Kevin Smith Breaks Down Jay and Silent Bob Fan Theories from Reddit

Hey, man, I'm Kevin Smith, and I'm here to look

at some fan theories.

[upbeat music]

From Spookie fella: Why exactly is Silent Bob mostly silent

throughout his appearances

in the View Askewniverse franchise?

My theory is that since we see the back story of the hetero

life mates as babies in front of the Quick Stop,

and we see Jay spit out his first [beep],

that he's been non-stop profanity and hilarious quips.

Since Jay was the first to speak and has never

stopped speaking, Bob adapted to this dynamic and proceeded

to live mostly in silence, breaking it only when he

had something important to say.

We had a deal with you on the comics, remember,

for likeness rights?

I like Spooky fella's theory.

And it's actually supported by real life.

I wrote Jason Muse into Clerks, 'cause I thought he was

one of the most interesting people I ever met.

Snoochy, boochy, noochies.

For most of my life, before I knew I wanted to be

a filmmaker, he'd say funny shit and I'd always be like,

somebody should put you in a movie one day, man.

I wanna see if like anybody outside of like New Jersey

thinks you're fun, I think you're funny, but like,

would anyone else think you're funny if they don't know

what we're talkin' about and stuff like that?

And then years later, I discovered that I wanted to make

a movie, and I was like, I'm puttin' this kid

in the movies, man.

Like I'm puttin' him in my movie, 'cause I wanna see if

anyone else thinks he's funny.

So I wanted to have him and he's a force of nature,

non-stop monologue as to what-not.

But I didn't want somebody to have a conversation with him,

so I was like, he needs somebody just to stand

next to him, man, like his muscle.

If he's dealin' weed, he's got a guy standin' next to him

lookin' out for his back and stuff, and since this cat's

always talkin', this cat won't have to say anything.

We'll call him Silent Bob and stuff.

And I was not gonna play the role.

I was gonna play the role of Randal, which is why Randal

has all the best jokes in Clerks, but the closer we got

to production, I was like, I'm not an actor.

I can't [beep] memorize it.

Who wrote all this [beep]?

So I backed out, picked Jeff Anderson,

said, you play Randal instead.

Then I was like, if this is the only movie I'm gonna make,

I at least wanna be in it, so that when I look back

at this years from now, I could be like, yep,

that's what I looked like when I made the worst mistake

of my life.

So I put myself in the movie.

I said, who could I be?

I don't have to memorize dialogue.

Oh, Silent Bob.

I was gonna give it to a friend of mine, Mike Bellacose,

and I called him up.

I was like, Mike, you ain't Silent Bob anymore.

I gave him another role.

My girlfriend sucked 37 dicks.

In a row?

So I took his role at the last minute, and then I stood

there and said nothing.

And it was helpful, 'cause Jay had never acted before,

so I was like workin' him like a human puppet,

while he was standin' next to me and stuff.

The really weird thing is, as you can see based on the

amount that I talk, nobody ever really thought that

Silent Bob was much of a performance.

They're like, you're not acting.

You're not even talking.

But knowing how much I [beep] talk, seeing how vocal

and verbal I am, the fact that I played a character who

didn't speak for six or seven movies,

give me a [beep] Oscar in retrospect.

That, you know, Meryl Streep, whatever.

It's hard for me not to talk.

Just throwin' it out there.

From Nick Twix 95, In Jay and Silent Bob Reboot,

Justin Long reprises his role of Brandon St. Randy,

from Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

This is true.

This means that the latter movie is now cannon

in Kevin Smith's Askewniverse,

that's all the movies that I made that were inter-connected

in the beginning, such as Clerks and Dogma.

He is absolutely right.

That is me trying to back door, which sounds sexier

than I meant it, Rhett Conn, Zack and Miri,

into the viewer Askewniverse, so I could be like,

all those kids, they knew these kids as well.

Like, so that would mean that Dante and Randal might've

watched a porno that Zack and Miri made

like in the end credits.

Remember they had a business at that point,

where they were just shootin' people havin' sex?

So they could be familiar with their work.

