A Film at 45: The Jerk

0:00 Hello everyone, and welcome back to nineteen seventy nine in a Film Buys a limited series A film at forty five. I'm David Burns. And I'm Scott Hoffman, And as usual, we're dusting off the end of a decade that changed cinema forever with a fresh look at modern classics and hidden gems that we can't stop watching. This week, we're cited as an optagrab salesman on New phone Book Day because we're talking about Steve Martin's The Jerk. Hey, loen no, David Johnson, Hey, hey, these cans stay away from the cams. What are you going here? What are you thinking? I can.

0:52 That's right. I'm not a bum. I'm a jerk. I only have two things, my friends and my thirdness. He was a poor black sharecropper's son who never dreamed. He was adopted a rags to riches to rags story included among the one thousand and one Movies You Must See Before you Die. Were, of course talking about The Jerk, starring Steve Martin and directed by A car Reiner. But before we dive into this classic comedy, we would like to welcome back our guest that has joined us, and of course that is none other than Jason Colvin from the Shirley You Can't Be Serious podcast. Jason, welcome back to a film at forty five. Hey, thanks for having me man. I am so excited to be back here with you and Scott talking about a movie that I love and thought was hilarious from nineteen seventy nine until now. So I'm excited to be here.

1:42 Well, we are definitely excited. We're excited to have you. Thanks a good in predicition for join us, you bet, you bet well. Over the year we have been doing this series, we've talked about a lot of serious films, so it's not often we get to dive into a comedy. And the last time we did this, funny enough, it was foul Play, which Jason, you had joined us. For another one of my all time favorite movies from the seventies, same type of thing, you know. It was funny and it was romantic, and it was one that I attached myself to, So I'm super popped. Let's do this all right. Well, Scott, it's heartbreaking that there are a mini author who haven't seen this, So how would you describe this film to someone. So Navan Johnson isn't really a jerk in the way that most people use the word. That makes him sound like someone who's just mean for no reason. But God bless him, the man's an idiot. After spending most of his sheltered life in his country home, he sets off to follow his special purpose to the big city, his innocence and luck bringing him on a hilarious adventure that finds him surviving a hit man at a gas station, finding love at the carnival, making an accidental fortune, and ultimately losing it all. As the movie poster says, it's a rags to riches to rags story that's still regarded to this day as one of the best comedies of all time. Now, guys, we've talked about some emotionally heavy and thought provoking movies in the past two years, but the paraphrase Luke Sky will occur if there's a bright center of the intellectual cinematic universe, this is the movie that it's farthest from. Absolutely, Yeah, it's it's it's a

3:14 very clever comedy, but my goodness, this man's dim. Yeah. You know, I don't know if you guys have ever read the book save the Cat. Have you guys ever heard of that? No, it's a Now it's. A screenwriting book, and it basically says that there's like seven different plot lines of every movie you've ever seen. It's one of these seven plot lines. And this one falls squarely under the full triumphant a plot line. Right. You have a guy who's kind of an idiot, and the whole world sees him as an idiot, but yet somehow that's actually his superpower, right, so he wanders through the world as this fool. But it's I mean, it's kind of the same lines as like Forrest cup It's just like his superpower of being dim and and stupid.

4:03 It's true. That's a good point. That's a good point. I was just thinking of that parallel. It's very interesting. So this was Steve Martin's first film, correct m. Obviously he's coming in hot from SNL and just like some of his counterparts Bill Murray and John Belushi, Martin felt it was time to dip his toe into cinema, and just as the others did, this was a huge success for Martin. I mean, this was like a four million dollar budget film and it came in at like over one hundred million dollars. I think that's a success. Would you guys agree? Oh my gosh, what an incredible first time out. Although he was in the Muppet movie that's right, he was, you know, in nineteen seventy nine as well, So I don't know what came out first, but but for him as a starring vehicle, gosh, to just crush it out of the park his first time out, incredible.

4:54 Yeah, I mean, well, he already had a lot of he was published in and books, He already had a bunch of successful albums. He already had a lot of success on things like Saturday Night Live. So I mean it's it's it's interesting that he's at the top of his game at the beginning of his career. It's a great place to start, I'll tell you that. I mean, any one of us would I hope for that, right? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Well, this film opens up pretty much where it ends. For the most part, we get Navin telling us his story, so the movie's you kind of like a flashback. We learned he was born a poor black child and clearly has zero rhythm.

5:38 Yeah. Yeah, that came from his stand up Have you are you guys familiar with that line from his. Stand up, No, I'm not so. Apparently he used that line I was born a poor black child in his stand up. Hmm, So that's all I know. That's that's it. So that's where this film basically came from them with his stand up. Okay, yep. And sometimes that's all it takes is that one line to create something like this. And sure enough, you know, we got a really good comedy from Steve Martin and Carl Reiner, that's for sure. So let's talk about this movie a little bit. Guys. We know obviously Steve Martin, we know his history. You know, he's already very successful. Scott has said so many good parts in this film. I swear I think I read somewhere that it said that they wrote this for like every like every page of the script had some kind of breakout comedy. I believe I read that somewhere and it's true. I mean, it's as soon as you stop laughing, it's not long before you start laughing again.

