the jerk movie review

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Reviewing a comedy can be a tricky business, because the question of whether the comedy was "good" or "bad" depends almost entirely upon whether or not the reviewer was amused. Laughter is quite often an involuntary reaction: If I laugh at something and you don't, no amount of my logic is going to convince you that it was funny. 

And so when I say that “The Jerk,” the first major film starring Steve Martin , was not an amusing comedy, I should probably also report that a lot of the people who went to the sneak preview laughed all the way through it. (Others booed—but there you are.)

I can report, however, why I didn't find “The Jerk” very funny. It began to grind on me right at the beginning because it was depending on whats rather than whys for its laughs. I'll explain. It seems to me that there are two basic approaches to any kind of comedy, and in a burst of oversimplification I'll call them the Funny Hat and the Funny Logic approaches. The difference is elementary: In the first, we're supposed to laugh because the comic is wearing the funny hat, and in the second it's funny because of his reasons for wearing the funny hat.

You may have guessed by now that I prefer the Funny Logic approach, and that “The Jerk” is almost entirely a movie of Funny Hats. An example, from the film's opening premise: Steve Martin has been raised as a member of a family of poor black Southern sharecroppers, and, although he is white, it has never occurred to him that he might be adopted. His life is happy until the day he learns the truth, and is sent out into the world to earn his way. He hits the road wearing a World War II bomber's helmet and goggles. 

OK. “The Jerk” wants us to laugh at this material just at the most basic level. Martin is white and thinks the blacks are his parents, ha, ha. He wears a funny hat when he hits the road, ho, ho. Those are the whats. What about the whys? Why is he wearing the goggles? So we will laugh. There's no plot point to be made, and nothing is being said about his character—except, of course, that he's a jerk.

By way of comparison, Mel Brooks' " The Producers " (1968) opens in the office of theatrical producer Zero Mostel , who is deeply involved in the inflamed sexual fantasies of a little old lady he hopes will invest in one of his plays. The old lady wants to pretend she's a helpless little milkmaid, and that Mostel is a brawny stable lad who is about to ravish her. They both look absurd while they're playing their roles, of course, and that's the what. But the why—the reasons why Mostel feels he must behave in this ridiculous way, and keep a straight face while he's doing it makes the scene hilarious. The twisted logic beneath the surface—the cockamamie human motives we can identify with—make it comedy instead of a gag.

“The Jerk” is all gags and very little comedy. After Martin hits the road, he has a series of adventures as a gas pump jockey, a weight-guesser in a sideshow, a hapless lover of Bernadette Peters , an inventor of a gadget to keep your eyeglasses from falling down. All of these gag situations are milked for one-time laughs. They don't grow out of his character, or contribute to it.

We laugh at the eyeglass invention because it looks funny when people wear it; it's symbolically a Funny Hat, ho, ho. But nothing is done with it on a character level. And “The Jerk” eventually becomes aggressive and almost hostile in the way it lobs one Funny Hat after another at us: We get the sense at times that the cast and crew arrived at a location, found the script bankrupt of real laughs, and started looking around for funny props.

There's another sense in which “The Jerk” made me uncomfortable. There's a smarmy undercurrent in this movie that seems to imply that Steve Martin may be playing a jerk, but that we all know what a cool guy he is. Well, if you're going to play a jerk, play one as if you think you are one, or you might wind up looking like a jerk.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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The Jerk (1979)

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The Jerk Reviews

The Jerk is uneven with a capital U.

Full Review | Jan 17, 2024

…doesn’t tick the boxes required of a rounded drama, but it’s hard to complain when so many gags land…

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 30, 2023

Every scene offers something funny; every scene subverts expectations.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 22, 2022

With comedy legend Carl Reiner directing and unforgettable supporting roles from Jackie Mason and Bernadette Peters, the result is an incredible mix of barbed satire, silly pratfalls, and, at its core, sweetness.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 14, 2021

There are some heavenly jokes (especially the one where he makes a fortune inventing an absurd nose support for spectacles), and Martin is in best "manic" mode.

The verbal and conceptual gags... belong wholly to Martin's own brand of goofiness, and some of them are pretty funny.

Full Review | Mar 14, 2021

This is Martin at his absolute silliest, and therefore most brilliant.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Mar 14, 2021

The ingenious thing about this film is the way it can take serious situations and drastically interfere with them using an unexpected comedy device.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Aug 30, 2020

Carl Reiner, who has made his own contributions to comedy with Sid Caesar, Mel Brooks and Dick Van Dyke, does little to set a mood or rhythm or even an aura of good feeling that will carry audiences over the slow spots.

Full Review | Jul 19, 2019

It's just a strange little movie.

Full Review | Apr 12, 2019

Basically a series of skits that are barely tethered to a plot, this works better than expected, thanks primarily to Martin's infectious performance.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 22, 2018

Bernadette Peters...nearly steals the show from Martin's over-the-top antics. It's sweet, and funny, and includes one of the most quotable exit lines in film history.

Full Review | Jun 8, 2018

Within ts limitations, The Jerk is a capably produced entertainment, seasoned by deft bit performances from several actors...

