Kevin Smith’s Twitter postings are, shall we say, a mixed bag. You’ll get emotional yet upsetting stories about his love life at times, and at other times, he’ll only share behind-the-scenes information about his ventures or respond to other major pop culture events.
The Clerks manager, on the other hand, will sometimes teach you something new. Or at the very least, you’ll be reminded of something you might have overlooked. On a day when Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez seem to be back together, Smith made sure that everybody knew that the couple’s now decades-old nickname was his idea. Smith said it was his idea to brand the pair “Bennifer” years before gossip writers coined the term in the early 2000s.
On Monday, Smith revealed that he started calling them “Bennifer” while filming Jersey Girl, and that he started doing so while on stage.
Smith wrote, “It’s a name I first gave the kids during “Jersey Girl” pre-production, before the world found out they were dating,” adding that he had used the phrase in a New York Times interview, which helped the term become part of the cultural lexicon. The film was one of a pair made by the two during the early stages of their relationship, and it led to an engagement that was called off. But it’s 2021, and people are nostalgic for pre-9/11 fashion, so the two are reuniting. Once again, the old has become fresh.
It’s certainly not the first time Smith has impacted the pop culture landscape, but it’s one of the more unique contributions he’s made. And it’s one that’s apparently held up far better than, say, Chasing Amy.
