Parents' Guide to The Jerk

Bumbling and naive Navin Johnson (Steve Martin) is raised in rural Mississippi by an African-American family. One day his adoptive parents finally break the news to him that he's actually white. On this same night, he hears elevator music on the radio for the first time, loves it, and decides he must leave home to learn about the world. He first goes to St. Louis -- where the radio station was based -- and finds a job pumping gas after being hired by a kindly boss (Jackie Mason). It is here that he invents a grip on eyeglasses that prevents them from slipping off the nose, and he presents it to a salesman. After he slowly settles into his job, he must leave after a crazed gunman tries to kill him after finding his name at random in the phonebook. He escapes and joins a carnival. At the carnival, he loses his virginity to a foul-mouthed and violent motorcycle stuntwoman but falls in love with a sweet woman named Marie (Bernadette Peters). It's at this time when the salesman returns with the news that Navin's invention is a lucrative success, and Navin is now a millionaire. But as success, wealth, and fame go to his head, things start to fall apart -- personally and financially -- and Navin must learn to realize what is really and truly important in this world.