Interview: The 21 Jump Street Directors On The Clone High Joke They Snuck Into The Movie

When we left off with the first half of my interview with 21 Jump Street directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, they were explaining how they realized Channing Tatum was funny enough to star in the film, why he wanted to do his own stunts, and how they continually turn iffy ideas into great movies. Now, in the second half of the conversation, they talk about how their collaborative directing style translates to a live-action film, how Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill affected the film as producers, and how they worked improv into the process. At the end of the conversation they also explain one of the film's funniest jokes, in which Tatum's character, hopped up on the drug he's supposed to be eradicating, writes a nonsense chemical formula on the chalkboard, turns around and exclaims "Fuck you, science!" Behind him on the board is a maze of 4's that have a very specific inside joke origin, going all the way back to Lord and Miller's days working on Clone High.

Check out this second half of the interview below, and see 21 Jump Street in theaters this weekend.