History YMMV / Clerks

* {{Narm}}: The actors are all either local talent or friends who just happened to be around. As a result, a lot of the acting isn't very good. Then again...

** Randall's appalled reaction to Dante's story about two of their male classmates getting married, calling it "frightening," "lurid," and referring to homosexuality as a "deviant lifestyle". In 1994 straight men being repulsed by homosexuality was generally accepted; not so much today.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment:

* HarsherInHindsight: During their confrontation in the video store, Caitlin tells Dante that she wants to focus on her career, rather than simply go right from college into an early marriage and (presumably) motherhood. Lisa Spoonauer, her actress, gave up on a career after discovering she had a chronic illness to become a full-time mother until her death.

* CultClassic: What basically amounts to an expensive, glorified home movie gained a surprisingly large fanbase and helped launch an entire film universe.

** Caitlin is last seen being taken away in an ambulance. Her actress, Lisa Spoonauer, was the first cast member to die. Not only that, but the coroner informs Dante that Catlyn will need years of therapy after [[spoiler:fucking a dead guy]]. Spoonauer spent the rest of her life after the movie getting chemotherapy for a chronic illness (by the time she died, all the chemo had caused her organs to fuse together).

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: As Randal puts it, "shit or get off the pot." In other words, "take responsibility for your life": self improvement isn't easy, but it's not impossible either, so if you're unhappy with your life and have the means to improve it, you need to accept that it'll take hard work and dedication. Otherwise, just accept what you have for what it is. Wallowing in self-pity will only make you more miserable and drive other people away.

** After numerous hints in later films that Jay is bisexual, his spending his first scene loudly proclaiming that he’s only into women comes off a bit like a SuspiciouslySpecificDenial, and “I fuck anything that moves!” as a FreudianSlip.

** Iced coffee has become far more popular since the film was made, so new viewers will likely just be confused at someone expecting it being included among the other idiot customers

** The part where Veronica and (especially) Dante berate each other over their sex lives was played for laughs in this movie. However, in ''Film/ChasingAmy'', Holden has a similar reaction to Alyssa when he finds out about her previous sexual experiences[[note]]mostly on the fact that Holden wasn't even the first guy Alyssa had sex with[[/note]], which was played entirely for drama and is why their relationship ultimately didn't work out. And that was in turn based off of [[RealitySubtext Kevin Smith and Joey Lauren Adams' relationship]].

** Randall is seen reading a Hustler magazine during work hours. Today that would get him fired for sexual harassment.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: While Randal is correct to accuse Dante of blaming others and refusing to take responsibility for his own actions, there are still things he ''does'' still do things that Dante is well within his rights to be mad at him for: he peer pressures Dante into closing the store to go to a wake, then gets them thrown out for knocking over the casket, gets Dante slapped with a fine for selling cigarettes to a minor (because he was reading a porn magazine while manning the counter, no less), antagonizes multiple customers and eventually breaks up with his and Veronica's relationship, the last of which he considers to be doing Dante a ''favor'' (though by that point, he could have just assumed that Dante was flat-out admitting that he'd never take personal responsibility for it. Compounded with Randal being an idiot, you can't blame him ''too'' much for making that assumption, even if he had no business doing what he did).

* StrawmanHasAPoint: Randal is correct to accuse Dante of blaming others and refusing to take responsibility for his own actions, Randal ''does'' still do things that Dante is well within his rights to be mad at him for: he peer pressure Dante into closing the store to go to a wake, then gets them thrown out for knocking over the casket, gets Dante slapped with a fine for selling cigarettes to a minor, and eventually breaks up with his and Veronica's relationship, the last of which he considers to be doing Dante a ''favor'' (though by that point, he could have just assumed that Dante was flat-out admitting that he'd never take personal responsibility for it. Compounded with Randal being an idiot, you can't blame him ''too'' much for making that assumption, even if he had no business telling Veronica that Dante wanted to break up with her).

* StrawmanHasAPoint: Randal isn't wrong that Dante's misery is largely, if not entirely, the result of him refusing to take responsibility with his life. That said, he still gets Dante in trouble for crashing the funeral of a person he barely knew, gets him fined for selling cigarettes to a minor and interferes with his relationship with Veronica, the last of which he considers to be doing Dante a ''favor'' (though by that point, he could have just assumed that Dante was flat-out admitting that he'd never take personal responsibility for it. Compounded with Randal being an idiot, you can't blame him ''too'' much for making that assumption, even if he had no business telling Veronica that Dante wanted to break up with her).

