black once Goodman had eliminated Peter; the released film carries on into the sudden-death showdown instead.

Who wrote and directed Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story?

Rawson Marshall Thurber made it his first feature after the Terry Tate: Office Linebacker ads; selling the script, he sent studios red rubber balls stencilled with its title, and many still turned it down.

Dodgeball opened at number one in June 2004, ahead of which Steven Spielberg film?

The Terminal, Spielberg's airport comedy-drama with Tom Hanks, opened the same weekend and took about $19 million to Dodgeball's $30 million, though it had cost at least twice as much to make.

Which studio, then home to the X-Men films, released Dodgeball in June 2004?

20th Century Fox released the film, and in 2018 ESPN secured the rights to show Dodgeball twice during its real-life 'Ocho' day of oddball sports.

In Dodgeball, what does ADAA, the name of the sport's governing body, stand for?

American Dodgeball Association of America is the film's knowingly redundant governing body; one of its bylaws, letting the judges overrule the chancellor on a two-thirds vote, puts Average Joe's back in the final.

Which award did Ben Stiller win at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards for Dodgeball?

Best Villain went to the Globo Gym owner at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, where the role was also up for Best Comedic Performance; the same season his five comedies together earned him a Razzie nomination.

Which Average Joe's player is late for the final because he is helping his crush Amber's cheerleading squad?

Justin fills in for Amber's injured partner Derek at the cheerleading finals, and with him missing Average Joe's cannot field enough players, so the team forfeits until the judges vote it back in.

At the end of Dodgeball, Kate's friend Joyce has flown in from where to watch the final?

Guam is where Joyce has flown in from; after she kisses Kate, Kate kisses a stunned Peter just as hard and tells him she is bisexual.

Patches O'Houlihan's five D's of dodgeball are dodge, duck, dip, dodge and which other word?

Dive completes 'dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge'; Patches promises the team that anyone who masters the five D's cannot be hit by any amount of balls on earth.

What is dodgeball called in Germany, a name Rammstein borrowed for a 2006 live album?

Völkerball, literally 'peoples' ball', began as a mock battle between two peoples: every hit marks a fallen fighter, and each side's 'king' waits behind the opposing team's half.

In standard dodgeball, a clean catch puts the thrower out and earns the catcher's team what?

One player back in: a clean catch removes the thrower and revives an eliminated member of the catcher's side, while a fumbled catch puts the would-be catcher out instead.

When does a thrown dodgeball stop being 'live'?

On touching the floor, wall or ceiling a ball goes dead, so a hit that comes off a bounce or a rebound does not count and the player it strikes stays in the game.

How does Globo Gym's slogan 'We're better than you' end?

'We're better than you, and we know it' closes the mock Globo Gym commercial that opens the film; the line returns from a cutout of the owner, which hides the camera he uses to spy on Average Joe's.

In the variant called 'jailball', where do eliminated players go?

Behind the opponents' back line is the 'jail': eliminated players wait there and can free themselves by retrieving a loose ball and hitting an opponent with it from behind.

In which Adam Sandler comedy does his character pelt small children with dodgeballs?

Billy Madison sends Sandler's idle hotel heir back through all twelve school grades to earn his father's company, which is how he comes to be hurling dodgeballs at small children.

American playgrounds use rubber balls, but world championship dodgeball is played with foam or which other material?

Cloth joined foam at the 2022 world championship in Edmonton and brought a new winner with it: Great Britain, which had never won a title with foam balls, took the first men's cloth gold.

Which actress plays Fran, the unibrowed Eastern European star of Globo Gym's team?

Missi Pyle plays Fran, the unibrowed powerhouse of Globo Gym's squad who falls for Average Joe's Owen; Pyle had earlier played the alien Laliari in Galaxy Quest.

In China's version, Diu Sha Bao, what is thrown instead of a ball?

A small round sandbag: 'diu sha bao' literally means 'throw the sandbag', and a hand-sewn cloth bag of sand or beans replaces the ball in this Chinese playground favourite.

In dodgeball's opening rush, what must a player do with a ball grabbed at the centre line?

