i'm eternally a Kevin Smith fan based on this movie alone, ladies and gentlemen.
Full unedited reaction here: https://www.patreon.com/MrValentineReacts
I will, indubitably, be reacting to the sequels lol

"Hey you're not allowed to rent here anymore!"
"YEEEAAAHHHH!"

This IS the origin of Jay and Silent Bob. All part of the View Askewniverse.

It genuinely, truly captured the era for those of us that were there. I swear my friends and I watched this like 20 times the year it came out

13:45 It's kinda beautiful that Randall is such an unrepentant chaos goblin, but the actor who plays him refused to say those lines in front of the little girl, which is why it's shot the way it is.

This movie will always be special to me. This is the movie The Husband rented for us to watch on one of our first dates. I had shared my bootleg VHS of the South Park Xmas special. In return we watched this. He said it was his way of testing my sense of humor. 29 years later and we're still laughing at inappropriate stuff together.

7:30 “Operation: Grotesque is in full effect.”

Oh no… my dude don’t know what he landed on.

Insoucient is the word I learned today. There is always one, at least. TY Mr. Valentine!

25:25 Laughgasm confirmed :)

The cast was people he knew. Several "friends" told him they would show up and play a part, but then wouldn't show up. That is why many actors play multiple roles. I mean, his mom is the crazy milk person. lol

Kevin Smith actually worked there at the time.

Hope I don’t get into trouble for multi-posting, but here goes.  “My cousin Walter broke his neck…” is obviously not a true story but the name Walter is Kev’s best friend, who plays about 4 characters in this, “pack of cigs please”/perfect carton of eggs guy and he also runs Kev’s comic book store. The milk-lady was Kev’s Mom. Snowball the stoner guy is Scott Mosier the film (and all Kev movies) producer, a highly intelligent man - the other half of SModcast. Smith sold his comicbook collection, asked for donations from family, and maxxed out a bunch of credit cards to make the movie for under $30k. He later bought back his comic book collection. He quit filmschool in Canada to start making this, but that’s where he got crew that atill work with him today. He worked at the convenience store. They had to shoot at night which lead to the manufacturing of why the shutters were down during “daytime”.  
A lot of Smith fanboys/Clerks fans will say, “he shot on black and white because it’s cheaper to shoot on b&w”. Technically not fully true. It’s more expensive to buy b&w film stock and processing is more expensive, however, an old film stock exists that was marketed to consumer/film hobbyists that included the price or processing when purchased, which saved a tonne of money.

For 14 years I lived near Kevin and ran into him all over the place. One time we had a brief moment in a grocery store. When I walked away, I remember thinking, “his cart is full of synthetic heart attack causing garbage”…..turns out I was right, but so glad he survived it.

Thanks for this. Please do them all, in release order. This is just a quaint aperitif compared to what follows. Clerks 2 is going to wreck your funnybones. Chasing Amy will get your heart. Dogma will blow your mind. Even his non Askewniverse movie drama Jersey Girl is worth watching although mainstream hates it. Please and thank you.

Kevin Smith has a series in which he has filmed himself speaking to fans at college campuses, the first one is called "an evening with Kevin Smith". Basically it's a tell all on his life and film making. Basically the best DVD bonus features you could think of but would never fit on one DVD. I highly recommend watching it.

NEED to watch the whole ViewAskewniverse now. So good, all intertwined, phenomenal casts.

Knowing what little I do about you from watching the channel I think this is going to be 100% up your alley.

I hope you continue your journey through the View Askewniverse 👍

That was awesome.
You know how long I’ve waited for you to watch this!!?? I’m so happy you chose to discover kevin smith and the viewaskewniverse, and watch it all come back full circle. Youve embarked on a profound and rewarding journey, an experience you will appreciate forever.

I tried to live this in high school after catching it on cable.  I completely missed the fact that these people are supposed to be pathetic: They looked awesome to me.

This remains an absolutely hilarious classic, I will never not love this film! It was indeed Kevin's first film. There is a pretty awesome doc about the making of, with him and Scott Mosier talking about how it came to be, plus some audition footage. That one's called Snowball Effect: The Making of Clerks. There's a few other docs, too, but that one I found very watchable. As you progress through the "View Askewniverse" as it's known, I suggest going in release order. So, next would be Mallrats, then Chasing Amy.

Do them, do them all, V. In a row.