The film stars Zac Efron, Jermaine Fowler, Andrew Santino, Lex Scott Davis, Anja Savcic, Jeff Ross, William H. Macy, and John Cena.

Childhood friends Dean, Wes, and JT prank a neighbor on Halloween Night by lighting a bag of dog faeces on fire and leaving it on their doorstep.

Unable to extinguish it, Dean writes "Ricky Stanicky" on one of their costume pieces, leading police to believe an out-of-town kid was responsible for the prank.

At the Bris, Rod impresses everyone with his personality and knowledge as "Ricky", including Leona, Erin's cousin Carly, and Ted Summerhayes (Dean and JT's boss).

The next day, Summerhayes reveals he has hired Ricky Stanicky to prepare the World River merger, a major San Francisco company.

Erin also drops by, saying she scored a reporting gig for a local news channel's "Hero of the Week" segment, focusing on Ricky and his alleged humanitarian efforts.

The "Hero of the Week" story begins playing, and Rod tells the reporter how he met Dean, and that the Ricky Stanicky Bible made him want to change his life.

Ricky is later confronted by two men representing Billy Idol, issuing a cease and desist order from parodying his music and threatening legal action.

During the credits, videos and pictures are shown with Ricky and others cleaning, Carly donating her hair to children, Wes becoming a published author, JT brushing his teeth outside near his porta-potty while Susan and Whitaker watch, everyone posing at Dean and Erin's wedding, and a viral TikTok remix of Summerhayes' comedic jerking motions at various conferences.

In May 2010, it was reported that James Franco was attached to play the title role in Ricky Stanicky, with the screenplay written by David Occhino and Jason Decker, Jeffrey Bushell, and Summit Entertainment negotiating to finance the film, to be produced by Michael De Luca and John Jacobs.

[4][5][6] In September 2022, it was reported that Peter Farrelly would direct Ricky Stanicky in early 2023, and that he was in talks with Zac Efron and John Cena to star.

The website's consensus reads: "Ricky Stanicky gets some big laughs thanks to John Cena's up-for-anything performance, but they aren't enough to support the movie's thin plot and excessive runtime.