Trivia
Ben Stiller broke three cameras in succession filming one scene, and even hit his wife Christine Taylor in the face once.
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Adult dodgeball leagues began to spring up across the country around the time of the film's release. Cast member Gary Cole was even invited to a tournament in Chicago.
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In the US, the film is promoted with the tagline "Grab life by the ball". In foreign markets such as the UK and Australia, this is changed to the more risqué "Grab life by the balls".
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EASTER EGG: On the Special Features section on the DVD, if you click on the Globogym logo at the bottom, you will see a short video with White Goodman talking about easter eggs on the DVD. He tells you that if you press enter every time he snaps his fingers you'll see an easter egg. These "Easter Eggs" are deleted scenes not included with those in the Special Features. There are 4 White Goodman finger snaps in the movie. The first comes as he gets into the tanning bed, the next when he sends the lawyer out of his office, the next as he motions for Me'shell to pick him up from Kate's porch, and the last when He motions Me'shell to give him the contract for Peter to sign at the hotel room in Vegas.
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Another easter egg/finger snap is after the scene in White Goodman's office where he asks Kate out. He snaps for Me'shell. When you press enter, it cuts to a clip of the dodgeball game and then a fat Ben Stiller says, "You found it."
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Gary Cole and Jason Bateman had to keep redoing their voice recordings for the dodgeball matches because everyone kept changing stuff in the script during the shoots.
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Justin Long's eyebrow was actually cut open by the first wrench thrown at him. All the wrenches thrown were made of rubber, but the first was harder than all the others.
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Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor had an 18-month-old baby at home while shooting this film. Taylor was so exhausted from taking care of the baby that she often dozed off in between takes.
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According to the director's commentary on the DVD, Rawson Marshall Thurber wrote the parts of Peter La Fleur, White Goodman, and Justin with Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, and Justin Long respectively in mind. The latter was chosen because of his role in Galaxy Quest.
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According to many cast members, the hardest part of filming the dodgeball scenes was not flinching when they knew they were about to be hit by a ball.
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Many studios including Dreamworks and MGM passed on this film. Fox finally agreed when Ben Stiller reduced his salary to well under $1 million. As of March 2005, the film has grossed over $124 million when it only cost $23 millions to make.
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Norm MacDonald can be seen in some of the Globo Gym scenes. One is in the Globo Gym commercial. He is in the background working out. At one point he is talking to some girl who is working out and it looks like he's hitting on her.
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Calling ESPN 8 "The Ocho" is a reference to the fact that when ESPN 2 was still a relatively young network, at least one of the announcers referred to it as "The Deuce".
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When the Average Joes are in the locker room waiting for their teammates before the final match, all the players are wearing pants except Christine Taylor who is wearing shorts. Listening to the DVD commentary you hear that she had pants but refused to wear them because she thought they were too ugly and unflattering.
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The DVD contains a fake commentary where the director and two main actors do nothing but fight, and claim to hate each other, before storming out 40 minutes on. The commentary is then replaced with the commentary for There's Something About Mary. The real commentary is on the DVD as an easter egg.
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The name of the Bar where the confrontation between White Goodman's team and Average Joe's occurs "The Dirty Sanchez" refers to a deviant sexual practice.
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When Troop 417 first appears, the music heard is the old theme music for WWE/ECW wrestler Bob Howard (Hardcore Holly).
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In the scene where Peter walks into his hotel room and White and Me'chelle are there waiting for him, White says "¿Donde esta la bibloteca?" - translated means "Where is the library?"
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Patches O'Houlihan says, "It's like watching a bunch of retards trying to hump a doorknob." - a reference to "It's like watching a monkey trying to hump a football.", something 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Coach Herb Brooks said to his team when they were preparing for the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, NY, which was also said by Tim Daland (Randy Quaid's character) in Days of Thunder.
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Patton Oswalt did the Foley work (voice) for the scene where Ben Stiller is having his 'private time' "...with sour cream on top..." He also voices the video store clerk calling about the three overdue videos at the beginning of the film.
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White (Ben Stiller) uses an Apple Macbook laptop. In the mid-2000s, Justin Long (Justin) appeared in the "I'm a Mac" ads for Apple.
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David Hasselhoff's brief cameo as the German team coach is a reference to Hasselhoff's status as a million-selling popstar in Germany. His character throws down a framed promo photo of himself in Baywatch.
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Patches O'Houlihan's jacket features unit patches for a number of U.S. Army units, some of which are: I Corps, 16th Military Police Brigade (missing Airborne tab), 75th Infantry Division, 103rd Infantry Division, and U.S. Army Special Forces (missing Airborne tab; patch is also sewn on upside down).
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Director Cameo
Rawson Marshall Thurber:
the guy who throws the drink at Steve the Pirate on the Vegas strip.
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Spoilers
The words "Deus Ex Machina" are printed on the side of the treasure chest at the end of the movie. "Deus Ex Machina" is a Latin phrase meaning "god from the machine," and is derived from a plot device in ancient Greek drama by which a "god" was lowered to the stage by a crane ("machine") to solve a problem which the human characters could not. It's used to describe an improbable event bringing a solution to a seemingly impossible problem. The "deus ex machina" in this film takes place when Peter bets on Average Joe's to win the final tournament by using the bribe money White paid him, then using his winnings from the bet to buy the majority stocks of Globo-Gym, thereby becoming the owner of both Average Joe's and Globo-Gym.
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After the credit, when the extremely obese White does a little dance to Kelis' Milkshake song, it's a reference to viral video clip that circulated on the Internet of an extremely large black woman doing the same dance.
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In the climactic scene of the final Dodgeball match TV announcer Cotton McKnight uses the term "Down goes Goodman! Down goes Goodman!" This is a reference to Howard Cosell's famous call from the Heavyweight 1973 championship fight between George Foreman and Joe Frazier in which he yelled, "Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!"
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In the end of the movie, ESPN 8 announcer Cotton McKnight says "Do you believe in unlikelihoods? Yes!" This comment is a play on the famous exclamation by Al Michaels when the USA beat Russia in hockey at the 1980 Olympics, "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!".
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The DVD contains a fake alternate ending where Average Joe's loses the final match and the film goes to the credits as the announcer exclaims that they are going home with absolutely nothing. This was never intended to be actual ending of the film and is included on the DVD as a joke, but a popular rumor is that it was originally planned to be released and was only changed to a "happy ending" because of complaints from test audiences.
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Actress Missi Pyle (who played Fran) can be seen arm in arm with Owen without makeup looking as she does in real life towards the end when Peter LaFluer is doing the commercial.
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At the end of the movie when White Goodman commits a foot foul, his diatribe about being out here and working his butt off and the ref making a poor call like the one he made is meant to mock the similar diatribe made by Jimmy Connors at the 1991 U.S. Open when he said, "I'm out here at 39 years old working my butt off and you make a call like that!"
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