Um... right.
Zack and Miri Make a Porno is a 2008 film written and directed by
Kevin Smith, and starring Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Jeff Anderson, Traci Lords, Jason Mewes and Craig Robinson. Like
Jersey Girl, this is not part of
The View Askewniverse.
The plot is pretty much
Exactly What It Says on the Tin, as roommates Zack (Rogen) and Miri (Banks) decide to make a pornographic movie in order to pay their bills. However, during the filming of the movie Zack and Miri seem to deal with their
UST, although the path of love does not run smooth.
Zack and Miri Make a Porno provides examples of the following tropes:
- Actor Allusion: Real-life porn stars Katie Morgan and Traci Lords play porn actresses Stacey and Bubbles.
- All The Good Men Are Gay: Miri's high school crush returns to their small town for a high school reunion. Well... he brought his boyfriend.
- Bad Bad Acting: During the shooting of the eponymous porno
- Bigger Is Better In Bed: Mewes' full frontal scene. In the words of Ben Affleck, "That's not him on the way up, that's him on the way back down!"
- Book Ends: Zack and Miri's conversation about the bathroom door happens twice, once near the start, and once near the end, almost word for word.
Zack: Close the door when you're taking a shit!!
Miri: It WAS closed!
Zack: It was closed OVER, it was not closed—
Miri: JUST CLOSE THE FUCKING DOOR, ZACK!
- Call Back: Combined with Actor Allusion. In Dogma, Jay asks if "girls fart when you blast them in the ass". Well, he did just that, and this girl more than farted.
- Catch Phrase / Running Gag: "Let us fuck!"
- Chekhov's Gun: The boss's video camera.
- Class Reunion
- Cluster F-Bomb: Well, it's a Kevin Smith movie.
- Cool Loser: The main characters.
- Department of Redundancy Department: This scene:
Zack: You guys didn't have to do this...
Bubbles: And you two didn't have to put us in your movie either.
Deacon: Or let us shoot it!
Delaney: Or produce it.
Lester: Or put us in your movie neither!
Delaney: WE SAID THAT ALREADY!! - The Ditz: Stacey, and Lester.
- Embarrassing Nickname: During her high school days, Miri's surname gave her the nickname "Stinky Linky".
- Everyone Can See It: Everyone sees there was more than just porn sex going on between Zack and Miri when their scene comes up (they see it too, but won't admit it).
- Ethical Slut: The sex workers are almost implausibly sweet and well-adjusted in this movie; the neurotic suburbanites are the ones who have all the problems.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: "I'm gonna fuck you with my penis!"
- Henpecked Husband: Delaney
- High School Rejects
- I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship
- I'll Take Two Beers Too
Zack: Yeah, I'll have two beers. (turns to Miri) You want one?
- Innocent Cohabitation: Zack and Miri at the start of the movie.
- Just Friends: Zack and Miri, to the extent they are Platonic Life Partners before the porno comes along.
- Leave the Camera Running: Avoided in the main film, but the Deleted Scene... well, there are two of them. One for Justin Long and one for Seth Rogen where they just sit there and ad lib.
- Male Frontal Nudity: Which leads to the following...
- Mood Whiplash: Zack and Miri are having a touching moment... oh, hello, Jason Mewes' penis!
- Parallel Porn Titles: Zack and Miri initially set out to make Star Whores. They eventually get around to it.
- Pittsburgh: The movie is set in Monroeville, PA, a large suburb about a 20-minute drive from Downtown (unless it's rush hour, in which case it's a 50-minute drive).
- Political Correctness Gone Mad: At the beginning of the movie, Zack's Black Best Friend accuses his boss (who is Asian) of racism because he wants him to work on "Black Friday."
- Poor Communication Kills / Cannot Spit It Out: Of course, if Zack and Miri could actually talk to each other like two mature adults, the last third of the movie wouldn't happen.
- Porn Names: Played with.
Zack: What's your name?
Lester: Lester... Lester the Molester Cockenschtuff.
Zack: Wow. That's a great porn name.
Lester: I get to pick a porn name?... Then I want to be called... Pete Jones.
- Reality Subtext: The filming of the porno is an awful lot like the way the filming of Clerks has been described. In particular, filming in the workplace after hours and the use of a microphone taped to a hockey stick as a boom mike are both shoutouts to the filming of Clerks (although Clerks was filmed with the knowledge and permission of Smith's then-employer).
- Secret Test of Character: Miri sets one of these for Zack, telling him it's okay to sleep with one of the actresses (for the movie) and, essentially, punishing him when (she believes) he has. Zack calls her out for her newly-found Manipulative Bastard tendencies, moves out, and abandons the production.
- Sex Equals Love: Played absolutely straight.
- Shout Out: The Monroeville Zombies hockey team refer to Dawn of the Dead, and some scenes are shot in the same mall as the original film. To add to that, one of the porn titles Zack suggests is "Dawn of the Dick", and the sketchy man they rent the storage space from is played by none other than Tom Savini.
- The Slacker: Zack
- The Stinger: Interrupts the credits.
- Token Wholesome: Miri, both in and out of universe.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Both protagonists.
- Women Are Wiser: Neither Zack nor Miri are intelligent, talented or skillful, but Miri seems to display fewer screw-ups than Zack.
- Worst Whatever Ever: "Worst. Porno. Ever."
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