Full Review | Apr 24, 2018

An oddball odyssey so strange, filled with non-sequiturs so funny, and decorated by a romance so sweet, it was an inevitable star-maker.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 12, 2012

92 minutes of direct and sweet surrealism

Full Review | Feb 13, 2010

Its humor is successful and unsuccessful by turns, and although Comedian Carl Reiner is the director, the instinct here is to give most of both credit and blame to Martin.

Full Review | Feb 2, 2009

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 2, 2009

An artless, non-stop barrage of off-the-wall situations, funny and unfunny jokes, generally effective and sometimes hilarious sight gags and bawdy non sequiturs.

If only he could have satisfied himself with this area of expertise, people would still talk of Steve Martin as one of the kings of comic cinema.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 2, 2009

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 18, 2007

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The Jerk: No 24 best comedy film of all time

S teve Martin has often said that while his film career doesn't add up to many classics, it would make a great selection of clips. He's being a tad tough on himself, but if you were to assemble such a selection, chances are that most of the clips would be from The Jerk.

Martin's first starring role had him playing an adopted white man in a poor family, oblivious to his unusual heritage – "You mean I'm gonna stay this colour?" – who embarks on a picaresque series of adventures. As Navin Johnson, he travels the road, joins a circus, even becomes a rich inventor of a doomed glasses-handling device (The Opti-Grab).

Made at a time when most comedies tried to make their lead seem cool and hip, Martin went the other way, embracing dumb humour and raising it to an art form. There's nothing too stupid for Martin to say – "A cosmetologist? Really? Wow. Must be tough to handle the weightlessness."

Like Woody Allen's Take The Money and Run, The Jerk is basically designed to allow Martin to use as many of his standup jokes and routines as possible, but his charm and timing makes this cleverly constructed movie seem fantastically loose and easy.

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Reader's Choice

Reviews commissioned and selected by Patrons

Review by Brian Eggert February 2, 2020

The Jerk yearns for great stupidity. Its rags to riches (then to rags and riches again) story is merely a framework on which to hang jokes. If pressed, one could draw some lesson about the dangers of hubris from the journey of Steve Martin’s idiotic Navin Johnson, an inexperienced man-child whose desire to “be somebody” brings about his undoing. His overjoyed reaction to the “spontaneous publicity” of the phonebook leads to a murderous crackpot selecting Navin’s name at random for termination; his unexpected success with the Opti-Grab glasses handle results in his financial ruin when its cross-eyed users file a class-action lawsuit. But The Jerk is no moralizing tale of vanity gone wrong—well, it is , but that’s not why it exists. Alongside director Carl Reiner, Martin delivers a pure joke machine, 95 minutes of laughter without consequence or emotional resonance. Although it would be easy to view its lack of compelling characters or deep-seated emotions as a failing, it begs the viewer to assess how they want their humor: Should a comedy that produces only laughter be considered a successful movie? Or must a comedy be character-driven with relatable situations and emotional consequences? There’s no right answer. And on most days, I would gravitate toward the latter mode, except on days that I’m watching The Jerk . 

Comedy is subjective. What one person finds funny, another may not. Reviewing a comedy, then, can become a tedious, if challenging exercise in trying to convey funny moments from the movie for the reader in hopes that they, too, will find them funny. You can cite examples or describe the methods used, noting whether it was witty or screwball, dry or raunchy, slapstick or understated. But that doesn’t explain why it’s funny or why you laughed . The laughter comes from within, like a reflex. There’s no intellectualizing laughter. It either makes you laugh or doesn’t. Moreover, there are only so many synonyms for “funny,” only so many ways you can describe the end result. But you can describe its sense of humor, the structure of its jokes. The Jerk makes this process somewhat more straightforward, as there’s a philosophy behind the film’s brand of comedy, driven by Martin’s strategic approach that’s informed by his interest in philosophy. Before he became an entertainer, Martin had studied philosophy at Long Beach State University and even considered teaching; instead, he used what he had learned about the human mind to develop a new kind of humor that transgressed the usual expectations associated with comedic performance. After several years honing his material on the stage and television, The Jerk became Martin’s first creative project on film, and in many ways, it’s the purest expression of his humor from this period. 

The structure of this central joke emerged out of Martin’s stand up routine. It was the basis of one of his most famous characters from the period, one of two Czechoslovakian “Wild and Crazy Guys” alongside Dan Aykroyd—an overconfident “swinging sex god” who could make love “up to one time per night.” In the early 1970s, Martin had developed a stage persona that used such ironies to play against the traditional stand-up method of developing segues that allow transitions from one joke to the next. Martin wrote in Smithsonian magazine, “In a college psychology class, I had read a treatise on comedy explaining that a laugh was formed when the storyteller created tension, then, with the punch line, released it.” Martin developed a style that resisted punch lines and instead required his audience to observe and decide for themselves: What is the joke? More than a story with a clear comic conclusion, Martin requires observation, assessment, and involvement in a comic scene. We laugh at his body language, the wrongness of his character’s assumptions, the backwardness of his thinking, and his ability to catch us off guard. It’s a notion captured in the opening lines of The Jerk , lines taken from Martin’s act: “I was born a poor black child.” Wait, what ?