Justin Long playin' the same character, but we never

took the time to say that when we made the movie.

So when we were shootin' the scene, we were never like,

hey, he used to be a gay porn star, but now he's a lawyer.

My name is Brandon St. Randy, and I love Bobby Long.

So instead, we just had a scene where like every gay

reference that he made stuck out like a sore thumb

in a court of law, because we're like, what does this

have to do with the story, 'cause technically I don't own

Zack and Miri.

So I was tryin' to do this on the down low.

I can't just take a character from a movie I don't own

and stick it into a movie that I also don't own.

So we tried to do it without naming him Brandon St. Randy,

but you could hear it in his voice.

To answer your question, it does bring those two universes

together: the Askewniverse and the One Movie Universe

of Zack and Miri, the Pornoverse, if you will.

This one is from Chronic Neo.

He says, Silent Bob is gay.

That's his thesis, right up top.

You have my attention, Chronic Neo.

He's never with a woman.

He acts like he likes women, but we never actually see this.

In fact, in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,

Jay says to him,

Oh dude, you were really gonna suck my dick.

To which Bob replies,

Listen here, Chronic Neo, I'll say this.

Bob is fluid, very curious, very fluid, man.

He doesn't necessarily identify as gay,

but he ain't against it.

And, you know, his mouth is used for more than not talkin'.

That's all I'll say.

And you know what, in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot,

we have a line that flat out tells you exactly.

Spoilers, he is

Gay, straight, it's all the same now.

There are no more lines.

Here's one from Hobomessiah.

What a great name.

Amy is in Yoga Hosers.

In Yoga Hosers, I noticed Colleen M's mother is only

ever referred to as Mrs. McKenzie, and there's no mention

whatsoever of Colleen M's father.

Colleen M was played by Harley, my daughter,

and her mother in the movie was played by Jennifer,

who I am her husband, and we had that kid together,

and so we're her parents.

In Chasing Amy, when Silent Bob is telling his Amy story,

I went through something like what you're talkin' about

a couple of years ago with this chick named Amy.

Jay interjects with,

What, she livin' in Canada or something?

Why don't I remember this?

Wow, this is good.

The theory, Hobomessiah's puttin' out there,

Mrs. McKenzie is actually Ms Amy McKenzie,

and Colleen M is Amy and Silent Bob's bastard child.

I like that very much because me and Colleen M's mother

did [beep] in real life, and that's how she even exists.

So I kinda like that 'cause it puts me, my wife, and kid

together in a family, even in the movies.

But it's not the case.

What a great theory though, Hobomessiah.

But in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, we actually,

we show you who Amy is.

We reveal that after all this time and stuff like that.

So, it's actually in the movie, man.

And, so weird that you mentioned Mrs. McKenzie, 'cause she's

also in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.

She was in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back as one of the

girl gang, Missy, but in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot,

she returns as Mrs. McKenzie, her character from Yoga Hoser.

Go figure.

I'm tryin' to cross over all my worlds, man.

Now I bring my Canadaverse into the Askewniverse,

and the Pornoverse, worlds collide.

From KrodgMunneh.

Azrael won in the end, after all.

This is presumably about my film, Dogma.

And not the cat that belonged to Gargamel

in the Smurfs. [buzz]

My theory is that Azrael set all the events of Dogma

in motion knowing full well that he could not stand up

against God and all of her might with something as big

as ending all of existence.

That was just a red herring.

His true plan was to get the Megatron to call upon Bethany

and gather the prophets into a force strong enough

to take him down.

Silent Bob slaying him with a blessed driver

was Azrael's plan coming to fulfillment.

His existence is ended and he will never return to hell.

That is an awesome [beep] theory, KrodgMunneh.

Like, my God, you've given Dogma a lot of thought.

The only problem is, Dogma's predicated on a Catholic dogma,

so if Azrael, who is clearly a bad dude and did bad things,

were to be killed, he would return to hell.

Here you say, he'll never return to hell.

But that's where he goes.

Azrael don't get to go back to heaven after all that shit.

I'm like, no way.

