Based on what Jay said in Chasing Amy, how could Mallrats have happened?
Rest assured, Mallrats takes place firmly in the View Askew-niverse continuity (as all Kevin-written movies do). It's all in good fun.

Why no opening cartoon of Vulgar, the View Askew mascot, like there was before Clerks?
Gramercy was against it. However, you will notice that he appears on all the security passes and Fan Boy's "View Askew Vulgarians" Jersey (number 37, btw).

What does Rene throw and break in Brodie's room?
She doesn't break it - she throws his Dr. Octopus toy across the room.

Did Brodie finish his game?
Yes, 'cause he's a self-respecting gamer. But, according to the book he lost.

What does Brodie mumble before he lets T.S? In?
He says, thinking that it's Rene, "you're a fickle broad, man".

Is T.S. bumping his head a reference to star wars?
It's a Star Wars reference, yes (as opposed to Home Improvement). While walking through a door, a storm trooper bumps his head.

What’s on Brodie's shirt?
Supposedly, it's three faces of people who tried for the part and failed, all merged. No names yet.

What does Willam say as he is staring at the picture, and Brodie and T.S. come up?
"Poopie-trim", which is apparently slang for a female's ass. This is repeated in Dogma when Rufus (Chris Rock) wakes up from his nap on the train.

When Brodie and T.S. first meet with Jay and Silent Bob, what were the original lines that were dubbed over?
Jay said that T.S. and Brandi were assassins (referring to the original opening), and Brodie said "ex-girlfriend". It was cut 'cause the original opening went, so that didn't make sense anymore.

Didn’t anyone realize the problem with "k-rel"? (the problem being that radio stations on the east coast must start with a "W")
It was done with full knowledge of the factual error involved. Kevin threw that in 'cause Kim is the Pleasant One, and she's just plain cool. For anyone who hasn’t figured it out yet, these are her initials. They can also be seen in Dogma on the side of a news van.

What song is it that's played during Jay's dance?
All of the instrumental stuff [game show, attacking stage, etc.] were written and sometimes conducted by Ira Newborn (Sadly, it never gets released. Even his early work on all of Hughes films [except The Breakfast Club] is never released).

Does Jay grab for Brodie's and T.S.'s crotches?
Yes.

How does Brodie know that "Sean Hartle's giving everybody the inside scoop" if he's been with T.S. all day?
(from Kevin) "'Cause Brodie's the man."

Is the line "you're nothing but a lot of talk and a badge" a reference to something?
Yes. The Untouchables

What does "Cherchez la femme" mean?
French for 'look for a woman' / 'looking for a woman'. Something like that.

What song is Brodie's "post coital techno boogie"?
Just a kind of ambiguous club-beat riff. The joke goes that Jason Lee once jokingly told Kevin that he was into the big club scene and began doing that little club riff.

What kind of cookie was it that was so "awesome"?
Cream filled cookie sandwiches.

What is on Silent Bob's hat?
That's an IFPWest [Independent Feature Project West] hat. Kevin says you used to (and still might be) able to get them from IFPWest if you call them. But he forgot to give a phone number (but you can try visiting their web site).

Who’s that behind Svenning when Svenning is throwing up?
Matt Gissing. He and Malcolm Ingram are responsible for the View Askew-produced flick Drawing Flies.

Why does Jay tell Brodie that everything is okay with the VCR setup even though Bob dropped the tape?
Jay didn't notice.

If Dante, from Clerks, and Gil have the same last name and look the same, are they twin brothers?
Nope. Just identical cousins. Grant Hicks from Dogma is also a relative, although it hasn’t been established what his exact relationship to the other two is.

What the hell is Hamilton babbling about while he's screwing Tricia?
It's all about the New Kids On The Block. He says, "Who's your favorite New Kid? Call me Donny [as in Wahlberg]! Call me Joey [another member]! Don't make me get loose [one of their songs]! Please don't go girl [another song]" (It was a nod to Ben Affleck being raised in Boston)

Why was Hamilton arrested at the end, if Tricia was consenting and making the book?
She's still only fifteen. In New Jersey the legal age is either 16 or 18.

Is there someone behind Willam while he screams "why God?"
It's just some rope and a sandbag.

