Just a Quiz About "The Jerk"

Answer: He is white; they are black

Navin runs into his bedroom upset, and his mother (Mabel King) follows him. Navin says he doesn't feel like he belongs, so his mother tells him someone left him on her doorstep. He is upset he will always be white, but his mother says she will always love him no matter his color.

Answer: "The Lord loves a working man."

His mother tells him, "The Lord loves a working man." His father (Richard Ward) tells him, "Don't trust Whitey." His brother Taj (Dick Anthony Williams) tells him, "See a doctor; get rid of it," when Navin says that he knows what he is looking for is out there. The family gives him advice because they know he's not very smart.

"Never let them see you sweat" is a commercial for Dry Idea.

Answer: dog

Stupid is a mutt who alerts Navin to a non-existent fire. Navin wakes up all his neighbors to tell them about the fire. Navin yells that the dog is a lifesaver, so when a man from the fire department (Douglas S. Close) says it was a false alarm, another man tells Navin not to call that dog Lifesaver; he should call him Stupid.

Answer: a church

Navin reports the crime but says he can keep them there because he saw a trick in a movie. He hooks the car to the church nearby and then tells the men in the car they won a free oven mitt. They decide not to wait and drive, towing a church with them.

Answer: His name is in it.

He points out his name is on page 73, and because his name is in print, he says, "I'm somebody now." He then says that things will happen to him. A man (Emmet Walsh) randomly finds Navin's name in the phone book and decides to kill him. Instead, he shoots the paint cans, causing Navin to yell, "He hates these cans!"

Answer: He puts a handle on them.

The man later patents this, and Navin becomes rich. Bill Macy, plays the man, Stan Fox. Fox offers to split the profits evenly with Navin if Navin allows Fox to sell Navin's invention.

Answer: Carnival

The man shooting Navin thinks he had Navin trapped since Navin isn't in the carnival. He tries to reshoot Navin while Navin is on the truck but runs out of bullets.

Answer: ukulele

They sing "You Belong to Me" when outside by the fire at night. Marie plays the trumpet, and Navin tells her he wants to travel through her trumpet to her lips and kiss her, then says he doesn't want to get spit on him.

At the AFI (American Film Institute) in 2009, Martin said that the crunch you hear when Navin stands up in that scene was the sound of him accidentally stepping on the ukelele when he stands up.

Answer: It gets wet.

Navin takes a bath, and Maria slips the letter under the bathroom door. When the dog jumps out of the tub, the letter gets splashed with water causing the ink to run. Steve Martin reading the letter is one of the best scenes.

Answer: thermos

When he leaves Marie, he tells her, "I don't need anything." However, he then grabs an ashtray, a paddle game, a remote control, and other random items. Then he lives on the streets. He sees someone go past with a thermos and trades everything he brought with him and gets the thermos in exchange. Perhaps, it reminds him of Marie because he sang the "Thermos Song" he wrote for her earlier in the movie.