6:41 Yeah. I had read that they they intentionally focused on making the screenplay have at least one big laugh or page, which is no small feet and thinking about the people behind this. Obviously you've got Steve Martin, You've got Carl Reiner, both you know, comic geniuses, you know obviously at different stages in their career, and you know, a team up that they would go on to repeat several times successfully. All of me, Men with two brains, man with two brains, and dead men don't wear a plaid. But when you talk about like their their writing process, one of my favorite backstories is the fact that he that Carl Rener and Steve Martin drove into work in their Honda. I think it was pretty much every day and just wrote new gags on the drive, And that to me sounds like a great backstory movie that they could shoot about the making of this movie. Like I'm sure that the being a fly on the wall on the inside of that car would be hilarious.

7:47 Absolutely it would. It's it's funny. You can always tell in a movie when the cast and the director and the crew and everybody's having a lot of fun. And you can clearly see that in this movie and it comes off on screen. You have chemistry with everybody, the entire cast. You can tell the director knows what he's doing and he gets along with his cast. You know, you got some directors out there who are not very actor friendly, and you can tell Carl Reiner is one that who really goes out of his way to make sure he pleases his cast. I mean, he's in the movie for crying out loud, which you know we can get to a little bit later, but yeah, I mean, and the jokes come off really well in my opinion. Yeah, some of it is really dated. You know that we see a little bit later in the film, but you know, it's still really really hysterical film. And one of my favorite scenes and I'm just gonna go ahead and give it away the gas station scene. Oh my god. You know when you got innimable wash who's trying to snipe him and uh, you know, Steve Martin Navin is just walking around at first, and then oil cans are popping and he thinks someone's wrong with the oil can. Then he thinks he's the guy after the cans. Oh my god, it was so so good.

8:54 Die gas pupper. He hates everywhere. You know, Scott, you were talking about how he and Carl Reiner would would ride together to the set every day, and the reason why they were doing that is because of the gas shortage of nineteen seventy nine. Yeah, and so like, it's funny how the US is short gas and so that actually contributes to people's creativity. They actually spend time together and we get a better movie because of the gas shortage. Yeah. Funny how that works sometimes, isn't it. I had forgotten that was happening. It was the Iranian Revolution, right, was causing all kinds of gas chaos. And that made me kind of think about that scene a little differently because he's he's shooting all these oil cans and you would think, like, you can't waste that, like there's a book giant shortage.

9:54 Yeah. Absolutely, So talk about some of your favorite scenes, guys. So when you mentioned the gas station, it's interesting I almost ask like which one, because there's so many great ones. I think Jackie Mason is one of my favorite characters in this movie. He's such a I mean, I would say lovable, but he's a He's a great character. I love hearing him deliver the lines, and especially after they drive away with the church and he's like, I'm not all that honestly, I mean, you got rid of the church next door. That's not a bad thing, and and even that, like when he's when he's dealing with the guys that stole the credit card and he hitches up that rope to the to the other end of the church and he's like, yeah, you can't miss him. I don't have a license plate number, but it's a blue Chevy towing a church, so you can't miss it towing a church. That's probably them, Jason, What about you?

10:59 Well, I my favorite scene is the is the m Emmett Walsh taking shots at trying to snipe him and take out the He hates these cans more cans, you know. That's my favorite scene. But I remember when I was younger, the scene that really really cracked me up was the the cat juggler scene. Oh yeah, where he's like that's disgusting, and it's that actor, of course, is Steve Martin. He's the one doing the cat juggling. So I thought that was hilarious as well. I also love when when Vernon Atte Peters is throwing knife she's learning to be a knife thrower. She's like, uh, do you have a balloon?

11:41 He's like what, Oh, yes, I do. I have a balloon in my pocket. Balloon yeah, So apparently the dog that was on set for this, I guess Steve Martin threw something at the dog and it got scared of him. So there's quite a few scenes obviously that they share together. A dog kind of like you know, backs away from him or shies away, and like, I guess Steve Martin felt extremely bad about that happening, because obviously they had a lot of scenes together, and of course we're talking about the dog named Shithead. But but yeah, I mean the dog had a pretty good part, and the fact that they that that happened, I know, Steve broke Steve Martin's heart for that. So I was like, I couldn't imagine how to work with an animal and accidentally something like that happens, which makes the animal shy to you, you know.

12:27 Uh huh. Yeah. Well, I mean one odd thing about that is this is actually my first time watching The Jerk when it wasn't on television. So when he called the dog shithead, I was like, wait, his dog, his name's stupid. That's the way it was on TV. That's right, that's right, yeah, right. Exactly. And then there was an extra scene with the charities, so after the cat juggling. Then he gets somebody who gives him a sob story about needing to replace the leather seats in his jet or something like that. And I was like, I'm watching it on Amazon preman, I'm like, where's that scene. That's one of my favorite things.

