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[img align=right]http://images.southparkstudios.com/img/content/news/2559a.jpg[/img]Matt talks about "The Ringer" in Entertainment Weekly
Some of you have been asking about the similiarties between a recent episode of South Park, "Up the Down Steroid" and the upcoming movie "The Ringer." See what Matt Stone had to say about it in his interview with Entertainment Weekly. Click here.

Just read the article i think the writer of "The Ringer" is making it a bit of a big deal but i can kinda understand why he'd be pissed. I must admnit when i first saw the trailer for the movie i thought of SP but i didnt think the dude had ripped Matt & Treys' stuff.

I agree.

I mean, I can understand how it would throw him off a little bit but he is kind of making a big deal about it.

Of course that South Park fan on rottontomato isn't completely guilt free. He/she shouldn't have been writing all of that crap. So what if the premise is the same? There are thousands of movies that are almost exactly the same...when I first saw the preview, yes I did think of South Park but by the end of the preview I knew it was something completely different IMO.

I mean, I posted an article I found because I was sick of seeing things about it. The only similarity they share (from what I've seen) is the premise...but you can do so much with just a premise.

I respect the fact that the guy doesn't want any money from Trey or Matt but he doesn't need to call them rip offs. That's taking it a bit to far.

Well, I would be pissed of if I was him. You had an idea and someones airs it before you. Though, I wouldn't really blame Trey and Matt they might of not knew. But I can see it from his point of view.

Actually, when I first saw this episode I already was looking forward to the Farrelly movie, knowing the plot beforehand. Back then I thought Trey and Matt kind of bought the idea from the writer or something, and that the movie was canned. Didn't think about it much after that.
But lo and behold, here we are. Though I must say I'm a bit suprised the reaction waited until now.

Well, well, it's a great episode and I love every Farrelly movie, so good for us consumers, all the same...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, by the way!

God, this is getting ridiculous. I didn't see any previews before this whole mess started up but when I did I instantly thought, "Oh, South Park!" I probably wouldn't have if I had seen a preview before this, really. I think that by mkaing such a big deal out of this, it's just going to get more people to realize that this was also used in a South Park episode.

Also, it's not hard for two different groups of people to come up with the same idea. I mean, come on! That's bound to have happened outside of this incident. I really don't get how either group is doing a hardcore rip-off, here. It's an idea, plain and simple. And one final thing, but, well, when you take that long on getting a movie out, you have to be aware that somebody a bit quicker may get the idea and go for it and release their story faster. I mean I get that it took them a long time and all, especially to get it totally approved, but really, that's the risk you take. Don't whine about it afterwards.

... They should have sued when Up the Down Steroid came out, anyway, not when their movie came out. God. I mean obviously he was aware of it beforehand if he said he had to turn off the TV when it was showing because he was so disgusted.

I agree with both of them, Blitt doesn't want to be told that he ripped the idea off them, or vice versa. And what Stone said at the end that he can say, he didn't rip it off, but not the other way around.

Also South park, had the whole steriod side plot, I doubt the movie has anything about that. This is all just for publicity for the moive, when the movie cracks at the box office this will all be over. I'm going to see the movie & just look for similarites in jokes, scenes, etc.

im supprised i actually read the whole thing

and i must say an episode about cartman blocking off the sun at kyle and stans house would be very interesting.

*New to the Forum* Hi all!

Alright, the funniest thing I thought about this article was that it took Blitt 7 YEARS to make this idea come to life. I mean, a guy who pretends to be handicap to win the special Olympics is a funny concept, but nothing that I wouldn't have expected at least 100 other writers to be able to come up with in a short time. Blitt made it sound like Matt and Trey just stole his "Citizen Kane" away from him. If that is true, then I feel sorry for Blitt. Not for getting his idea robbed, but because he thinks that this is such a grand idea. I believe that Matt was correct when he stated, "'I think the idea of pretending to be handicapped to get out of something is not that unique an idea.''

For the record: I doubt I would go to watch "The Ringer" even if "Up the Down Steroid" never existed.

Seems to me this guy is just milking this to get some free publicity for his movie just because someone on rottentomatoes made a post. It's silly really, though publicity is publicity. Personally I would never had heard of it if he didn't start whining or faux whining or whatever. He probably made the post on rottentomatoes himself, or had an intern do it.

Also his entire theory that people can't have the same idea without stealing is absurd. I used to stage manage a comedy troupe and we did a sketch about these "girl-bots" and a slick super agent and mad toy maker villian. Right when we were going to adapt it to a movie the Austin Powers series started, did Mike Myers somehow steal our story, no, fact is people in the same industry are influenced by the same things, plain and simple.

what they said about it being like riped off an junk thats b.s. like matt said it is orignal one time someone said i did something wrong (i think i broke a bowl) so i pretended like i was retarded so i didn't get in trouble (lol) so it is n origanal though anyone eles think or do something like that before that south park episode?

That episode was going to be "The Wacky Molestation Adventure."

However, someone reminded them: "SIMPSONS DID IT!"

well, i personally can truly understand why the writer of The Ringer was so pissed off. i am a writer myself, and if youre not, then you have no idea how much it sucks to have your ideas already taken. to come up with something really awesome and then find out someone has already done that. trust me, it sucks huge amounts of ass! its happend to me before and i know. the simpsons did it ep. is a lot like this kind of situation except that butters wasnt involved in sueing anyone. i mean, if i wrote a whole movie and work on it since 2000 and then found out a show already did that, trust me, i would be extremely pissed off and im sure any good writer would be.

Regardles of who ripped off or didn't rip off whom, I'm willing to bet a dollar "Up the Down Steriod" is tons funnier than that movie.