Jason Mewes Reveals Why Kevin Smith Is Silent Bob

This month will finally see the release of Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, the long-awaited follow-up to Kevin Smith's 2001 comedy, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. This marks Smith's first "View Askewniverse" movie since Clerks II was released in 2006, and it will see the return of many fan-favorite characters. This, of course, includes Jay and Silent Bob, who are played by Smith and Jason Mewes. The two actors recently paid a visit to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where the comedian pointed out the absurdity of Smith playing a silent character. The host joked that the last time Smith was on, Colbert was only able to ask him one question, which he never actually answered after speaking for 12 minutes.

"Why is he Silent Bob and you're Jay," Colbert asked Mewes.

"That's why he never brings me on the shows, because he does all the talking usually, but it's because he wanted to be in the movie [Clerks] but not have to memorize dialogue," Mewes explained. "He's like, 'I could be on camera, but I don't have to memorize all that dialogue.' And I needed someone to bounce all my weird jokes on and fun obnoxious stuff."

Smith replied, "I feel like after all these years of playing Silent Bob, like, you see me in real life and my natural condition is… you know, I'm an oralist, I make my living with my mouth, quite like you."

From there, there was a long and hilarious pause due to the accidental sexual implications of Smith's comment.

Recently, Mewes and Smith spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about their new line of marijuana, and Smith explained why he thinks Jay and Silent Bob have remained such important culture figures ever since Clerks came out in 1994.

"I think it has everything to do with Jason Mewes. He's one of the most original people I've ever met and people respond to him in this weird way," Smith said. "There's a familiarity to him and a comfort factor to him and there's something to be said for being around for a quarter-century. People are like 'oh, you're still here?' But if you last long enough people are like 'hey, good to see you again.'"

Jay & Silent Bob Reboot hits theaters on October 15th and October 17th.