Take it back first: the opening rush is the sprint for the balls laid along the centre line, but a ball grabbed there cannot be thrown at an opponent until it has been carried or passed back past the team's attack line.

Where do dodgeball coaching guides usually tell players to aim a throw?

Below the waist is the standard advice: a low ball is far harder to catch than one at chest height, and under many rule sets a head shot puts the thrower out rather than the target.

Which 2010 Wii game let Mario and friends play dodgeball alongside basketball, volleyball and hockey?

Mario Sports Mix was the first Mario sports game to include dodgeball, though a hit there only drains an energy bar instead of knocking a player straight out.

What does White Goodman plan to build on the site of Average Joe's gym?

A parking structure for Globo Gym's members is the plan: Goodman buys up the gym's mortgage and gives Peter 30 days to find $50,000 before the bulldozers arrive.

Ben Stiller's White Goodman was a deliberate copy of his character from which earlier film?

Heavyweights, the 1995 fat-camp comedy, gave him the manic fitness guru Tony Perkis, a performance he admitted reusing for Globo Gym's owner on the assumption that few had seen the earlier film.

How does Patches O'Houlihan die the night before the final?

A falling casino sign kills him on the eve of the final, moments after the commentators put the team's surprise run down to 'the luck of the Irish' with Patches O'Houlihan at the helm.

ESPN's first real 'ESPN8: The Ocho' day in 2017 fell on which fitting date?

August 8, or 8/8, was the day ESPNU became the film's fictional eighth channel, showing trampoline dodgeball, kabaddi and disc golf; the stunt went down well enough to be repeated in later years.

Dodgeball composer Theodore Shapiro won Emmys for scoring which series directed by Ben Stiller?

Severance won Shapiro Emmys in 2022 and 2025; Stiller, who produced Dodgeball as well as starring in it, kept hiring him afterwards, for Tropic Thunder and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty among others.

Which host nation won three titles when Graz staged the 2024 Dodgeball World Championship?

Austria swept the men's, women's and mixed events in one of the championship's two ball formats on home soil in Graz, while the other format's three titles all left for North America.

The 2013 Dodgeball World Championship was staged in Queenstown, in which country?

New Zealand's resort town of Queenstown staged the second world championship, where Canada's men took the title from Hong Kong, the first champions, and Canada's women won gold as well.

What has become of White Goodman when he reappears during Dodgeball's closing credits?

He has regained his weight: Goodman boasts early on of having shed 600 pounds in six years, and the credits find him heavy again, eating junk food in front of the television and cursing the judge who let Average Joe's play.

In circle dodgeball, where does the throwing team stand?

Outside the circle: in circle dodgeball the throwers ring the court and fire at the players inside, who dodge until one survivor is left or swap places with whoever hit them.

In many gym games of dodgeball, what can a ball that drops through the basketball hoop do?

Return all eliminated teammates: in many gym versions a ball sunk through the other side's basket frees every knocked-out player on the thrower's team, and some give the same reward for just hitting the backboard.

Which Dodgeball actress was married to co-star Ben Stiller when the film was made?

Christine Taylor had married Stiller in 2000, so as Kate she spends the film rejecting a character played by her own husband; the two had already starred together in Zoolander.

Claims that dodgeball resembles assault have led to calls to remove it from where?

School PE programmes: in 2019 Canadian researchers argued the game teaches children that it is acceptable to target weaker classmates, a view news headlines summed up as 'legalized bullying'.

Which actor plays Gordon, the Average Joe's member with a mail-order bride?

Stephen Root plays Gordon Pibb, the meek regular who, left alone against five opponents in the semi-final, is goaded into a rage and knocks out every one of them; Root was also Milton in Office Space.

Which US channel aired all three seasons of Extreme Dodgeball?

Game Show Network launched Extreme Dodgeball three days before the film opened in June 2004; its first season played for laughs, pitting sumo wrestlers against jockeys, before the show turned into a straighter sport.

Super Dodge Ball maker Technōs Japan also created which beat-'em-up series?