13:07 And it's not there. No, you know what else? You know what else other than that Gaylor and sartainne scene that got deleted, which Gailor Sartaine is a Tulsa hero, which is my hometown, right. He and Gary Busey had a little TV show in Tulsa. He's one of the guys to make it big. But there was a scene with Bill Murray as a cameo where he played a flamboyantly gay home director home decorator, and they thought better of it at the time, thinking I don't know how this is going to play, and so they cut it out. But there is a there is a scene out there in the wild where Bill Murray is in the movie The Jerk.

13:52 So has that ever been released? I couldn't find it. I think they buried it, like it's not on YouTube or anything. What a shame, I mean, come up with there's a Bill Murray performance out there that nobody has seen except for obviously the people who made this movie. That's very depressing. Although maybe we should see that scene the judge it to see whether it's grove better buried. Maybe maybe I remember seeing there was a quote from Bill Murray where he talked about the movie and he said, this movie is a dog and there's something missing. I don't know what it is. I can't say, but man, this movie just won't work. And it's because he wasn't in it.

14:36 Of course, good old Bill Murray. You know, there's another thing that happened at the gas station of that, I thought it was absoutely hysterical, the glee, the joy that even had when he found out his name was in the film. Book somebody, things are gonna start happening to me now, Oh when. They do, of course, but no, I thought that was absolutely hysterical on his joy in that. And then he learns his special purpose. Yep, another thing that wasn't quite in the syndicated television. I was like, oh, wow, that's where they went. Yeah, that's where they went.

15:16 Kind of job he's gonna get okay, all right, Well, good for him. But I still I still quote this movie all the time, Like, you know, when he's he's the biker chick. You know, he's at her place and he's like, where where's your Where do you put this? And she just throws it over there. He's like, Oh, that's where that goes. When my kids come in they drop their backpack and their shoes, I'm like, oh, that's where that goes. I think about this. I think about this movie every time I go to a carnival or an amusement park and I see the way guess her and he goes to that whole thing of like even when anything on this wall right in this three inches right here between the symbol and the chicklets.

16:00 So I've got a question, because I've never seen this movie televised, what do they do about the kid's shirt that says bullshit? That's a good question because they had to obviously, do they, you know, blur it out? Because I've never seen this televised. I'm just curious it's possible they chopped it all together. Because so on the one hand, I'll admit I don't remember ever seeing this cover to cover. I just remember seeing it several times in syndication and catching a lot of the key moments. But when I saw the train scene in this watching it felt like the first time that I had seen it. So maybe it was cut for I don't know, co movie, her shoals or something like that.

16:40 Yeah, there could be. I know, Burnett Peters, who plays Marie on this I believe heard and Steve Martin were in a real relationship. Were they not when they made this film? Is that correct? They were? That's true? Yep, yeah, And you definitely can see that in the movie too, that you know, their chemistry is perfect here and you really care for Marie, you know, there's I felt it was a little fast of her just wanting to leave him at first, remember when he was in the bathtub and she turned around and just you know, leaves and then he has to go after her. But I thought all of her scenes were spot on. I loved her and I wanted more of her, so when he basically and what I like about this too movie is that even though it's a comedy and there's a lot of stillness going on, it still has a pretty good message here. You know, money can change a person, and you see that here and he goes off the deep end. I mean, he was a really good guy, very nice guy, and everybody loved him because he had that charm, you know, and then money corrupted him, made him evil, and you know, he almost lost Marie too because of all of this. Luckily, she was a very strong woman and you know, wanted to stick with him.

17:51 But you know, I really loved her character, and I love the chemistry between her and Steve Martin. Yeah, I love it. I think you're right. You can't tell that they're a real life couple. There's actual genuine intimacy almost when especially when they're playing that song he's kind of playing the ukulele or whatever they're singing. That's a sweet moment, and they have real chemistry. I've got something for you. I did a little deep dive. I hope you'll permit me, just a little bit of a deep Okay. So I found it fascinating that they were dating at the time they made this movie. And I knew, of course, because I'm a fan of the movie All of Me, that he and Victoria Tennant were dating at the time they made All of Me, which is another super funny movie from the eighties, right, And so I just looked up Steve Martin's dating history. It is a star studded, very interesting dating history. Okay, I'm just gonna drop some of these names. Okay, these are people actually verified dated Steve Martin at one point. How serious or whatever that's that's on a scale. But listen to this this Okay, we know he dated and Hash for nearly three years. He dated Victoria Tennant, she was in All of Me with him. He dated Mary Tyler Moore. He dated Bernadette Peters. He dated Karen Carpenter in the seventies. Wow, he dated Maureen McCormick, Marcia from the Brady Bunch.

19:20 Yeah, oh interesting. He dated Linda Ronstack, Oh my gosh. So and then it's rumored that he and Kristin Davis from Sex and the City were an item as well. So he kind of worked his way around the h the red carpet a little bit. So Steve. Wow, that's a that's a big range. My god, yeah, that is. That's all over the place. But hey, my friend, the one that stretched me is the oddist is Marcia? Like Marcia? Really? I mean, not hold on a second. Now, at that time I would have dated Marcia, but it seems like that be an age difference.

