keneda-05512 The jerk is one of my favorite comedy movies of all time. It is a movie that shows the life of a guy that's not exactly the smartest but has a purpose and throughout the movie he uncovers it. And it is an all over good, funny, and interesting.

kellwyn86 Excellent is an understatement for the actors and director of this movie. Steve martin is truly a comic genius. I heard from a friend he's got a Super human IQ and he puts it to such good use. He portrays brilliance in comical situations, witty conversations and his energy is extra-ordinary. Bernadette peters is beautiful and quite enchanting herself. " loved the song they played with the Ukulele and the saxophone. Beautiful ! This flick is way ahead of its time, and the original spoof of many old and future Hollywood movies. With a ritz to rubble or a rags to riches kinda story and a light-hearted touch, this is a FUNNY FUNNY movie right from the start till the end that guarantees to tickle your funny bones for sure !! Cheers !

edwagreen Imagine that Steve Martin, raised by a black family, has to have the family tell him that he is not biologically theirs. Really? How asinine can this become, especially when he has a dog named Stupid who is anything but that.The film picks up with the entry of Bernadette Peters and how the two go from a rags to riches way of life, only to lose it all.There are some funny situations with Jackie Mason and a lunatic who pulls Martin's name out of the phone book at random with the intention to kill him. Some groups who advocate for mentally challenged people may find the film offensive.

David Conrad "The man-child" has become one of movie and television's most worn- out tropes. Whole careers have risen and fallen almost entirely within its milieu. Adam Sandler has probably played that particular character— the oblivious adult male with the mind of a mental patient or small child who always gets the girl and usually finds his way into fame and fortune in the process—the longest, and with the most mixed results. But Steve Martin's performance as "The Jerk" was one of the first, and it remains one of the best that the subgenre has ever seen. Martin's character really isn't a jerk, at least not the way most people use the word; he's just utterly dense, reacting to each new situation with gleeful incomprehension. Martin is a physical actor, using his long legs and body to dance as dorkily as his "wild and crazy guy" character from SNL, but his comic timing is also impeccable. In some of the funniest scenes he uses that sense of timing over a period of minutes, using a technique that's been called "anti-humor" in which a joke goes on and on and on until it isn't funny, and then it goes on some more until it becomes funny again. Not everyone can pull it off, but Martin knocks it out of the park twice in this 94 minute movie, both times in monologues delivered to his costar Bernadette Peters. Not every scene is as funny as these, though. The first act, which sets up a surprisingly sweet relationship with his adoptive family from the Mississippi delta, is something to be endured, especially the cheap reliance on racial stereotypes (the worst involves a lowrider). But when the plot finally gets going, the laughs do too.