I miss Steve Martin’s “Wild and Crazy Guy” days. Back in the 70’s, after a very lucrative career as a comedy writer for “The Smother Brothers Comedy Hour”, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour” and “The Sonny and Cher Show”, Martin broke out into the stand-up comedy arena, dressed in a white suit and an arrow through his head. His comedy ‘styling’ was irreverent and silly, but if you listened closely you could find little nuggets of brilliant satire on human nature. The Non-Conformist’s Oath immediately comes to mind. As Martin gained popularity through his stage antics, record albums and TV specials, I knew it was only a matter of time before a film career would become part of his résumé. His first film, directed by the brilliant Carl Reiner was 1979’s “The Jerk.” Keeping close to the style of comedy that had made him famous, Martin wrote the screenplay in which he starred as Navin R. Johnson, who was born a ‘poor black child.’ This should give you an idea of the type of humor considering the fact that Martin is white.

“The Jerk” is a fictional biographical tale of Johnson’s rags to riches to rags story. We see him move away from his family in order to make his place in the world. He stumbles through job after job with a simple-minded naïveté, one that cause him to rejoice that “He is somebody” after his name is printed in the phone book. He eventually meets the woman of his dreams (Bernadette Peters), and accidentally creates an invention that makes him obnoxiously rich… until the day that a problem is discovered with the device, leaving him penniless. Through it all, his childlike demeanor pokes fun at many things we take for granted every day.

Being that the film was made back in 1979, you could consider some of the jokes to be dated, however it still makes for a refreshing watch after a steady diet of insufferable comedies filled with nothing but gross-out humor. What’s so great about “The Jerk” is even where some of the humor borders on risqué, it’s so innocent that I’d consider it to be family friendly by today’s standards. Even the fact that Johnson thinks getting a ‘blow job’ is a form of employment, seems harmless (as well as funny).

It had been years since I had seen “The Jerk”, so when I received Universal’s new 25th… no strike that… “26th Anniversary Special Edition” I was stoked. My wife hadn’t seen it, and was used to some of the more esoteric comedies that Martin has been a part of in the last decade. She agreed with me that the humor was, well… stupid, but still found it to be hysterically funny.

I was hoping that since this was billed as a Special Edition, there would be a ton of extra features, but unfortunately that is the one place where this disc doesn’t really deliver. I would have loved a commentary from Reiner and Martin as it would have undoubtedly been hysterical, but alas… no commentary at all. What we do have is a lesson on how to play the song “Tonight You Belong to Me” on a ukulele (as well as little karaoke version), and some ‘Lost’ film strips that allow us the chance to see a little more of Father Carlos Las Vegas De Cordova’s infamous ‘Cat Juggling’ act. (You’ll understand once you see the movie.) It’s pretty funny stuff, but there really should have been more.

Aside from the shortage of extra features, I would still recommend the new DVD for “The Jerk”, just for the movie alone (especially if you don’t already own its earlier release). It harkens back to a time when jokes were fun, funny, and not necessarily just gross. In the immortal words of Navin Johnson, “I don’t need anything else…I need this…”

Directed by: Carl Reiner
Starring: Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Catlin Adams, Jackie Mason
Extras: “Tonight You Belong to Me”, The Lost Filmstrips of Father Carlos Las Vegas De Cordova
Specifications: Widescreen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Studio: Universal
Release Date: 7/26/2005
Region 1
MPAA Rating: R
Website

We'll give The Jerk: 26th Anniversary Edition a B.