History Creator / KevinSmith

* IntergenerationalFriendship: Creator/AlanRickman, Creator/GeorgeCarlin and Michael Parks all remained close friends with Smith following their working together. He once dedicated a whole year to posting anecdotes about his relationship with Carlin on his Facebook page every Wednesday, always with the title "Holy Shit, It's Only Wednesday" (after one of Carlin's bits). Smith directly credits working with Michael Parks for reinvigorating his passion for filmmaking and gave an extremely tearful eulogy on the "Fatman On Batman" episode following Parks' death earlier that week.

* He Played Super Mega Awesome Ultra Guy in ''WesternAnimation/AskTheStorybots''.

* SelfDeprecation: Aside from making fun of his own weight and appearance in his films and his ''An Evening with Kevin Smith'' series, he famously protested his own movie when ''Film/{{Dogma}}'' came out.

* EpicFail: An admitted one (see ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin below) is at the core of his fourth Q&A film ''Too Fat for 40'', where Kevin, completely aware of how long-winded he tends to be, set out to specifically answer as many questions as possible, only to spend the entire show answering ''ONE''. Although, to be fair, the DVD extras see him continuing the show and answering more questions.

** Even before his former mentor [[Creator/MiramaxFilms Harvey Weinstein]]'s extensive history of sexual abuse became public knowledge, Kevin had distanced himself from him when he noticed that Weinstein didn't give back the same appreciation Smith gave him for their years of collaboration. The two had a personal falling out after Weinstein begrudgingly came to the premiere of ''Red State'', only to spend most of the screening talking loudly in the lobby until Smith outright told him to shut the fuck up or go home.

Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, comic book writer, podcast host and comedian best known for his "View Askewniverse" films, notably ''Film/{{Clerks}}'', ''Film/ChasingAmy'' and ''Film/{{Dogma}}''. Smith is a proud native of New Jersey and most of his films take place in the state. He married journalist Jennifer Schwalbach in 1999. They have one daughter, Harley Quinn Smith (yes, named after the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' character; he is close friends with writer Creator/PaulDini).

* SirSwearsALot: Smith may be a good guy in real life but he has one of the foul mouths you'll ever hear. In some of his podcasts, he can say "Fuck" several times in just 15 seconds, or pretty much any dirty word imaginable. Impressively, he can turn this off at will when appearing in hosting gigs that require him to be more clean or professional.

* OnlySaneMan: Most, if not all, of Smith's anecdotes regarding celebrities in his "An Evening With" series have him coming off as this, giving the impression that everyone in Hollywood aside from himself is a gigantic cloudcuckoolander [[His Prince & Jon Peters stories being particularly enjoyable/humourous examples of this trope.]]

* EpicFail: An admitted one (see ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin below) is at the core of his fourth Q&A film ''Too Fat for 40'', where Kevin, completely aware of how long-winded he tends to be, set out to specifically answer as many questions as possible, only to spend the entire show answering ''ONE''. Although, to be fair, the DVD extras see him continuing the show and anwering more questions.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: His earlier films are a good mix of both. Cynical dialogue but a ton of heart at its core.
** ''Film/JerseyGirl'' is more idealistic and heartfelt though while ''Film/RedState'' is easily his harshest work.

* He guested alongside Creator/JasonMewes in the 200th episode of ''Series/ImpracticalJokers''.

* SignatureStyle: Little to no camera movement, lengthy, usually profanity riddled, conversations about sex (comic book character or otherwise) and StarWars, and some scene involving hockey. All of which is frequently Lampshaded.

* '' Clerks III'' - The final episode of the ''Film/{{Clerks}}'' trilogy. SavedFromDevelopmentHell after Jeff Anderson (Randal) had been holding out for years.

* TooMuchInformation. Averted. Smith is not above going onto long diatribes about going to the bathroom or having sex with his wife on his podcasts. One segment of "Jay and Silent Bob Get Old" is entirely dedicated to Jason Mewes telling detailed anecdotes about him and his wife having sex.

