“It was never easy for me, I was born a poor black child”, spoken by the very white Steve Martin as his iconic character Navin R. Johnson in The Jerk. I have never forgotten this line since I first heard it being uttered, and recounting it in my mind always gives me the chuckles. The line sets up the tone of The Jerk perfectly, which is one of the most brilliantly idiotic comedies in history.
In fact, the film pretty much makes stupidity into an artform. Creating some very memorable gags in the process, usually at the expense of its main protagonist. Who might give fellow idiot Forrest Gump a run for his money. Yet weaved within this outlandish comedy, lies some really clever observations on The American Dream, materialism, and general human behaviour.
The Jerk tells the story of Navin (Martin), who is the adopted son of a black family. When told of his adoption, a shocked Navin asks his mom “you mean I’m going to stay this colour?” Inspired one night after hearing white man’s music over the radio, Navin embarks on his own to make something of himself. He hitchhikes his way to St. Louis where he gets a job at a local gas station run by Harry Hartounian (Jackie Mason).
“One of the most brilliantly idiotic comedies in history.”
The always optimistic yet naive Navin finds opportunity everywhere he goes. Even becoming overjoyed when he sees his name in print for the first time in a phone book. “Things are going to start happening to me now”, Navin says with such determination and confidence. It’s soon after because of the phone book, his name is picked out at random by a gun toting mad man (M. Emmett Walsh), who tries to shoot him. When the shots miss Navin, and instead hit some conveniently placed oil cans, he scream “He hates these cans! Stay away from the cans!”
Evading the gunman, Navin sets out on his new venture working at a carnival. And after getting involved with a rude, and disgusting stunt woman (Catlin Adams), he has sex for the first time. Where he discovers what his “special purpose” is (Special purpose being a euphamism for penis).
But his real love comes when he meets Marie (Bernadette Peters), a sweet cosmotologist who falls for his innocent charms. However, in order to appease Marie’s mother, Navin must become a success.
Which he does by inadvertently inventing the Omnigrab, a new device which prevents eyeglasses from slipping off a person’s face. The device becomes the new hot item, and Navin and Marie are rich beyond their wildest dreams, but pretty soon it will all come crashing down.
“The film is rather inspired by Martin’s brand of humour, which worked as absurdist post-modernism.”
The Jerk was the first starring role for Steve Martin, who was one of the biggest, and most influential comics to come out of the 1970s. The film is rather inspired by Martin’s brand of humour, which worked as absurdist post-modernism. His stage act usually included a persona of a comedian who wasn’t in on the joke. He would come out in a white suit, sporting an arrow through the head, while playing a banjo. It was more about the philosophy of comedy, rather than comedy itself.
Martin brought this idea to the film, and together with his director and co-writer Carl Reiner, created an anything goes mentality. The gags reach such a high point of ridiculousness, they become sublime, and you realize there is real genius in the tapestry.
But the film can also be a bit subversive in its stance on materialism and success. When Navin becomes rich, he indulges in all of the joys in the world a man of his wealth can afford. There is a hilarious sequence where he recounts all of the things he’s ever wanted and he can finally have – such as a clam shell bath tub or a garden with “S” shaped hedges – while Marie takes up the useless past time of knife throwing.
The overt lavishness and pure ludicrous environment they have made for themselves make for a harsh critique of this overindulgence; when Navin and Marie face poverty, Marie laments “I don’t care about losing all the money, it’s losing all the stuff.” It becomes an obsession, and it’s only when Navin loses everything he has, save for a thermos which reminds him of the love song he wrote for Marie, that he realizes what is really important in life.
“It’s meant to tickle the funny bone, and not let up until the end credits.”
Of the many genres in film, comedy seems to be the easiest one to look down upon. One could turn their noses up at The Jerk and think it wouldn’t be any type of great cinema. Yet it should be argued that there is something brilliant in being so blatantly stupid. Martin and Reiner are well aware of the idiocy on full display here, but using that as a smoke screen, they’re actually able to create a film which can be about something worthy to make fun of, which is the fantasy of the American dream.
Navin’s rise and fall is supposed to be meant as a parody for these types of stories. But it’s told in such an exaggerated way, it deflates the importance of striving for success. That’s what comedy can do better than anything, it thumbs its nose at concepts or institutions which deserve to be mocked. The mere idea that Navin thinks of himself as a “poor black child” is nonsense considering he’s still, in essence a privileged white man, he’s just too dumb to realize it.
Of course, that isn’t to say The Jerk isn’t just plain funny. It’s meant to tickle the funny bone, and not let up until the end credits. It’s a testament to this film that it is as funny today as it was when it was first released. Although not acclaimed at the time, it has remained popular ever since, and has gained recognition as a truly great comedy.
It was a career defining role for Martin, who would go on to make many more modern classics including All of Me (Also directed by Reiner), Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Roxanne, and Bowfinger to name a few. I know comedy is subjective, but if The Jerk just had the one line “I was born a poor black child”, then it would’ve cemented itself in my mind as one of the great films in history.
