Apt. Worthy of note, however, is that Clerks was shot back whem you had a dollar a second of celluloid ripping through the shutter, audio was on magnetic tape and edits were done with razor blades. It took a lot more effort to make a mediocre film like Clerks than a mediocre film like Primer, which is a FCP extravaganza.
Kevin Smith came up with that whole fuckin' thing at 24. As a paean to being a useless 24-year-old burnout it's a great little piece. The problem is nobody remains a 24-year-old burnout forever. Clerks is a viable first film. Chasing Amy is a reasonably good (if dated and no longer PC) film. The problem with Kevin Smith is he surrounded himself with people who told him he was a genius. M. Night Shamalyan has the same issue - if you think you're brilliant by default you never strive to be better.