| Jay and Silent Bob | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Clerks |
| Created by | Kevin Smith |
| Portrayed by | Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith |
| Information | |
| Aliases | Bluntman and Chronic |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Drug dealers; illegal fireworks salesmen only in Clerks: The Animated Series |
Jay and Silent Bob are fictional characters portrayed by Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith, respectively, in Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse, a fictional universe created and used in most films, comics and television by Smith, which began in Clerks.
Jay and Silent Bob have appeared in most of Smith's films with the exceptions being Jersey Girl, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Cop Out, and Red State. In Smith's universe, the characters are shown spending most of their time selling marijuana in front of the convenience store in the Clerks films. An exception to their drug trafficking occurred in Clerks: The Animated Series, in which they were selling illegal fireworks instead of drugs.
The duo express a great interest in John Hughes' films such as Sixteen Candles, the film Purple Rain, the heavy metal musician King Diamond, shown in Clerks II, when Silent Bob is asked to put on music and plays the song "Welcome Home" from King Diamond's 1988 album, Them, the funk and dance-pop ensemble Morris Day and the Time, Canadian "melo-drama" television shows such as Degrassi The Next Generation, Buffalo Bill's infamous nude dancing scene (to the song "Goodbye Horses") from The Silence of the Lambs, as well as in X-Men.
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Jay and Silent Bob are said to have been born in Leonardo, New Jersey in the early 1970s. They met as infants in front of Quick Stop Groceries while their mothers shopped inside RST Video as seen in the film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Silent Bob's distinguishing features are his heavy smoking, long coat, dark hair, beard, and backwards baseball cap. He was raised Catholic, and is a gadgetry genius. True to his name, Silent Bob rarely speaks but when he does he often has something profound or thoughtful to say, delivering insightful monologues to the other characters only in appropriate situations. Otherwise he relies on hand gestures and facial expressions to communicate. Jay once mentioned that Silent Bob rarely speaks because he feels he leaves a major impact when he does speak. Silent Bob is often irritated by Jay and whenever Silent Bob does speak, he will often criticize Jay. In Clerks: The Animated Series, Bob is called "Blutarsky", but according to Smith, it was only a joke that referenced "Animal House" and he never gave Bob a last name.[1]
Jay is thinner and slightly taller than Bob, and has long blond hair. In several of the later View Askewniverse films, Jay wears a black toque. In contrast to Bob, Jay speaks quite frequently and crudely and often treats people with cruelty or disrespect, including Silent Bob. Jay's excessive cursing seems due to influence from his overbearing mother, who is shown continually using profanity in front of him. His first word was "fuck". In Clerks, the first film to feature the duo, Jay wears a baseball cap.
Clerks, released in 1994, is the first film to feature Jay and Silent Bob. In the View Askewniverse continuity, it takes place the day after Mallrats. Jay and Silent Bob return to their primary business location in front of Quick Stop. Throughout the day, they are seen dancing, loitering, and harassing passersby. Silent Bob enters the store to buy powdered sugar while Jay goes inside to steal food. They also deal marijuana to various pedestrians (including Willam Black), much to the chagrin of Quick Stop clerk Dante Hicks. In addition, the duo hang out with Silent Bob's Russian cousin Olaf, who runs a heavy metal band and is looking to do a gig in New York City.
Overhearing Dante's dilemma with Caitlin Bree and Veronica, Silent Bob says to him, "You know, there's a million fine looking women in the world, dude. But they don't all bring you lasagna at work. Most of 'em just cheat on you."
The end credits of Clerks contains a reference to the return of Jay & Silent Bob in Dogma.
Although it was filmed one year later, the events in Mallrats, released in 1995, occur one day prior to the events in Clerks. In the film, Jay and Silent Bob are busy loitering at the Eden Prairie Center Mall. There they are met by Brodie (Jason Lee) and T.S. (Jeremy London), who have broken up with their girlfriends—Rene (Shannen Doherty) and Brandi (Claire Forlani), respectively. As fate would have it, a local game show called "Truth or Date", which is set to feature Brandi, is to be filmed at the mall that day. Brodie asks Jay and Silent Bob to make sure that the show does not happen, and Jay says they were going to destroy the stage anyway, for lack of anything better to do.
They make several attempts to destroy the stage, but ultimately fail. Later, they help Brodie and T.S. win back their girlfriends. Jay incapacitates the male contestants on "Truth or Date" by getting them stoned, which allows Brodie and T.S. to take their places. Silent Bob overrides the production's video input, allowing him to play a video tape of Rene's new boyfriend, Shannon Hamilton (Ben Affleck), having sex with a minor. The film concludes with Brodie and T.S. each reconciling with their respective girlfriends and Jay and Silent Bob walk off into the distance with an orangutan named Susanne.