20:03 There. Yeah, I mean how old was she when they dated? It was nineteen seventy six, so how old she was in nineteen seventy young? Yeah, okay, all right, well all right, I mean young young Marcia and Marsha and Marshall. But yes, that's quite a list of females that he had dated. But hey, I mean he's a very popular guy and very good at what he did. And usually when you're successful, you know what that can bring along. You're going to run into other successful people, and if you're working with them, obviously you're on that scene and it's going to be easier to date somebody like that. So I guess I can see that. But I mean, like, like you started saying, Brendatt Peters, I think is a gem in this one. She's adorable.

20:48 She's captivating to watch, I think, and I'm glad that we got some of her music musical abilities. It's coming out and this too. The trumpet took me by surprise. But. I don't know if I was really her playing, but you know, I did a great job otherwise. And his whole description of going through the trumpet to give her a right, why don't you just all that that's the love or what it was. I didn't want to get spit on that's what it was. But I think when you're talking about like having a great message, I think you know, there's no getting around the fact that there's obviously some some choices that go right on the edge of racial inappropriateness to say, right, and that probably the first part in the end part of the movie. But his family loves him so much and that idea of family always being there for you, right.

21:51 Mabel King does a great job as his mom. Oh yeah, she did, and she you can tell that she's a mom that that loves her son, you know. And I think that's one of the great things about it is that he is an absolute rough bottom, but it's his family that brings everything back and ultimately where he ends up being happy is back at this family. So good for David. And in the end, it's really all you need is people around you who love you and take care of you, and you know you love them and take care of them. You know. That's another good message here, Scott's a good point. I mean, you know, love is blind, you know, and that shows you right here that you know, no matter who you are, where you come from. You know, family is family and we can all get along. That's you know, absolutely, that's perfect.

22:33 Yea. You know, they did such a good job. I think that they were directed to play it straight, like, yeah, this is your son. You love him no matter what. He's a little bit. Maybe they even said he's special needs, you know, or whatever, but you love him like there's no tomorrow and he's going to do these silly things, but you just react to him with love. Yeah, And it's just seems so genuine fun I love his. Family absolutely, even without his rhythm, the rest of the family does have rhythm. Of course, he kind of gets it, but he gets it the the the guest appearance by Carl Carl Reiner is so funny. The fact that he had to like act with his eyes crossed like that, Oh my god, I couldn't do that. Like watching that bothered me.

23:22 Well you can see the one I kind of drift a little bit and it was like, oh, it's drifted, it's drifted, watch it. I couldn't. I couldn't perform that. I don't know how he did that. That, Oh that would hurt yea, well, okay, I got to bring out these other cameos because these blew me away. I don't want to step on your toes. You probably go ahead, Dave, I don't want to step on your hair. No, No, you're fine, be my guest. Well, so you've got Carl Gottlieb, who plays iron Balls McGinty. Right, awesome name, Carl. Carl Gottlieb is the writer of Jaws, the screenplay for Jaws. It's incredible that he makes the jump from Jaws to the Jerk to the Jerk. Okay. You also have Sharon Johansson who is Miss October nineteen seventy two plane Miss Hartoony Okay, but you also have a cameo from Harrison Ford where you guys are looking for that and I couldn't.

24:15 Find it at or where? Okay? So apparently Harrison Ford interacts with Steve Martin briefly as a circus construction worker. Are you serious? That's ironic? Okay? How about that? Wow? Now I need to go back to see that scene, at least to see where he's at. There you go see, and this is post console. I don't know if I'm yes exactly, I don't know if I'm alone in this, But does anybody else see similarities between Steve Martin laughing and Harrison Ford laughing. Yeah, if you look at them, said by side, they look very similar. When they're like when his his eyes go kind of squinty and he kind of like that big smile.

25:02 They look so similar. And every time I watch one of them, I'm like, oh my god, there's Harrison Ford. There's Steve Martin. I might be alone, but maybybe. Maybe we just need to see where he does the point exactly, wags his finger. Come on, he does that, and maybe the look. Yes, Steve Martin Campbell, it is a Harrison Ford. But no, I didn't know that, Jason. That's a that's amazing. I never knew Harrison Ford was was in this. Yeah, so you well yeah, but I mean, oh. Right, Rob Rynder is the guy who picks him up. But I saw Rob Reiner as the the guy who picks him up when he's hitchhiking outside his house, which was brilliant but went like free standing out there in the dark, the end of this fence picks him up. Well.

