Early on in 22 Jump Street, undercover officer Jenko (Channing Tatum) makes a new friend. He’s trying out for the local college football team in an attempt to infiltrate and expose a drug ring responsible for the overdose death of a student — and in the process, he literally butts heads with the team’s captain, Zook (Wyatt Russell). Jenko accidentally drops a Q-tip into Zook’s roast beef sandwich, and the two man-children mutually identify their situation as a “meat cute.”

It’s a very cute moment, but perhaps not quite as cute — and certainly not as fiery — as the meet-cute that brought Jump Street directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller together for the first time. Lord and Miller met each other at Dartmouth College, and their partnership is one that was literally forged in fire.

“I accidentally lit Phil’s girlfriend’s hair on fire when we were freshman,” Miller told Digital Trends. “Somehow, that sealed our friendship.”

Following the trial by fire, Lord and Miller’s friendship evolved in the form of their mutual interest in filmmaking. It was Lord who first suggested to Miller that the two should sign up for an animation class, and their casual interest quickly caught fire.

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