joe dirt

The film revolves around white trash classic rock fan Joe Dirt (Spade) who is discovered by a disc jockey Zander Kelly (Miller) at the radio-station where he works as a janitor, and is encouraged to recount his life-story. This involves being abandoned by his parents at the Grand Canyon when he was 8, and having searched for them since.

Dirt's stories include being born without the top of his skull, resulting in his mother covering it with a mullet wig which he had kept ever since; befriending a meteor (which turns out to be a piece of jettisoned excrement); working at the carnival; working as an alligator baiter; befriending a strange janitor called Clem (later Gert B. Frobe) on a witness re-location program (Walken); and being held captive by serial killer 'Buffalo Bob' in a scene parodying the one from The Silence of the Lambs.

Dirt also meets Brandy (Daniel) who adores him, but Dirt is oblivious of this, believing she would be better suited to Robby (Kid Rock).

The film is unusual for Spade as he does not play his usual ruthless, sarcastic character. This role is instead given to Miller, while Spade plays the more likable role of Dirt.

The film was produced by Adam Sandler's production company Happy Madison.

Trivia

• Joe Dirt is referenced in the "Weird Al" Yankovic song, Close but No Cigar. In it, the lyricist breaks up with his girlfriend Janet just because she owned a copy of Joe Dirt on DVD.
• Joe found his long-lost parents, either they lived in Simi Valley, California near Los Angeles, or on some versions, Yucca Valley, California in the Mojave Desert, but are in a mobile home.

• Joe Dirt sports many Def Leppard shirts.
• Clem's new name, Gert B. Frobe, is the name of the actor who played Goldfinger in the James Bond film Goldfinger. This may have been a nod to the fact that Christopher Walken, who played Clem, had also been a villain in a Bond film (1985's A View to a Kill).
• According to Chuck Palahniuk's non-fiction book "Stranger Than Fiction," the mullet wig worn by David Spade in the film now belongs to musical artist Marilyn Manson.