Jay and Silent Bob
Jay and Silent Bob (depicted by Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith respectively) are the two fictional characters in the View Askewniverse created by director Kevin Smith, who appear in all of his movies except for Jersey Girl.
They are a couple of marijuana dealers who seem to be trapped in an 80's time warp. Jay is obsessed with washed-up heavy metal bands and both are fixated on John Hughes' teenage comedy/drama movies as well as the film Purple Rain (and its featured act Morris Day and the Time). Astoundingly, neither had any knowledge of the existence of the internet until 2001.
Origins
As depicted in the film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Jay and Silent Bob were born in Leonardo, New Jersey, in the late 70s, and met when they were infants in front of the Quick Stop Groceries while their mothers went inside the store.
Before Jay’s mother entered the store, she was criticized for her way of parenting. A man walking by asked who was watching these kids. Jay’s mother responded, “Uh- the fat one’s watching the little one.” He said, “Oh yeah, nice parenting. Leave 'em out here like that and see what happens.” Then Jay’s mother said, “YO, FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKING SQUARE!”
Soon after Jay’s mother enters the store, Jay inherited his mother’s use of profanity and said, “Fuck!”
Mallrats (1995)
Though the film was released after Clerks, the events depicted in Mallrats take place on the day before the events of Clerks. This places this movie, (and the beginning of the series), during the year 1994. In the film, Jay and Silent Bob are dealing at the Eden Prairie Center mall. Silent Bob had just seen The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi and is often seen trying to use the Force to telekenetically lift his cigarette.
Brodie Bruce (Jason Lee) and T.S. Quint (Jeremy London) both lose their girlfriends before visiting the mall. Brodie's girlfriend, Rene (Shannen Doherty), has moved on to date Shannon Hamilton (Ben Affleck), the manager of a sophisticated men's clothing store and Brodie's nemesis. T.S. Quint's girlfriend, Brandi Svenning (Claire Forlani), is scheduled to appear on "Truth or Date", a local game show intended to be filmed live at the mall. Brodie contacts Jay and Silent Bob asking them to sabotage the game show. Jay and Silent Bob have already located the blue prints for the stage, finding a weakness they can exploit to cause it to collapse. "Just like the Death Star!"
They make several attempts to destroy the stage. At one point, Silent Bob dons a helmet with bat-like ears, a reference to the comic book hero Batman. But eventually, after their efforts continue to fail, the duo find themselves running from the dreaded La Fours and several other security guards. The two reach a dead end. Silent Bob then reveals a grappling gun which he uses to hoist Jay and himself out of the sight. Jay then remarks, "where do you get those wonderful toys?" (another reference to Batman).
Later in the day, Brodie derives his own plan of sabotaging the game show and, hopefully, winning back his girlfriend Rene in the process. First, Jay incompacitates two of the game show's contestants by getting them stoned. Brodie and T.S. take their place as contestants. Meanwhile, Silent Bob tries to override the production's video input to play a video casette tape of Shannon Hamilton having sexual intercourse with fifteen-year-old, Tricia Jones (Renée Humphrey). Silent Bob is apparently skilled at such technical endeavors, as Jay claims that Silent Bob won the eighth grade science fair by turning his mom’s vibrator into a C.D. player by using chicken-wire.
As Silent Bob hangs upside down to install the VCR player backstage, Jay receives the casette tape from Tricia. When Jay tosses the tape to Silent Bob, Silent Bob fails to catch it and it becomes wedged in one of the rafters below. Silent Bob tries desperately to grab hold of the tape but it appears to be hopelessly out of reach. In a final attempt to obtain the tape, Silent Bob decides once again to try and use the Force.
Coincidentally, Willam Black (Ethan Suplee) appears backstage at this time, enraged that he still can't see a sailboat in a Magic Eye picture after his seventh day of trying. Frustrated, he kicks one of the stages support beams. The vibration causes the video tape to free itself and launch directly into Silent Bob’s hand. Silent Bob, shockingly acknowledging that he had finally and successfully used the Force, quickly shoves the tape into the VCR and presses play.
As the tape plays in front of the live studio audience, Brodie explains that Tricia is a minor and Shannon Hamilton is arrested. Brandi accepts the marriage proposal from T.S. and Brodie reconciles with Rene.
At the end of the film, Jay and Silent Bob are seen walking off into the sunset with an orangutan named Susanne.