25:51 Speaking of that wagging Harrison Ford finger, I think that the clock is telling me it's time to take a break. So when we come back, we'll talk a little bit about going through the lens to look behind the scenes. All right, everybody, welcome back where we are continuing our talk of the jerk with Shirley You Can't be Serious podcast Jason the Colvin, and we're moving on through the lens. Guys, any interesting behind the scenes or anything that you guys came across when you were researching this film. Well, I did see one about the about Navin's mansion. Apparently it was I don't know if I'm gonna say this right, chic al Fosse Mansion on Sunset Boulevard and Beverly Hills, which apparently was so such a gaudy monstrosity that people believe that the neighbors are the ones that burned it down. It had thirty eight enormous rooms, including that basement disco where the dance scene was filmed, and apparently they didn't do need to do a lot of second set decoration, if any, Every tacky bit of the mansion was already there when they arrived. If you're looking for a tour of the mansion was torched in nineteen eighty, so obviously you can't go there. But that made me laugh a little bit more at the scene where Navian is talking about his mansion and he's like, I've got a tub shaped like a clam, I've got hedges shaped

27:22 like essence, naming all these things. And I'm like, oh my god, this guy, this poor chic, had all those things already decorating his mansion. Wow. I wonder if he had like like the the red and the white wine with the bamboo thing, you know by the tennis courts. That was like, yeez, that was a very gaudy place to live. I can only imagine. But hey, yep, you well. The thing to me that stands out most is that this movie was written by Carl Gottlig, so the behind the scenes there that the guy who wrote Jaws is the same guy who helped right descript to me that that is the most sunny thing. And of course Steve Martin getting started at a young age and riding in the car with with Carl Reiner to work and being creative and making sure they had a laugh on every page.

28:15 Yeah. Yeah. Do you guys notice the movie that was playing in the theater at the beginning of the film. Oh, so I saw that it said comedy thriller on the on the Marquee, and then I saw a poster for death Trap. Yep, it was death Trap. Yeah, I thought that the background. Yeah, I thought that was kind of cool. So wait a minute, death Trap, Yeah. Yeah, that's what was playing in the theater there. The movie poster was up. Death Trap came out in eighty two. I guess they were talking about the Broadway. The death is what they were talking about, So you're right. It didn't come out to later as a movie, But no, I just thought that was interesting. Apparently, Stanley Kubrick is a was a huge admirer of this film. He would recite lines from the film to his cast and crew when he was making movies. He even invited Steve Martin over, I guess so they could play chess together because he was such a huge fan of this film.

29:10 I heard that Kubrick wanted to make a movie with him, and like they kind of went down the road a bit on a certain movie, but it didn't end up happening. So, oh, that would have been kind of interesting, wouldn't it. Man a Kubrick movie starring Steve Martin. Yeah, I want to go to the alternate video store to watch that right now. Yes, let's go. I would go with you, Jason on that one. That would be interesting to see for sure. I kind of would to look through a behind the scenes documentary of some of his movies and see when he's dropping quotes and which quotes they are. Right, Wow, that would be uh, that'd be fun to see for sure. But apparently they was at eighty locations they shot this movie. Eighty eighty that's a lot of locations. Yeah, it's a film, a movie. And then plus I think they had like I don't know, ten to fifteen different stage sets too. I mean that's pretty massive if you think about that.

30:06 They had eighty sets and it took forty five days to shoot this movie. Yeah, we came under a budget, did it not like four or five days? It was done early. That's crazy. But again, if you're dealing with, you know, some pros like this, like Carl Ryan and Steve Martin, I guess you could move pretty fast. Yeah, you know, because I don't know how many takes they'd have to take with Steve Martin, because I mean, once you get on a roll, let them go. Right, I've got a little bit of trivia. I'm ready to drop on you here. Oh here we go. Okay, so I heard them. You know, they were discussing the title of this movie. It should be something short, something kind of poignant, and Steve Martin even talked about how does to Yerski's The Idiot is what they got the title from, right, so they called it The Jerk, of course. But the original working title for this was easy Money, ye, which I watched for the first time the other day with the Rodney Dangerfield Joe Pesci. That movie is terrible, that's wondering about that?

31:08 Was that a stinker? It's a stinger. I love eighties movies. I love bad eighties movies, and ah, that one was tough. I didn't like it at all. Wow that bad? Huh. I've never seen Easy Money, so I don't know that bad. On the scale. On the scale of Troll under the Cherry Moon. It's somewhere between Troll and Under the Cherry Moon. So ouch, So what you're telling us and the listeners, don't go watch it? I did not like it. No, okay, fair enough, all. Right, Well I got one more thing. So I heard some interesting things about you know, we talked about the poster for death Trap and kind of promotion. There were two interesting bits that they did for this movie that I thought were hilarious, but they're not actually in the movie.

31:55 One is that they had a mini premiere for just the trailer. Apparently they blew it out with like red carpet and the spotlights and all this sudden kind of fanfare just to show the trailer for like three minutes in the theater. Oh wow, that's cool. The other one is that and when I was reading about this, it sounded like it would be hard to find, but I was able to find it on YouTube pretty easily, a special trailer called for theater managers only. And the gag is that it's Steve Martin sitting in a desk and he's talking to the theater managers saying movie overs are morons and they'll go for anything, and that this film has everything a love scene, a high speed car chase, guns, a dog, and some boring scenes, so the audience will go to the lobby and spend money on snacks. So he's, you know, the joke is that he's like telling them these you know, these idiots will buying anything. The ironic part is that one of his one of Steve Martin's favorite scenes that he's kind of disappointed that not more people saw is the Tonight You Belong to Me song with Bernadette. So you kind of accidentally predicted that everybody's gonna leave during that part to go get a popcorn.