** He loved Creator/BruceWillis from ''Film/DieHard'' and ''Series/{{Moonlighting}}'', and had a great time chilling with him on the set of ''Live Free or Die Hard'', but the experience directing ''Cop Out'', where Willis, who was [[MoneyDearBoy only in it for a paycheck]], was in full-blown [[ThePrimaDonna prima donna]] mode and often [[WagTheDirector verbally abused Smith or even outright refused to take direction]], permanently soured Smith's respect for the man. He later claimed that a star as big as Willis had at least a little authority to act the way he did, but that he would never work with him again. In 2022, when it was publicly revealed that Willis had been diagnosed with aphasia, Smith put out a tweet sending his condolences and admitted he didn't hold any more negative feelings to the man.

** He loved Creator/BruceWillis from ''Film/DieHard'' and ''Series/{{Moonlighting}}'', and had a great time chilling with him on the set of ''Live Free or Die Hard'', but the experience directing ''Cop Out'', where Willis, who was [[MoneyDearBoy only in it for a paycheck]], was in full-blown [[ThePrimaDonna prima donna]] mode and often [[WagTheDirector verbally abused Smith or even outright refused to take direction]], permanently soured Smith's respect for the man. He later claimed that a star as big as Willis had at least a little authority to act the way he did, but that he would never work with him again. This changed in 2022, when it was publicly revealed that Willis had been diagnosed with aphasia and Smith put out a tweet sending his condolences.

** He loved Creator/BruceWillis from ''Film/DieHard'' and ''Series/{{Moonlighting}}'', and had a great time chilling with him on the set of ''Live Free or Die Hard'', but the experience directing ''Cop Out'', where Willis, who was [[MoneyDearBoy only in it for a paycheck]], was in full-blown [[ThePrimaDonna prima donna]] mode and often [[WagTheDirector verbally abused Smith or even outright refused to take direction]], permanently soured Smith's respect for the man. He later claimed that a star as big as Willis had at least a little authority to act the way he did, but that he would never work with him again.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[https://www.viewaskew.com/press/aicn.html Per this interview]], he was involved in many different projects, including ''Busing'' for Creator/HollywoodPictures (''Clerks'' [[RecycledInSpace in a restaurant]]), a second sequel to ''Film/{{Fletch}}'', ''Film/ScoobyDoo'' (when Turner Pictures was around before it was absorbed into Warner Bros.), ''Series/TheSixMillionDollarMan'', ''Film/{{Daredevil}}'' and ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'' (which wound up becoming a TV series years later).

* ChristianityIsCatholic: Whenever Smith deals with faith, [[RaisedCatholic it's inevitably the faith that he grew up with]], Catholicism. Somewhat ironic, in that one of the interest groups most opposed to him is [[MoralGuardians The Catholic League]], which started opposing him at first due to his amusing take on the fallibility of mortal religion while simultaniously exalting divine infallibility in ''Film/{{Dogma}}''. Other religions are not dealt with extensively, and it's a loophole in Catholic doctrine that ends up endangering the entire universe in the aforementioned film. He has promised, however, to avert this trope if he ever makes a ''Dogma II''. Averted with ''Film/RedState'' - the Five Points Trinity church is [[WordOfGod based]] on the Westboro Baptist Church

* Only Sane Man: Most, if not all, of Smith's anecdotes regarding celebrities in his "An Evening With" series have him coming off as this, giving the impression that everyone in Hollywood aside from himself is a gigantic cloudcookoolander [[His Prince & Jon Peters stories being particularly enjoyable/humourous examples of this trope.]

* ''Film/{{Mallrats}}'' - First studio film and second Askewniverse film (though chronologically set the day before ''Clerks''). Was not as well-receive, but has since been VindicatedByHistory.

* ''Film/JerseyGirl'' - His first non-Askewniverse feature, a change which [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks was not well-receive at the time]].

He has also become a prolific podcaster, creating the weekly series ''[=SModcast=]'' with longtime partner producer Scott Mosier. This expanded into a network of podcasts under the [=SModcast=] Network banner, including ''Tell 'Em Steve-Dave'' (with Smith's close friends Bryan Johnson, Walt Flanagan, and Brian Quinn), ''Jay and Silent Bob Get Old'' (Smith and Jason Mewes), ''Plus One'' (Smith and his wife Jennifer Schwalbach-Smith), ''Blow Hard'' (indie filmmaker Malcolm Ingram, with Smith occasionally co-hosting), and ''[[{{Podcast/HollywoodBabbleOn}} Hollywood Babble-On]]'' (Smith and actor Ralph Garman).