In the canon of works that are not only vitally important to the development of American humour, but vital to the entire cinematic process, we have The Jerk, a film that was initiated as a flight of fancy between director Carl Reiner and star and co-writer Steve Martin, best-known for his landmark appearances on the then-rambunctious and subversive Saturday Night Live, helping bring this show the attention it needed in those early years and being integral to its eventual growth into an American institution in itself. His first starring role, and one of Reiner’s most commercially and critically successful works, the film is a major achievement both in terms of how it structures itself in firm opposition to the very system it was intent on celebrating, and how it is simply just one hilarious moment after another. The film follows Navin Johnson Jr, a happy-go-lucky young man who has been raised by an African-American family, who soon reveals to him that he’s adopted, and now that he’s reached adulthood, he needs to venture off into the wider world to start his own life. His well-meaning attempts at independence seem to go hopelessly off the rails, even through his best efforts to make a success for himself. A series of encounters with a range of eccentric characters leads to even more unexpected misadventures, all done under the guise of trying to get this adorably wacky protagonist on his feet and heading for the success he feels he deserves. Outrageously funny and frequently quite provocative in a way that feels wildly ahead of its time, The Jerk is a comedic masterpiece, a well-crafted comedy with as much heart as it has a taste for artistic anarchy, it contains some of the most unconventional examples of off-the-wall humour to come out of this era, and remains as compelling today as it was over forty years ago when it was first unleashed on unsuspecting viewers that didn’t have any idea that they were witnessing history being made. 

The precise impetus behind The Jerk is not clear, and it isn’t even known whether or not there was a specific reason for crafting this story, or if it was just an opportunity for the always ambitious Martin to piece together a starring vehicle that touched on many common themes that swirled around the culture at the time. Thematically, this film is very intent on having the firmest grasp on the collective cultural pulse as possible, carrying a sincerity and complexity that feels entirely genuine, even at its most provocative. Martin was never afraid to push the boundaries when it was required, and nearly every frame of The Jerk contains something that will unsettle in a very creative way, touching on themes such as race relations, sexual identity and gender issues, each one being subjected to the same disquieting comedy that intends to both amuse and challenge the status quo. Yet, it all feels very earnest and well-structured, which is primarily the result of having a veteran like Reiner at the helm, since he manages to take Martin’s off-the-wall ambition, whittling it down into a set of ideas that are much easier to handle, but without sacrificing any of the audacity or genuine hilarity that sat right at its core, which is one of the countless reasons the film feels like such an immense achievement both in form and content. This represents the perfect collision between an old-fashioned showman who helped shape American comedy at a time when new ideas were consistently being introduced, and a younger and more rambunctious, free-spirited comedian whose active approach to entertaining his audiences made for some very unorthodox but no less impactful viewing. There is never a moment where this film resounds as anything less than wholeheartedly entertaining and frankly quite delightful, and every effort to bring these ideas to life is rendered absolutely brilliantly, being the work of two supremely gifted artists.

Comedy is understandably subjective, and everyone will have a very different opinion on what they consider to be funny. However, something that has been proven to be an almost sacrosanct fact is that Steve Martin is amongst the most outrageously entertaining presences of the 20th century, and while he’s now seemingly settled into his status as a more mild-mannered elder statesman of the comedic elite, its difficult to deny that at his peak, he was unmatched as far as raw humour goes, and his willingness to go to any lengths to get a laugh is the primary reason behind his longevity and reputation as a truly fearless, boundary-pushing performer. He is also the rare kind of actor who is both a brilliant wordsmith, capable of writing some of the wittiest and most satirical jabs imaginable, and also showcases an incredible aptitude for physical comedy. Both of which are fundamental to his performance in this film, with The Jerk drawing on his ability to craft a well-written, memorable character and perform it with such incredible nerve and attention to detail, making sure to infuse every moment with something entertaining and enthralling. Needless to say, its not difficult to see exactly why he would leverage this film to become one of the most recognizable and popular film stars of the era – no longer was he just a stage humourist who found success in a niche television show, but a true comedic force of nature that set off a flurry of reactions whenever he appeared in front of an audience. His roots in stand-up and sketch comedy are clear in The Jerk, which is structured as a series of vignettes centring around the protagonist, meaning that Martin didn’t need to commit too much to developing the character over a longer narrative arc, but it still gives him the chance to prove himself as a film star. He’s joined by a fantastic supporting cast, which includes the beguiling Bernadette Peters, whose exceptional chemistry with Martin is one of the film’s main highlights, and other comedy icons like Jackie Mason, Richard Ward and even a brief performance from Reiner himself, once again proving that while he mostly chose to stay behind the camera, he was still an incredible, scene-stealing performer in his own right. They join Martin in making The Jerk a truly memorable, compelling endeavour, more than just a wild series of moments.

Beyond the star-making performance that is Martin’s portrayal of Navin, we find that The Jerk is particularly entertaining as a result of its willingness not to take itself too seriously, but still offering something valuable and meaningful where it matters, which is exactly the purpose of the film and everything that it represents. Considering the sheer scope of thematic ideas situated at the heart of the story, it’s surprising how the film not only evades being viewed as outdated and offensive, but is actually openly embraced by the audiences that often consist of the exact people being lampooned here. For what its worth, The Jerk is the kind of film that cannot be viewed as offensive to one group because it aims every demographic imaginable – regardless of race, religion, creed or sexual identity, there is a joke for everyone, but rather than being an attempt to offend as many groups as possible, Reiner and Martin are more intent on showing how everyone can laugh at one another, regardless of their background, and the fact that the film is never mean-spirited is only an additional feather in its cap. Having a protagonist who is as dense as he is lovable only makes these sometimes potentially controversial conversations feel so much more palatable, since it is usually he who bears the brunt of the misfortune, rather than surrounding him with characters at whose expense many of these jokes are made. The difference between an offensive joke and one that just intends to push boundaries creatively is almost always going to be intention, and that is certainly the case with this film, which proves to be an absolute delight in how it explores society in a way that feels genuine and insightful, finding humour in the more outrageous places, managing to evade being outright offensive in nearly every way.

The Jerk regularly comes up in discussions of the greatest comedy films ever made, and coming at the tail-end of the 1970s, it essentially set the tone for the coming decade, which was an era where the medium was starting to undergo substantial shifts in terms of the kind of comedy that was allowed on screen, censorship laws growing steadily more relaxed and audiences becoming accustomed to having their views challenged and sometime even contradicted in some instances. It all makes for incredibly captivating, enthralling viewing that is as engaging as it is profoundly compelling, having a steady stream of well-crafted jokes that are impossible to overlook, and a sense of chaos that feels genuinely engaging. It may feel slightly conventional by contemporary standards, and there’s nothing particularly daring about it from a modern perspective – but that isn’t to say that this film has aged poorly, but rather that it was so innovative, it managed to predict the modern sensibility decades before it became mainstream, which is a clear sign of how progressive some of these ideas, both thematically and in terms of how it was structured, actually were when put into practice. It’s remarkably compelling, genuinely entertaining viewing that keeps us wholeheartedly engaged and allows us to see another side of some very common ideas in vibrant, unforgettable detail, and being amongst the best performances in Martin’s career, proving that he is truly one of our greatest screen performers and someone who impact on the medium is much more profound than we may have initially anticipated.