33:10 Hmm. I heard that he that was his favorite scene in the whole movie because it was kind of a little bit of a romantic moment. But that was the time when everybody went to go take a leak and get popcorn. So exactly, it was a very touching the scene, and nobody wanted to see it. Sorry, but I can see how that would be though. I mean, you know, they're in a relationship together, so I can see why that that scene would be so important to him. Yeah, so I get done, absolutely all right, So let's move on. Let's talk a little bit about let's score it. I know there's not much to the music of this comedy. I know it was done by Jack Elliott, who did a lot of television. I was looking at his IMDb and I'm like, man, this dude has done a lot of work, just a lot of television stuff. But I just thought the music was kind of fitting for this comedy.

33:58 Would you guys agree, Yeah, yeah, I don't think there was a lot that kind of you know, caught my attention or you know, nothing. I was kind of humming afterward. But no, I think I think it was a good job. And like you said, he'd done a lot of hit movies. I think previously he did Oh God with Carl Reiner, right. Yep. And Jason. There was another bit of trivia that I saw that I didn't remember if you guys covered it when you were talking about the theme songs. But I didn't know Jack Elliott was behind some big theme songs. Apparently have you went a crossis? No? I don't what is it?

34:38 Apparently he composed the theme for Nate Court, Barney and Charlie's Angels. Nice. Okay, that's the trifecta. Yeah, wow, Mike post Is, you know, generally the guy who wrote writes all the seventies stuff. So those are those are big titles for him? Yeah, they are. There's are big ones. I mean, now I can't get the Nightcore song out of my head. I know, thanks, thanks, Yeah, no, see, he did do a lot of television worder. I didn't know he did night Court though, so that's kind of interesting. But yeah, all right, well let's quote this any any interesting quotes guys, what about you, Jason. Oh Man, There's tons of them. The one that I remember when I was a kid, it was kind of naughty, and so it was kind of risky for me to repeat to my friends. But when he's uh, the glasses keep falling off the guy's face and he's like, damn these glasses and he's like, I damn. The I was thought that was so funny, Yes, sir, I damn. And then of course uh that I he hates these cans mm hmm, more cans marcns everywhere.

35:52 Scott, what about you? Yeah, I saw well, I saw an interesting note from Michael Elias, who was thinking back on it, had said. He says, we didn't know it at the time, but there was something groundbreaking about the Jerk, and that's because of the script. It was written by Steve and us. But it was Steve's act in a way, which was also groundbreaking and anarchistic, bent all the rules and reflected on itself and parodied other things. But the thing that was also charming and attractive about it was its lack of cynicism. It's interesting, like on a second watch, there's so much innocence from Navin coming out. And I know there's a lot of like sarcasm in Steve's early stand up, so to play a character like this that's got kind of he's got an innocent heart, right, which is why you keep cheering for him. So I don't know that one kind of stuck out to me.

36:49 There's definitely a childlike innocence with his character, you know, and when he's with his family, and then when he leaves his family, he gets out into the real world and starts the world starts the corrupt, you know, and you'll see that, and he allows himself to be corrupted. So and that's where he starts his downfall. So no, I definitely can see that. So for me, it didn't I didn't find one exactly about the Jerk, but I did find one from Carl Reiner that I thought resonated with this film. He says, inviting people to laugh with you while you are laughing at yourself is a good thing to do. You may be the fool, but you're the fool in charge. And it's true. Any one of those classic comedians Steve Martin and Scott You and I covered meatballs with Bill Murray and you know the one scene that you know, we'd always talk about is, you know when he was, you know, rooting, getting everybody up ready for those that the final you know, Olympic they they had at the camp. Remember that scene at the at the you know, getting everybody you know, rowed up for it. They just let Bill Murray go. You know, that's that's all of him coming up off the top of his head performing that. And it's the same thing with Steve Martin. You've got these really talented people who are just can just at the snap of a finger, just come up with stuff off the top of their head, and you just let them perform in front of that camera.

38:07 You know, you just let them go. And you know that's that makes a director's job easy in my opinion. And you're right, sometimes you have to act full but if you're the fool in charge, and hey, you've got everything out of control, right. Yeah, pretty much. And I mean I've read about this being I've seen this movie described as a joyful set, and I've got to believe that's because of Karl Reiner and Steve Martin helping to kind of steer that ship in that direction and make sure that it was absolutely fun because there's a lot of like, you know, slapstick stuff in this but it looks it doesn't look like there's anybody who had a hard time or a bad time making it. Even mm at Walsh had this action scene where he's having to run full tilt when he's the private investigator.

38:53 Right, that run was hysterical. Oh my god, that just needs to be a gift. But yeah, he he looks like he's having a great time. Everybody looks like they're having a great time. And that's what makes this kind of movie even more fun is knowing that the people who made it enjoyed it. Yeah, absolutely. You know, Steve Martin is really talented, right, he's super funny, and in this movie he's being sort of dumb and silly. Yeah, but there's a lot of other movies where he's like in Roxanne for example, he's really he's really sharp in that. Oh yeah, you know what I. Mean, he's creative and he's the he's like the brains of that movie.

