Funny, because the first time I saw a trailer for the movie I thought, "Hey, they're ripping off South Park." This could be an amusing little public spectacle of a debate to watch.

More movie news: Harry Knowles just LOOOOOVES him some "Brokeback Mountain."

http://www.@intitcool.com/display.cgi?id=22033

Criminy, what a tool.

The next thing you know, someone's going to make a movie about gay cowboys.

NUKE COMEDY CENTRAL

Hey, why can't they both use the idea? If Randall is a jerk for not sharing with Rebecca, why shouldn't the Farrely bros share with South Park?

Seriously, is the idea of pretending to be retarded new to the world of comedy? I'm sure the Simpsons did it first.

What's creepy is how the Farrelly brothers looked to have such a promising future after "There's Something about Mary" and squandered it.

Mary's a fox!

How does anyone claim authorship of an idea that has its roots in playground trashtalking for as long as I can remember?

I can't count the number of times I heard someone put down a kid who sucked in sports, telling him the only chance they had of winning a medal was in the Special Olympics.

I have no doubt that this spat will be featured in an upcoming episode of South Park.

Steve, that's a little different, as that's more a roundabout way of accusing someone of being retarded. Although, yeah, I don't think someone posing as a handicapped person is such an amazing, groundbreaking idea. I liked the South Park episode but it was more the execution and the details than the premise.

I think the Farrelly brothers are just being whiners with this talk about the idea being stolen, but I can see how it would be frustrating to have others accuse them of stealing the idea if they actually had it first. I'd have no problem with them coming out and explaining how they didn't steal it, but their crybaby finger pointing is pathetic.

Now if the Farelly Brothers's movie has a subplot about one of the legit retarded athletes juicing, that will truly be classic.

Earth to Farelly's....Every thing on South Park is a total rip-off and brilliant parity. It's what they do. Consider it a compliment.

Heh. Good point, Pupster. The Farrelly brothers should be honored that they were parodied before their movie even came out. A new South Park record!

The concept is pretty simple and it took some work to turn it into a 22-minute South Park. Surely they're going to have to have a lot more if they hope to get a 90-minute movie out of it, so that should make it different enough so that it doesn't appear to be a ripoff.

And if they don't add a lot to the basic premise, then it's going to be a worthless movie, so the point will be moot anyway.

That episode was from last season. Why didn't they say something sooner?

Is their movie about to come out, making it urgent they drum up some publicity?

The Farrelly brothers should be honored that they were parodied before their movie even came out. A new South Park record!

The Christmas in canada episode (Wizard of Oz ripoff) had Saddam, who was found on Sunday, redrawn with the new scraggle beard picture by Wednesday night. Those boys work fast, all right.

I would think that when you make a pitch to someone you would memorialize it to avoid these disputes. Its called covering your assets.

All this is, is pre-emptive grousing about the poor performance of this movie.

The Ringer was shot over two years ago (I know because I ran into Johnny Knoxville at the Four Seasons here in Austin, during shooting). Previews for it started coming out in the spring of '04. Rumor is that it was so bad, they had to rewrite and reshoot a lot of the movie. So this piece of stank is well over two years in the making.

For a director/writer, the only thing that sucks worse than coming out with a turkey, is having to spend two years of your life coming out with a turkey.

Woah, woah, woah. Hold on a second there, bud, Are you telling me a movie starring Johnny Knoxville was a turkey? Surely, you jest.

Isn't the idea of a non-handicaped guy cheating in the special olympics kind of up there with airplane peanuts as an hoary comedy premise? Wasn't the South Park episode in question like episode #5 or something?

Of course Parker and Stone are creepy! Hav you seen that puppet sex scene in Team America?

Duh.

Chances are a media savvy paralegal could find tons of previous examples of similar plots in the course of an afternoon.

Plus, Family Guy already did the 'Steroids at Special Olympics' gag a LONG time ago:
http://www.tv.com/family-guy/ready-willing-and-disabled/episode/101316/summary.html