Why is premise behind the title of the movie 'The Ringer'?

Answer 1

The Ringer

I just watched this last night, actually. Pretty bad movie, by the way.

The premise behind it is that Johnny Knoxville's character is the son of a gambler, and his gambling father hatches a scheme to rig the Special Olympics. Johnny Knoxville's character is fairly athletic, but not mentally challenged at all. He fakes his way into the Special Olympics, while his father places a $100K bet on him with some loansharks.

I won't spoil the ending, but the acting isn't the greatest. It did have its funny moments.

The movie was better than I expected, but if I understand the question, an explanantion of the title is being asked for. A ringer is an imposter or lookalike. For some reason, an exact lookalike is called a dead ringer. The title is inaccurate because Johnny Knoxville does not impersonate another individual in the movie. He does misrepresent himself, but that alone does not make him a ringer.

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It's not his father, it's his uncle. And the reason JK takes part is to pay for surgery for his gardener.

The term "The Ringer" used in this way means that he was impersonating what he thinks somebody with learning difficulties would act like. The rest of the film has a pretty flimsy storyline - but it made me laugh out loud more than a few times.