What’s the deal with the monkey at the end of the film?
Just Kevin and Scott trying to see how many demands the studio would meet. Apparently quite a lot really.

Is Willam from Clerks and Willam from Mallrats the same person?
Physically, no. Character-wise, yeah... There is a theory, which is kinda lame, but basically, it states that Clerks and Mallrats take place on different planes of reality. The truth of the matter is, Scott was going to play Willam again in 'Rats, but gave it to Ethan.

Why the change in Jay and Silent Bob from Clerks to Mallrats?
The distributor told Kevin that drug dealers aren't popular with audiences, so he toned them down.

Why is T.S.'s hair longer in the opening than the rest of the film?
It's because that scene was filmed a month after the rest, because of poor reaction to the original opening, involving the Governor’s Ball. You can see the cut beginning on the Mallrats DVD, available at the Stash.

Are Lafours and Silent Bob related?
Nope. Just a coincidence that neither talk too much.

Where do I recognize Sven-ole Thorsen (Lafours) from?
He takes small parts in a lot of Arnold movies. He's really a stunt man, first and foremost (check the credits for 'Rats too).

Is Gwen named after Gwen Stacey, from Spider-man?
Nope, after a friend of Kevin's, Guinivere Turner, who wrote the film Go Fish and gave Kevin some help on the Chasing Amy script in regards to the lesbian stuff. (it's not spelled "Guin", as she spells it, for legal reasons)

Is the name "Shannen Hamilton" a reference to shannen Doherty’s marriage to Ashley Hamilton?
No, the name came before she signed on. It might be a ref to a character from Fast Times at Ridgemont High though...

...and Lafours?
"Joe LaFours", Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Complete with straw hat.

Who are Brodie and T.S? named after?
Brodie Bruce: Brodie is from Roy Scheider's character in Jaws, Chief Brody. "Bruce" was the nickname of the shark. T.S. Quint: Mark says "T.S." is from T.S. Eliot. Sean says "T.S." is from T.S. Garp. But "Quint" was from Jaws.

Was the nipple actually edible, or a suction cup of some sort that Miss Ivannah was just re-wetting?
It was edible.

What happened originally after Miss Ivannah put the nipple in her mouth?
She chewed a bit and said "Hmmm. Cherry."

Who got to glue on the third nipple?
"The third nipple honors went to our nipple effects guy."

What did Kevin think of Priscilla Barnes?
Easy going, comfortable [with her body, I assume], and incredibly fit.

Did cousin Walt get the gerbil (and the cats) at the pet store Jay and Bob are around in the beginning? [notice the "gerbils, gerbils, gerbils"]
Most likely.

What song from the soundtrack was made into a music video?
"Build Me Up Buttercup" by the Goops, directed by Kevin. Kevin directed the video after Mallrats finished and it involved a dancing Jay and Silent Bob.

Why would Rene date a guy like Brodie?
He made her laugh. Well, scratch that. At the beginning of the relationship he made her laugh. And that's the secret to almost anyone's heart.

What is a Godzilla bootleg?
Basically, the Godzilla movies are produced in Japan. After they began to be more trouble then they were worth in the U.S., U.S. distributors quit releasing them. But Japan kept making them. So the only way to get them here was to have people in Japan record them off of a laserdisc and sell them - illegally, hence "bootleg". This was included as a Brodie characteristic as a reference to Walt Flanagan, who would go to the Dirt Mall once a month religiously in a quest for more Godzilla bootlegs. (He got into it while Kevin was in Vancouver...)

Was there some ad-libbing in the film?
Not really, as Kevin doesn't like ad libbing. But, a last minute addition was Willam calling Rene "Brenda". The story goes that Kevin told Ethan Suplee that Shannen Doherty didn’t know he was going to say it, and Ethan was worried that she was really mad after the shot the scene.

Who was laughing during the Gramercy title sequence?
The cellist in Ira's orchestra. Basically, Kevin asked for a Pink Panther-esque fall-off with the drum riff, and then keep the drum riff going and here and there toss in a harsh instrument noise. The cellist laughed because Ira was making faces, since he found the whole process incredibly unmusical.

Who got to keep all the comic art from the opening?
Just about all of them, besides "Brodieman", are hanging up at The Secret Stash. The "Brodieman" piece was seen at the Wizard World Con a few years ago selling for $500 at a dealer’s booth.