39:34 You know. So it's just interesting to watch a gifted actor go between different characters, you know, with totally different characteristics. So and I've said this several times on different podcasts, especially when we're talking about comedians. Comedians make the best dramatic actors, you know. I think we've talked about this in foul Play, if I remember correctly, they do. I mean, if you are so good at comedy, you're able to just come off the top of her head and just be hysterical and you know, just have that that talent. Drama comes easy to them, you know, so, and they make it look easy, and which is just pathetic that I hate that so much because it's like the talent so of these people have and I have a little bit of it, please, but you know, it's it's still though, you know, I appreciate. I don't know if you guys seen only Murders in the Building. That is bringing Steve Martin and Martin Short back to what they used to be back in the olden days. I know they're in what is the season four? That right, Scott?

40:40 I think four? Yeah, definitely watch it, Jason. It is so good and it just shows you how talented Steve Martin is. You know, we're talking about him here. Every movie he's like that. But it's good to see him make a comeback like he has with the new TV series that's on Hulu. It definitely needs to be watched because you will find yourself absolutely loving and remembering how much you loved Steve Martin and Martin Short. Sure I did see Martin Short make a comment that I thought was hilarious. Of course, both of those guys are just hilarious. But he said, you know, he's talking about Steve Martin. Martin Short is talking about Steve Martin, and he says, he's so talented, he's so creative, he's so funny, he's so sensitive, right like he's one of the most sensitive souls that he knows. And then he said, whenever we go to a restaurant, he always knows the waitress's name, and somehow they're always named dolface.

41:38 Nice. But he was really making a genuine compliment and before he put the joke in there, but just saying that Steve is super smart, creative, funny, sensitive. You definitely can see that absolutely well. I mean something like only Murders. He has a great range from the Little Life seend of this latest season, there's a lot more range that I'm sure they're going to explore. But you know, you see that he has those sincere moments when he's in bed with Marie and he's talking to her while she's asleep, apparently so asleep she looks like she's dead, which is a little creepy, a little bit of a beatle juice moment, but there's a lot of sincerity in that delivery, right. And when you think about him, as you know, having those kind of dramatic beats, it makes me think of Parenthood, which I think, I mean, obviously there's a lot of comedy beats there. I think it's kind of the precursor of modern Family in a lot of ways. But the sincere dramatic beats that he has in things like Parenthood, Father of the Bride, it shows enormous range. And going back to a movie like this, it's like going back and seeing Tom Hanks in the early days, right back when it was like goofy is Zany, like a lot of like body movements and things like that. Completely different person than you're seeing in these other movies, but you appreciate so much more of the range that he has as an actor. Yeah, So I just love it.

43:04 It's funny that you mentioned that because John Ritter is like that to me. It's a shame that we lost John Ritterer as early as we did in life. Yes, but that man was so freaking talented with that body movement, that body comedy, that situational stuff. John Ritter was brilliant with that. So it's funny that you brought that up at first. John, he came right to my mind when you were talking about that, because he was another one who was really really good that stuff like that. God so gifted with physical humor. So yes, absolutely, all right, Well, before we move on to the rewind, guys, let's take a short break here.

43:47 All right, everybody, welcome back where we continue our talk about the Jerk starring Steve Martin, and let's go talk about the rewind guys. I know we talked about some of our likes clearly, you know, we all enjoyed the gas stage scene. Anything else that really stood out to you. There's one that stood out to me after it's right at the kind of the plummet of his life when he's lost the lawsuit and they talk about how he has to award all of his money to all of these people, and you know, at a younger age when I'm watching this in syndication, it went right over my head. But this time when I watch it, it really hit me that he's he's kind of sobbing at that desk in his palatial estate while they're carrying everything out, and he's angrily writing out ten million checks for a dollar and nine cents per person. It's just like, the futility of that is just That's a brilliant little nugget.

44:46 It's funny, Jason. What about you? Well, the you know, when I think back to this movie, the thing that keeps coming to my mind is my parents saw this at a drive in and it was one of those where I don't know if you guys remember drivings, but oh yeah, yeah, we saw like the Rescuers. That was like my movie, right, And so we went and saw the Rescuers and then after that the jerk was gonna come on, and they wanted me to go to sleep, but I did, you know, I was I was too busy watching this funny movie, you know, and they kept asking me to stop paying attention. So from an early age, I realized that this is really a funny movie with some goofiness and some silliness and you know, some enjoyable moments. So I was I was six, and I loved it.

45:35 So yeah, it's nice to have some of that escapism with these kind of comedies, you know, because you really need it in life. So much stuff goes on in this world. You really need something that just will make you forget for ninety minutes where you can just laugh and just you know, forget everything. And this is one of this movie that really does that to you, for sure. So for me, Jason, that sounds like a great scene. Yeah, sorry, that sounds like a great scene at the drive in we we've been to a cup. Well here in chance we can get and yeah, you always have those those two movies, and it's kind of like if the kids are too tired to go on or you just stick with it. I'm just kind of picturing your parents laughing so much at the movie at the same time trying to tell you not to watch it, but at a certain point, like you know what you're gonna you're gonna catch on anyway, and just knowing that you were there to see your parents enjoy that had to be a great scene.

