View Askewniverse

The View Askewniverse is a fictional universe created by writer/director Kevin Smith, featured in several films, comics and a television series; it is named for Smith's production company, View Askew Productions. The characters Jay and Silent Bob appear in almost all the View Askewniverse media, and characters from one story often reappear or are made reference to in others. Smith often casts the same actors for multiple characters in the universe, sometimes even in the same film.

Smith's recurring characters, settings, and motifs first appeared in his debut film, Clerks. Since then, the main canon has consisted of six feature films, in addition to several short films, comic books, and a short-lived animated TV series. The View Askewniverse is centered on the towns of Leonardo, Highlands, and Red Bank, all located in Monmouth County, central New Jersey. Chasing Amy also takes place partly in New York, and both Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back involve road trips. It's been argued that Wes Craven's Scream franchise world is also a part of the View Askewniverse since Jay and Silent Bob make a cameo appearance in Scream 3 when they are in Hollywood at the same time the murders are taking place.

In 2009, Smith stated that the "Askewniverse" may be effectively abandoned as he feels the Jay and Silent Bob characters may be played out, and citing his desire to move forward in his career.

Media

The following is a complete list of media in which the View Askewniverse has been portrayed.

Feature films

• Clerks (1994) – The first in the series of the View Askewniverse, follows a day in the lives of two clerks, Dante Hicks and Randal Graves.
• Mallrats (1995) – Takes place one day before the events in Clerks. The film is about two young men, Brodie Bruce and T.S. Quint, who hang out at a mall after being dumped by their girlfriends.
• Chasing Amy (1997) – A heterosexual man, Holden McNeil, falls in love with a lesbian, Alyssa Jones, causing conflict with his homophobic best friend, Banky Edwards.
• Dogma (1999) – The world ends if two angels enter a church in New Jersey and it is up to Jesus' last scion, Jay and Silent Bob, and the thirteenth Apostle to stop them.
• Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) – Jay and Silent Bob try to stop a "Bluntman and Chronic" movie from being made.
• Clerks II (2006) – Roughly ten years after Clerks, Dante and Randal are now employed in the fast food industry.

Short films

• The Flying Car – a short film produced for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
• Clerks: The Lost Scene – an animated short produced for the Clerks. X 10th anniversary DVD, based on a scene previously offscreen in the original film and only seen in the comics.

Television

• Clerks: The Animated Series – six episodes featuring characters from the movie Clerks. that originally aired on ABC in 2000 (only for two episodes) and were later released on DVD in 2001.

Comics

• Clerks. (comic) – a three-part comic book series published in the late 1990s, continuing the adventures of the film's main characters.
• Chasing Dogma – a four-part series about Jay and Silent Bob's adventures between the events of Chasing Amy and Dogma. Many elements of the comic would end up in the film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
• Bluntman and Chronic – the comic "created" by Holden McNeil and Banky Edwards in Chasing Amy, published to coincide with the release of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
• "Jay and Silent Bob in Walt Flanagan's Dog" – a story in Oni Double Feature #1.
• "Bluntman and Chronic in The Derris Affair, Part 1," – published in Oni Double Feature #12.
• "On the Perils of Cinema" – a one-page Clerks. comic in the November 1999 issue of Talk magazine.
• Where's the Beef? – 20-page comic bridging the gap between the events depicted in the opening scenes of Clerks II.

Non-canon

Film

• Much of the cast of Mallrats featured in a simultaneous production, Drawing Flies, which features two actors credited as one of their characters in the View Askew films; Kevin Smith credited as Silent Bob & Ethan Suplee credited as Willam Black. Both are referred to as different characters within the film, but "Silent Bob" is credited as himself. Smith also wore the same Bob coat from Mallrats in the film.
• Scream 3 – Although not officially a part of the View Askewniverse, the third film of the Scream trilogy, Jay and Silent Bob make a quick cameo appearance, appearing as tourists visiting Sunrise Studios. In the original Scream, a VHS copy of their first film Clerks can be spotted in Stu Macher's house. Kevin Smith would later go on to include Wes Craven in a cameo as the director of the then fictitious Scream 4 in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back; in addition, a copy of Scream 3 can be seen in the background of a scene taking place within a video store in Smith's Jersey Girl.
• Superman Lives, an unused draft of Kevin Smith's script, featured a character named "Derris." It also mentions a "Governor Caitlin Bree" and her son "Brodie."
• Smith revealed in interviews that a reference in Red State to a pair of disgruntled neighbors caught growing marijuana was a reference to Jay and Silent Bob, though this is never made explicit in the film itself.
• Fanboys, The group of 'Fanboys' encounters Jay and Silent Bob at a gasoline stations restroom.

