Character History
Silent Bob first appeared in the Kevin Smith movie Clerks. The character is also played by Kevin Smith himself. Silent Bob along with his partner in crime Jay have appeared in several mediums including almost all of Kevin Smith’s movies, including Clerks, MallRats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob’s own feature film Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back.
He has also appeared in six cartoon made for television and in several Comics. He has also appeared as his alter ego Bluntman in the films and comics. This universe is known as the “Jersey Chronicles”. It because Silent Bob first appeared in the movies before comic books that the lay out of his page is different than others. On this page the Movies are listed first the cartoons next with the comics at the bottom.
Films
Clerks
As stated above Silent Bob first appeared in the movie Clerks and was played by Kevin Smith the writer of the film. He appears along side his very talkative best friend Jay. Jay is a loud moth crude and obnoxious person while Silent Bob as the name would suggest rarely says anything at all. Not only that when Silent Bob does say something it is usually profound and becomes a realizing statement to other characters in the story. In this film Jay and Silent Bob spend the whole movie selling drugs, making jokes and just plain hanging out. At the end of the film Silent Bob gives Dante Hicks some advice that puts everything he has been going through in his life in perspective and becomes one of those classic realizations.
You know, there’s a million fine looking women in the world, dude. But they don’t all bring you lasagna at work. Most of ’em just cheat on you. — Silent Bob
Mallrats
In the film Mallrats Jay and Silent Bob have a more direct role in the plot all the way through the film. They end up helping their two friends get reunited with their ex-girlfriends and end up doing everything in their power to do so. They even draw up elaborate blueprints on how they plan to carry out their plans. Silent Bob tries to use Jedi Powers of the force all the way through and at a critical moment in the film believes he has been successful.
Adventure, excitement… a Jedi craves not these things. — Yoda
Chasing Amy
In the film Chasing Amy Jay and Silent Bob don’t show up until the very end of the film as they sell some drugs to Holden. At the end of this film as well Jay is loud and obnoxious while Silent Bob issues advice to Holden that makes his realize what he had done.
So there’s me an Amy, and we’re all inseparable, right? Just big time in love, and then about four months in, I ask about the ex-boyfriend. Dumb move, I know, but you know how it is. You don’t really want to know, but you just have to… stupid guy bull****. Anyway she starts telling me all about him. How they dated for years, lived together, her mother likes me better. Blah, blah, blah, and I’m okay, but then she tells me that a couple times, he brought other people to bed with them – menage a tois, I believe it’s called. Now this just blows my mind. I mean, I’m not used to that sort of thing, right? I was raised Catholic. So, I get weirded out, and just start blasting her, right? This is the only way I can deal with it, by calling her a slut, and telling her that she was used. I mean, I’m out for blood I want to hurt her because I don’t know how to deal with what I’m feeling, and I’m like “What the **** is wrong with you?” and she’s telling me that it was that time, in that place, and she didn’t do anything wrong, so she’s not gonna apologize. So I tell her it’s over, and I walk. It was a mistake. I wasn’t disgusted with her, I was afraid. At that moment, I felt small. Like I’d lacked experience, like I’d never be on her level or never be enough for her or something. and what I didn’t get was that she didn’t care. She wasn’t looking for that guy anymore. She was looking for me. But by the time I realized this, it was too late, you know. She’d moved on, and all I had to show for it was some foolish pride, which then gave way to regret. She was the girl, I know that now. But I pushed her away. So, I’ve spent every day since then chasing Amy. So to speak. — Silent Bob
Dogma
In Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob are guardians to the last scion as she makes her way to stop two renegade angels who may destroy existence. They are still the same characters who do their best in a situation that is way over everyone’s heads.
Scream 3
Although not an official part of the Jersey Chronicles movies, Jay and Silent Bob make a brief cameo appearance as part of a studio tour.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
As the title may suggest Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is the film where Jay and Silent Bob are finally the stars. In this film, Jay and Silent Bob find out that the characters based on them ( Bluntman and Chronic comic books) are being made into a motion picture that makes them look ridiculous. When they discover that people are making fun of them on the internet they get mad and go to Hollywood to stop the production of the film.
Clerks II
Clerks II is so far the last film that features Silent Bob as a character. In it he and Jay are rejoined with Dante and Randal Graves. They find that although the world has changed and they have grown they are happy at what there were doing all those years earlier.
Cartoons
There were six cartoons made for television with the same name as the first film Clerks. This version of the characters are voiced by the same actors as the films but the characters themselves are much more cartoony and comical than the original versions of the characters. Certain things were also changed about the characters. For example, Jay and Silent Bob sell fireworks instead of drugs.
In the cartoons, Jay and Silent Bob are joined by their cohorts Dante and Randal as the stars of the cartoons. Jay and Silent Bob also have their own segment at the end of every cartoon and a running gag in the segment is that the famous basketball player Charles Barkley is always trying to get in on the segment.
Comics
In comic books, Jay and Silent Bob have done everything from playing their superhero counterparts Bluntman and Chronic to narrating a story to continuing storylines and missing scenes from the films and having brand new adventures.