The Real Jerk

Eddie Izzard and Ron White's comedy has a lot in common. Disagree? Well excuuuuuuse me! If you recognize the saying, you'll agree that Steve Martin, the man responsible for making it a catchphrase, is at least one of the most influential and important comics of the last fifty years. He counts the aforementioned two among his happy followers, and is being celebrated this year at the Glasgow Comedy Festival with a featured showing of his film The Jerk. "I was born a poor black child," Nevin Johnson whines from his gutter in the opening scene of this rags-to-rags story featuring an obviously not black Martin as the clumsy, foolish and naïve anti-hero. Full of pratfalls, double-entendres, silliness and a strangely squeaky-clean surreality, The Jerk is key to understanding Martin, and the reason why, in spite of all the Pink Panthers and Cheaper by the Dozens, we should worship at his crooked, weird, and slightly stupid altar.

The Jerk, released in 1979, was the first full-length feature Martin wrote. Known primarily as a stand-up comedian and guest star of Saturday Night Live, Martin's film was his first feature length writing break. It follows the rise and fall of Nevin Johnson, who through stupidity, goodwill, and total ignorance becomes rich and famous, and who through stupidity, goodwill, and total ignorance finds himself again in the grips of poverty. Rather than trying to be a social satire, a spoof film, or anything other than just a funny movie, "The Jerk" is still around because it uses something that never goes out of style: good, old fashioned jokes. The vintage Martin combination of physical comedy and verbal jokes creates multiple opportunities for new funnies, as when Nevin is randomly targeted by a crazed gunman, and squirms and shouts his way out of danger - all while misunderstanding the gunman's aim - resulting in one of the funniest moments in the film.

Now a comedic elder with just as many mistakes behind him as triumphs, Martin is one of those instrumental beings whose influence has reached comedians as poles apart as David Walliams and Sarah Silverman. Wannabe Wild-and-Crazy Guys can look to his new memoir, Born Standing Up, for a peek at the comedy wizard behind the surrealist curtain. For a lone writer who gained fame as an arrow-headed banjo player with prematurely grey hair, Martin has proved what a little ingenuity and self-aware humour can do. But nothing, and I say nothing, is a better testament to his originality and influence than The Jerk, a film that deserves the second look that the Glasgow Comedy Festival is giving it.