Former gift shop worker and stand-up comedian Steve Martin graduates to the big screen. Gone are his plans to teach philosophy. This guy’s been pegged by director Carl Reiner as “the rock star comedian”.

Despite being universally panned on release, The New York Times recently called The Jerk “a sophisticated comedy”.

“I put my comedy act into a movie,” Steve says in retrospect. “When I look at it now, I think I yelled through the entire movie. But I like it.”

How Obnoxious? More of a calamitous idiot than wilfully mean-spirited.