In this film, we also find out that Silent Bob is an electronics genius and won a science fair in 8th grade by turning his mother's vibrator into a CD player by using "chicken wire and shit".
After the credits roll, we are told that Jay and Silent Bob will return in Chasing Amy.
Chasing Amy, released in 1997, reveals that in the years since the events of Clerks, Jay and Silent Bob have found out that comic book artists Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) and Banky Edwards (Jason Lee) created a popular independent comic book series entitled Bluntman and Chronic which stars the duo.
This film centers around Holden's romantic relationship with Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams), a self-identified lesbian. Though their love is initially strong, the relationship begins to deteriorate when Holden discovers Alyssa's past. Towards the end of the film, Jay and Silent Bob meet Holden to accept their likeness rights payment, and during this meeting Silent Bob tells Holden the story of his former girlfriend, Amy.
Silent Bob explains, in his longest speech to date, that he once dated a girl named Amy, and much like in Holden's relationship with Alyssa, he became disturbed at the revelation of Amy's sexual past, specifically that she engaged in a threesome. Upon discovering this, he broke up with her only to realize, much later, that he was wrong. He was not angry at her; rather, he felt small and insecure, as if he would never be enough given his lack of experience. But by the time he realized this it was too late, and she had moved on. He has since spent his life "Chasing Amy", so to speak.
Inspired by Silent Bob's story, Holden devises a plan to fix his relationship with Alyssa, but like Silent Bob's past relationship it is too late. Holden passes the reins of power over the Bluntman and Chronic comic and thereafter creates a new comic named Chasing Amy, based on the relationship.
The end credits of Chasing Amy again contain a reference to the return of Jay & Silent Bob in Dogma.
The events in Dogma, released in 1999, take place after their disappointing adventure in the fictional Shermer, Illinois (the events of which are chronicled in the comic book story "Chasing Dogma"). Jay and Silent Bob decide to go back home to New Jersey. Before they leave, they meet Bethany Sloane (Linda Fiorentino), a Roman Catholic abortion clinic worker who has lost her faith in God.
Though she herself is unaware of the fact, Bethany is the last living relative of Jesus. She has been charged with the holy quest of stopping two fallen angels, Bartleby (Ben Affleck) and Loki (Matt Damon), from entering a church in New Jersey. The two angels were expelled from the Heaven after Loki got extremely drunk, quit his position as the Angel of Death, and gave God the finger; they realize that they can exploit a doctrinal loophole and get back into heaven if they lose their wings and then die by some means other than suicide. Bartleby reasons that entering the church in New Jersey will automatically forgive all of their sins as total remission of sins had been granted to whoever visited that specific church on a specific date, thus allowing them to return to Heaven. Though they do not know it, if the two were to return to heaven this way, they would overturn God's decision, thus "proving God wrong" and unmaking all of existence. The Metatron (Alan Rickman) tells Bethany that she is to follow two people who refer to themselves as "prophets". This turns out to be Jay and Silent Bob, who rescue Bethany from her attackers. She believes they are the prophets by Jay's statement that he "could have stayed in Jersey and at least made himself a profit". Though initially only interested in sex, Jay and Silent Bob agree to let her come with them.
Jay and Silent Bob fill out their roles as prophets: they predict the arrival of Rufus (Chris Rock), the thirteenth apostle, who was left out of the Bible because he was black; they lead the others to former muse Serendipity (Salma Hayek); they procure the divine instrument that will stop Azrael; Jay reveals the location of God ("John Doe Jersey"); and ultimately, though inadvertently, they provide Bethany with the solution to preventing Armageddon. The Apostle Rufus reveals that Jay entertains homosexual fantasies when masturbating; Jay attempts to reassure a disturbed Silent Bob by explaining that he does not always think about men. During the journey, they also encounter the two angels, and a host of demons who (in rebellion against Hell) are trying to help the angels cause the end of the world. Silent Bob also speaks, a comical line after throwing the rebel angels off a moving train, then being awkwardly stared at by a shocked and confused passenger. ("No ticket", a reference to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).
Once at the church, Jay and Silent Bob, along with the others, try to stop the angels from entering. Loki has a change of heart and tries to help them out, but gets killed in the process by Bartleby. Though their efforts to fight Bartleby are unsuccessful (in fact, Jay accidentally helps Bartleby out by shooting his wings off with a MAC-10, turning him to a mortal), God (Alanis Morissette) arrives, and proceeds to set things in order. After Jay spouts an obscenity-filled tirade on Serendipity and Rufus, the movie ends with Jay suggesting that he and Silent Bob take Bethany to the Quick Stop.