Why no poster-like cover for the Mallrats video?
That's what Kevin wondered. Ask the ad-wizards at MCA home video.

Was Julie Dwyer going to be mentioned in earlier drafts of Mallrats?
Nope. That was an after the edit type thing.

Where was Mallrats filmed?
Mallrats was filmed in the Eden Prarie Mall in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a mall right down the road from the Mall of America, which meant that it was virtually abandoned. They were allowed to put up some fake store fronts (ex. Rugmunchers) and even used some empty stores as sound stages.

Is it true that Kevin and Jay almost died while filming the hanging scene?
Sort of. Kevin and Jay were put in a harness and lifted about 50 feet above the ground. While they were up there, the harness started to slip. They screamed to get down, but someone had misplaced the key. They had to hang there a few minutes before they could be let down. On the bright side, they did get hazard pay for it.

Why was Svenning arrested?
Because he's responsible for what goes on the air. Even though Brodie did it all, Svenning could have stopped it from making it on the air.

I heard that Jenny McCarthy auditioned for a role in Mallrats. Is that true?
Yes it is. Other famous people who auditioned for the flick include Jennifer Love Hewitt, Steve Zahn, Parker Posey and Seth Green.

When was T.S. going to be dumped?
It was going to be the night before, at the Governor's Ball. The Secret Service opens fire on Brandi and T.S., the governor shreds Svenning's grant check, and Brandi dumped him. They were still supposed to go to Florida the next morning.

What references to the original cut opening are there in the final cut of Mallrats?
The two that got kept in were when Svenning calls Brodie his "neighbor" - because to run interference for T.S., Brodie got the news people's (who were covering the fiasco at the governor's ball) attention by pretending to be a neighbor of the Svennings'. And when Mason says something about "the fiasco at the Governor's Ball". There were lots that were cut, including Jay saying to T.S. something about he and his girlfriend being assassins, to which Brodie says "ex-girlfriend". This got changed to "the mad phat chick killer."

In a Mallrats draft, there was a scene where Brodie, T.S. and Jay discuss college women vs. high school women. What happened to it?
It was cut, duh.

Was there more to the Comic Toast/Steve-Dave scene?
There was; the scene in the film was about half of what was originally filmed. At first, Brodie asked Walt who was in the store, and Walt said "What do you live in a fucking cave? The *Man* is in there!"

When Silent Bob crashes into the wall after flying like Batman, whom is the girl posing on the poster where his head goes through?
None other than Carmen Lee, Jason Lee’s wife and the girl Alyssa makes out with in Chasing Amy.

Where can I see some of these cut scenes?
Some aired with ABC's butchered Mallrats version. The Mallrats DVD had an enormous chunk of cut scenes and alternate takes.

Wasn’t there a "Win a date with Jay contest?
Yes there was.

Did anyone actually win the "Win a date with Jay" contest?
Somebody won, but since she's in California, the date hasn't happened yet.

Why don't T.S. and Brandi have any scenes with Rene?
No real reason... they had a little thing together at the end where T.S. runs up with Brandi and says to Brodie and Rene "Hey - who wants a cookie? My treat!" but it was cut.

Why was Mallrats not released by Miramax?
Kevin took it to Jim Jacks first. In hindsight, he wishes they had used Miramax.

Why did it take so long to get to other countries?
Since it was unpopular in the U.S., Gramercy was reluctant to release it all around. But it should be out on video everywhere by now.

Was the us1 flea market - aka "the dirt mall" - actually demolished?
Yes. There is now a multiplex in its place.

...and some cool things to look for the next time you watch it

The cigarettes that Jay knocks out of Silent Bob's hand disappear when they cut to a wide shot.

The Degrassi High jacket that Rene is wearing that Brodie mentions disappears post-coitally.

Gwen takes a good long look at Silent Bob and *almost* recognizes him, in the candy store.

Running joke that whenever somebody touches Jay or Silent Bob's shoulder, they turn towards him or her with fists ready.

Silent Bob looks sad when Jay calls him a "tubby bitch" in the bookstore.

Jay never has his right sock on after Silent Bob gives it to LaFours.

The book Silent Bob is reading in the bookstore is "Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes", a book about the independent film scene written by John Pierson and includes segments with Kevin Smith.