Martin had been branded a complete original in the 1970s, far removed from the usual schtick of his contemporaries. After years of writing material for variety shows such as The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late 1960s, he went on to become a slowly emergent start as a stage performer. But his celebrity skyrocketed after his first hosting gig on Saturday Night Live . Almost overnight, he went from performing at small clubs to selling out large venues. He would host SNL several times a year in the 1970s, each time earning a higher rating for the show than any other host. However, 1977 was arguably the year that solidified Steve Martin in the national consciousness. He appeared on SNL three times, made stand-up appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and other variety shows, and sold millions of copies of his best-selling album Let’s Get Small . He wrote a book of essays and comic stories, called Cruel Shoes , which also became a best-seller. He was everywhere, except in the cinema. Sure, he appeared in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and played a waiter in The Muppet Movie , but Martin wanted a showcase for his talent and distinct brand of humor. 

The Jerk wrapped shooting under budget and three weeks early, but its release wasn’t so smooth. Early test screenings in Los Angeles were disastrous, while Midwest previews were overwhelmingly positive. There was no consensus as to whether the film was stupid, or so stupid that it was brilliant. Of course, that was the joke. Accordingly, Reiner promoted the film with a similar strain of irony. He held a fashionable world premiere, complete with limos, spotlights, and red carpet interviews, but not for the full film—for the trailer . It was a daring publicity stunt and practical joke played on a crowd unaware they were about to see a three-minute reduction of The Jerk , not the full feature. Speaking to a packed house of expectant viewers, Reiner praised the film for coming in “$94 under budget,” while Martin also introduced the trailer. Once the three minutes were over, the theater was cleared. The audience’s interest, at least, was assured. The Jerk opened on December 14, 1979, and earned more than $70 million at the U.S. box-office, no thanks to critics. Most journalists complained about the film’s concentration on gags instead of character-driven humor. Roger Ebert wrote, “There’s no plot point to be made, and nothing is being said about his character—except, of course, that he’s a jerk.” Richard Corliss in Time called it a “lacklustre feature film debut” for Martin, complaining that Reiner “does little to set a mood or rhythm or even an aura of good feeling that will carry audiences over the slow spots.” 

It’s understandable why most critics couldn’t connect. The Jerk tells much of its story from the outside-in, aligning with the perspectives of other characters who interact with Navin. We observe him like we would a test subject, waiting for the next laugh. Reiner adds to this effect when he cuts to the faces of Richard Ward or Dick Anthony Williams, playing Navin’s father and uncle, or gas station owner Mr. Hartounian (Jackie Mason), as their inward expressions suggest their awareness of Navin’s stupidity. Instead of relating to Navin, the film prefers to laugh at him, leaving its perspective with the viewer or other characters in the scene. Martin and Reiner extend this approach from out of Martin’s stand-up routine, where it’s up to the audience to observe and locate the humor for themselves.

Sometimes the jokes are unmistakable, such as when Navin realizes that his job at the carnival is “a profit deal,” or when Navin and his wife Marie (Bernadette Peters, Martin’s real-life significant other at the time) dine at an expensive French restaurant as a member of the nouveau riche . Navin asks for this year’s wine, “none of that old stuff,” then complains when Marie finds snails on her plate of escargot. Other jokes require the viewer to decide whether there’s a joke present at all—consider the conversation around pizza in a cup. Elsewhere, the simple humor of cross-eyed Opti-Grab users or Navin’s discovery of his “special purpose” might seem petty, but they are no less funny. Martin also injects more thoughtful moments, such as the brilliantly improvised sequence of Navin explaining, “I know we’ve only known each other for four weeks and three days, but to me, it seems like nine weeks and five days.” Indeed, The Jerk has sustained its legacy by being endlessly quotable and timeless in its humor.

Although the film uses a few cringe-worthy stereotypes to portray Navin’s family dancing on a porch and singing “Pick a Bale of Cotton,” or Navin’s use of the N-word to defend the honor of his family, the film also strives to identify with the black perspective and ridicule whiteness. To be sure, whiteness is something to be laughed at in The Jerk . Navin has no rhythm except with generic muzak (“If this is out there, just imagine what else is out there!”) and prefers his sandwiches wrapped in cellophane. He doesn’t want to listen to blues music because “There’s something about those songs. They depress me.” Whiteness for Navin amounts to difference, and the film could be seen as identifying with the black perspective to achieve this, though the film’s assessment of blackness derives from stereotypes. Navin’s father’s advice, “Don’t trust whitey,” is a source of ironic humor, but it also reveals something about his family’s subjectivity. There are layers of irony to disentangle in The Jerk ’s use of race, and it walks a fine line between cultural appreciation and appropriation that never quite resolves itself. 

