Bad Boys II is one of the rare sequels that is on par (or better) than its predecessor. When debating the two, a lot of people point to the humor in the 2003 sequel that wasn't present in the first film. Fans can now thank one comedic legend for some for these jokes.
On Tuesday, Seth Rogen revealed that he helped punch up the Bad Boys II script when he merely a budding writer.
Of course, this left people clamoring for more information. Finally, fellow comedian Paul Scheer got Rogen to explain how Judd Apatow tapped Rogen and writing partner Evan Goldberg to work on the script. Rogen and Goldberg's contributions resulted in the exchange where Martin Lawrence and Will Smith's characters start to sing Inner Circle's song "Bad Boys" but don't know words, plus various other jokes associated with the franchise.
For their work, the young writers received some money but no official credit.
"Judd was rewriting it and me and Evan were broke so he gave us a bit of money to help," Rogen said. "I don’t remember much but we all definitely wrote the joke where they don’t know the words to the song, and where Martin shoots the machine gun in the car by accident. And probably many more..."
The lack of comedy in 1995's Bad Boys was done on purpose by director Michael Bay. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence were known for their comedic roles coming into the movie. But according to Smith, Bay limited him from having funny lines so the film would have balance.
"In the first Bad Boys...Michael Bay had a different vision," Smith said during a recent appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. "He was like, 'No, no, no. You're funny on TV but Martin's going to be funny in the movie.' ... It was really hard those first couple of weeks because Martin is killing, Martin is killing and Mike's like, 'Will stop making faces, dude. Just stand there and be hard.'"
These different approaches and the overall storyline allowed both of the Bad Boys films to stand alone as memorable flicks. Bad Boys for Life is set to release on Friday and seems to continue the franchise's trajectory. Critics are raving at the humor Martin Lawrence brings to the film while applauding the writers for giving the actors a sensible storyline.
