Seth Rogen Casually Drops That He Helped Write ‘Bad Boys II’

If you believe that the name listed as “writer” on a movie was responsible for all the words in said movie, I’ve got a bridge to sell you. Unless something’s written by someone with both the auteur mindset and the track record of commercial success that earns them actually being left alone, Hollywood scripts are less the product of a direct path from script to screen than one of those exquisite corpses you make in kindergarten where every classmate gets to draw a 2x2 square. 

Many of these punch-up writers go uncredited, leaving them to wallow in the depths of obscurity, holding fast to the knowledge that they had a hand in some genuine Hollywood blockbusters. Sometimes, though, they become famous in their own right, and their past, secret contributions suddenly become fascinating trivia.

In an interview with People, actor/comedian/ceramicist Seth Rogen mentioned that before hitting it big with Superbad, he and writing partner Evan Goldberg were brought on by Judd Apatow to rewrite movies — one of which was apparently the beloved Will Smith/Martin Lawrence buddy cop blockbuster Bad Boys II. The factoid is only a ing mention, which is perhaps a credit to the interviewer’s discipline, because I would have brought that ship broadside immediately. I went to see if this was the worldwide debut of this bit of info, and found it had come up before the release of Bad Boys for Life in 2020, though still not with the full attention it deserved, in my opinion.

Rogen seems as confused as I do that this fact has failed to fully resonate, as both in this interview and in the past, he’s volunteered the information himself. Which is fair, because if I’d written part of Bad Boys II, I’d be slipping it into any conversation in which it could conceivably relate. 

Either way, the first mention of this Rogen-Bad Boys connection seems to be a succinct reply to a tweet by Eric Vespe about the superiority of the second Bad Boys to the first.

Paul Scheer reacted as we all should have, demanding to “know EVERYTHING,” and Rogen shared more information, including specific jokes from the movie he and Goldberg were responsible for. Namely, a gag where a machine gun goes off in a car, and when the bad boys themselves try to sing their own theme song only to realize they don’t know anything but the chorus — a bit iconic enough to earn a callback in the reboot.

So, to Seth Rogen, I want to say: I hear you, and I do think that is a very cool factoid. I’m as confused as you seem to be that no one’s talking about it. Not to mention that, with Bad Boys II included in his filmography, Pineapple Express fits a whole lot better.