Jay and Silent Bob: An Oral History with Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes | Rotten Tomatoes

It all began at a New Jersey rec center for Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith, the two men behind Jay and Silent Bob – the foul-mouthed (and also totally silent) Greek Chorus of the View Askewniverse who would eventually move their way to its center. A teenage Smith saw something in the younger Mewes that he loved and thought might connect with moviegoers beyond the Garden State; Mewes found in Smith someone who opened him up good films, great comics, and new dreams. The 1994 film ‘Clerks’ was something of a test for the characters they would inhabit, Jay and Silent Bob – would audiences embrace these weed-dealing oddballs? – and when they passed with flying colors, the duo would become a favorite of movie fans through the 1990s and 2000s, featuring in Smith’s films, headlining their own, and littering Hollywood with cameos . As Mewes and Smith prep for the release of ‘Jay and Silent Bob Reboot,’ which finds them and their characters at a new stage in their lives, we sat down with Mewes and Smith to get deep on Jay and Silent Bob, from life outside the Kwik Stop to the temptations of Hollywood and where the hell “snoochies boochies” came from.