Clerks (1994)
One day after the events in Mallrats, Jay and Silent Bob returned to their primary place of business: in front of the Quick Stop where they first met. This movie marked their first appearance in popular culture. Throughout the film, they occassionally entered the store to buy cigarettes and steal snack foods from Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran). They spent the day dealing drugs to various people including Willam Black (Scott Mosier), all the while harrassing Dante and RST Video clerk Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson).
Near the end Silent Bob says to Dante (in regard to Dante’s trouble with his girlfriend), “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 them just cheat on you."
Clerks: The Animated Series (2000)
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 sold illegal fireworks instead of drugs.
These events are not necessarily continuous with events depicted elsewhere in the View Askewniverse.
Clerks: Sell Out (2008)
The follow-up to the cancelled 2001 Clerks: The Animated Series, Clerks: Sell Out will be continuous with the show yet not necessarily with other events in the View Askewniverse.
The film will feature Dante, Randal, Leonardo Leonardo, and Jay and Silent Bob.
Chasing Amy (1997)
In the two years since the events of Clerks, Jay and Silent Bob have sold the rights to their likenesses to comic book artist, Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) and inker, Banky Edwards (Jason Lee), who then use the rights to create a popular independent comic book series titled Bluntman and Chronic.
It’s the story of how Bluntman (a.k.a. Silent Bob) wins the lottery and with Chronic (a.k.a. Jay) they use the money to buy gadgets and build the Bluntcave underneath the Quick Stop. The two make costumes and they become the crime fighting superheroes, Bluntman and Chronic!
During the events of Chasing Amy, which appear to take place in 1996, Holden falls in love with fellow comic book artist, Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams), who reveals to him that she is a lesbian. Holden falls apart and then seeks help from Jay and Silent Bob. Silent Bob then tells Holden the story of his former girlfriend, Amy.
Silent Bob and Amy were going steady for a few months, when he asked about her former boyfriend. She tells him about how they dated for a few years, lived together and how a couple of times they had other people over to sleep with them. Silent Bob doesn’t know how to react because he was raised Catholic. He becomes angry and flips out on her.
Later he realizes that there was nothing wrong with Amy, it was him and by the time he realized, it was too late. So ever since he had been chasing Amy. Holden is then inspired and writes a comic book titled, “Chasing Amy”, which he later gives to Alyssa.
Chasing Dogma (1998)
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' movies are set) because they believe that all the guys there are jerks and that there would be girls crawling all over them. So they make it all the way to Chicago to find out that Shermer, Illinois, doesn’t 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.
Dogma (1999)
After their disappointing adventure to the fictional Shermer, Illinois, and a few days after the events of Chasing Amy, Jay and Silent Bob decide to go back home to New Jersey. Before they leave they meet Bethany Sloane (Linda Fiorentino), an abortion clinic worker.
Bethany is the last living descendant of Jesus and she must stop two fallen angels, Bartleby (Ben Affleck) and Loki (Matt Damon), from getting back into heaven, through a church in New Jersey which has decided to reinvent Catholicism by introducing Buddy Christ. If the two were to succeed it would cause the destruction of all life. She is told that there will be two prophets that will help her, who turn out to be Jay and Silent Bob.
Bethany then makes the mistake to let Jay drive her car. Later the car breaks down after Jay blows out the transmition, because he can’t drive a stick shift. They then meet Rufus (Chris Rock), the thirteenth apostle, who was left out of the Bible because he was black and Serendipity (Salma Hayek), a muse turned stripper.
Once they make their way to the church to find that Bartleby and Loki have cut off their wings and have become mortal. There Bartleby kills Loki so he can enter by himself. God (Alanis Morissette) then arrives and Bartleby pleas for her forgiveness, she kills him and then gives Bethany the gift of life by impregnating her.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
The events of this film take place presumably in the year 2001, five years after the events of Dogma. Randal Graves gets a restraining order against Jay and Silent Bob and they’re not allowed to be within one hundred feet of Quick Stop or RST Video.
In the meantime, they pay a visit to Brodie, who now owns a comic book store called Brodie's Secret Stash (filmed at Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash). There they learn that Miramax Films is making a Bluntman and Chronic movie. Brodie tells them they should go see Holden McNeil, co-creator of the characters, and ask for the money that rightly belongs to them for using their liknesses in the film.
From there they find out that Holden has sold his half of the rights to Bluntman and Chronic to the other co-creator, Banky Edwards. To learn more about the movie, Holden introduces them to the internet, which neither even knew existed. Holden then shows them a movie blog called Movie Poop Shoot, where a numerous of people have bashed the movie and called Jay and Silent Bob a number of names and insults. Highly offended, Jay and Silent Bob decide that the only way to defend their honor is to travel to Hollywood to stop the production of the film. Shooting is only a few days away, so they must leave immediately on a trek across the country.
