Useless Movie Trivia
Clerks
Memorable Quotes
Dante Hicks: You know what the real tragedy about all this is? I'm not even supposed to be here today!
Randal Graves: People say crazy shit during sex. One time I called this girl "Mom."
Dante Hicks: Yeah, I mean aside from the cheating, we were a great couple. I mean that's what high school was about, algebra, bad lunch, and infidelity.
Randal Graves: This job would be great if it wasn't for the fucking customers.
Jay: Pack o' wraps, my brotherman, time to kick back, drink some beers and shmoke some weed!
Trivia
Financed largely by credit cards and money borrowed from family and friends.
The cost of obtaining the rights to the soundtrack (approx. US$27,000) outweighed the entire production costs for this film (approx. US$26,800) - a first in motion picture history.
Dante's beard changes because Kevin Smith asked 'Brian O'Halloran' to shave his goatee before filming started during rehearsals, then, after seeing what it looked like without it, told him to grow it back. The scenes shot earlier in the shoot show a thinner beard while the ones shot last show a thicker goatee as it had longer to grow back.
Randall and the Happy Scrappy Hero Pup lady are not actually in the room at the same time. Jeff Anderson refused to read the list of porno movies in front of her, and particularly in front of the child (although the reaction shots of the Happy Scrappy Hero Pup lady were obtained by reading the list to her).
Clerks was filmed using a 16mm Arri SR-2 camera and used Kodak Plus-X film.
The "smoker's lung" that the Chewlie's Gum rep slams on the counter is actually a calf's liver.
Jason Mewes was left off the cover and poster because executives believed him to be too odd-looking for advertising.
Despite having almost no violence in the film (with the exception of the fight between Dante and Randal), it was originally given an NC-17 rating by the MPAA based solely on its graphic dialogue. The film's distributor Miramax hired attorney Alan M. Dershowitz (of the O.J. Simpson defense team) who successfully petitioned the MPAA to lower its rating to R without any cuts.
The "Clerks" logo is made out of letters cut from various magazines and food items. The C is from Cosmopolitan Magazine, the L is from Life, the E is from Rolling Stone, the R is from Ruffles potato chips, the K is from Clark Bar and the S is from a Goobers box.
Dante wears a Pittsburgh Penguins jersey during the hockey game, playing against opponents wearing New Jersey Devils jerseys. Randal wears a USSR (CCCP) jersey during the game, but wears a New Jersey Devils hat.
The anti-smoking sentiment in the film represented Kevin Smith's own viewpoint when he wrote the screenplay. Silent Bob doesn't inhale when he puffs on his cigarette because of this. After filming this movie, he became a two-pack-a-day smoker.
Clerks is loosely based on "The Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri hence the name. Also, there are nine breaks in the movie to represent the nine rings of hell.
The original cut of the film ended with Dante getting shot in a robbery. This was cut out of the release version, but can be seen on the supplementary section of the Laserdisc and DVD.
Grace Smith who plays the "Milk Maid" in the movie, is Kevin Smith's mother.
Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier attended the same film school in Vancouver, Washington and made a pact that whichever of them first started directing a movie, the other would produce. Smith created his film first, and Mosier produced it, as he has most of Smith's films.
Jason Mewes (Jay) was so camera shy, that during the dance scene with him and Kevin Smith (Silent Bob), everyone had to leave and go into the video store, and just left the camera rolling, so that Mewes wouldn't be so nervous.
According to Kevin Smith in an interview in the book "My First Movie", part of the movie's financing came from an insurance settlement. The settlement was from a car that he and Jason Mewes both drove, that was destroyed in a flood.
The "RST" in RST Video stands "Rajiv, Sarla, Tarlochen." Those are the first names of the son, mother, and father team who owned (and still own) the video store and the Quick Stop.
When they are discussing Star Wars, the song "Chewbacca, What A Wookie" by Supernova is playing in the background.
Dante's car is a 1976 Buick Century.
Goofs
Disappearing "No Shoplifting" sign when Randall sells cigarettes to the little girl.
Veronica's fire extinguisher sprays CO2, but we see her holding a water fire extinguisher.
The Administer of Fines states that the little girl was sold cigarettes at 4 that afternoon. This is impossible because the sale occurred before the hockey game, which was at 2 p.m., and Dante and Randal were at the wake at 4 p.m.
When Dante and Randal leave the wake, it is still light outside, yet when they get back to the store, it's very dark outside.
The official who hands Dante the summons claims that the charge can not be contested in a court of law. The Constitution guarantees that any matter involving at least $15 is eligible to be ruled on by a jury of the defendant's peers.
The gum representative buys some gum so he could claim to be a customer, however when he first went in, he bought a drink, so he was a customer anyway.
Box Office Info for the USA
Budget: $230,000 (after post-production) (estimated) $27,000 (original) (estimated)
Filming Location
Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, USA
Comic World - 1690 Route 38, Mount Holly, New Jersey, USA
Leonardo, New Jersey, USA
Red Bank, New Jersey, USA