John Cena: Making Fun of Myself Is the ‘Ultimate Honor’

Be honest: You’re psyched about John Cena hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend. Because you know he is going to be funny. And maybe that right there is part of the genius of John Cena, and why he’s destined to breakthrough to the mainstream.

In a backstage interview in the legendary Studio 8H, home to Saturday Night Live, Cena shared his thoughts on why he’s been able to successfully work in comedy.

“I’ve been able to look at myself and laugh and I think that’s a lot of the fun and it’s helped me to get to where I’m at,” Cena said. “This is like the ultimate honor of being able to make a joke or parody of your career or certain things you’re passionate about. I truly hope we hit parody hard because I think there’s a large portion of the WWE audience that wants to see that.”

Cena received rave reviews for his appearance in the 2015 comedy Trainwreck, where he held his own with funny folks like Amy Schumer and Bill Hader. That was indeed a role where Cena poked fun of his chiseled physique and his uncanny resemblance to Mark Wahlberg. He’s following down a similar path of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who also tested the waters successfully in comedy before becoming the action superstar he is today.

While coming up with a funny idea is a weakness for him, Cena said if you give him the seed of inspiration he can certainly take it to the next level.

“Just give me a little creativity and then I will crazily make my own universe around it,” he said.

As far as what we can expect to see from Cena on Saturday? He explained that he was heading into the writers room — right after this interview — to begin the process of going over the sketches to see what works.

“I know they’ve got great ideas, I just don’t know what to expect,” he said.

John Cena will host Saturday Night Live this Saturday, December 10th, at 11:30 pm ET/PT on NBC.