SNL-fueled farces glorifying once-unsung professions have become a box-office go to staple. Pick a job, any job! Call Will Ferrell (or any available SNL proxy), sit back and let the cash roll in. Having already enshrined anchormen and NASCAR drivers soundly within the pantheon of cinematic greatness, “Hot Rod” pays homage to the truly overlooked last action hero, the stuntman.

And not even one of those classy, ‘established’ union member stuntmen; this is the story of Rod Kimble (Andy Samberg — whom I hear spends various lazy Sundays with his dick in a box ... oh, those crazy kids), an aspiring daredevil with a dream. What dream? To summarily kick the shit out of his elderly stepfather in hand-to-hand combat, of course. Hey, not everyone can afford a family therapist and drugs to work out their “daddy issues.”

Alas, that rat-bastard fate ruthlessly preempts Rod’s whoopassin’ dreams by afflicting his stepdad (Deadwood’s Ian McShane) with a life-threatening illness. Since the Kimble family lacks the coverage and dough to bankroll the costly operation, Rod logically decides to raise the money by becoming a stuntman extraordinaire. As you can tell, this premise is steeped in reality. Everyone knows countries boasting socialized medical systems are 60% less likely to produce amateur stuntmen. It’s science.

With that, Rod, his half-brother Kevin (Jorma Taccona, also of “Lonely Planet”) and compadre Dave (fellow SNL-er Bill Hader) commence training and raising the money necessary to stage the ‘big jump’ to earn that elusive $50,000. Really, the “plot” amounts to Samberg catching fire, smashing into objects and things generally exploding. It’s “Jackass” with snippets of dialogue and random crap in between. So does Rod fulfill his destiny, get the girl, save his stepfather and then commence the beatdown shortly thereafter? Who the fuck cares?! The folks behind the movie didn’t; just enjoy the ride. Almost like porn, you get the sense that everyone onscreen is just waiting out the dialogue until the real shit goes down.

“Hot Rod” fronts no pretense of ambition. The barebones plot is almost begrudgingly fleshed out simply so this can meet the definition of a movie — not just an amalgam of “Lonely Planet” or SNL shorts. Indeed, its best moments stem from random tangents and bizarre side gags. It’s almost as though Samberg & co were given this story as a lame premise to improvise with on “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”

Whether punchfighting ala “Footloose,” bursting into flames at a children’s birthday party, making an old man crap himself or just giving the camera one of his patented off-center smiles, Samberg may not have quite found his cinematic sweet spot yet, but it could’ve been a lot worse. Isla Fisher (a.k.a the future Mrs. Sascha Baron Cohen) is woefully underused as Rod’s would-be love interest; Kimble must win her from her scheming assbag of a boyfriend, played by Will Arnett.

On a basic level, “Hot Rod” remains hamstrung by stars, writers and a director who boast an uncanny talent for digital shorts but strain to sustain humor for 90-minutes. Where past SNL catastrophes took one-joke characters and futilely attempted to build a cogent plot around them, the “Lonely Planet” boys spurn the notion of a story arc and haphazardly weave a series bits together. The result has is its moments; few, however, elicit the uproarious laughter of even one will-timed Adam Sandler doodie joke.

“Hot Rod” sets its sights low but delivers on all the basics. While Andy Samburg’s first foray onto the big screen does not crash and burn, it hardly constitutes a risky, let alone death-defying stunt.