The Jerk

“Martin's first starring role had him playing an adopted white man in a poor family, oblivious to his unusual heritage, who embarks on a picaresque series of adventures. As Navin Johnson, he travels the road, joins a circus, even becomes a rich inventor of a doomed glasses-handling device...Made at a time when most comedies tried to make their lead seem cool and hip, Martin went the other way, embracing dumb humour and raising it to an art form”