Trivia / The Jerk

• Acting for Two: Steve Martin also plays the Mexican cat juggler in the film that Navin watches. He's credited as "Pig Eye Jackson."
• Deleted Role:
  • Bill Murray filmed a cameo that was deleted. On the December 15, 1979 broadcast of Saturday Night Live, Murray jokingly reviewed the film, saying:
    Bill Murray: I was in the movie but cut out of it. That doesn't influence my opinion. The movie is a dog. There's something missing. I don't know who it is, I can't say.
  • Another scene that was cut featured Gailard Sartain as a Texas oil millionaire who tearfully begs Navin for money to replace the cracked, dried-out leather seats on his private jet. Navin grants his request and he gratefully states, "Now I can fly my friends to the Super Bowl like a MAN, and not some damned BUM!" This one is sometimes re-inserted in TV airings.
• Deleted Scene: An alternate, comic introduction of Marie — near the train ride Navin was running at the carnival—was only in the theatrical version and thus edited out in future versions. When her nephew takes off on the train, Navin rescues him, and in returning the boy to Marie, has the bill of his engineer's cap pulled down over his eyes so he cannot see the toy village he (Navin) destroys like a lunatic. This scene might have been edited due to a reference to Godzilla, considering how fiercely protective Toho was and still is with their IP.
• Inspiration for the Work: The idea for the film came from a stand-up routine of Steve Martin (included on his debut comedy album, Let's Get Small), in which he claimed to have been "born a poor black child" and how, after hearing his first Mantovani record, he "decided to become white."
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The film originally had two trailers, the first of which has never been seen since. This was a tongue-in-cheek presentation that began with a large printed message: "For Theater Managers Only". Steve Martin is sitting at a desk talking to the camera. He lets the theatre managers know that he's in on the fact that moviegoers are morons and that they will go for anything. Describing his new movie, he says that the film has everything - a love scene, a high-speed car chase, guns, a dog, and more, plus it has some boring scenes so that the audience will go to the lobby and spend money on snacks. As he describes this there are extremely brief clips for each of the above. While copies of this trailer exist in various archives, it is not available for streaming online.
• Never Work with Children or Animals: Steve Martin and the dog got off on the wrong foot when he accidentally dropped mittens on the animal's face. From then on it cowered when he tried to pet it. Martin recalled, "It was miserable. He hated me."
• Production Posse: This was the first of four films that Steve Martin and Carl Reiner made together.
• Real-Life Relative: Carl Reiner's son Rob Reiner is the truck-driver who takes Navin to the end of the fence.
• Romance on the Set: Around the time that this movie was made and released, Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters were in a personal relationship.
• Star-Making Role: The film gave Steve Martin a film career and the confidence to leave standup comedy for good.
• Throw It In!: The part where Navin licks Marie's face during their first date was completely improvised. Bernadette Peters' reaction was genuine.

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