The Foot Fist Way

The film won over midnight audiences at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2006, but only landed a United Kingdom distributor. After the festival, DVDs were passed around Hollywood talent agencies and finally things began to come together. Judd Apatow asked Hill to come by the set, Ben Stiller became a fan, and Tom Cruise met with Hill. Eventually Will Ferrell and his producing partner Adam McKay purchased the movie for distribution through Paramount Vantage.

To promote the move, Will Ferrell and Danny McBride appeared as guests on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on February 26, 2008. Ferrell appeared first and played thing relatively straight. Then McBride appeared as the character Fred Simmons. Most viewers were not familiar with the film, the character, or the actor, so to them the seemingly disastrous Taekwondo demonstration in which Simmons asked for a "redo" after a failed attempt to break a block seemed real. During his interview segment, Simmons repeatedly lashed out at Ferrell for dancing around in a sexual nature during his earlier interview segment. A hint that the whole situation was a setup was when the film’s website address was flashed onscreen during the interview.