The Dink: Jake Johnson and Ben Stiller's Pickleball Comedy Is the Funniest Movie of Summer 2026

Pickleball Gets the Comedy It Deserves

If you told me a year ago that one of the funniest movies of 2026 would be about pickleball, I would have laughed. But here we are. The Dink, directed by Josh Greenbaum (Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, Strays), is a hilarious, surprisingly heartfelt sports comedy that just landed on streaming — and it's exactly the kind of movie you need after a long week.

The film stars Jake Johnson (New Girl, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) as Billy "The Dink" Dinkowski, an aging tennis pro whose career peaked in the 1990s with a single ATP Challenger title. When his local tennis club is threatened with demolition by a pickleball-obsessed developer, Billy must swallow his pride, pick up the "devil's paddle," and assemble a ragtag team of misfits to win the national pickleball championship and save his club.

A Stacked Comedy Cast

The cast is an embarrassment of comedy riches. Ben Stiller plays the film's villain — a pickleball mogul named Rick Paddleman (yes, really) who plans to replace the tennis club with a chain of luxury pickleball emporiums. Ed Harris brings surprising warmth as Billy's estranged father, while Mary Steenburgen steals scenes as his no-nonsense mother. Patton Oswalt rounds out the cast as "Skip," a pickleball savant who communicates almost exclusively through obscure sports metaphors.

The screenplay, written by Sean Clements (Hollywood Handbook), is packed with jokes that land at a machine-gun pace. There's also a genuinely funny cameo from John McEnroe as himself, now a pickleball commentator who takes the sport far too seriously.

IndieWire named The Dink one of the best new movies to stream in July 2026, and it's easy to see why. It's the kind of mid-budget comedy that studios don't make enough of anymore — smart, silly, and surprisingly sweet. Available to stream starting July 24.