After being kicked off of a bus for not having tickets, the duo decides to hitchhike there. They learn an "unwritten rule of the road" from a hitchiker (George Carlin) from what he calls "the book," which states that to get a ride, you must offer oral sex to the driver who picks you up. After being picked up by a nun (Carrie Fisher), Jay confuses her adherence to the Bible (or "the Book" as she calls it) for a request for oral sex. This miscommunication results in them being kicked out of the vehicle, left to hitchhike once again.
After countless misadventures, including a ride in the Mystery Machine, Jay and Silent Bob meet Justice (Shannon Elizabeth), a international jewel thief posing as an animal rights activist, at a local Mooby's restaurant. Jay falls victim to love at first sight and engages Justice in a conversation.
Luckily for the pair, Justice offers them a ride under the pretense that they are travellling cross country to release animals from an animal testing facility. At the van they meet Justice’s partners, Chrissy, Missy and Sissy (Ali Larter, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, and Eliza Dushku respectively), who are less than excited to have Jay and Silent Bob along for the ride.
Another passenger in the van, a naive and genuine animal rights activist (Seann William Scott), becomes the target of Jay's aggression, as he sees him as a barrier to getting with Justice. After tricking him into saying he that he would have sex with a sheep, Jay ejects the naive tag-along from the vehicle. Having lost their patsy, the jewel thieves are forced to use Jay and Silent Bob as their patsy, convincing them to steal an ape from an animal testing facility as a diversion for when they break into the Colorado Diamond Exchange.
Once inside the facility, Jay and Silent Bob find a tranquilizer gun and the ape, a orangutan named Susanne. After springing her from her cage, Silent Bob becomes sympathetic for the other animals, so they let them loose as well.
Missy, Chrissy, Sissy and Justice escape with the diamonds and place a bomb on the van. Once outside, Jay witnesses the van explode. He assumes that Justice is now dead and flees just as the authorities arrive.
Federal Wildlife Marshall Willenholly (Will Ferrell) arrives to take over the case, as it involves the release of animals. He tracks Jay, Silent Bob and Susanne to a small diner. They surround the building to hinder escape. Jay then has the idea to dress the orangutan up in clothes.
They walk out the doors and Jay explains that he and Silent Bob are gay lovers taking there son out to eat. Jay goes on further explains how he had sex with a woman and got a woman pregnant and how Silent Bob "loves the cock". Willenholly believes the story and lets them go, to the shock and horror of the local police. After they leave he suddenly realizes his mistake.
Willenholly chases them down a sewer pipe. Jay and Silent Bob run to the very end where there is a drop off into the Hoover Dam, a parody of The Fugitive. Willenholly corners them, but then the orangutan grabs their hands and jumps off. Willenholly jumps after them in an attempt to pursue, only to realize that the perpetrators were still hanging from the dam wall as he plunged into the water below.
After reaching the top of the dam, Susanne gets in a car with a sign on the back that reads, “Critters of Hollywood.” After failing to catch the vehicle, Jay laments that they will never see Susanne again, only to have Silent Bob explain that the sign on the car indicated that they will meet up with them in Hollywood.
They hitchhike a ride to Hollywood using "the book." There they evade a security guard (Diedrich Bader) and make their way through multiple movie sets, including Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season. On the set of Scream 4 they witness the filming of a scene where Shannen Doherty is attacked by the masked killer. After she knocking the murderer unconscious, she removes themask to reveal Susanne. Jay and Silent Bob seize the opportunity and retrieve the ape. Soon they are discovered and followed by a group of security guards in a golf cart. They 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 (Dawson's Creek) and Jason Biggs (American Pie), who happen to be playing Jay and Silent Bob in The Bluntman and Chronic Movie.
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 Susanne does this for them. Jay and Silent Bob then give the monkey the tranquilizer gun and set her loose in the ventilation ducts. They put on the Bluntman and Chronic outfits and make their way to the Bluntcave set.
Once on the set, they are mistaken for stunt doubles and filming begins. Bluntman and Chronic's arch nemesis, Cockknocker (Mark Hamill) enters the Bluntcave and challenges to duo to a fight. When Jay then asks why they call him Cockknocker, He responds by punching Jay in the crotch with his oversized fist.
After Cockknocker activates, what seems to be a lightsaber. Silent Bob reaches out his hand and uses the Force to grab his bluntsaber. The two engage in battle, until Silent Bob is knocked out. Soon Jay returns with a double bladed bongsaber and cuts off Cockknocker’s oversized hand to which he responds, "Not again!" a reference to Luke Skywalker's injuries in The Empire Strikes Back.
