Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Keeps A Coughing Gag Alive That Began With 22 Jump Street

The directing, writing, and producing duo of Phil Lord & Chris Miller are behind some of the most imaginative and innovative movies of the 21st century. "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" injected some zany life into a classic children's book. "21 Jump Street" offered a hilariously clever, meta take on the Hollywood trend of old TV shows being turned into big screen movies for modern audiences. "The LEGO Movie" shocked audiences and critics alike by being a genuinely entertaining adventure movie inspired by crass commercialism. And most recently, "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" blew live-action superhero movies out of the water with a stunning animated comic book story packed with mesmerizing artistry and groundbreaking multiverse mayhem. 

Along with all the greatness that Lord & Miller bring to their movies, they're also a couple of rascals. Their films are packed with background gags that you likely won't even notice until you've seen the movie a few times at home, and they often inject a variety of meta commentary and parody elements into these cinematic worlds. But sometimes, they're just goofing around for the hell of it. For example, did you know that Lord & Miller have sneakily placed a random cough into all of their movies since "22 Jump Street" hit theaters in 2014?

Just earlier this year, Chris Miller confirmed the strange Easter egg after a fan inquired about it on Twitter. If you listen carefully in the very beginning of "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," right before and during the Sony and Columbia Pictures studio logos, you can hear several coughs. Funnily enough, the same can be heard in the opening of Lord & Miller's stellar, boundary-pushing, sci-fi animated adventure "The Mitchells vs. The Machines." If you've never noticed this before, you can hear it clearly in the video below:

has anyone ever noticed the coughs that play at the beginning of Into the Spider-Verse and Mitchells vs the Machines?

what's up with that? pic.twitter.com/Yvw2G72cdm

— ✨️Terry Thee Stallion✨️ (@terry12539) April 15, 2023

In a response to the video on Twitter, Miller revealed that it's actually him coughing, and it's been mixed into the rear, right speaker channel. But that's not all. It turns out this joke began all the way back with the theatrical release of "22 Jump Street" in theaters. However, you never heard the cough if you've watched the movie at home. 

As Miller explained, the cough was put into the theatrical version of "22 Jump Street," but when the time came for the movie to hit Blu-ray and DVD, Miller said "studio brass wouldn't let it be in the Blu-Ray version, worried it'd freak out people at home [thinking] there was an intruder." So if you've watched "22 Jump Street" and wondered why you've never heard this random cough, there you go. Ever since then, Lord & Miller have snuck the cough into all of their movies, and that includes "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse." But there's an added bonus for fans paying careful attention. 

When the lights go down and the movie begins, pay very close attention to the right side of the black screen before the studios logos. There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it comic book graphic that ever so briefly animates the cough sound. I just barely caught this and immediately assumed it was a new wrinkle to the cough Easter egg. It looks like the kind of comic book element that represents sounds in the pages of comic books. 

Just to make sure I wasn't crazy, I reached out to Phil Lord, and he confirmed that the little graphic element was indeed the cough that they've been sneaking into movies for nearly a decade now. With all the incredible work that Lord & Miller have done in film, I'm always happy to see them simply having a good time with little bits like this.

"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is playing in theaters everywhere now.