Perhaps not all of them are apparent, unless watched in sequence.
So heres a lexicon of running jokes to look out for in Kevin Smiths films.
One way or another, they find their way into all of these movies, often in pivotal roles.
But they also directly help to save the day inMallrats, DogmaandClerks II.
It sees Jay and Silent Bob travelling to Hollywood to prevent a big-budget Hollywood version of Bluntman and Chronic.
Although they take centre-stage, its also a look-in on most of the established characters in the Askewniverse.
This caused Julie to have a fatal brain embolism during her 700th lap of the YMCA swimming pool.
InClerks, theres much discussion of her funeral, which Dante and Randall shut the Quick-Stop to attend.
The two look nothing alike, and yet were meant to assume theyre the same character.
Meh, works for me.
Flanagan has been immortalised in Smiths dialogue as Walter, a shared cousin of Randall fromClerksand Brodie fromMallrats.
Its easier to spot cousins of Dante Hicks, because theyre all played by Brian OHalloran.
In each of the other films, OHalloran appears as another Hicks cousin.
And inDogma, hes Grant Hicks, an unfortunate newsman who dies painfully when angels attack.
Instead, Banky and Alyssa regale each other with tales of injuries theyve sustained during oral sex with women.
The restaurants mascot is literally a golden calf, so its a little on-the-nose in that way.
In bothDogmaandClerks II,Moobys symbolises the utter lack of identity in modern corporate culture.
And Dante and Randall are reduced to burger-flippers, mocked by people they knew in high-school.
Somehow, Moobys represents a fate worse than being clerks.
So theres a rundown of whats going on at the heart of the periphery in Kevin Smiths movies.
