Clerks (animation)/Fridge
- The gum salesman who accuses Dante of being like the Nazis because he's 'only following orders' by selling cigarettes? Is a charismatic but unscrupulous man who uses powerful public speaking techniques to manipulate a crowd into demonizing and outright attacking a convenient and innocent scapegoat, relying on their unthinking emotional response and acceptance of his emotive and on-the-surface logical but actually deeply flawed arguments in order to cynically manipulate them into doing his bidding. When initially asked to stop causing trouble, he agrees, only to break his word and keep doing so. It eventually escalates to the point of (narrowly avoided, in this case) destructive violence. And he even has facial hair. Sound like anyone we know?
- Around midway through the film, Randal decides to shut off the Quick Stops security camera for some reason. In the original ending, Dante is shot and killed by a robber who comes in just as he's closing up. With the security camera off, nobody would know who killed Dante, and the killer would never be caught, all because of Randal shutting off the camera. Does this mean that Randal was in on it? Because if so, it turns his whole "The Reason You Suck" Speech into a gratuitous Kick the Dog moment as it would mean that he knows that Dante is not only miserable with his lot in life, but also gets his hopes up about improving himself knowing that he won't ever get the chance to.
- It's highly unlikely Randal was in on Dante's murder. It's clearly established throughout the film by both the main characters and various ancillary characters that Dante and Randal have been good friends for some time. Randal is a Jerkass, but he wouldn't be involved in the death of a friend. His switching off the security camera is just in keeping with his character, namely a lazy, irresponsible slacker who has no respect for his job or most rules that interfere with his fun time. The killer simply lucked out because of Randal goofing around, he was not in cahoots with him.
- Fridge Logic: Randal unearths a Star Wars example, pertaining to the casualties that resulted from the destruction of the second Death Star: it was incomplete, so presumably the builders were still on board and working on it, and they couldn't have all been Stormtroopers. "All those innocent contractors hired to do a job were killed--casualties of a war they had nothing to do with."
- Although it's played with, as a contractor overhears their conversation and questions it, noting -- with reference to a friend of his who took a job working for a prominent gangster and was killed in an assassination attempt by said gangster's enemies -- that they on some level had to know what they were getting into, even if they chose not to acknowledge it.
- The contractor actually suggested it to his friend. Makes me wonder how good of a friend it could have been, and where he gets off.