Double Dragon came from Technōs in 1987, the year of Super Dodge Ball, which in Japan was a spin-off of the studio's street brawler Renegade and sent that game's schoolboy hero Kunio on to the court.

In the arcade Super Dodge Ball, what happens to a player who is eliminated?

They fly off as an angel: a beaten player becomes a cartoon angel and floats up off the screen. For the American release the game's Japanese teams became American ones, and the American team became Japan.

In the NES game Super Dodge Ball, which mode is a schoolyard free-for-all among Team USA's six players?

Bean Ball sets the six Team USA players on one another in a schoolyard until one is left; the Japanese original let four people play it together, but the NES release, out before Nintendo's four-player adapters, allows only two.

Which publisher released the dodgeball game Knockout City in May 2021?

Electronic Arts published Knockout City at launch under its EA Originals label; the developer took the game over a year later, made it free-to-play and shut the servers in June 2023.

In Knockout City, what can players hurl at opponents besides a ball?

A teammate: any player can curl into a ball to be picked up and thrown by an ally, a mechanic the 'Ball-Up Brawl' mode is built entirely around in the self-styled 'dodgebrawl' game.

Which animated series sent its elementary-school dodgeball team to play the world champions in China in 1998?

South Park did it in a 1998 episode in which the bullied Pip, goaded into a rage, wipes out the whole Chinese team with a single throw; by then his team-mates have decided they never want to play again.

Which 2003 hit does White Goodman put on the radio in Dodgeball's final gag?

Milkshake, the Kelis hit, soundtracks the film's last joke: after the credits the defeated Goodman rants at the audience, then switches on the radio to give them 'a little somethin' for the ride home'.

Gaga, the walled-pit version of dodgeball, is usually said to have been invented where?

Israel is the usual answer, with Israeli camp counsellors said to have carried the game to America; a 2017 magazine investigation instead found a Baltimore man who says he made it up as a teenage counsellor in 1975.

In gaga, where does the ball usually have to strike a player to eliminate them?

On or below the knee is the usual rule, though some pits count any hit from the waist down; players slap the ball with an open hand rather than throw it, and anyone who hits their own leg is out too.

What shape is a purpose-built gaga pit usually?

Octagonal is the usual shape, though six-sided pits exist too; Eagle Scouts have built gaga pits for their local schools and parks as service projects.

Who plays tournament announcer Cotton McKnight in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story?

Gary Cole, Office Space's boss Bill Lumbergh, plays Cotton McKnight, the play-by-play man whose solemn report that Average Joe's is forfeiting the final draws the reply 'It's a bold strategy, Cotton.'

Jason Bateman plays which dim-witted colour commentator in Dodgeball?

Pepper Brooks is Jason Bateman's colour commentator, whose deadpan non-sequiturs include 'It's a bold strategy, Cotton, let's see if it pays off for 'em'.

Globo Gym’s Fran Stalinovskovichdaviddivichski hails from which fictional country?

Romanovia is where, Goodman boasts, dodgeball is the national sport and Fran's nuclear power plant team won the title five years running, making her 'the deadliest woman on earth with a dodgeball'.

Which Star Trek captain plays the Dodgeball Chancellor who oversees the tournament?

William Shatner, Star Trek's Captain Kirk, plays the Dodgeball Chancellor, who declares the final forfeited when Average Joe's cannot field a team, only for his own panel of judges to overrule him.

Which Firefly actor plays Average Joe's resident 'pirate'?

Alan Tudyk, Firefly's pilot Wash, plays the gym regular who walks out when Peter snaps that he is not really a pirate, and who only comes back once the final has been won.

The nickname 'The Ocho' was a play on which 1990s nickname for ESPN2?

The Deuce was ESPN2's nickname from its 1993 launch, so the film's 'eighth' channel mocked a lineup of only four English-language networks; ESPNU arrived the year after the film.

Curtis Armstrong, Dodgeball's qualifier host Mr. Ralph, is best known as Booger in which 1984 comedy?

Revenge of the Nerds gave Armstrong his signature role; in Dodgeball he is the official who has to strip the qualifier's winners of their victory, which hands Average Joe's a place in the tournament.