The ending credits tell us that Jay & Silent Bob would return in Clerks II: Hardly Clerkin'.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, released in 2001, takes place nearly ten years after the events of Clerks. Due to their excessive noise-making and drug dealing, Randal Graves gets a restraining order against Jay and Silent Bob that prohibits them from coming within one hundred feet of the Quick Stop or RST Video. Having no place to loiter, they decide to pay a visit to Brodie (Jason Lee), where they learn that Miramax Films is making a "Bluntman and Chronic" film.
They visit Holden McNeil, co-creator of the characters, and ask for the money that belongs to them for using their likenesses in the film, only to find out that he sold his half of the rights to "Bluntman and Chronic" to the other co-creator, Banky Edwards (Jason Lee); after Holden introduces them to the internet, they also discover that a number of people have bashed the upcoming film and insulted Jay and Silent Bob numerous times. Jay and Silent Bob decide that they must defend their honor, and embark on a trip to Hollywood to stop the movie from being made and save their reputations.
After being refused service on a bus for not having tickets, they decide to hitchhike there, and stop at a local Mooby's restaurant whereupon Jay falls victim to love at first sight: Justice (Shannon Elizabeth), an international jewel thief posing as an animal rights activist. Justice offers them a ride under the pretense that they are traveling cross country to release animals from an animal testing facility, much to the chagrin of her partners Chrissy (Ali Larter), Missy (Jennifer Schwalbach Smith), and Sissy (Eliza Dushku).
Once inside the facility, Jay and Silent Bob find a tranquilizer gun and the ape, an orangutan named Suzanne (a reference to the ending scene in "Mallrats"). After springing her from her cage, Silent Bob becomes sympathetic for the other animals, so they let them loose as well. In the meantime, the four women escape with the diamonds and place a bomb on the van; Jay and Silent Bob manage witness the van explode, and assuming that Justice is dead, They manage to escape just as the authorities arrive.
Federal Wildlife Marshall Willenholly (Will Ferrell) arrives to take over the case, as it involves the release of animals. Suzanne is subsequently taken by the occupants of a car labeled “Critters of Hollywood”. Jay laments that they will never see Suzanne again, only to have Silent Bob explain that the sign on the car indicated that they will probably meet up with her in Hollywood.
They are eventually able to hitch a ride and make it to Hollywood.
There they evade a security guard (Diedrich Bader) and make their way through multiple movie sets, including Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season. They are reunited with Suzanne on the set of Scream 4 , where Suzanne is playing the part of a masked killer.
Pursued by a group of security guards, they are able to escape by riding a bicycle over a ramp, propelling them through the window of a nearby building. By sheer luck, they land in the dressing room of James Van Der Beek (of Dawson's Creek) and Jason Biggs (of American Pie), who happen to be playing Jay and Silent Bob in The Bluntman and Chronic Movie; Silent Bob is somewhat upset that his comic-book counterpart is being played by the "pie fucker".
After learning this, Jay and Bob form a huddle in the corner and decide to beat up Biggs and Van Der Beek, but while their backs are turned Suzanne does this for them. Jay and Silent Bob then give the ape the tranquilizer gun and set her loose in the ventilation ducts.
They put on the Bluntman and Chronic outfits, so they will not be noticed, but are mistaken for Biggs and Van Der Beek, and are escorted to the set of the "Bluntman and Chronic" movie. Despite the fact that they do not know what they are doing, once on set, filming begins. Jay and Silent Bob battle with Bluntman and Chronic's arch nemesis, Cockknocker (Mark Hamill), eventually cutting off his hand.
At this point, Justice enters the set to confess her love for Jay and admits her profession as a professional jewel thief; a nonchalant Jay forgives her and they kiss. Willenholly reappears with a shotgun, soon followed by Missy, Chrissy and Sissy. Justice and Sissy fight hand to hand, while Missy and Chrissy get into a gun battle with Willenholly.
During the commotion, Jay and Silent Bob locate Banky Edwards and demand their money; after Banky refuses, Silent Bob breaks his silence and explains why Banky can be sued if he does not acquiesce to their demands. Banky finally agrees to give them half of whatever he makes from the movie.
After the fighting is over, Willenholly stands up, believing he has killed Missy and Chrissy. Suzanne takes this opportunity to shoot him in the buttocks with a tranquilizer dart, incapacitating him; Justice uses the situation to her advantage and offers Willeholly an opportunity to get into the FBI by turning herself in along with Missy, Sissy, and Chrissy as long as she gets a reduced sentence and the charges against Jay and Silent Bob are dropped. He agrees and Justice tells Jay to wait for her.