Martin would explore more sophisticated modes of humor in the subsequent decades, from the wittily satirical L.A. Story (1991) to his various Broadway plays and performances, to his later writings on the nature of comedy. If The Jerk is an extension of Martin’s 1970s stand-up routine, it seems almost archaic given the number of times Martin has reinvented himself over the years—the very quality that has sustained his presence as an entertainer for five decades. Even so, The Jerk remains a purely funny experience, and I fear that in my enduring love of the film, I may have succumbed to simply listing my favorite moments in this review, even if I overlooked the “That’s all I need” downswing, the “He hates these cans!” sequence,  or the “Picking Out a Thermos” song. Hopefully, the reader can forgive both my enthusiasm and my limited ability to recount every last joke. But after seeing the film countless times, from its continuous presence on cable television throughout the 1980s and 1990s to more recent viewings, it still makes me laugh. Every scene offers something funny; every scene subverts expectations. Even the single moment of genuine tenderness, when Martin and Peters sing their warmhearted rendition of “Tonight You Belong to Me,” transitions into an awkwardness that betrays an otherwise romantic moment. The Jerk  does the unexpected or opposite of what it should, and its humor continues to feel fresh in its willingness to embrace an uncommon stupidity.

(Note: This review was suggested and commissioned on Patreon by Dustin. Thanks for your support! )

Bibliography

De Semlyen, Nick. Wild and Crazy Guys: How the Comedy Mavericks of the ’80s Changed Hollywood Forever . Penguin Random House LLC, 2019. 

Martin, Steve. “Being Funny.”  Smithsonian Magazine . February 2008. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/being-funny-17061140/. Accessed 28 January 2020.

Martin, Steve. Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life . Scribner, 2007.

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The Jerk Review

27 Jun 1980

Born the son of poor black sharecroppers, Navin Johnson sets off to seek his fortune in the big wide world. Initially he doesn't get further than the end of the fence, but eventually he finds employment at a gas station, becomes the target for a crazed psycho-killer (the splendid M Emmet Walsh), finds out about his "special purpose" from a female circus daredevil motorbike rider, realises true love with Bernadette Peters, and finds fame and fortune through his brilliant invention, the Optigrab.

Loud and ludicrous, The Jerk is a strong contender for the funniest film of all time.

Related Articles

Movies | 30 06 2020

"We waste our money so you don't have to."

"We waste our money, so you don't have to."

Movie Review

US Release Date: 12-14-1979

Directed by: Carl Reiner

Starring ▸ ▾

• Steve Martin ,  as
• Navin R. Johnson / Cat Juggler
• Bernadette Peters ,  as
• Marie Kimble Johnson
• M. Emmet Walsh ,  as
• Jackie Mason ,  as
• Harry Hartounian
• Dick O'Neill ,  as
• Mabel King ,  as
• Richard Ward ,  as
• Dick Anthony Williams ,  as
• Bill Macy ,  as
• Catlin Adams ,  as
• Patty Bernstein
• Maurice Evans ,  as
• Helena Carroll ,  as
• Ren Woods ,  as
• Elvira Jonson
• Carl Gottlieb ,  as
• Iron Balls McGinty
• Carl Reiner ,  as
• Rob Reiner ,  as
• Truck driver picking up Navin
• Larry Hankin as
• Circus hand

Steve Martin is The Jerk .

When Steve Martin, Carl Gottlieb and Michael Elias were writing the screenplay for The Jerk , their stated goal was to include at least one joke on every page. I think it's safe to say they succeeded. The result, directed by comedy genius Carl Reiner, is one of the silliest, most joke-filled, whimsical motion picture farces ever made. Steve Martin, in his first starring role, proved himself one of the greats in terms of physical comedy, and in Navin R. Johnson he created an indelibly lovable and truly original screen character.

This is a classic American rags to riches (to rags - as the tagline claimed) story with a plot that would have suited Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd – only with a 1970's twist. The movie begins with Martin, as a bum in an alley, narrating his story directly to the camera. This opening speech includes one of the most famous lines in film comedy, “I was born a poor black child.” Raised by black sharecroppers in Mississippi, Navin learns he's adopted as he prepares to head out in search of his fortune. His first reaction is, “You mean I'm gonna STAY this color?” Armed with advice from his family, “Lord loves a workin' man; don't trust whitey; see a doctor and get rid of it.” Navin takes to the road wearing a WWII bomber helmet and goggles.

Navin has many adventures along the way. He works at a gas station and gets shot at by a madman who randomly picked his name from a phone book. Then he winds up being the “guess your weight” guy at a traveling carnival where he learns what his “special purpose” (his mother's euphemism for his penis) is for. Everything changes when he meets Marie (Bernadette Peters). When she tells him she's a cosmetologist, Navin excitedly responds, “Really? A cosmetologist? That's unbelievable. That's impressive. Must be tough handling the weightlessness.”

Together Navin and Marie (and Navin's dog Shithead) experience ups and downs as their story heads towards its happy ending. Another of my favorite jokes happens when Navin asks a sad looking Marie, “Why are you crying? And why are you wearing that old dress?” She answers, “Because I just heard a song on the radio that reminded me of the way we were.” “What was it?” “"The Way We Were."”

