Vulgar is a 2000 American black comedy crime exploitation film written and directed by Bryan Johnson and produced by Monica Hampton for Kevin Smith's View Askew Productions.
Though not a Kevin Smith film, it stars several actors that were cast in other View Askew Productions, such as Brian O'Halloran as the lead character, Smith himself as a gay TV executive, Ethan Suplee as one of the antagonists, Jason Mewes as a car wash employee and black-arms merchant, Scott Mosier as a daytime talk show host and writer/director/editor Bryan Johnson in a supporting role as the lead's best friend, Syd.
Despite the difficulties of the job, clowning is Will's one escape from the realities of his miserable existence: Will genuinely likes kids, and takes great joy from making them happy on their birthdays.
Struggling to make ends meet, but not wanting to give up his dream job, Will comes up with the idea to be a "bachelor party clown."
When Will arrives for the party — wearing stockings, garters, clown makeup, and a trench-coat — he is attacked and brutally beaten by a middle-aged man, Ed, and his sons Gino and Frankie.
The trio hold Will hostage in the motel room for an indeterminate amount of time, during which they subject him to a series of violent and humiliating sexual assaults.
When he gets to the party, Will discovers a hostage crisis is occurring; the father of one of the children, in the middle of divorce proceedings, has kidnapped his own daughter and is threatening to kill her.
Will becomes known as "the hero clown;" the attention and outpouring of support breaks him out of his depression, and he is eventually given his own syndicated children's television show.
Will finally strikes an agreement with the men wherein he will come to a motel room and "perform" for them, allowing himself to be taken advantage of again, and they will give him all of the copies of the tape; secretly, Will plans to ambush and murder them with the help of Syd.
The director's cut DVD features an extended opening, with Will waking up in his bed late for his gig (it is circled and marked on the calendar).
The director's cut DVD features an extended ending, wherein Will finds a note from Syd along with a portion of the newspaper in his dressing room on the Fanelli's death, Ed's heart failure from panic and overdose of crack cocaine, as well as attributing Ed's sons' (as well as the vagrant lowlife's) deaths to a random incidence of criminal violence and natural circumstance.