Analysis of a Film - Dodgeball

I choose DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story (2004) for my research into comedy films.

The film opens showing the distributor, 20th Century Fox.

It then goes into a parody of a commercial, with a narrator asking questions if the "audience" is tired of being overweight, of being the same old "you". This is a parody of various exercise commercials which tries to grab the viewers attention by asking them questions. The music which plays in the background is simple melodic music which is usually heard in these type of commercials. Shown on the camera are various shots of buttocks (mainly female) , it then pans into White Goodman (Ben Stiller), the antagonist of the film.

He then takes over the commercial and begins to explain about Globo Gym and why people should go to his gym. He also says some absurd comparisons about how fat is a genetic disorder like baldness or necrophilia, which people would find funny at how random and off the wall they are. The camera meanwhile is following him around whilst he walks through the gym past various weightlifters or people doing other exercises.

White then speaks about how he was a client at the gym and it shows a picture of him, naked and obese staring at the camera whilst eating ice cream. It then zooms out showing the TV and then pans to the left showing a dog and finally stops panning when the sleeping main character, Peter LaFleur (Vince Vaughn) enters the shot.

He begins to murmur stuff about how "it feels good" when it cuts to the dog on his crotch, which he abruptly tells to get away. The shot then cuts to the TV, where White Goodman tells the viewer to "come on down and join the winning team" and that "we're better than you and we know it" with him giving a thumbs up, which gives the audience an idea of his absurd character.

Peter turns off the TV and gets up to the fridge. New "feel good" music kicks in at this point whilst it shows him getting a drink, brushing his teeth and getting into his car to drive to work, titles also start showing the names of the main actors and the crew and also the film name.




Recorded messages on his voicemail system tells us about how he's overdue on bills (by 8th months) or overdue on certain DVDs, Drunken Hussies 3, Backdoor Patrol 5 and Mona Lisa Smile. The former seem like Adult DVDs whilst Mona Lisa Smile is an actual film which seems like something a man by himself wouldn't watch.

The location changes to Globo Gym, which then pans to the right and we see Peter's gym, Average Joe's which is the complete opposite to Globo Gym. Peter's car is being pushed by 3 people. It then cuts to inside the gym and the logo of Average Joe's, to make sure the audience didn't miss it the shot before.

Now, on this scene we can see that this also is a contrast to Globo Gym as Peter walks through the gym speaking to each of his customers as they're friends. In the commercial, we see White walking past people without speaking to them and how the people around him are only fixated on their looks not other problems they might have. The exercise equipment props are notably of lower quality compared to Globo Gyms equipment

Peter begins speaking to a skinny, dorky man about his problems about getting no messages from the voicemail dating he's been using. the camera cuts from Peter to the man during the conversation and Peter then moves on to the next person. This whole scene gives the audience information about the other cast and how their personalities are.

Peter and the next person, a small fat man wearing glasses who's exercising at the same time whilst they talk. The next person is sat on a machine and they speak about his current problem. The scene changes to the past where it shows the teenager at the cheerleading tryouts. It can be seen that he's obviously nervous by the way he speaks and how he tells the judges "good luck". His partner for the cheerleading tryouts is a fat teenage girl, who tells him that she's wearing no underwear and procedes to fall ontop of him after the lift. It goes back to Peter who tells the teenager that it'll all work out and he walks away.

Peter gets pushed against a wall by a man (Steve) as he's walking who talks like a pirate and acts like one as well. They speak about the fees for the gym and finally, Peter walks to his office.


As he enters the office, we see female legs and the camera cuts to show the woman turn around and greet Peter. She tells him she's a lawyer and they begin to converse about the gyms bills. The camera uses over the shoulder shots here to show the conversation and the reactions of Peter and the woman. Peter flirts every now and then with her during their conversation and finally asks her who would buy the gym anyway.

It then cuts to White Goodman with a man behind him telling him to squeeze it whilst White groans. The camera slowly zooms out and you can see White is only doing an exercise and the man is helping him. Peter comes in and White offers him some exotic food, which Peter declines. White tells him to walk with him and they exit the room with White closing the door on the Peter.

They speak to each other about the gym and what happens in the past whilst White insults Peter and his gym. He tells Peter he'll be making the gym into a parking space and goes into a tanning machine.