So he goes back to hell worse as a demon expelled

or murdered even by a prophet, Silent Bob.

Shit, Silent Bob's an instrument of God?

No, but the driver is, because Glick's the kind of asshole

who would bless his own clubs for a better golf game.

I like the theory, but that won't end his existence.

He'll still go to hell in our Catholic dogma.

He didn't know that, but me, as the writer, I knew that.

That count?

From Ih8dbzwithapassion.

The DCEU and the MCU take place in the same universe.

This is this person's theory.

Ben Affleck appears in Batman Beats Superman,

and Dogma, the movie I made, which take place in the

same universe as Mall Rats, which has a Stan Lee cameo.

This is absolutely true.

Stan Lee was in Mall Rats.

You know what else Stan Lee has a cameo in?

That's right, the entire Marvel Universe.

So this person's theory: Ben Affleck appears

in Batman Beats Superman and Dogma, which take place

in the same universe as Mall Rats.

Why does Batman Beats Superman take place in the same

universe as Dogma?

Why does this person know that?

Why do they think that?

Just 'cause Ben, oh, Ben plays two different characters

in those movies. [buzz]

Your theory falls apart in the first sentence.

It sounded so metal, but now when I went back

and looked at it, I'm like, oh.

I could get us into the MC Universe in a much easier way.

But the Ben Affleck, I don't think that's the door

to connect the two.

Look, I'll co-sign it.

DC, EU, and the MCU can exist in the same universe,

but I haven't seen you prove it in your work.

Come back with a new equation.

AshCrossan says, Degrassi is part of the

Marvel Cinematic Universe, and then just leaves it at that.

He's like, [beep] you, Smith, prove it.

Like it's my job and [beep].

It is, I know this for a fact, because Kevin Smith

exists in a Degrassi universe.

He went to the Degrassi Junior High and shot a movie

called Jay and Silent Bob go Canadian.

Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith exist in the Degrassi universe.

Kevin Smith exists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,

'cause Stan Lee was reading a copy of the Mall Rats script

on this train in Captain Marvel.

AshCrossan is absolutely right, man.

Kevin Smith exists in Degrassi universe.

He exists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,

hence Degrassi must exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

So when Thanos snapped that [beep], Spike, gone.

Like just [beep] gone.

Snake, gone.

I'm doin' old school Degrassi.

I should probably do new school.

Manny Santose, gone.

And then there are some kids like, Manny Santos,

that's old Degrassi.

Like, what the [beep], all right.

The NetFlix kids from Degrassi from the seasons

that nobody watched, gone.

Half of 'em just snapped away.

Thank God they all came back though, because we'd never

find out what people are gettin' bracelets for otherwise.

This is from RPDRNick.

We got a running joke in our movies, and it even pops up

in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, where our characters always

confuse Anne Frank with Helen Keller.

You're talking about Helen Keller.

No I'm not, I'm talkin' about Anne Frank.

She was deaf, dumb, and blind.

No she wasn't.

Helen Keller was deaf, dumb, and blind.

Cause when we were in school, there was a kid who always

confused Anne Frank and Helen Keller.

And who the [beep] is Anne Frank?

And then always be like, when Helen Keller fought

the Nazi's, and you're like, well, none of that happened.

Well, like Anne Frank didn't even fight the Nazis,

but like this cat was way confused.

So we throw it in the movies all time.

This cat said, I finally discovered the real reason

Randal confused Anne Frank with Helen Keller in Clerks 2.

It turns out, he's just a big Melissa Gilbert fan.

Apparently, Melissa Gilbert, Half Pint,

from Little House on the Prairie, played both Helen Keller,

I knew that.

She was in a TV remake of The Miracle Worker.

But she also played Anne Frank, man, go figure.

Those are two of the biggest roles that a young actress

could play and [beep].

Mystery solved.

All right, kids, that was fun.

My Lord, what a lot of great fan theories

are out there, man.

Thank you for being a fan.

Thank you for likin' this stuff at all.

Thank you for letting it capture your imagination

and take you into places that I never intended.

Thank you for lettin' me do this, man.