“Funny People” gives an audience exactly what its title promises: funny people.

The one-liners fly as the slew of comics in this film ply their trade, portraying versions of themselves. Adam Sandler is George Simmons, a comic giant who has just found out he may die soon.

When George looks back over his life to see what he has amounted to, he discovers that he was happier before becoming famous, when life was simpler and not full of fame and fortune. From there he meets Ira Wright — played by Seth Rogen — a struggling upcoming comic, and hilarious antics ensue. Well, not really. George hires Ira as his assistant and sort-of friend, leading to a slow burn of half-hearted jokes.

George is a lost soul who cannot connect with other people, while Ira becomes attached to people almost too quickly.

Each learns from the other while helping to partially provide for the character’s deficits. If that sounds more like a bad drama than a comedy, that’s because it almost is.

Stories like this have been done over and over again with different backgrounds for each of the characters. This time, the movie is written and directed by Judd Apatow, and he has set this tale in the world of the stand-up comic.

This combination sounds like a match made in heaven. However, instead of heaven you get purgatory, as you wait for the movie to go somewhere while nothing happens. Spicing up the story, the movie contains the most cameo appearances from stand-up comics since “The Aristocrats.”

Sarah Silverman, Norm MacDonald, Paul Rieser, Andy Dick and Ray Romano — just to name a few — showing up to crack a joke for a few seconds of screen-time sounds great, but it only goes to further show how unfunny this movie is. The funniest guest comedian in the whole movie might be Eminem, and his bit was meant to be partly serious.

Despite the let-down of not being extremely funny, “Funny People” is still entertaining. Ira’s roommates, Jason Schwartzman and Jonah Hill, are fine supporting characters who help craft realistic roots for the plot. All the actors have great one-liners and strung-along quips delivered as if they were on a stage, entertaining a live audience.

This delivery style might be the only thing that gives “Funny People” the needed nudge to stay out of the realm of flops.

The plot is dull and expected, and nothing new happens. The story ends just steps from where it began, with its only growth being the feeling things might get better.

But the way the story is presented, as though we get to tag along with a movie star for a few weeks, is what entertains. All people are guilty of being star-struck and gushing a little too much when they meet someone they admire, and everyone wants to know what it’s like to be these amazing people. In “Funny People,” the audience sees that their lives are glamorous and interesting, but also sees that it’s the little things in life — friends, family, love, loss and change — that define even the most famous of celebrities.

“Funny People” isn’t a movie to see for crude jokes and belly-laughs, though they are there. This movie is a look into the lives of people who represent all of us trying to find what we’re searching for in life.