This movie has some pretty good ideas, but you definitely need to turn off your brain while watching it. The pacing is weird, and the way the plot sets up things is really random, which is not necessarily a bad thing. In "The Jerk" it unfortunately is though. Steve Martin and all the other actors can be so over the top, that it ruins the fun in a scene. I know this is supposed to be a dumb movie, but look at other movies. Naked Gun etc. are much better at executing everything, and the actors aren't unbearable to watch or listen to. It would seem that the makers of this movie had a lot of brilliant ideas, but did not have the talent or time (or both) to put it together. I'm not really a fan of Steve Martin, but I'm not really too familiar with him either. In "The Jerk" he reminds me of Jim Carrey. I am rarely able to watch a Jim Carrey movie because a lot of his roles are so obnoxious, and Steve Martin is too in this movie. You never really get to feel anything for the characters, and you even hate them sometimes because of their poor acting. I can see why people like this movie, but it is not something for me at all.

So, someone here challenged people with his review to say what isn't hilarious about this film and that it's grade (7.2) is highly underrated. I read that review before watching the movie and eagerly anticipated a masterpiece of comedy.Before watching the movie i skimmed through some of the scenes, actually I planned on doing that, but the very first scene caught my attention. It's the scene where Martins first employer guides him to the room in which he will be staying. I'm specifically talking about the bathroom scene before entering the "real" room. The employer says something about the room not being that great and Martin just takes over the spotlight saying something among these lines (this is not an exact quote because I'm too lazy to re watch the whole scene to give you exact quotes): "Are you crazy!? I freaking love it! Just look at it, the toilet is right here. And this must be the kitchen! No."I found this to be a very witty use of sarcasm and I laughed my ass off. I knew that I was going to enjoy this movie from the bottom of my heart. "This must be the kitchen." Oh boy that line killed me. I stopped my skimming and started watching the movie.You can't imagine my disappointment when I realized Martins character isn't anything like I had imagined. I thought he was quite smart and sarcastic but he was just a normal idiot. The first thing that crossed my mind was:"Oh gee, what if that scene wasn't sarcastic and the moron actually thought it was the kitchen. Nah, that can't be true. That would mean that this movie sucks."And oh boy, did the movie suck. I couldn't even finish watching it because he only scene I found funny was when his black father told him:"Look son, this is s***." And that is only cause he used the word s***. I ended watching it after the bathroom scene (actually after the employer guided him to his "real" room) just to check for real if it was sarcasm. After seeing all that I'm 100% positive that the grade 7.2 is highly overrated cause this movie doesn't even come close to funny (if you're into intelligent humour) and therefore I'm giving it a 1.If you like dumb humour when the main character is a moron and just does stupid things, this is the movie for you. Otherwise don't even try to watch it.

Navin Johnson (Steve Martin) is down and out. He tells the story of his life. He grew up as a poor black boy with his black family. He's a clueless naive manic idiot who goes to the big city St. Louis. He gets a job at the gas station from Harry Hartounian (Jackie Mason). It's a random series of crazy events. He invents a way to support glasses and salesman Stan Fox (Bill Macy) goes 50-50 with him. A madman (M. Emmet Walsh) is after him for no good reason. He escapes to join the carnival as Guess Your Weight. He's taken by rough stunt bike rider Patty Bernstein (Catlin Adams) but he falls for sweet Marie (Bernadette Peters). Marie runs away and he ends up in L.A. That's where he reconnects with Stan Fox and finds out he's wildly rich.It's ridiculous and it's even funny. Steve Martin is putting all his skills of performance and writing to work in his first feature starring role. It's like half of 'Dumb and Dumber'. That's really my only wish. I wish he had another comedian to play off of. It would be even better if he was a comedy duo. He's funniest when Bernadette Peters is with him. This is completely ridiculous and stupid. That's where most of the humor comes from.

Didn't find this funny or charming at all. Steve Martin who is so great in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, great comedian, great timing and all, so I thought I might like this. But The Jerk seems to be more old-fashioned 1940's American wee-he silly kind of humor that I do not understand at all.If that's your cup of tea then go ahead!Minor spoiler: Something that boggled me was why this jerk person seemed to alter between mildly dumb to complete and utter retard? It was like he started out a real complete nonfunctional retard then moved into a phase where he was just mildly immature, back and forth, and then at the end a complete retard again? Was that part of the humor?None of the movie made any sense to me. Very old fashioned even by 1979. Not funny.