What does it take to get a gold medal in the comedy Olympics? A triple Lutz of “Saturday Night Live” cast members, a double Salchow of Napoleon Dynamite, a true coach and ice skates.

“Blades of Glory,” opening Friday, has the makings of world class comedy.

The plot begins at the 2002 World Figure Skating Championships when two rival ice skaters Chazz Michael Michaels (Will Ferrell) and Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder) were stripped of their gold medals and permanently banned from men’s singles competition. However, the dubious duo found a loophole that will allow them to get back on the ice – as a pairs team.

“When I heard the plot and concept, I was sold right away,” Heder said in a conference call. “You don’t see this kind of comedy that often.”

Of course there must be drama on and off the ice, and it comes in the form of Stranz (Will Arnett) and Fairchild (Amy Poehler) Van Waldenburg.

“Me and Will, we play a brother and sister team that have won the gold a few times, so we’re the reigning champions,” Poehler said in a phone interview. “And when Will and Jon Heder’s characters decide to pair up as men for the first time, we’re furious at the attention that they get, and so we spend most of the film trying to bring them down in various ways.”

So is Fairchild a Nancy Kerrigan or Tonya Harding?

“Fairchild is kind of like that kind of evil girl who would sit on the top of a cake. She looks sweet, but inside she’s very sour,” Poehler said. “Nancy Kerrigan is actually in the movie.”

Other famous figure skaters – Sasha Cohen, Brian Boitano, Scott Hamilton and Dorothy Hamill – also make cameos.

The ultimate obstacle in making a movie about figure skating is getting the actors comfortable on the ice.

“It was a challenge, but I loved it. I was extremely excited to learn a new skill … and that’s awesome because I like to rack up the skills,” Heder said.

Heder said he and Ferrell made up a few of their own moves, such as “love dust.”

“It’s like pulling sparkles out of your heart and letting them fall out of your fingers into existence,” Heder said.

So who is the better skater: Heder or Ferrell?

“(Will) can do comedy circles around me and I can skate circles around him,” Heder said.

Poehler said she was probably the worst skater.

“What I lack in size, I make up for in a fresh mouth, so I would kind of yell my stuff and then I would skate away and go hide under a chair where no one would find me,” Poehler said.

But no true Olympian is ready for competition until decked out in lycra and sequins from head to skate.

“We had tons and tons of fittings and we would like just go crazy and then we would watch the actual Olympics and we’d be like, oh, no, we need to go crazier. We need to go bigger,” Poehler said.

Heder said he watched DVDs of famous figure skaters to get inspiration for his costume and characters.

“I got the idea for the peacock costume from Johnny Weir, who wore a swan outfit for a routine,” Heder said. “Jimmy is blonde, young and he’s always reaching for the heavens.”