For all its silliness and politically incorrect humor, The Jerk contains a surprising amount of heart. The relationship between Navin and his family is played for laughs but it's also shown to be genuine. And the romance between Navin and Marie is sweetly sincere. In one memorable scene they duet on "Tonight You Belong to Me" while strolling along the beach at night.

The Jerk was the first of four movies Steve Martin would star in for director Carl Reiner. It was followed by Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), The Man with Two Brains (1983) and All of Me (1984). As good as those other three movies are, I still prefer their first collaboration. The Jerk was a huge hit in 1979 and nearly 40 years later it remains one of the funniest movies of all time.

Steve Martin in The Jerk .

The idea for this movie came from the line Patrick mentioned, "I was born a poor black child.", which Martin used in his surreal standup routine and the script grew from that. (Watching it in the Spring of 2015 I couldn't help but wonder if this was Rachel Dolezal's favorite film as a child?) The script also contains other items from Martin's standup routine, including the kitten juggling, and the emotional exit wherein he claims to not need anything, except for the few household objects he picks up along the way.

Although he'd appeared in a few films, and guest hosted Saturday Night Live several times, Martin was known mainly as a standup performer before this film came out. He began his career as a writer, before moving into standup, but has stated that it was always his goal to become an actor. In fact, despite million selling comedy albums and stadium sized tours, he would abandon standup for good in 1981. From today's perspective this can be seen as a smart move. His anarchic standup routine, and immensely popular King Tut song, haven't aged particularly well, while The Jerk is, as Patrick said, just as funny today as it was when it was released.

The comparison to a silent film starring Lloyd or especially Keaton is an apt one. Often those old silent two-reelers felt more like a series of surreal events than one cohesive plot, so does this movie. And the plot, despite all the silly shenanigans, is the oldest one in Hollywood in which boy meets, loses, and gets girl (along with wealth). Really, it's a rags to riches to rags to riches again story. And like those old silent movies, the only goal of this movie is to make you laugh. It's completely and utterly silly and that's all it wants to be. There's no deeper meaning here. It's all about the comedy.

I also agree with Patrick that Martin is loveable as Navin. It's his naive optimism that makes him that way. The smallest things can make him happy, like getting his name in the phone book, or a bamboo umbrella in his drink. He's a total idiot of course, but you can't help but root for him. Martin has given more dramatic performances since this one, but he's never been more likable.

There are too many great and funny scenes to mention, but I will just quote one of the exchanges that made me laugh the most on this watching. Navin: "I know this is our first date but... do you think, the next time you make love to your boyfriend, you could think of me?" Marie: "Well, I haven't made love to him yet." Navin: "That's too bad... Do you think it's possible that someday, you could make love with me and think of him?" Marie: "Who knows, maybe you and he could make love and you could think of me." Navin: "I'd just be happy to be in there somewhere."

Clocking in at barely 90 minutes, The Jerk is a very silly, comedy classic.

Bernadette Peters in The Jerk

As my brothers wrote, the true secret to the success of The Jerk is the likability of Steve Martin as Navin R. Johnson. Sure, the film is full of laughs and memorable lines but it is Navin’s naïve optimism that keeps us rooting for him through his ridiculous adventures. My brothers were reminded of silent film clowns while I kept thinking of James Stewart in Harvey (1950). Not since Elwood P. Dowd had there been such an instantly lovable, yet mentally questionable, character. Like Elwood, Navin has strong family relations and accepts everything he is told as a truth, whether it is or not. Both are full of heart and always seem to see the good in everyone.

Although I remembered her cleavage scene in the restaurant (see photo), I did not recall just how attractive Bernadette Peters was here. She shows her legs off in the disco scene and her midriff in the knife throwing one. Not only is she as cute as can be, but she holds her own against Martin with the comedy. When Navin tells Marie, “I'm gonna bounce back and when I do I'm gonna buy you a diamond so big it's gonna make you puke.” Marie adorably pouts and complains, “I don't wanna puke.” Like Patrick, I enjoyed the duet with Martin and, of course, her trumpet playing.

Although I agree with Scott that the film’s goal is simply to make you laugh, I did find that it makes an interesting observation. Navin is born a poor child of a sharecropper and thus has no clue what sophistication is. The mansion he buys is decorated like a Middle Eastern whore house. He thinks he needs to have an umbrella in all of his drinks because he saw a man in a magazine advertisement with one in his (see photo on Scott's review). I kept thinking of rappers from the 1980s when Marie gives Navin another gold chain. Like poor ghetto musicians making lots of money, he wore his wealth around his neck for all to see. Did Steve Martin start that gaudy trend? The scene of Navin doing karate while surrounded by a bunch of yes men on his mansion grounds reminded me of that poor kid from Tupelo, Mississippi who grew to be an icon and thought he could do martial arts because his entourage said he could.

Like silent film comedies or the three stooges, the humor in The Jerk has aged quite well. Little about it makes you think of the 1970s. You cannot help but root for this hapless go lucky underdog. He often seems mentally deficient but his heart is always in the right place as he makes you hurt from laughter.   

