In the “Action Commentary” by Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn, Favreau mentions how they had $250,000 to shoot the flick and instead of trying to make a “real” movie and have it come out looking lame with not enough extras, etc, they decided to shoot it like Clerks with existing locations, friends in the roles, etc. Many times they mention how the “Clerks” method of shooting the flick resulted in happy results in shots, scenes, locations, actors, etc.

(By the way, if you haven’t seen one of Vince and Fav’s “Action Commentaries”, check them out on ‘Made’ or the new ‘Swingers’ DVD. They use a telestrator (the thing that TV football commentators use to write on the screen during replays) to point out funny/interesting things in the scenes. On both DVDs they play tic- tac-toe during slow parts of the commentary as well.)

In an interview with director Doug Liman, he also cites Clerks as an inspiration on the look and feel of Swingers.

In yet another interview, Favreau mentions Clerks again and speaks about how making a Clerks-type movie with $250,000 makes said quarter-mil a lot of money. Trying to make a “real” movie with the same $250,000 makes that quarter-mil not nearly enought money.