Ben Stiller was worried Dodgeball masturbation pizza scene would ‘freak people out’

Ben Stiller admitted that a joke from one of his most famous films could have ‘freaked people out’ when they first saw it.

OK, given Ben Stiller’s body of work, we’re definitely going to have to narrow that down a lot, aren’t we?

Here's the scene, just to jog your memory:

The comedy star is known for his hilarious – if often jarring and unnerving – style, and never was that style out in such clarity than during his time playing White Goodman in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.

The film has become a cult classic, featuring turns from Stiller, Vince Vaughan, Stiller’s wife and fellow actor Christine Taylor, and even Chuck Norris.

Hell, there was even an appearance from Lance Armstrong in the film, before the – let’s say – unpleasantness that effectively ended his career.

There was one scene in the flick that clearly even worried regular cringe-comedy aficionado Stiller.

It was when he was asked to put a piece of pizza down his pants, effectively simulating masturbation, while watching a video of some pizza being made.

20th Century Fox

In the scene, Goodman is seen tempting himself with a slice of pizza, sitting at his laptop watching the cookery programme and sniffing away at it.

Then, he starts to put the pizza down his trousers, right at the second that his ‘fitness consigliere’ and fellow Globo Gym Purple Cobras dodgeball player Me’Shell walks in.

“What have I said about knocking?” Goodman asks.

On the DVD commentary for that, Stiller admits that he was slightly concerned that the scene might not land with some people.

Discussing it with the director, Rawson Marshall Thurber, he asked: “How did you actually think it was gonna work?”

It turns out that the scene was heavily edited from what the original plan was, with Goodman originally supposed to be watching pornography of obese people, making it abundantly clear what he was doing with that piece of pizza.

Perhaps on this occasion the more subtle approach paid dividends.

Stiller then admitted that the scene may ‘freak some people out’, but that’s ultimately the point of the film, and part of the reason people like it so much.

Anyway, if you’re game for more of the same, you might be interested to learn that there is officially a sequel in the works, as of yesterday.

Vaughan will be coming back to reprise his role as Peter LaFleur, but we don’t actually know who else is on board.

Hopefully they’ll manage to get Stiller back in, as well as co-stars like Justin Long, Stephen Root, and Taylor.

Long is certainly up for it, having told Comicbook.com about a campaign led by Vaughan to get Stiller back on board.

20th Century Fox

He said: "Of course I would love to do it and I hope that it ends up happening, but I think Ben [Stiller] is a little… what he told me on that podcast was that he’s a little trepidatious about doing a sequel to something so beloved, something that people enjoy so much that.

"You don’t wanna s**t on the original, you want something just as good.

"So I think [Stiller] is a little wary of that, of trying to recreate something that was very specific to that time, but I hope he comes around on it."

He added: "Vince is a very convincing person, so I’m just hoping Vince can convince him with his idea. It’s a funny idea."