When Steve Martin decided to quit stand up comedy at the height of his on-stage success to pursue an acting career, some might have thought that idea as wild and crazy as his comedic persona. But he proved us all wrong in his wildly successful film debut, The Jerk. Co-written by Martin, The Jerk pulls from his stand up routine and weaves together a rags-to-riches-to-rags story that remains a cult classic decades later. Dan and Jon celebrate its place in cinematic history and theorize ways to revisit the film in the present day.

Watch on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Next episode: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) • The 3rd season of Ruined Childhoods is a year-long cinematic/alphabetic yo-yo, taking listeners from A-Z and then Z-A.

Contact us, follow us on social media, or buy some merch at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/RuinedChildhoods⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠RuinedChildhoodspod.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Ruined Childhoods is produced & edited by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jon Richardson