Background[]
View Askew Productions is the independent production company of Kevin Smith.
Logos[]
1st logo (October 15, 1994)[]
On a grayish-white background, we see a crudely drawn clown walking across the screen in a cheap manner. He encounters a small, chubby boy mindlessly playing with a ball throughout the animation, pats him on his head, and then enters a changing booth. After a few seconds in there, as the music builds up, he steps out, clad in only stockings, platform shoes and a black thong, with his back turned. His body, of course, is not a good sight to behold. He turns around (he still has the clown hat and makeup on) and is holding a clapperboard. He is standing next to the boy with his hands covering his private area (perhaps a little too close) with a very smug smile. The changing booth abruptly explodes downward to reveal "View Askew Productions" in the Ad-Lib font, arranged quite weirdly on a filmstrip, like this:
View
Askew
Pro•
duc•
tions
The boy had continued to play with the ball in the exact same way throughout the logo.
2nd logo (March 23, 2004-)[]
On a light gray background, a hole made of filmstrip is shown with the words "VIEW ASKEW PRODUCTIONS" arranged to fit the circle. All of a sudden, a CGI version of Silent Bob appears from the bottom of the circle with an old handheld camera, while Jay jumps out from the left, with a beret on his head and holding a clapperboard with the camera scope hanging from it. Both are in their forms from the short-lived "Clerks" TV series. Silent Bob leans over and looks into the scope on the camera, while Jay prepares to clap the clapperboard and yells "Snooch to the nooch!" Unfortunately, Jay winds up accidentally catching Silent Bob's necklace in the clapperboard, and after he claps the clapboard, he pulls it back, flashing the "devil horns" sign with his hand. Since the necklace is caught on the clapperboard, he accidentally strangles Silent Bob, causing him to fall out of the circle, either dead or unconscious, and hit the floor. Jay looks down, sees what's happened, and steps out of the circle, a camera scope slips out and falls off the clapperboard as he does so. He then starts to walk away, whistling nonchalantly, but then zooms off-screen cartoon-style, leaving the clapperboard, which falls to the ground as we fade out.
Variants[]
On Jersey Girl, the text "TEN YEARS OF MAKE BELIEVE 1994-2004" appears below. In the closing credits the print logo appears, depicting the still sequence shot in changed colors. The letters and background are red there.
3rd logo (October 15, 2019)[]
On a grayish-white background, we see the black-and-white Vulgar the Clown from the first logo, already wearing his obscene outfit (with stockings, thong, platform shoes, and clothespins) and holding a clapperboard, but now designed in a noticeably more cartoonish manner, walking towards a changing booth (again a la the first logo, complete with cheap foot-slippage walk cycle), but just as he approaches it, the changing booth falls over and a color animated Jay comes out, running over Vulgar. Following him is Silent Bob, along with characters from many other View Askew movies (including a couple other incarnations of Jay and Silent Bob, such as in their superhero outfits from Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, and their original black-and-white versions from the first Clerks film.) After the last of the crowd of characters trample Vulgar, he gets up on his knees as we zoom up to a medium shot of him as he gives a stereotypical cartoonish "dazed" expression with his tongue hanging out, to which a white circle with black outlines containing the words "VIEW ASKEW" fades in around Vulgar's head (ala the 2000 View Askew Television logo). Then Vulgar smiles in awe with a wide-eyed look, as the text "25 Years of Cinematic Silliness" fades in below, with "25" in a black bold font and the rest of the text arced in a black cursive script.
Music/Sounds []
1st logo[]
Low-budget music that ranges from a weird happy-go-lucky calliope when the clown is walking to the weird looking boy. Then, a few pizzacato bass violin notes (while the clown's still behind the changing booth) to vaguely sexy Dixieland-style jazz (when we see thong-clad clown), to this rather weird 5-note brass fanfare with a tympani roll and a cymbal clash at the end (which may remind you of the Worldvision fanfare, without the WHOOSH).
Music/Sounds Variant[]
On the original first cut of Clerks, the logo is silent.
2nd logo[]
Music consisting of two stings for when Bob and Jay show up, along with a funky little tune as the rest of the logo goes on. Also, all of the expected sound effects are there. And yes, Jason Mewes does Jay's voice.
3rd logo[]
It starts out with a rearrangement of the weird calliope theme from the first logo, but then it segues into a brassy rock tune when Jay appears to trample Vulgar, and plays throughout the rest of the logo.
Scare Factor[]
1st logo[]
None. It’s a funny logo, unless the clown disturbs you.
2nd logo[]
Low. The subject matter may be bizarre to some, but it is very funny.
3rd logo[]
Low to medium, some may be surprised to see Vulgar the Clown again, but this is still a fun logo.
Trivia[]
The clown in the logo (Vulgar) was used as a trademark for Kevin Smith's business at viewaskew.com for several years. He even had his own movie in 2000.
Videos[]