Photos © Copyright Universal Pictures (1979)

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Classic Movie Review – The Jerk (1979)

Always remember these three important rules of life, 3.5 readers:

#1 – Don’t trust Whitey.

#2 – The Lord loves a working man.

#3 – See a doctor and get rid of it.

BQB here with a review of this classic comedy of Steve Martin’s most hilarious film.

NOTE: This is a review for people who have seen the movie. Ergo, if you want no SPOILERS, look away. Go watch then come back.

I saw this movie on a list of films that couldn’t be remade today. I instantly remembered how much it made me laugh back in the day and had to rewatch it again. I’m not sure what that list was talking about because I would argue this is a rare comedy that has stood the test of time, 43 years in fact.

The premise? Steve Martin, in his first major film role, plays Navin Johnson, the white son of African American sharecroppers in Mississippi. He loves his family and they love him, but on one fateful birthday, he, to his shock, discovers that he is white (yes, even though he is well into his thirties.)

Navin’s mother explains that the family adopted him when he was left on their doorstep as a baby and raised him as one of their own. Realizing that he isn’t getting younger, Navin decides he must venture forth from the family homestead and out into the world, seeking to find fame and fortune of his very own.

From there, the flick is a string of skits and gags, all surrounding Navin’s adventure into the great unknown, with cameos by various stars of the day helping or hindering him as the case may be.

Back in the day, Roger Ebert gave this film 2 stars. You can read that review here:

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-jerk-1979

Now, here’s the thing. I admire Ebert because he built a great career doing what I love, namely, watching and picking apart movies. He’s the Mike Tyson of movie critics. So far be it from me to criticize him, but I think he got this one wrong.

As Ebert argues, comedy is subjective (so if he didn’t find it funny then I suppose in his view he wasn’t wrong). He goes on to explain there is funny for the sake of funny and situational funny. He goes on to say sometimes a character wears a funny hat and that’s the joke and sometimes there’s a silly situation that requires the character to wear a funny hat. The latter, according to Ebert, is way funnier.

Thus, to our veteran critic, Martin is all hat and no cattle, just a doofus doing doofusy things. Truly, he did and one might say he’s a pioneer of screwball comedy, making silly faces long before Jim Carrey.

However, what I believe Ebert missed is this film is one great big allegory for the fallout that occurs when youthful (or even not so youthful), naive optimism crashes into cold, hard reality. Forget Dr. Seus’s “Oh, the Places You Will Go!” Every high school graduate should get a copy of The Jerk.

Think about it. The high school grad thinks they’ve got the world by the horns when they head off to college. They think they know everything. Then they encounter the lousy roommate, the demanding professor, the first boss who dresses them down over a mistake. The student loan payments are due and the job interviews are going nowhere. I did all this studying to be a barista? You’ve got to be kidding me.

Compare this with Navin’s mistake filled journey. Navin is full of uninformed assumptions that blow up in his face due to his lack of experience. Navin thinks he’ll easily hitchhike across the USA, only to stand in front of his family’s home all day, well into the night. Navin gets a job at a gas station and thinks he’s hoodwinked a crook by tying said fraudster’s car to a church, only for the ne’er-do-well to take off down the drown dragging half the church, guests at a wedding still inside, behind him.

Navin is overjoyed when he is listed in the phone book, only for a homicidal maniac to pick his name at random and go on a murderous rampage against him. Navin joins a carnival, meets Patty the slovenly, over-sexed motorbiked stuntwoman and assumes he has found a ticket to free, no strings attached sex, only to discover that Patty is so attached she’s willing to commit violence to keep him.

The Navester comes on too strong with love interest Marie and she bolts. He invents the opti-grab grip eyeglass attachment that makes him a billionaire, only to be bankrupted by a lawsuit from irate customers when the product makes them go cross-eyed.

Bottomline – In life, mistakes are guaranteed. You think you won’t make them, but it’s not a matter of if you’ll make them but when. You’ll make assumptions. You’ll make decisions. Your actions will blow up in your face. You can fall apart and give up, or you can learn from your mistakes, vow not to repeat them and do better.

Had Navin not been such a dum-dum, he might have seen many lessons in his mistakes. He should have walked out to a main road to hitchhike, or heck, earned some money to buy a bus ticket. He should have left to crook to the cops. Not all publicity is good. Don’t have sex with someone you don’t want to commit to lest you hurt their feelings. If you sell a product, make sure you test it first.

Yes, wide-eyed, unbridled optism will surely always crash against the hard wall of reality, but all you can do is pick yourself up, dust yourself off, figure out what you did wrong and not do it again.

In the end, the only lesson Navin learned is home is where the heart is. Sometimes, the greatness we seek is right in our own backyard, coming to us in the form of the people who love us the most, that we love in return. When Navin hits Skid Row, it’s his sharecropper family who find him, clean him up, and bring him back to the place he thrived the most, and an ending credit scene where he dances while his family sings shows us he couldn’t be happier.

