The Jerk
Plot summary
The film begins with Navin R. Johnson (Martin), a homeless bum, directly addressing the camera and telling his story. He is the adopted white son of African American sharecroppers, who grows to adulthood navely unaware of his obvious adoption. He stands out in his family not just because of his skin color, but also because of his utter lack of rhythm. One night, he hears a Lawrence Welk tune on the radio and his feet spontaneously begin to move with the urge to dance; he sees this as a calling and decides to hitchhike to St. Louis, from where the song was broadcast. On the way, he stops at a motel, where a dog wakes him up by barking at his door. Navin thinks the dog is trying to tell him there’s a fire and decides to name the dog “Lifesaver.” He wakes up the other hotel guests to rescue them, but when everyone realizes it was a false alarm, one man angrily suggests he call the dog “Shithead,” which he does.
Navin gets a job (and a place to sleep) at a gas station owned by Mr. Harry Hartounian (Mason). He’s thrilled to find that he’s listed in the local phone book, as his name is “in print” for the first time. Not long after, a gun-wielding lunatic (Walsh) randomly flips through the phone book and picks “Johnson, Navin R.” as his next victim. As the madman watches through his rifle scope, Navin is fixing the slippery glasses of a customer, Stan Fox (played by Bill Macy), by adding a handle and a nose brake. Fox offers to split the profits 50/50 with Navin if he can market the invention, then leaves. The crazed sniper tries to kill Navin, but fails, hitting the oil cans in the station window and a soft-drink machine. Navin assumes that the gunman is out to shoot the cans “there’s something wrong with these cans! He HATES these CANS!”
The lunatic chases him to a traveling carnival. Navin climbs into a truck to hide, but the truck drives away; Navin ends up getting a job with SJM Fiesta Shows as a weight guesser. While employed there, Navin meets a daredevil biker woman named Patty Bernstein (Catlin Adams) and has a sexual relationship with her, finally realizing what his “special purpose” (his euphemism for penis) is for. He then meets a woman named Marie (Peters) and arranges a date with her. Patty confronts them, but Marie knocks her out cold. While courting, Navin and Marie walk along the beach and sing “Tonight You Belong to Me”, with Navin playing the ukulele and Marie on the cornet. Navin and Marie fall in love, but Marie decides to leave him because of his lack of financial security. She writes a note and slips out while Navin is in the bath singing his new song, “I’m Picking Out A Thermos For You.”
Navin soon finds out that his glasses invention, now called the Opti-Grab, is selling big and he’s entitled to half of the profits; his first check is for $250,000, though Navin initially believes the total to be just $250. He finds and marries Marie, and they hire a live-in butler and chambermaid, despite living in a small apartment. The next check is for $750,000, which he uses to buy an extravagant mansion. Navin doesn’t stay rich for long, though, as director Carl Reiner (playing himself) files a class action lawsuit against Navin, claiming that the invention caused his crossed eyes and the death of a stunt driver. Nearly ten million other people have the same complaint and join the lawsuit. Navin is forced to refund $1.09 to every Opti-Grab customer (he is seen hand-writing each check), which bankrupts him. He is also forced to write a check to ‘Iron Balls McGinty’, a nemesis who had previously physically been attacked by Navin, while discussing ways to keep blacks from renting in an apartment complex.
Depressed, he leaves abruptly wearing nothing but his robe and his pants around his ankles. He claims that the only things he needs to survive are the TV remote control, a paddle-ball game, some matches and a few other items. Living on the streets, he trades all of these items for a thermos, catching the story up to where the movie began. Marie contacts Navin’s family, who’ve carefully invested the small sums of money he sent home throughout the film and become wealthy themselves. They find him (in the first place they look) and pick him up off the street, he and Marie move back home in a “bigger house” (the same old shack, with new rooms added-on and a ten-foot front door), and they live happily ever after. The story ends with the entire family dancing on the porch and singing ‘Pick a Bail of Cotton’, a old negro spiritual popularized in the 20th century by folk singer Leadbelly.
An unsuccessful sequel, The Jerk, Too, was made for television with Mark Blankfield. The story revolved around Navin traveling to Los Angeles to attend his pen pal’s wedding.
Awards and honors
American Film Institute recognition
2000: AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Laughs #89
In popular culture
This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2009)
Bill Murray filmed a cameo, but it was cut. On an episode of Saturday Night Live from December 15, 1979, Murray reviewed the film, saying he felt the film was “missing something”.
In the Freaks and Geeks episode “The Little Things”, Sam Weir takes Cindy Sanders to see The Jerk on their first date together, only to discover she doesn’t find it funny. A clip of Navin getting shot at in the gas station is shown. In another episode, “Smooching and Mooching”, Bill Haverchuck does an impression of Navin in the “cans” scene. Earlier in the episode, Weir calls The Jerk “the perfect film”, also commenting that Stripes is “only half good”.
The film can be seen playing in the background of the Ranger barracks in Black Hawk Down.
The famous scene of Steve Martin only covered by his dog is shown in the film Whip It.
External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Jerk
The Jerk at the Internet Movie Database
The Jerk at Rotten Tomatoes
“New York Times” review, December 14, 1979
“People Magazine” article, Jan.21, 1980
v d e
Films directed by Carl Reiner
1960s
Enter Laughing (1967) The Comic (1969)
1970s
Where’s Poppa? (1970) Oh, God! (1977) The One and Only (1978) The Jerk (1979)
1980s
Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982) The Man with Two Brains (1983) All of Me (1984) Summer Rental (1985) Summer School (1987) Bert Rigby, You’re a Fool (1989)
1990s
Sibling Rivalry (1990) Fatal Instinct (1993) That Old Feeling (1997)
Categories: English-language films | 1979 films | 1970s comedy films | American comedy films | Screenplays by Steve MartinHidden categories: Film articles using deprecated parameters | Articles needing additional references from November 2009 | All articles needing additional references
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