The Jerk

1979
R
1h 34m

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

66K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer2:32

A simpleminded, sheltered country boy suddenly decides to leave his family home to experience life in the big city, where his naivete is both his best friend and his worst enemy.A simpleminded, sheltered country boy suddenly decides to leave his family home to experience life in the big city, where his naivete is both his best friend and his worst enemy.A simpleminded, sheltered country boy suddenly decides to leave his family home to experience life in the big city, where his naivete is both his best friend and his worst enemy.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

66K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

4,110

378

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win & 1 nomination total

Videos2

Photos89

+ 82

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Stanley Kubrick was a big admirer of this film. He would often recite lines from the film to cast and crew on his films and he once invited Steve Martin over so they could play chess.

Goofs
When the family is sitting around the table for Navin's (Steve Martin) birthday, they congratulate him and his brother says "That's great, Steve!"

Quotes
Navin R. Johnson: Well I'm gonna to go then! And I don't need any of this. I don't need this stuff, and I don't need *you*. I don't need anything. Except this.
[picks up an ashtray]
Navin R. Johnson: And that's the only thing I need is *this*. I don't need this or this. Just this ashtray... And this paddle game. - The ashtray and the paddle game and that's all I need... And this remote control. - The ashtray, the paddle game, and the remote control, and that's all I need... And these matches. - The ashtray, and these matches, and the remote control, and the paddle ball... And this lamp. - The ashtray, this paddle game, and the remote control, and the lamp, and that's all *I* need. And that's *all* I need too. I don't need one other thing, not one... I need this. - The paddle game and the chair, and the remote control, and the matches for sure. Well what are you looking at? What do you think I'm some kind of a jerk or something! - And this. That's all I need.
[walking outside]
Navin R. Johnson: The ashtray, the remote control, the paddle game, and this magazine, and the chair.
Navin R. Johnson: [outside now] And I don't need one other thing, except my dog.
[Shithead growls at him]
Navin R. Johnson: I don't need my dog.

Crazy credits
Pig Eye Jackson - Cat Juggler (Steve Martin)

Alternate versions
A version of "The Jerk" shown on cable's Turner Network Television contained alternate footage. Besides changing the name of Navin's dog to "Stupid" from "Shithead," genuine alternate footage was contained; in one previously-unseen scene, Navin is so broken-up over the loss of Marie that he "just had to spin." The carnies remove him from the ride by force, and he tries to explain to them what emotions are. The "charity" montage also differs: before the cat-juggling sequence, Navin meets a professor-type who insults him and shows him some apparently unpleasant pictures, and a Texan millionaire who cries over small cracks on the seat of his airplane; he pays both, of course. In this version there is no "Iron-Balls McGinty" sequence.

Connections
Featured in Sneak Previews: The Jerk/Kramer vs. Kramer/Star Trek/Mr. Mike's Mondo Video/Sleeping Beauty (1979)

Soundtracks
Tonight You Belong To Me
Sung by Bernadette Peters and Steve Martin
Music by Lee David
Lyric by Billy Rose

User reviews172

Review

Featured review

7/10

Martin In His Wild & Crazy Days

A very popular movie in its day, watching it a couple of years ago wasn't the same. Oh, it was still funny but just not the "hilarious" movie I always remembered it as. Maybe its reputation and memory exceeded its value, or maybe it's funnier when you are younger.

Whatever, there is still a lot of good laughs in year, subtle and slapstick variety. Now I laugh more at the subtle things. Almost all the characters in here, beginning with Steve Martin's "Navin R. Johnson," are wacky. Bernadette Peters, by the way, never looked prettier. This was in the earlier days of the ratings system and that PG rating would be at least PG-13 today. It still fun to see it after a long absence. Martin was on a roll back in those days, "a wild and crazy guy," and it's good that he's still entertaining us -- years later, although in a more subtle way. Hey, he's getting older, too.