Clerks (animation)



Clerks (known after the fact as Clerks: The Animated Series) was the animated series, running from May to June, 2000. Loose adaptation of the film Clerks by Kevin Smith. Dante Hicks is the much put-upon clerk of a Quick Stop convenience store in Leonardo, New Jersey. He is tormented by his friend, video clerk Randal Graves, as well as stoner hangers-out Jay and Silent Bob.

Included more wackiness and fantasy than the film. This was lampshaded. Contained little swearing or sexual references. This was lampshaded, also. Added such things as an arch-nemesis, Corrupt Corporate Executive Mr. Leonardo Leonardo and his Odd Job like assistant. Had a Token Minority, Lando, who showed up just to be black, saying a few words every now and then. All of that lampshaded as well. It also had a Clip Show, in the second episode. Lampshaded, at least the first part.

Marked the first time the character designs of Stephen Silver were added to the animation direction of Steve Loter and Chris Bailey. This team, with a distinct visual style, would come up again in a much different place. Also had an impressive voice cast, most notably the four main actors in the original film (Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith) reprising their roles.

Very funny, only had six episodes made. Episodes four and two made it to air, in that order. Definitely Too Good to Last. A DVD is available.

Kevin Smith had planned a DVD movie called "Clerks: Sell Out" about Dante and Randal making a film in the Quick Stop, but when Harvey and Bob Weinstein left Miramax in the hands of Disney, Smith refused to work with the Mouse House without the support of the Weinsteins. Though, since Miramax's current non-Disney owners have partnered with the Weinsteins, there is now a greater likelihood for the series to return in some form or another; originally that was hoped to be as early as 2013, but between Harvey Weinstein's 2010s-2020s legal issues and subsequent anathema status in Hollywood and Disney still owning the rights to the series, it's unlikely ever to happen now.

Interestingly, Smith has always referred to the show as "Clerks: The Cartoon" (which it was also called in a trailer shown at film festivals) or "The Clerks Cartoon", but never "Clerks: The Animated Series". Go figure. -

"Well played, Clerks."
 * Actor Allusion: Judge Reinhold appears as a version of himself in episode 4 which leads to a dream sequence referencing his role in Beverly Hills Cop and a scene referencing Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
 * Adaptation Distillation: Clever and witty as an adaptation. Could be considered a show on its own and still be as good, especially since the original movie was extremely well-done.
 * Affably Evil: Leonardo Leonardo.

"Kid: Grandpa, what's prejudice? Grandpa: Where did you hear that? Kid: Kenny told me. Grandpa: Who's Kenny? Kid: My Jewish friend. Grandpa: That's prejudice. You think of him as your Jewish friend instead of your best friend."
 * And Knowing Is Half the Battle: Subverted/parodied in episodes one through three.
 * There was going to be one that talks about prejudice. The DVD commentary say it would be something like this:

"Dante: Wait a second. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Randal: Urinating in the frozen food section and watching it steam up? Oh yeah!"
 * Animated Adaptation
 * Animated Series
 * Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: From the first episode:

"[after being woken up by his wife] Reinhold: Ugh. I had that dream again."
 * Anticipatory Breath Spray: When Jay says that Caitlin Bree is making out with guys whose names start with B, Silent Bob does this before running off.
 * Art Shift: Which was...yes, lampshaded as being due to Korean animators extemporizing after losing the end of the script.
 * As Himself: Judge Reinhold plays himself in episode 4, although he is literally a judge.
 * Banana In the Tailpipe: Judge Reinhold dreams of this in reference to the trope namer.

"Jason Mewes (in the DVD): Because it was TV, we couldn't curse. Well... "
 * Big Bad: Leonardo Leonardo.
 * Body Sushi: Randall recounts being married to a Japanese business man, who had him do this.
 * Bowdlerisation: Jay and Silent Bob are never shown or mentioned as drug dealers in this series, though in the first episode they are shown selling illegal fireworks and dynamite to children. Both this, and the fact that the show contains very little (if any) cursing were heavily lampshaded during the series.

