The Rush Hour franchise has delivered one of the most beloved buddy cop comedy teams, but a new content warning has raised controversy over its humor. Released in 1998, Rush Hour made an iconic duo out of Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. Chan’s Hong Kong cop, Inspector Lee, and Tucker’s LAPD cop, Detective Carter, become reluctant partners.

The movie perfectly blended Chan’s hugely entertaining physicality with Tucker’s hilarious one-liners, making for one of Chan’s most successful American movies to date. The popularity of the movie led to the Rush Hour franchise growing, with three movies. While it has been nearly 20 years since the third movie, there is always talk of Rush Hour 4.

As impressive as Chan’s skills are as an action hero, the humor played just as big of a role in making these movies work. Of course, not all humor ages well and the Rush Hour franchise has suddenly been thrown back into the pop culture spotlight following a recent airing.

Rush Hour 2 Now Has A Content Warning On Broadcast TV

The USA Network Included The Warning For Potentially Offensive Material

During a recent airing of Rush Hour 2 on USA, X user @VHSDVDBLURAY4K took a screensH๏τ of a content warning that preceded the movie. The warning read:

We all love our 90’s buddy comedies… but this movie was created in a different time. FYI: Certain depictions, language and humor may seem outdated and at times offensive.

The image of the warning quickly caught on in the social media world, with many fans debating whether such a warning is necessary for a comedy like Rush Hour. User @VHSDVDBLURAY4K shared the image with the comment “They put a warning in front of ‘Rush Hour’ because of Gen Z.” Similar comments have followed, blaming other generations or political spheres for causing sensitivity to such things.

The reality is that, regardless of a content warning or not, there are likely people who would be offended by certain things in Rush Hour 2, even if others can watch it without feeling that way. The nature of comedy is that not everyone will find it funny.

The question becomes whether it is necessary to warn people that they might be offended. Such conversations can quickly become about other beliefs or divisive issues, but it is hard to argue that seeing a content warning before a movie robs the experience of anything.

It comes down to a choice by the platform providing the movie to audiences. Disney+ has included similar warnings for controversial Disney movies that now seem outdated. It is a small inclusion that acknowledges the content may be outdated, but will allow people to view it as it was originally presented, without censorship.

Certain Rush Hour 2 Depictions, Language, & Humor Are “Outdated” & “Offensive”

The Comedy Pushes Boundaries At Times

As much as some people might be annoyed with the inclusion of a content warning before Rush Hour 2, the actual warning doesn’t say anything that is untrue. Anyone who has watched the movie will likely be able to point to at least one moment in Rush Hour 2 that could be deemed offensive.

A lot of these instances come from Chris Tucker’s Rush Hour character of James Carter. He is depicted as a loudmouth and obnoxious character who is visiting Hong Kong in the sequel. This leads to him making countless jokes about Chinese stereotypes, many of which would have seemed outdated even in 2001 when the movie was released.

Carter is not presented as a bigot, but rather as an ignorant man who talks too much. The fact that he is often made the ʙuтт of the joke in the movie helps soften some of these offensive gags. However, some of this humor might not sit well with all viewers.

Rush Hour 2 was clearly made as a light and entertaining action comedy. The filmmakers want the audience to have a good time from beginning to end, but there are people who will surely have a hard time enjoying it with such jokes, which makes the content warning an understandable inclusion in the broadcast.