Clerks II picks up with average-guy Dante (Brian O'Halloran), who is now about 10 years into a "temporary job" as a clerk, and his screw-up friend Randal (Jeff Anderson). The Quick Stop/RST Video Store where they work burns down, and the boys make a downwardly mobile career move to a fast-food chain called Mooby's.

At some level, [KEVIN Smith] realizes this, which is why there is a rudimentary plot conflict. Feckless Randal doesn't mind the McJob routine at Mooby's, but the marginally more responsible Dante is being lured away by a fiancée (played by Jennifer Schwalbach, a.k.a. Mrs. Smith) who has lined up a good job and a nice house in Florida. Unfortunately, she likes to pinch Dante's cheeks and says things like, "Ooooh, isn't him cute twying to think for himself?"

Resident wall-proppers Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (played by Smith), who have appeared in every Smith film except Jersey Girl, make a strangely subdued return. Rosario Dawson (Sin City) plays Randal and Dante's boss, a typical Smith dream girl: she's funny, gorgeous, uninhibited and attracted to shlumpy New Jersey guys who look a lot like Kevin Smith.