46:30 Yeah, absolutely, that's pretty good, good memory, Jason, for sure. It's always nice to have those. Yeah. So for me, the one scene that really stands on me. It's really small, but it's when he goes to cash the check, the two hundred and fifty dollars check for not be the two and fifty thousand dollars check, the big ones, big ones, the one thing that I absolutely loved because they needed identification, and he goes, oh, astronaut application, I failed everything, but the date of birth. It's so good. I think of that line every time, and they just bunched up. So no, all right, well, let's let's talk about the impact of this film. We kind of already have in a way.

47:12 Steve Martin obviously is already big at this point, but it just explodes him onto the scene even more because he's gonna move on and you already mentioned it, Scott, with some other films. He's gonna do with a car Reiner. That's gonna be huge, you know, all of me, MAMMITU brains and dead men don't wear plaid, and on and on and on, and we're still even talking about Steve Martin to this day. We just did with the only murders in the building. But you know, the other impact of this movie too, is just you know, it helped other comedies just continue because you know, we've already seen some really good comedies here on the seventies. You know, we've already talked about Animal House, we talked about Meat Walls, on and on and on. This is just another one of those movies in that line, just continuing to push the boundaries of comedy, and clearly this one does because obviously there's some scenes in this that today you're kind of like when it happens, but it's pushing the bound and that's what a lot of these comedians did, right, push those bound guys.

48:04 That's right. Yeah, Well, I mean, like Jason, you were talking about that book Save the Cat, right, and what was the what was the kind of trope that they talked about, the fool triumph full triumphant. Yeah. Yeah, So I mean we're seeing a lot of that in in more modern comedies, like I mean, even though they're not as modern, but things like Dumb and Dumber, right, yep. I don't think we would necessarily have those kind of movies if we didn't have something like this that proves that something that is. It's a lot of gags, it's a lot of comedy that pursues that whole idea of the fool triumphant and how successful it can be. It's it seems like a very simple movie, like when you break down what's actually happening in it, but there's so much complexity and so much thought behind it. It's a it's a very very intelligently construct did stupid comedy, right.

49:02 Yeah, that's right. Yeah, and it does set the stage for all the eighties goofy full triumphant movies that we love, you know, right. Apparently there was a sequel, The Jerk Too. Yeah. Oh oh, I've never seen it, and I don't think I want to because I heard it was no very good. But I think they're trying to do a TV series too, weren't they? Was that part of that? It was a TV movie, I guess, but I haven't ever seen it. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, I no, thank you. I don't want to even think. I was afraid to look at it. I was afraid to look at up any further than just existed. Yeah, no, we're good. I'm not gonna go listeners. If you go out there, you watch The Dirk too, you can kind of you can drop a line let us know what you thought about that, but I'm not going to go down that road. No things. All right, where did you guys see this at?

49:49 I saw it at the drive in Untilso, Oklahoma, which beats all the other stories are it does? Yeah, and we're. Honestly, this is another Amazon Prime for me? What about you, Dave? Yeah, Amazon Prime is where I solid. I don't have a cool story where I first saw it like Jason does. I'm really kind of jealous of that. But I saw this one later in life anyway. When I first saw it, h this was one of those movies that I would have rented after I was working at like Suncoast, you know, and just going through a laundry list of some of these incredible actors, just getting caught up on, you know, their filmography and stuff like that. So that's the way I would originally have seen it. But yeah, all right, Well, I want to thank Jason so much for joining us.

50:30 Man. It's always a pleasure to have you talk about this so clearly when we have comedies, we got to reach out to Jason Colvin to say, hey, we got not a comedy we need to talk about. To come join us right. Exactly, I thank you. Glad you invited me. Yeah, so thank you so much. I had a blast, and I had a blast revisiting this one. I hadn't seen it in a little while. Yeah, and I love going back and just experiencing that again. So awesome. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely anything interesting coming up for Surely you Can't Be Serious podcast. Man, we are in the middle of a deep dive into nineteen ninety four. We're breaking down five albums from ninety four. So nice. You've done Weezer's Blue album, Green Day's Dukie album, We're doing Bush sixteen Stone, We've got a collective soul album that we're going to cover, and we've got Live Throwing Copper.

51:17 So we're spending a month in ninety four revisiting all those music videos and the you know, the Woodstock ninety four stories and just a lot of fun from ninety four. Definitely have to check those out for sure cover. All right, Well, hopefully you will tune into Surely you Can't Be Serious podcast. You know, they always have some very good material to listen to, you know, it's because of them, is why we are here today. As always, I want to thank our listeners and hope you are as excited as we are. As we continue our journey to the nineteen seventy nine, We're getting closer and closer to the end of that year. So if you want to reach us, you can find us at www dot filmbypodcast dot com. You can email us at a film by podcast at gmail dot com.

51:57 You can reach us at all the social medias that are out there. Until our film reel will start rolling again, go out watch something new, watch something different, and who knows what you'll discover next. Thanks everyone,