Soon after the director (Chris Rock) yells, “Cut!” Justice enters the set to confess her love for Jay and admither profession as aprofessional jewel thief. A nonchalant Jay forgives her and they kiss. Willenholly reappears in with a shotgun, soon followed by Missy, Chrissy and Sissy. Justice and Sissy fight hand to had, while Missy and Chrissy get into a gun fight with Willenholly.
During this all Jay and Silent Bob find Banky Edwards and demand a movie check. Silent Bob tells him, “We had a deal with you, on the comics, remember? For likeness rights? And as we're not only the artistic basis, but also obviously the character basis, for your intellectual property, Bluntman and Chronic, when said property was optioned by Miramax Films, you were legally obliged to secure our permission to transfer the concept to another medium. As you failed to do that, Banky, you are in breach of the original contract, ergo you find yourself in a very actionable position." Banky inturn agrees to give them half of what ever he makes from the movie.
After the fighting is over, Willenholly stands up, believing he killed Missy and Chrissy. Susanne takes this opportunity to shoot him in buttocks the 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 got a reduced sentence and the charges against Jay and Silent Bob were 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 and they have their own ape. Jay then has the idea of buying airplane tickets with the money to beat up all the people who insulted them on the internet.
After their revenge was complete, The Bluntman and Chronic Movie premiered. It was a huge flop. After the premier, Jay and Silent Bob put on a huge after party with the entertainment of Morris Day and the Time.
Clerks II (2006)
This movie takes place ten years after the events of Clerks and three years after the events depicted in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, setting it in the year 2004. Jay and Silent Bob had recently purchased a car. They were pulled over for driving with a deployed airbag and the authorities found a stash of marijuana. As a resultof the incident, they are then sentenced to six months or rehabilitation where they come devout Catholics.
Once out of rehab, they remained clean, but still continued to deal. Since the Quick Stop was destroyed in a fire, they followed Dante and Randal to Mooby’s. Once there they kept up their usual antics. They would moon people inside of the restaurant and at one point, Jay recreated the infamous Silence of the Lambs, Buffalo Bill dance scene.
Near the end of the movie, when they are in jail with Randal and Dante, for watching “Interspecies Erotica” (bestiality), Randal has the idea to reopen the Quick Stop with Dante, but neither of them had the money. So Jay and Silent Bob offered them the money needed to reopen the store, but under two circumstances. They are allowed to stand in front of the store when ever they want to and Randal must perform oral sex on Dante, and Dante must do it to Randle. Then they must go "ass to mouth" like what was talked about earlier in the film. Silent Bob looks at Jay and shakes his head. Immediately Jay changes his mind as to not look homosexual. (It is not stated why exactly Jay and Silent Bob have this much money to offer, although it could conceivably be the remainder of their royalties from The Bluntman and Chronic Movie.)
After the Quick Stop was reopened, Jay and Silent Bob returned to right back where they started so many years ago. Also, Jay is depicted at the end of the film wearing a sweater with "Justice" written on it in tape along with "TLF" ("True Love Forever"), the only reference to his erstwhile girlfriend at the end of the previous film. Silent Bob then walks off screen and comes back with his boom-box and plays a song and Jay starts the Buffalo Bill dance again.Template:Endspoilers
Sexuality
The Kevin Smith movies (particularly Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) play on the question of both characters' sexuality, mostly Jay's, even though Jay himself insists in Dogma that the two are "hetero life-mates." Both have had relationships with women at one time or another, such as Jay's relationship with Shannon Elizabeth's character Justice in J&SBSB and Bob's mention of a relationship with Amy in Chasing Amy.
However in the movie Dogma, the maston reveals that Jay masturbates more than any other man on the planet and he is fantasizing about other men.
The suspicion that Jay is a repressed bisexual is supported by dialogue in all of the first four View Askewniverse films.
Also, in issue #2 of the presumably canonical Chasing Dogma comic series, Jay launches into a lengthy and thoroughly impassioned impromptu speech on gay rights and tolerance from a clearly personal perspective before noticing Silent Bob's astonished expression and brushing the matter off rather unconvincingly. Despite the large number of Jay's aspersions to the contrary, it is generally assumed, however, that Silent Bob is indeed heterosexual.