Television

• Clerks – a live-action pilot for a TV show, based on the film Clerks. (This production did not involve Kevin Smith).
• MTV's Jay and Silent Bob Shorts
• VH1's I Love the 90s (2005) ("Jay and Silent Bob Re-name Your Favorite TV Show" & "Guys We'd Go Gay For")
• VH1's I Love the '90s: Part Deux (2005)
• Degrassi: The Next Generation (fictional filming of "Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh?" over 3 episodes)
  • "The Lexicon of Love: Part 1"
  • "The Lexicon of Love: Part 2"
  • "Goin' Down the Road: Part 1"
  • "Goin' Down the Road: Part 2"
  • "West End Girls"
• Yes, Dear 2004 episode, "The Premiere"
• Video on Trial Episode #1.31 (2006)
• My Name is Earl – Stars Jason Lee and Ethan Suplee have co-starred in numerous films directed by Kevin Smith, including Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Clerks II. In one episode, Earl claims to have robbed a Quick Stop. Another reference in the series is how Randy, on waking up, blurts out "poopie trim" which he similarly blurted as Willam in Mallrats, as did Chris Rock in Dogma.

Comics

• Chasing Amy – In Japan, the screenplay of Chasing Amy was adapted into a novel by Kenichi Eguchi and published by Aoyama Publishing. It is a book that is roughly half-novel, half-manga, with Moyoco Anno providing the art for the comic book pages.
• Jay and Silent Bob made a brief appearance in one panel of Green Arrow (vol. 3) #6, standing outside Jason Blood's Safe House in Star City. This issue was written by Kevin Smith during his 15-issue run on the character.
• Demonic versions of Jay and Silent Bob can be seen in one panel on the second page of Angel: After the Fall issue #5, standing outside of a cafe in the safe haven of Silverlake. Writer Brian Lynch confirmed the reference and attributed their inclusion to artist Franco Urru.
• Two characters who look similar to that of Jay and Silent Bob appear in the manga Aoi House seen in the background of the mall.

Music videos

• "Can't Even Tell" by Soul Asylum
• "Build Me Up Buttercup" by The Goops
• "Because I Got High" by Afroman
• "Kick Some Ass" by Stroke 9

Recurring actors

Smith often casts the same actors for multiple characters in the universe, sometimes even in the same film. This is most notable in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, in which several actors play multiple characters from earlier View Askewniverse films. Some of the more notable include:

Actor/Actress	Clerks	Mallrats	Chasing Amy	Dogma	Clerks: The Animated Series	Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back	Clerks II
Jason Mewes	Jay
Kevin Smith	Silent Bob Writer
	Director				Executive Producer	Director
	Editor unnamed character in the Independent Feature Film Market cut from the Clerks X DVD		Editor			Editor
Scott Mosier	Producer				Executive Producer	Producer
	Editor		Editor			Editor
	Angry hockey-playing customer, Willam Black	Roddy (cameo)	Tracer collector	Bus passenger Second Unit Director		Extras wrangler, William Black Second Unit Director	Concerned Father
Walt Flanagan	Woollen cap smoker, egg man, offended customer, cat-admiring bitter customer	Walt the Fanboy					Woollen cap smoker
Bryan Johnson		Steve-Dave
Brian O'Halloran	Dante Hicks	Gil Hicks	Jim Hicks	Grant Hicks	Dante Hicks
Jeff Anderson	Randal Graves			Gun shop clerk	Randal Graves
Vincent Pereira	Hockey goalie, engagement-savvy customer		Startled pinball player			Quick Stop customer
Ernest O'Donnell	Rick Derris		Bystander			Cop
John Willyung	Dante's killer (alternate ending)		Cohee London			Passerby
David Klein	Hunting-cap smoking boy, low-IQ video store customer, hubcap searching customer, angry mourner	Bald comic fan
	Director of Photography						Director of Photography
Virginia Smith	Animal masturbator customer		Comic-Con woman
Grace Smith	Milk maid						Milk maid
Joey Lauren Adams	Alyssa Jones (Clerks: The Lost Scene)	Gwen Turner	Alyssa Jones			Alyssa Jones
Jason Lee		Brodie Bruce	Banky Edwards	Azrael		Brodie Bruce/Banky Edwards	Lance Dowds
Ben Affleck		Shannon Hamilton	Holden McNeil	Bartleby		Holden McNeil/himself	Gawking guy
Ethan Suplee		Willam Black	Fan	Golgothan (voice)			Teen #2
Shannen Doherty		Rene Mosier				Herself
Renee Humphrey		Tricia Jones				Tricia Jones
Malcolm Ingram		Creepy staring guy				Creepy staring guy	Pissing customer
Dwight Ewell			Hooper X	Kan the gang leader		Hooper X
Matt Damon			Shawn Owen (TV executive #2)	Loki		Himself
Dan Etheridge				Priest	Plug	Deputy
Chris Rock				Rufus		Chaka Luther King
George Carlin				Cardinal Glick		Blowjob-giving hitchhiker
Paul Dini					George Lucas Writer	Bluntman & Chronic Loader/Clapper
Alanis Morissette				God		God
Jennifer Schwalbach Smith						Missy	Emma
Harley Quinn Smith						Baby Silent Bob	Kid in window

External links

• The View Askewniverse - Company’s Homepage
• News Askew
• [1] The View Askewniverse on Google maps
• Radio Interview with Kevin Smith about the Askewniverse from FBi 94.5 Sydney Australia