Zac Efron hires John Cena to be his fake best friend in hilarious trailer for comedy Ricky Stanicky

Zac Efron hires John Cena to be his fake best friend in a rollicking trailer for Ricky Stanicky, the new film by Peter Farrelly of the Farrelly brothers.

Ricky Stanicky is a fictional character made up by three best friends played by Zac and comedians Andrew Santino and Jermaine Fowler.

Whenever the three of them need an excuse to go away together or get out of an obligation, they invoke their fake friend Ricky and say he needs them.

However the house of cards threatens to come crashing down when the trio go on vacation together, using Ricky as a pretext, and Andrew misses his son’s birth.

In order to prevent their loved ones from discovering their secret, they enlist the help of an ‘X-rated rock ‘n’ roll impersonator’ called ‘Rock-Hard Rod’ to play Ricky.

At the start of the trailer, the three men tell the women in their lives that their friend Ricky Stanicky has cancer – all as a gambit to go on a party trip together.

Andrew’s character has a wife who is nearing the end of her pregnancy, but as she is not due for another six weeks, they feel safe in leaving for a few days.

Their best-laid plans go astray when they are pummeled with texts revealing that the wife has gone into labor without them.

Once Andrew gets to the hospital, cradling his baby, it emerges that his family have been searching for Ricky Stanicky and have discovered no record of him.

The three men gather together at a diner and bewail their situation over coffee, with Andrew pointing out: ‘If the truth does come out, my marriage is over.’

At that point, Zac has a brainwave – find an actor who can play Ricky for them and introduce him to their loved ones in order to throw them off the scent.

They wander into a seedy nightclub and meet up with the John Cena character, ‘Rock-Hard Rod,’ a dirty tribute act who impersonates a variety of rock stars.

Not long after they have hired Rod, who greets his audiences onstage by cooing: ‘Horny to meet you,’ they begin to have misgivings.

When they go to the airport to pick him up as he arrives in their city, they are confronted with the sight of him vomiting into a trash can.

‘I’ve been cold-turkey-ing the booze! Ricky Stanicky’s in the program, remember?’ says a pallid, red-eyed Rod, whose jeans are sodden with urine.

When, however, the time comes for his big reveal, the showman in Rod asserts himself and he plays Ricky Stanicky to perfection.

He thunders into Andrew’s baby’s bris, wearing a well-fitted daytime suit and throwing his arms wide as he crows: ‘Mishpocha!’ the Yiddish word for ‘family.’

Ricky Stanicky manages to integrate himself so fully into the proceedings that he ends up acting as the mohel – the man who performs the circumcision. 

At the same party, he walks up to Zac and Andrew’s boss Ted (William H. Macy) and immediately brings up his hair plugs, mortifying him.

Zac and Andrew retreat to the kitchen in horror, certain they are about to be fired, only to later discover that to the contrary, ‘Ricky’ has been hired at their company.

‘I was really taken with your friend Stanicky,’ Ted explains in his spacious office. ‘He’s got brass balls on him, that guy! That’s why I hired him.’

Ricky Stanicky’s unfiltered attitude extends even to the point of criticizing the way Ted gives presentation – and Ted, stunningly, laps up the feedback. 

Noting Ted’s hand gestures, Ricky notes to his colleagues: ‘Every time he tries to make a point, it’s like he’s smoking invisible dongs.’

‘Dear God, it’s true!’ moans Ted, as footage of one of his presentations plays on a laptop in front of him. ‘Now it looks like I’m cupping the balls!’

The three original friends become worried about how inextricably Rod has entangled himself into their lives, and start trying to ‘get rid of him.’

Rod, however, has no interest in relinquishing his shiny new life: ‘My job sucked, I had no friends – but now I have all those things!’

The movie was directed and co-written by Peter Farrelly, who with his brother Bobby was behind such movies as Dumb And Dumber and There’s Something About Mary.

Peter’s solo career has included the dramedy Green Book, which stunned Oscar audiences by winning best picture in 2019.  

His new directorial venture, Ricky Stanicky, will not receive a theatrical release but will be available to stream on Amazon Prime from March 7.