21 Jump Street Director Reveals Origin of Film's Hilarious Taco Bell Line

The classic sitcom and feature film 21 Jump Street had a premise that many might consider [...]

By Spencer Perry

The classic sitcom and feature film 21 Jump Street had a premise that many might consider ludicrous, featuring adult cops posing as high school students in order to investigate crimes. Though it sounds like a purely fictional idea, it has some basis in truth. Phil Lord, co-director of the two movies starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, revealed that one of the funniest lines of dialogue from the first movie was lifted directly from research they had done into actual undercover cops in high schools. The line in question comes from Dave Frango, whose reaction to learning that his friends are copes was "We partied together, man. You bought us Taco Bell."

Lord tweeted, "This was believe it or not an actual quotation from a kid that was caught up in an undercover high school pot sting in the valley decades ago that we found in our research. 'He bought us Taco Bell.' It was the biggest betrayal a 15 year old could imagine." Believe us, even if you're no longer in high school it's a different level of betrayal.

Following the success of the two Jump Street feature films from Lord and Chris Miller it looked like the series was on its way to becoming a full fledged movie franchise. Though 22 Jump Street concluded an extended credit sequence making fun of this very idea, parodying the idea of Schmidt and Jenko going under cover at other types of schools including medical school, semester at sea, art school, and 19 other ideas for follow-ups.

Though additional sequels and spin-offs have been reported on in the years since, there's been few updates on those projects. A female-led spin-off reportedly remains in development titled "Jump Street: Now For Her Pleasure." Tiffany Haddish (Girls Trip), Zendaya (Spider-Man: Far From Home), and Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians) were attached to the film in a previous report. It's unclear if they'll star in the film when it eventually gets in front of cameras, if it does.

Fans may recall that at one point Sony Pictures was developing a crossover movie between the 21 Jump Street and Men in Black franchises, something that would have targeted its jokes at cinematic universes like the first film did reboots and the sequel did, well, sequels. Jump Street directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller would have produced the proposed project, titled MIB 23, with James Bobin (The Muppets, Dora and the Lost City of Gold) directing. The crossover debuted a logo at CinemaCon 2016 and would have seen the cops, who pose as teenaged high school students in a drug bust, join the alien regulation agency as members of the Men in Black. Plans were scrapped eventually though as one Men in Black producer says the proposed couldn't "quite get 'there'" as the two franchises are "not very compatible."

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