** Production-wise, a respectable-looking feature made by a group of novices getting materials and using equipment on $30,000 was an impressive feat in 1993, and part of the acclaim it received was for the consensus that it was ''as'' good as it was in spite of this. In a day and age where any reasonably talented person could make it for half that amount using a smartphone and a home computer (as was the case with ''Film/{{Tangerine}}'', produced only 21 years later, and ''Film/{{Unsane}}'', released 24 years later), it seems like overkill.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: Dante is supposed to be seen as in the wrong for constantly blaming Randal for most of his problems, but his complaints aren't unjustified. While the NoodleIncident at the funeral was shown to not be Randal's fault (he was accidentally pushed onto the casket), he had no business being there since he didn't know Julie. He got Dante fined for selling cigarettes to a minor, and there was never any indication that he'd pay Dante back for the incident. While Randal didn't know that Dante was reconsidering on [[spoiler: breaking up with Veronica]], he still had no business telling her.
* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: As Randal puts it, "shit or get off the pot." Or, in layman's terms, "take responsibility for your life": self improvement isn't easy, but it's not impossible either, so if you're unhappy with your life and have the means to improve it, you need to accept that it'll take hard work and dedication. Otherwise, just accept what you have for what it is. Wallowing in self-pity will only make you more miserable and drive other people away.

* {{Wangst}}: {{Lampshaded}}. Dante does this all the time, to the point where Caitlin comes to visit him specifically because she knows he's probably spent the whole day agonizing over the wedding announcement. It's even implied that his self-pity is entirely the result of his refusal to get over Caitlin, a girl he has every reason ''not'' to care about any more. This ends up being the first thing Randal eventually blows up at him for.

* ValuesDissonance: Randall's appalled reaction to Dante's story about two of their male classmates getting married, calling it "frightening," "lurid," and referring to homosexuality as a "deviant lifestyle". In 1994 straight men being repulsed by homosexuality was generally accepted; not so much today.
** Randall is seen reading a Hustler magazine during work hours. Today he could face complaints of sexual harassment and possible be fired from the job.

* EarWorm: "My love for you is like a truck, ''Berserker!''"

** The part where Veronica and (especially) Dante berate each other over their sex lives was played for laughs in this movie. However, in ''Film/ChasingAmy'', Holden has a similar reaction to Alyssa when he finds out about her previous sexual experiences, which was played entirely for drama and is why their relationship ultimately didn't work out. And that was in turn based off of [[RealitySubtext Kevin Smith and Joey Lauren Adams' relationship]].

** And to a lesser extent, the little girl who buys the cigarettes.

** As Creator/RogerEbert described in his review, most of the jobs you saw people working in movies circa 1994 were {{escapist character}}s like cops or lawyers, not average guys working at a minimum wage job, and making [[MundaneMadeAwesome an interesting movie]] about average guys who worked those jobs and sat around all day [[ContemplateOurNavels nave gazing]] about [[SeinfeldianConversation everything from sex to relationships]] was highly impressive. It ended up inspiring nearly every indie comedy for the next two decades until, by TheNewTens, it was seen as achingly pretentious.[[note]]Granted, many of these films were about well-off middle class kids who [[FirstWorldProblems simply had nothing better to do than be bored]], as opposed to this film, which Smith based on his own experiences growing up in near-poverty and working a minimum wage job just to scrape by.[[/note]]

* CultClassic: What basically amounts to an expensive, glorified home movies gained a surprisingly large fanbase and helped launch an entire film universe.

* CultClassic: A low-budget black and white film, whose surprisingly large fanbase helped launch an entire film universe.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Dante apparently sleeps in his closet. This is never explained or referred to again.

** As Creator/RogerEbert described in his review, most of the jobs you saw people working in movies circa 1994 were {{escapist character}}s like cops or lawyers, not average guys working at a minimum wage job, and making [[MundaneMadeAwesome an interesting movie]] about average guys who worked those jobs and sat around all day [[ContemplateOurNavels nave gazing]] about [[SeinfeldianConversation everything from sex to relationships]] was highly impressive. It ended up inspiring nearly every indie comedy for the next two decades until, by TheNewTens, it was seen as achingly pretentious.