Credit: Wikimedia

Redman knows a thing or two about cult comedy movies. Along with his friend and musical collaborator Method Man, he starred in one of his own: How High, the 2001 stoner comedy about two weed-smoking buddies who are accepted into Havard thanks to the supernatural intervention of their dead friend. Highbrow art this movie is not, but it is certainly a cult classic in its own right.

The film’s two stars didn’t exactly have to stretch their acting skills to the limit for the movie—indeed, as Meth admitted on the Kitchen Talk podcast in late 2022, the pair were genuinely high during production, which, eventually, led to some issues with the film’s bosses. “They [were] like, ‘You guys are so spot-on in the morning, but after lunch, you come back… something’s different,” he recalled.

Getting called out like that was something of a wake-up call for Meth and Redman, as the former laid out on the podcast. “The producer, Stacey Sher, I remember she pulled me to the side and she was like, ‘You know after this I’m gonna still be a producer, my face isn’t on the screen, but I’ll get my credit,” Meth said. “That’s your face on the screen. How do you wanna be seen?’”

Meth and Red took the advice on board, and they laid off the smoke for a while, which was probably a solid idea. Their respective performances in the movie, which was initially slated by critics, are now legendary, with the film even spawning a sequel in 2019. How High makes a lot of people laugh to this day, but, as for the comedy movies that Meth and Redman themselves grew up watching, Red offered some insight during a 2002 interview he did with none other than Jennifer Lopez, with whom he more recently performed alongside for a 2022 episode of SNL.

In 2002 J.Lo was promoting her new movie Maid in Manhattan, which had actually gone through a number of significant changes throughout the production process. It was initially called The Chambermaid, and it was meant to star Hilary Swank before Lopez signed on. It had also been expected to be helmed by the legendary comedy filmmaker John Hughes, who, in the end, was replaced by Wayne Wang. The movie that was ultimately released looked very different to how it was originally envisioned.

Redman, while he was chatting to J.Lo all those years, was clearly under the impression that Hughes was still involved in the project, which got him thinking about his favourite of his movies: Sixteen Candles and, most importantly, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, released in 1986.

“Ferris Bueller was the one for me,” Redman insisted to J.Lo, who, because his movies belonged to, in her words, “our era,” also said she was a big Hughes fan. “I watched it 88 times.” That would be quite a lot, but, given Red’s liking for a joint and a comedy movie, one expects it’s probably fairly accurate.