Isla Fisher and Andy Samberg in "Hot Rod"

You can learn some pretty weird things when you’re researching a review on the Internet. For instance, did you know that Saturday Night Live is still on the air? Swear to god. It’s even on at the same time. When I first read that, I assumed that they had just brought it back, like they did a few years ago with WKBW-AM, but apparently it’s never actually gone away. And they still transmit it for free, so you can watch it without cable. Who knew?

I learned this while I was attempting to find out where the hell this new movie Hot Rod came from. I was disappointed to find out that it was not a biopic of one-time wrestling superstar Rowdy Roddy Piper but rather a comedy about a kid who fancies himself a natural-born stuntman. (When I say “kid,” you of course understand that I mean someone under the age of 30.)

This youth is played by Andy Samberg, a SNL cast member whose digital video “Lazy Sunday” has reportedly been downloaded 147 billion times. As best I can figure, the joke is the sight of middle-class white New Yorkers doing a rap shtick, as if the Beastie Boys had never existed. (Took about two days before “We like the Chronic (What?) -cles of Narnia” stopped rattling around inside my skull.)

Rod is a suburban post-high schooler who grew up idolizing his late father, a test-rider who died working on a stunt for Evel Knievel. He yearns to earn the respect of his stepfather (Ian McShane), hopefully in a way that will cause the old guy some physical pain. So he and his crew decide to stage an event at which he will jump over 15 buses, more than the K ever attempted.

Did I mention that Rod rides a moped? And that he has neither the training nor the athleticism usually required for this type of endeavor? This, of course, means that he doesn’t so much soar over things as into them. Like a good Road Runner cartoon, these mishaps get funnier as they become more predictable, humor being perhaps our only defense against fate. (Or maybe it’s just that we’re glad it’s him and not us.)

While most of Hot Rod’s humor involves horrendous violence to its titular character, the scattershot gags produce a few other laughs. I enjoyed an utterly pointless appearance by Ebenezer Scrooge. And I could never wholly dislike a movie that uses the theme song from the spaghetti Western A Gringo Like Me. But because current standards for this kind of comedy require the ironic use of 1980s songs, the film reaches deep into that already ravaged bag and pulls out a pile of tunes by Europe, the 1980s band that combined the worst traits of the Cure, Deep Purple and the Bee Gees circa 1973. (All bands that I like, by the way. So how is it that I would rather seal my ear canals with Krazy Glue than ever have to listen to another Europe song?)

Hot Rod seems to have two main influences. It plays like a lite version of a standard Will Ferrell movie about bonding between men who suffer from protracted adolescence, the difference here being that they’re not quite so far past actual adolescence. (These guys have a way to go before they’re even up to the level of maturity of the boy-men in Knocked Up.)

Mostly, Hot Rod simply looks like a conscious attempt to clone Napoleon Dynamite, with its cast of refugees from Nerdistan. (The only way I can explain why this Hollywood production, filmed on a moderate budget by seasoned professionals, looks like a cheesy little independent movie is that the filmmakers were trying to imitate the look of that cult hit, which looked cheap only because it couldn’t afford to look any better.) But unlike Jon Heder’s Napoleon, Shamberg’s Rod is merely nerdy, instead of transcendently nerdy. He’s of a piece with a film that wants to break rules but instead hews to formula, suggesting that Shamberg will be right at home on SNL.

Did I mention that Sissy Spacek is in this? I did not. And I hope she’s grateful.

Hey, here’s something else I found online. The movie’s writer, Pam Brady, actually put on her resume that she was a consultant for the South Park episode “Mr. Garrison’s Fancy New Vagina.” Eeeeeewwww…