"Leonardo: I vow that my vengence won't be swift or entertaining! I will draw it out over a decade in such a subtle fashion, that you will have to wonder if the misery in your life was either manifest or the machinations of Leonardo Leonardo!"
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: Done throughout the series, but the sixth episode strays into No Fourth Wall.
 * Butt Monkey: Dante
 * Catch Phrase: "Well played, clerks, well played...", plus Jay's sayings.
 * Clip Show: The second episode aired.
 * Made even better by the fact that the series was shown out of production order and as such there are no clips or references to the fourth episode of the series which was actually the first to air.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Randal
 * Clutching Hand Trap: * The idiot customer with the Pringles can. Dante subtly points this out by pouring the remaining Pringles into his hand while telling the customer that "sometimes you just need to let those hard-to-reach chips go."
 * Cold Opening
 * Collapsing Lair
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: Rational, responsible Dante wears cool colors (blue and dark green) while carefree, audacious Randal wears warm colors (red and orange).
 * Content Warnings: (which become parodies in the third panel)
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive
 * If you believe the commentary, not just confined to the premise of the show, but to its production, as well.
 * Courtroom Antic: Parodied in the courtroom episode.
 * Randal calls a series of "surprise witnesses" during Dante's trial. All of the witnesses are directors of movies Randal didn't like, and he demands refunds from each of them. After he's finished, the witnesses leave, without ever saying a single word that has to do with the trial's actual proceedings. He also calls a girl to the witness stand just to get her phone number.
 * The prosecuting lawyer has Dante questioned by a pair of giggling girls, and plays the tapes of a completely unrelated prank call made by Jay and Randal.
 * Courtroom Episode: Episode 4 revolved around Jay pursuing a Frivolous Lawsuit against Dante for slipping on a puddle of spilled soda.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: Discussed by Leonardo Leonardo in the end of episode 1:

"Dante And Randal And Jay And Silent Bob And A Bunch Of New Characters And Lando Take Part In A Whole Bunch Of Movie Parodies Including, But Not Exclusive To, The Bad News Bears, The Last Starfighter, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Plus A High School Reunion"
 * Dissimile: Caitlin's charity kissing booth which costs nothing, and isn't for charity. And has no booth. And it's not just kissing.
 * And you don't have to be a guy.
 * Dude, she's cheating on you.
 * Distant Finale: Played in the second episode, as a spoof of the film "Stand by Me".
 * Don't Explain the Joke: "Dude, she's cheating on you!"
 * End-of-Episode Silliness
 * Escalating Punchline
 * Everything's Better with Monkeys: In episode three, Jay and Silent Bob get a monkey solely so they can teach it to smoke.
 * Flanderization: Randal is portrayed as more of an idiot than he really is. On the commentaries, Kevin Smith acknowledges that Randal was also a lot more willing to "punch holes in Dante's boat" and essentially sell him out at the first opportunity. He and the other writers, though, feel this worked.
 * Four-Temperament Ensemble: Dante is melancholic, Randal is sanguine, Jay is choleric, and Silent Bob is phlegmatic.
 * Gainax Ending: More or less played straight in the final episode. Justified in episode 4, when the announcer said that the original ending was lost during its trip overseas to be animated by Koreans and the Korean animators created a new ending.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: During one of the parody PSA segments, a pair of children are bored on a rainy day. The little girl suggests making a movie, and commands the little boy twice to take off his shirt.
 * Half-Hour Comedy
 * Helium Speech: "It's only funny if you talk, stupid."
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: The show features the voices of Alec Baldwin, Charles Barkley, Sen. Al Franken, James Woods, and Gilbert Gottfried playing the parts of both Jerry Seinfeld and Patrick Swayze (though, for legal reasons, the character could neither look nor sound like Swayze himself)
 * Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Except for "The Last Episode Ever," each episode features progressively longer titles that are more suitable as plot descriptions than episode titles. This is episode 5's title, for example (which is also the longest one):

