Special Showing

How the Farrellys' 'Ringer' Turned Laughing-At Into Laughing-With

In the first half-hour of the new Farrelly brothers comedy, "The Ringer," words like "retard" and "feeb" are freely tossed about as a man persuades his nephew Steve (played by the former "Jackass" Johnny Knoxville) to pretend to be mentally disabled so as to easily win the gold in the Special Olympics.

Audiences will laugh, perhaps nervously, guiltily: Studying up his " 'tard" behavior by watching "Forrest Gump," Knoxville becomes "Jeffy," sporting red gym shorts pulled way too high. The movie opens Friday, and should further the Farrelly brothers' place in the universe of crass. And that discomfort you feel laughing at it? The fidgeting, the guilt?

All part of the plan.

And here is where you would normally place your bets on how quickly the people who run the Special Olympics would unleash a mighty indignation on behalf of those now called the intellectually disabled and immediately begin issuing press releases demanding an apology.

But you'd lose that bet.

The Special Olympics gives "The Ringer" five thumbs up! The group's official endorsement came out weeks ago. (The National Association for Down Syndrome has also given its assent.) Almost from the start, Special Olympics International made an unlikely deal with the rascally Farrellys to assist this most unusual and ambitious comedy -- under certain conditions. It was two years of negotiations between the Special Olympics and the filmmakers before a single frame was shot. Now everyone involved is holding their collective breath, waiting to see if critics and/or audiences will appreciate the fine line between irreverent humor and permission to mock.

"The risk of failing was enormous, but the upside of succeeding was even bigger," says Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver.

Seated on a camelback couch in his 12th-floor office at Special Olympics headquarters on 19th Street NW, he does look Kennedyesque. The eyes, the perfect hair, the easy classiness. He is the 46-year-old Yale-educated son of Sargent and Eunice Kennedy Shriver -- the do-good wing of the Kennedy clan.

Tough act to follow, that. His father, Sargent, is the devoted public servant who shaped the Peace Corps, the Job Corps and Head Start, and directed Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty programs. His mother, Eunice, was inspired by her intellectually disabled sister, Rosemary, to found the Special Olympics in 1968, marching youngsters onto Chicago's Soldier Field for the first international games.

"I've had good role models," says Shriver, who since joining the Special Olympics as president in 1996 has gradually taken charge for his parents (his father suffers from Alzheimer's and his mother is recovering from a stroke), becoming chairman in 2003. He splits his time between the Washington office and traveling to any of 30,000 competitions in more than 150 countries. He's also kept a hand in moviemaking of the upstanding variety, co-producing the 1997 slave saga "Amistad" and Disney's 2000 triumph-over-disability, "The Loretta Claiborne Story."

And now to his rsum, add executive producer of "The Ringer."

Shriver is counting on the movie to accelerate public acceptance and understanding of people with intellectual disabilities. But a lowbrow pratfall could set back the Special Olympics' great strides.