Rubberface, originally titled Introducing... Janet, is a made for television film broadcast in Canada in 1981. The film focuses on Janet Taylor, a socially awkward teenage girl who goes to a comedy club for research on a paper called "Why We Laugh". It is there that she meets busboy/struggling comedian Tony Moroni (Jim Carrey), who fails to entertain the audience and enlists her to help him with his material as he is set to be part of an upcoming "Battle of the Buffoons" competition.
Introducing... Janet marks the public debut of Jim Carrey, who here is the co-star. After Jim Carrey hit it big in 1994, this film was released on home video in 1995, now with the title Rubberface, and with the packaging making it look as if Jim Carrey is the star of the film.
Includes Examples Of:
- Advertised Extra: After Jim Carrey's star-making year of 1994, the film was released on home video, with only Jim Carrey's name above the title (he actually gets second billing here), and the description making it look like it is all about Tony as opposed to Janet.
- Be Yourself: After seeing Janet acting goofy around her friends, Tony asks whether she was doing it for herself or for her friends, and tells her she should be herself. When Tony can't go on and needs Janet to go on in his place, he advises her to tell the audience about herself, which gets her laughs.
- Disappeared Dad: Janet lives with just her mother. Her father is only mentioned when Janet does a comedy spot, confirming that her parents had a bad divorce.
- Even Nerds Have Standards: Once Tony starts talking to her, the first thing Janet says to him is "you must be the guy who gets rid of the losers". And this is before she sees him perform or gets an idea of what he is like.
- Informed Flaw:
- Tony thinks that Janet lets her mother and friends push her around. While her mother does want her to be more involved and has her take an audition she does not want to do, her friends don't really push her around (though they do encourage her to do some popular things), and had only seen how she acts around her friends once (where she was just acting goofy in how she introduced Tony).
- She retaliates by telling Tony he is just as pushy. While he does ask her to help him with his material, when they had just met (and she's writing a paper on why people laugh, not trying to be humorous), he doesn't really push her into things.
- Shout-Out:
- Tony's act has him doing a bad impression of Fonzie.
- One comedian does an act called "The Wizard of Oz in One Minute".