Banky approaches Jay and Silent Bob and tells them that they are now rich. Jay expresses his displeasure at the fact that, despite all of their efforts, they were still unable to stop the internet insults. They decide that the only way to achieve this, using their new found wealth, is to visit and beat up everyone who had insulted them to the tune of "Kick Some Ass" by Stroke 9.
Eleven years after Clerks, and five years after the events in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Clerks II, released in 2006, takes place. Now in their early 30s, Jay and Silent Bob had recently bought a car, but they were pulled over for driving with a deployed airbag. During the search, the police found a stash of marijuana and they were sentenced to six months of rehabilitation, where they become devout sober Christians.
Once out of rehab, they are clean, but they continue to deal but try to teach the word of God, in a manner similar to evangelists. In one scene, Jay even suggests to a couple of buyers that they should read the Bible. The Quick Stop where Dante worked was burned in a fire due to Randal leaving the coffee pot on, and he and Randal moved over to the Mooby's fast food restaurant. Jay and Silent Bob follow them there. In the beginning of the film, Jay expresses some disillusionment at being a drug dealer and weighs on other ideas of what to do in life.
At one point during the movie Jay, knowing boredom is the first step to relapse, dances to the song "Goodbye Horses" by Q Lazzarus after Silent Bob puts the tape in the boom-box. He parodies exactly the same dance done by Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs, complete with the "tuck", although it is alleged Jay has been doing this in real life before Silence of the Lambs came out.[2]
Near the end of the film, they are jailed with Dante, Elias, and Randal, in which the latter hired a donkey show to celebrate Dante moving away. Jay and Silent Bob were charged for possession of drugs, which violated their probation. Randal wants to reopen the Quick Stop with Dante, but neither of them have the money, so Jay and Silent Bob offered them some of the Bluntman and Chronic movie royalty money under the condition that the two are allowed to loiter outside the shop and that the police cannot be called to arrest them. After the Quick Stop is reopened, Jay and Silent Bob return to where they started so many years ago.
Clerks: The Animated Series continues Jay and Silent Bob’s adventures in front of the Quick Stop with Dante and Randal. In one episode, Jay and Silent Bob sell illegal fireworks instead of drugs. These events are not necessarily continuous with events depicted elsewhere in the View Askewniverse. Silent Bob follows the film format and only speaks once during the episodes. They are apparently killed when they go running into a hail of machine gun fire by Leonardo Leonardo's troops although it is implied they may have survived (they were wearing bulletproof vests at the time and they later appear in the "Science Sez" skit after the credits). In the show, it is revealed that Jay is a year younger than Randal and Dante.
In most of the episodes, Jay and Silent Bob have some public service announcement videos, where they talk about safety tips, science lessons or magic tricks. When they introduce themselves to kids, Charles Barkley also appears, but is immediately shooed away by Jay. In the "Science Sez" skit, Barkley attempt to tell a kid the importance of science when Jay and Silent Bob arrive and beat him up, reminding him that only they do the segments.
In the series' final episode "The Last Episode Ever", Jay is revealed to be the show's animator, as he constantly re-draws the physical forms of Dante and Randal (similar to one of Bugs Bunny's antics in Looney Tunes) toward the end of the episode.
The two appear in many of the Clerks Comics in supporting roles.
In between the events of Chasing Amy and Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob decide to go to be the "blunt connection" in Shermer, Illinois, (where most of John Hughes' films are set) because they believe that all the guys there are jerks and that there would be girls crawling all over them. They discover in Chicago that Shermer, Illinois, does not exist.
Since many of the events were reused in the 2001 film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, not all the events depicted here are necessarily continuous with those depicted elsewhere in the View Askewniverse.
In issue #2 of the Chasing Dogma comic series, Jay launches into a lengthy and thoroughly impassioned impromptu speech on gay rights and tolerance before he notices Silent Bob's astonished expression and brushes the matter off. Moreover, in the prison scene in Clerks II, Jay wants Dante and Randal to fellate each other in exchange for him and Silent Bob loaning them the money to re-open the Quick Stop and RST. He may say this merely to get Dante and Randal to humiliate themselves, but after Silent Bob's disgusted look, he retracts the demand. In a cut version of the same scene, available among the deleted scenes on the Clerks II DVD,Silent Bob tells Jay that he is a deeply-repressed gay man.
Kevin Smith has stated that he sees Jay as ambisexual: "Jay — who's always talking about women — is a character a lot of young hetero guys identify with. But I think Jay's really ambisexual. So it's nice to throw them a curveball to open up their perspective a bit. If I can lead a few cats into being a bit more tolerant, I feel pretty good."[3]
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