As hinted at in one of the Q&A sessions on the An Evening with Kevin Smith DVD, some of Smith's fans are disappointed, upset and/or confused over the apparent contradiction that Jay appears to be proven conclusively to be a heterosexual in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, as he spends much of the film in love with the jewel-thief Justice (Shannon Elizabeth) and ends up "getting the girl" in a way which suggests he feels no inner conflict despite his previously-indicated sexuality. One explanation is that this is just Jay's ever-deeper denial of his true sexual orientation (although nothing in the film truly suggests this), another is that the character is in fact happily bisexual, although perhaps is still not self-aware on this matter.
In Clerks II, Jay and Silent Bob are standing near a wall at the Mooby’s store that both Dante and Randal now work for after the Quick Stop burned down with the wall scrawled with the words "Eat Pussy". When Dante's fiancée comes to confront both Jay and Silent Bob, although she never asks both men anything, Jay replies by saying "Oh, we totally do". Whether this is Jay continuing to deny his sexuality or not is debatable.
Clerks II also shows that although Jay and Silent Bob are not into "Interspecies Erotica" (bestiality), both men find it amusing to watch.
Silent Bob's Hidden History?
When filming Dogma, actor Ben Affleck, during the third take of the train fight, shouted "Schüler Bob!" (schüler meaning schoolboy in German). When told that there was no real reason to keep it in the movie (it was an inside joke between Smith and Affleck), Ben Affleck created a reason for it.
Throughout time, Affleck's character, Bartleby, had been thwarted in his evil plots by the same mysterious warrior, whom he never got to see. When he is finally ready to kill the Last Scion, his enemy-through-time grabs him, stopping him once more and revealing himself to be Silent Bob. Finally seeing his enemy's true face, he calls out his name in the angelic tongue (which Affleck decided was a butchered German): Schüler Bob.
This makes no sense, however, because Bartleby had been completely pacifist up until that point in the movie.
Affleck would also state on the DVD of Dogma that Silent Bob was really a Germanic spirit.
Etymology of Jay's Vocabulary
Jay's mannerisms and phrases have always been a bit of a mystery. He says things like "snoochie-boochies," and "nugga-nooch." These evolved from things he said when he was around the 13-16 age group. In An Evening with Kevin Smith the origin and development of Jay's original colloquialisms are revealed as being something like this:
- He started with "neh," such as "I'm gonna fuck your mom, neh."
- He then progressed to "nootch," making his suffix a little longer.
- Then, "snootch," adding a letter.
- He added to that to create "snootchie-bootchies," adding a lot of length.
- Then he went crazy with things such as "snigi-nigi-nooch," being a lot longer than "neh," by the way.
- He ended up shortening it to "snoogans," in order to encompass all previous forms of the word.
Originally, the phrase conveyed a passive/apologetic air of "just kidding, don't kick my ass" (e.g. "Maybe I'll go fuck your mom, neh!"), but it is now most commonly used as a celebratory exclamation (e.g. "Snootch to the nootch!"). As he and Silent Bob jump into a fight with the hockey playing demon-teens from Dogma he exclaims, "Snootch to the mothafuckin' nooootch!" The phrases are also often used to establish that he has just made a joke at someone's expense that he is very proud of, such as in Chasing Amy, when he says "Look at this morose mother-fucker right here. Smells like someone shit in his cereal. Snootch."
It should also be noted his use of the word "bong," which is used as an affirmative or exclamation of happiness. In Dogma, after finding out that Bethany, the female lead, would have sex with him if they had five minutes left to live he remarks "She's a slut, buung." It has also been extended to a longer form: "Bonnnnng!" This version of the word is used extensively in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, in places where previously he would have used some form of "snoogans."
At one point in the film Clerks II, in the scene in the jail cell, Jay can be heard saying "neh," which was the origin word of Jay's snoogans.
Also, Jay often uses the terms "snootch", "bootch", and "nootch", and other variations of those words within Clerks: The Animated Series, such as when he greets his fellow Little League teammates with "Snootchie-bootchies, little nootchies." In another episode we see an animated older version of Jay writing in his computer journal (just before leaving with his "granddaughter"): "Snootch to the nootch."
Appearances
- Mallrats
- Clerks (First Appearance)
- Chasing Amy
- Dogma
- Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
- Clerks II
- Clerks: The Animated Series
- Clerks: Sell Out (Production begins 2007)
- "Can't Even Tell" by Soul Asylum
- "Build Me Up Buttercup" by the Goops
- "Because I Got High" by Afroman
- "Kick Some Ass" by Stroke 9
- ”Sunshine" by Rubber
- Scream 3 (Cameo Appearance)
- VH1’s I Love the 90s (Guys we go gay for)
- Degrassi: The Next Generation