Introduction:

Brennan Huff (Ferrell) is a sporadically unemployed thirty-nine-year-old who lives with his divorcee mother, Nancy (Mary Steenburgen). Dale Doback (Reilly) is a terminally unemployed forty-year-old who lives with his widower father, Robert (Richard Jenkins). When Robert and Nancy get married and move in together, Brennan and Dale are forced to live with each other as step brothers. They immediately don’t like each other, and Dale warns Brennan not to touch his drum set. Later, Brennan plays on the drum set as a way to spite Dale. Dale enters the room and notices a chip on one of his drumsticks and confronts Brennan about it. Brennan denies this but Dale doesn’t believe him. Brennan then goes and places his testicles all over Dale’s drums and they both get into a huge fight. The fight ends as Dale and Brennan simultaneously knock each other out with a bat and a golf club. The parents declare that the irresponsible men should find jobs or else they’re out of the house. Later on, Brennan’s successful but mean-spirited younger brother Derek (Adam Scott (actor)), who acts like an abusive older brother to Brennan, comes to visit with his family. As Brennan and Dale hide in Dale’s tree house, Derek comes to mock Brennan and Dale. Angered by Derek, Dale punches Derek in the face. Brennan is in awe that Dale did something to Derek that he always wanted to do. After this occurred, Derek’s long-suffering wife Alice (Kathryn Hahn) finds it arousing that Dale punched Derek, becoming infatuated with him. Both men eventually realize that they have a lot in common, and become best friends. They take job interviews at which they perform quite poorly.