As a typical throwaway comedy from Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller, “Dodgeball” is just downright dirty fun. “Dirty” because there’s something inherently wrong with watching someone get hit in the crotch with a rubber playground ball fifteen times, yet still laughing. “Dirty” because you feel bad laughing at the constant putdowns hurled at the degrading characters each of who is a stereotype-on-steroids version of a jock or a loser. Sure, it’s dirty, but in the end, you’ve had a good laugh.

But then, the film takes a childhood gym-class sport that’s brutally funny and cruel at the same time, and cranks up the volume to an adult level. A better tagline might have been “Dodgeball X-treme!!!”

The story follows the battle as Average Joe’s Gym, owned by average-joe Peter La Fleur (Vince Vaughn), and his “members” try to raise money by entering a dodgeball tournament in Las Vegas, where the first-place prize money will save their gym from foreclosure by the bank. Once the bank forecloses, next-door neighboor Globo-Gym, owned by White Goodman (Ben Stiller), will buy the property to make a parking garage for his members. Of course, Globo Gym is full of muscle-headed beefcake and sculptured women, while Average Joe’s, as the name implies, are a bunch of average-Joe loosers.

Thrown in the mix is the bank’s foreclosure assistant, Ms. Kate Veatch (Christine Taylor), who catches the eye of both White and Peter, so add a romance to the equation.

Since this is a “true underdog story,” the remainder of the tale follows the underdogs (Average Joe’s) as they try to win the money and save their gym. The story itself isn’t all that plot-worthy, but the cast of characters is what makes the film enjoyable and fun to watch, as you wince at their pain and degradation while you laugh and point. These adults who just can’t seem to fit in at either end of the spectrum, Steve the Pirate (Alan Tudyk), Gordon (Stephen Root) and his mail-order wife, or Justin (Justin Long) the high-school cheerleader reject, are rife with humorous attitudes and dialogue that is simply easy to laugh at. Even Patches O’Houlihan (Rip Torn), wheelchair-bound and throwing wrenches to teach the losers the “Five D’s of Dodgeball: Dodge, Duck, Dive, Dart, and…Dodge” is silly and laughable. The steroid robots at Globo Gym are no different, with Me’shell, Lazer, Razor, and Blazer making up the similar looking muscle-massed team. Everyone is played to such extremes (even Jason Bateman portraying a X-Games-like commentator) that it just becomes silly.

If there is a downfall to the comedy, and particularly to the over-the-top characters, it’s Stiller’s overly intense White Goodman. Stiller’s comedy timing is golden, but sometimes his characters are so out of the box that they become un-funny. Had his lines not been delivered so intensely, and instead was played off as just an intense Stiller-himself, the character probably would have been much funnier. Contrasting this however, is Vaughn’s Peter La Fleur. Relaxed and genuinely cynical, his delivery is much more effective and ultimately funnier.

While not destined to be a classic comedy, “Dodgeball” still has enough one-liners and scenes to be an enjoyable diversion. Besides, if you can’t laugh at a good crotch shot, then you need to catch up on the last 10 year’s of America’s Funniest Home Videos.