Seth Rogen Secretly Helped Rewrite Bad Boys II

The third installment in the Bad Boys film series, Bad Boys for Life, arrives in theaters this weekend, 17 years after the release of Bad Boys II. Since the franchise has been on the shelf for a little while (and the first two movies are currently streaming on Netflix), quite a few movie fans are going back and watching through the films again to prepare for the new one. This has led to a surge in Bad Boys-related opinions on Twitter as of late. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though, as one of those takes helped a well-hidden Bad Boys secret finally make it’s way to the public eye. Seth Rogen helped rewrite Bad Boys II.

Entertainment writer Eric Vespe took to Twitter on Tuesday simply to say that he liked Bad Boys II better than the first Bad Boys. That’s it. What Vespe probably didn’t expect was a response to the tweet from Seth Rogen 13 hours later saying, “I helped rewrite bad boys 2.”

This certainly came as a surprise to everyone, especially comedian Paul Scheer, who responded like any normal person in that scenario. “What?! I want to know EVERYTHING,” he replied.

Rogen then explained that he and longtime writing partner/best pal Evan Goldberg were still coming up when Judd Apatow (who helped them get their start) was hired to rewrite the Bad Boys sequel. Since Rogen and Goldberg needed income, Apatow then paid them to help with the rewrites.

“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…”

So some of the most well-known and popular comedic voices in Hollywood today actually punched up the humor in Bad Boys II, which makes more sense the longer you think about it. Seriously, a lot of the humor in Bad Boys II feels like it came straight from one of Rogen and Goldberg’s R-rated stoner comedies, and the movie is better for it.

Bad Boys for Life arrives in theaters on January 17th.