Two cringeworthy things that don’t fit today’s modern wokeness. 1 Is when a group of mafiosos use the N word, Navin defends his family’s honor in perhaps the funniest bit of the film when he says, “Sir, you are talking to an n-word!” then magically channels the spirit of a kung-fu warrior as he kicks the asses of all the racist single handed (with the exception of Iron Balls McGinty.)

I would argue this joke gets a pass due to context. Navin loves his family so much. His love for them is the sweetest part of the movie and perhaps the most redeeming quality of an otherwise dimwitted dullard. The n word is only used to pave the way for a bit in which a man who loves his family kung-fus a bunch of racists into thinking twice about saying such nasty slurs. But ok, context is a dead concept when it comes to humor now, so this joke doesn’t hold up.

Second, the family at the end sings “Pick a Bale of Cotton,” a song that references slavery days. All are so happy as the family sings and plays instruments while Navin dances joyously to celebrate his return home for good. In context, one might remember that in slavery times, slaves sang such songs to keep their spirits up when forced against their will to do punishing labor. In 1979, there were no slaves alive but it is possible that Navin’s father, given the time period, might have, as a child, known an old person or two who lived with slavery times or even was a slave. I assume the point of the film was the family is singing a song that was passed down through the generations of their family though yeah, it surely would have been better if the family had sung a happier, less racially charged song.

STATUS: Shelf-worthy. When I was a kid, I just thought Steve Martin was a doofus doing doofy things in this film. As an adult, I see it as a silly growing up tale, teaching young as well as old that whenever they take on a new encounter, they will inevitably make mistakes, fall on their face, have to pick themselves up and try, try again. In the end, the only real losers are those who keep making the same mistake over and over.

I do think this is a rare old comedy that holds up in modern times, save for two scenes that don’t keep with modern woke standards. I’m not saying “give it a pass” but if you consider context and intent, the scenes were meant to show a white man who loves his black family so much, more than anything in the world, and ultimately it is this love that is the best part of him.

Bonus points for a cameo by Jackie Mason who plays Navin’s first boss, the gas station owner. As a kid, I was a fan of all kinds of comedy and wonder if I was the only kid who would repeat Mason’s Yiddishisms. I dare say the man did more to popularize the use of words like oy vey, fakakta, and schmuck than anyone.

Double bonus points for Steve Martin. So many comedians rise up the ladder as anyone does in any profession. They get a small part here or there, many a medium sized role that leads to a big break. Martin had already been a popular SNL host and a comedian who sold out shows in major venues. He also wrote for Smothers Brothers. So by the time this, his first movie, came around, he was a veritable PHD in funny holder. Even though Martin was a Great Bambino level comic by the time this film came along, it is still rare for a comedian to knock their first movie out of the park.

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PopEntertainment.com > Reviews > Movie Reviews > The Jerk

Movie reviews.

The Jerk - 26th Anniversary Edition

In 2005, there are two Steve Martins.  There is the smart, sophisticated Martin.  He is an art collector, a writer of essays, plays, novels and a series of brilliant comic films (including Roxanne, Bowfinger, LA Story and hopefully the upcoming adaptation of his novella Shopgirl. )  He is also a wonderfully smart actor and comic who can work brilliantly in other people's comedies (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Parenthood, Father of the Bride, The Housesitter, Planes Trains & Automobiles) and dramas (The Spanish Prisoner, Grand Canyon and his good work in the okay Leap of Faith). 

The second Steve Martin is more problematic � he's still a brilliant comic performer, but he's one who is willing prostitute himself and take any crappy script that comes his way.  Cheaper by the Dozen, The Out-Of-Towners, Sgt. Bilko, Mixed Nuts, Novocaine, Father of the Bride 2, Looney Tunes: Back In Action, My Blue Heaven and more .. . the list is too long and too depressing to ponder.

However, there was a third, almost forgotten Steve Martin.  Steve Martin the gonzo stand-up comic, a man who revolutionized the form with his slyly surreal, disarmingly stupid and unflinchingly strong comic vision.  

The Jerk was Martin's debut film (unless you count a hilariously funny cameo in The Muppet Movie and a lesser spot in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ) and much more than any future performance, it captured the manic energy of Martin's stand-up comic persona.  This is because The Jerk was written specifically to play off of Martin's best-selling comedy records.  It even visualized some of Martin's off-beat comic riffs (the cat juggling sequence is much funnier than you'd want to believe � and no cats were harmed, honest...) 

The Jerk was a trailblazer in the current so-stupid-it's-smart school of comic filmmaking.  Without it The Farrelly Brothers, Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider and Will Ferrell would not have a career.  (I'm still debating whether or not that is a good thing.)  However, The Jerk is not just going for dumb laughs (which are there, of course, by the bucketload), but it is also a sly and knowing parody of the American dream.  The Jerk shows that no one is so down and out and useless that they can't become rich and famous, and then lose it all spectacularly.

Martin plays Navin Johnson, the son of a southern sharecropping family who has never understood why he does not fit in with his funky, spiritual family.  He finally finds his calling when he hears Muzak on the radio, so his mother (Mabel King) has to admit that he was adopted.  ("You mean I'm going to stay this color?" he moans.)