"Leonardo Leonardo: This rabble of mid-level managers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, and Nobel laureates will bow before the might of Leonardo Leonardo Leonardo!... Sorry, Leonardo Leonardo."
 * Instrumental Theme Tune
 * Jerkass: Randal, on occasion.
 * Kneel Before Zod: In episode 5:

"Randall: Look at [that monkey], quivering in fear. Dante: He's not quivering, he's masturbating. Randall: But it's out of fear. And later... Leonardo Leonardo: Oh, my...something has frightened that monkey."
 * Lemony Narrator: The narrator reading the disclaimer before each episode falls into this trope. During the last episode, after reading the disclaimer, he remarks, "I don't care for this show, either."
 * Lighter and Softer: Even when this wasn't exactly a show for children, it contains much less sex-related humor and profanity than the two live-action movies.
 * Locked in a Freezer
 * Made of Explodium: In the first episode a man crashes his car, which catches on fire. After he gets out of the car, he spontaneously combusts while running down the street.
 * Not to mention the fire hydrant he crashes into BURSTS INTO FLAMES.
 * Man On Fire
 * Message in a Bottle: A failed attempt by Randal when he's trapped in the Pyramid.
 * Missing Episode: Four of the six episodes in the series.
 * Monochrome Casting: A straight example, which is also parodied in the form of Token Minority Lando.
 * Mundane Fantastic
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed
 * "No Respect" Guy: Dante.
 * No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: In episode 5, Leonardo Leonardo orders his publicist to kill Hop Osgood with bad publicity, to with the publicist responds with this phrase.
 * Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: Dante invokes this verbatim in the first episode...
 * Only Sane Man: Dante again
 * Overly Long Gag
 * Parody Episode: Episode 3 parodies Outbreak. Episode 5 parodies The Last Starfighter, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and The Bad News Bears.
 * Pragmatic Adaptation
 * Prank Call: In the courtroom episode, the prosecuting attorney plays tapes of a prank call made by Jay and Randal (completely unrelated to the case) as part of the trial.
 * Race Fetish: Randall is only interested in Asian Chicks. Though, when through some wacky circumstance he has several Geishas eager to do his bidding, he sends them out for porn featuring Asian women.
 * Running Gag: "Why are we walking like this?"
 * Also, Randal's (day)dreams about Dante being "The biggest idiot ever."
 * Screwed by the Network: Was it ever. Only episodes two and four made it to air before it was pulled off by ABC as they felt it didn't gel with their programming (One has to wonder why they even bothered to greenlight the show at all.)
 * But, on the plus side, all six of the episodes have been released on DVD and Cartoon Network does air all six episodes on occasion. They even aired the second episode with the scene where Randall and Dante watch a Schindler's List parody called Flintstone's List. In the ABC version, they only showed Randall and Dante watching the TV with the sounds from the movie playing. On Cartoon Network and the DVD, there's an actual clip from the movie.
 * Other networks (most notably Adult Swim and Comedy Central) were interested in picking up the show for new episodes after ABC canceled it, but the network refused the sell the rights and has simply sat on them. We're lucky we at least got reruns on those networks and a DVD.
 * Combine this with the fact that when they were pitching the show another network (often thought to be UPN) wanted to bascially let them do what they wanted and make them their flagship show (similar to Fox and The Simpsons). Smith compares it to someone outright asking you to be the big fish in a little pond, but since ABC was a bigger network they signed with them. Smith and Mosier admit in the commentary that this wasn't their finest hour.
 * The reason ABC greenlit the show then abruptly canceled it was due to the fact that there was a rush by many networks in the late '90s/early 2000s to have adult-themed animated primetime shows following the success of South Park. However, between the time episodes began production and when they aired, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? became a breakout hit and ABC sought to bury Clerks so it could give an extra half-hour to the game show. The moral: it doesn't matter how much time and effort you put into a TV show, networks are fickle with desires that change on a whim.
 * Shout-Out: The usual View Askew collection of pop culture references.
 * Silent Bob: Guess who? (Very subverted: he talks during every "Science Says" segment except the last one.)
 * He doesn't talk in any of the episodes, except near the end of the sixth episode.
 * He says "And I'm Silent Bob" in all three Science Sez segments. This inevitably leads to the gag "Kids, If Silent Bob could talk..."
 * Special Guest: Lampshaded every episode with Charles Barkley trying to horn in on Jay and Silent Bob's PSA segment. And then, once those ran their course, Kevin Smith still found ways to shoehorn Barkley into every episode except for the last one.
 * Spoof Aesop
 * Strange Minds Think Alike


