Steve Martin’s ‘The Jerk’ (1979) still hilarious

“The new phone books are here! The new phone books are here!”

So says gas station attendant Navin Johnson, on an eternal quest to “be somebody” in Steve Martin’s leading man debut “The Jerk” (1979), still a hilarious and savagely effective skewering of the American Dream, which also stars Bernadette Peters, M. Emmet Walsh and Carl Reiner, who also directs.

Johnson, who introduces his rags-to-riches story with the memorable line, “I was born a poor black child,” was part of wild-and-crazy guy Martin’s successful attempt to transition from stand-up comedy to film.