He goes out on the road to find fame ("The new phone books are out!  The new phone books are out!  I'm somebody now.  My name is in print.") and fortune (his first job nets him $1.10 an hour.)  He floats through dead end jobs from gas attendant to carny.  He gets involved with a tough motorcycle stuntwoman.  He is stalked by a mad sniper (M. Emmitt Walsh).  ("He hates these cans!")  He makes a gadget to keep a traveling salesman's (Bill Macy � Maude 's husband, not the Mamet regular) glasses from slipping down which becomes a sensation.

Then Navin meets the love of his life � a "kewpie doll" played by Martin's then-girlfriend and current Broadway baby Bernadette Peters.  When his gadget becomes a sensation, he finds love and money and a perfect lifestyle, but of course it is all a matter of time before it comes crashing down.

As you can tell, lots of things happen but there isn't much story going on.  That's okay, though, this movie was a showcase for the comic stylings of its star, not a drama.  It is just a long series of skits stitched together to make a story.  Not all of The Jerk has aged all that well and some of the jokes strain to be funny.  But the film is still a fascinating look at a nascent movie career.  And you'll laugh at it a hell of a lot more than you would if you checked out the debuts of most of the comics who tried to follow in his footsteps.  (8/05)

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Cop yright � 2005     PopEntertainment.com.  All rights reserved. Posted: August 11, 2005.

Screen Rant

Why bill murray called steve martin's $100 million comedy classic "a dog".

The Jerk is one of Steve Martin's most iconic films, but Bill Murray actually panned the $100 million comedy classic while on Saturday Night Live.

• The Jerk is considered a comedic classic and one of Steve Martin's best films, despite Bill Murray calling it "a dog" on SNL.
• Bill Murray's negative review was likely a joke, as he had originally filmed scenes for the movie that were cut.
• Bill Murray and Steve Martin eventually collaborated in the film Little Shop of Horrors, making up for Murray's absence in The Jerk.

The Jerk is one of Steve Martin's most acclaimed comedy films, which makes it weird that Bill Murray called the $100 million classic " a dog " while on Saturday Night Live. Bill Murray and Steve Martin have seemingly been friendly throughout the years, which is why this moment of rivalry between the fellow comedians has left some heads scratching. However, there is an explanation for Bill Murray's negative review of The Jerk , and here's why it happened.

The Jerk is one of the earliest feature-length comedies to star Saturday Night Live alumni Steve Martin, and it is now considered a comedic classic. The Jerk follows Steve Martin's Navin Johnson, a boneheaded and childlike homeless man from Mississippi who rises and falls alongside his empire of wealth. Despite releasing in 1979, The Jerk is still considered a classic to this day, with it being hailed as one of Steve Martin's best. The Jerk has had a resurgence due to it being available to stream on Netflix, with it continuing to get laughs despite Bill Murray's review.

Related: 10 Iconic Steve Martin Characters, Ranked By Likability

Bill Murray Panned The Jerk For Cutting His Scenes

Bill Murray and Steve Martin are both Saturday Night Live alumni, but that didn't stop Bill Murray from panning The Jerk . During a Weekend Update segment on December 15th, 1979 (shortly after the film was released), Bill Murray commented on the film in a joking fashion. This is because Bill Murray was original set to be in the film, but his scenes ended up getting cut. Here's Murray's full comment on the film:

"I was in the movie but cut out of it. That doesn't influence my opinion. The movie is a dog. There's something missing. I don't know who it is, I can't say."

Related: Why Steve Martin Retired (And The Reason He’s Back)

Bill Murray filmed a cameo for The Jerk , something that was expected due to his friendship with Martin. In the film, Bill Murray was to play a gay interior designer, but the scene didn't make it into the final film. This would have marked the first of several film collaborations between Bill Murray and Steve Martin, although this, unfortunately, didn't happen due to Murray's scenes getting shafted.

Bill Murray & Steve Martin Finally Appeared Together In Little Shop Of Horrors

Bill Murray and Steve Martin's first true film collaboration happened a few years later, in 1986's Little Shop of Horrors . In the film, Martin plays a sadistic dentist, with him having a major role in the film. Murray's role is much smaller, with him only having a cameo role as one of the dentist's patients. However, Murray and Martin do share the screen together, making up for The Jerk 's cut scenes.

Related: Steve Martin’s 10 Best Characters

Interestingly, Murray and Martin's scene in Little Shop of Horrors can be seen as a humorous response to Murray's take on The Jerk during the SNL episode. The scene sees the dentist torture his patient in the dentist chair, with Steve Martin severely hurting Murray's character. However, Bill Murray's Little Shop of Horror character is a masochist, meaning that the dentist's torturous methods don't do much to Murray. While Bill Murray's scenes in The Jerk didn't make it into the final cut, it's nice to see that the comedic duo's relationship continued.

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Based on 19 kid reviews

"Navin, I'd love you if you were the color of a baboon's a**."

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Great movie, this movie is good, great comedy for 12-14, classic steve martin comedy, the jerk is not a bad movie, steve martin's funniest movie by far, hilarious, should be pg.