 * And later in episode 5, both Randall and Leonardo go to their High School Reunions with a story of each one suing the government over bad meat.
 * Take Our Word for It: The last episode is chock-full of this trope. Randal and Dante are deliberately trying to evoke the original film - since fans of the movie are complaining the series has strayed so far from it - by confining themselves to the Quik Stop, despite ludicrously interesting things happening just outside.
 * Take That:
 * The DVD commentary is full of these, it gets especially bitter once the subject of Seth Macfarlane and Family Guy comes up. The fact that Family Guy was Uncancelled is a particularly sore spot.
 * Actually, that's probably just Kevin Smith being Kevin Smith. Watch Evening Harder, he apparently does this all the time with Ben Affleck.
 * Thick Line Animation
 * Title Please: No episode title is visible on the screen, though it's probably for the best, given how ridiculously long most of them are.
 * Took a Level In Dumbass: Randall went from a lazy slacker with average intelligence who in the film was the voice gave the big profound "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Dante, became an immature moron in the cartoon.
 * Touché
 * The View Askewniverse
 * The Voiceless
 * Wacky Guy: Jay, sort of.
 * What Could Have Been: Episodes they would have made.
 * Randal exploits Jay by making "snoogans" a Catch Phrase, leading to Jay becoming a recording artist.
 * Randal buys KITT at a used car lot. The car becomes jealous of Randal's relationship with Dante and attempts to kill Dante and impersonate him at the store (a reference to Single White Female). He manages to trick everyone except Dante (and most likely Silent Bob) with his thin disguise.
 * Jay joins a boy band. Silent Bob is sad that Jay is gone, so Randal and Dante bring Bob in to work at the Quick Stop. He turns the store around and it becomes a great success. Silent Bob is given a piece of gum and says, "Mmm, Juicy Fruit," which shocks Dante and Randal (a reference to the Chief in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest).
 * Allegedly in 7th or 8th episode, Dante and Randal would have added to their cast of friends a boy ward, named Robin, in a direct reference/parody of Batman's own "Boy Wonder", though like Lando, would probably not have been featured prominently. This plot element was mostly likely not intended to actually be part of the series as it was described by Kevin Smith after mentioning that Paul Dini, best known for his work on Batman: The Animated Series, had also worked on the Clerks cartoon.
 * The DVD commentary briefly mentioned an episode idea where Ben Affleck would play the King of Canada. The episode premise was also described as "the Aladdin parody."
 * Notice how much Leonardo Leonardo looks like Hans Gruber? That's because they originally wanted Alan Rickman to voice him.
 * The show was very nearly picked up by HBO. If it had, all swearing, sex, and drug-related references would've been allowed to air without censorship.
 * Originally, the series was considered for UPN. Production instead went with ABC (rather than being "the big fish in a little pool"), which they conceded was a mistake.
 * Over the years, there has been talk of a DTV movie Sell Out, which basically would've had the cartoon characters making a movie based on the actual movie. Assorted behind-the-scene developments (such as the Weinstein Brothers leaving the studio) haven't helped move it forward.
 * Where Are They Now? Epilogue: Parodied at the end of episode 2 during the Shout-Out to Stand by Me.
 * Yamato Nadeshiko: Spoofed in episode 2 when Randal recalls an incident in which he wedded a Japanese businessman who forced him to become one. He's even seen at one point wearing a kimono and chopsticks in a hairbun. The businessman is pleased with his housework, to which Randal replies in a graceful manner.