The Movie 22 Jump Street

[James Gillock]

Allthis to say that the choices that Schmidt made while performing at the slam poetry open mic would have been predicated on his existing beliefs about slam. His ridiculous free association and word salad approach tell me that Schmidt the character and Hill the writer may believe that:

PopPoetry is a poetry and pop culture Substack written by Caitlin Cowan. You can learn more about it here. Check out the archive to see other TV shows, movies, and films whose intersections with poetry I\u2019ve covered. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, subscribe so you won\u2019t miss a post!

When I was young, I wrote in a secret code language that, while easy enough to crack if one wanted to, couldn\u2019t be read at first glance. I wanted to be able to write in public (read: at school) without having anyone read over my shoulder or see what I was writing. I used this language for notes to friends, but it quickly became the only way that I drafted poems, too: on a sheet of blue-lined looseleaf in an inscrutable language.

Poetry was something secret. A private act brimming with the capital-T Truth of life and my innermost feelings. I was passionate about my work: I cared. And caring, as an adolescent (or at least as an adolescent coming of age in the 1990s), is deeply uncool. All the things that make for great poetry\u2014vulnerability, big feelings, a dash of ego\u2014require that one be seen. And as a weird, insecure, highly verbal Midwestern only child who was mostly certain that she was not human-ing correctly at all times, the last thing I wanted was to be seen.

The boy installed himself at the front of the room and began to read out my entire poem to the class, most of whom had been working independently. I do not know where the teacher was. She does not appear in this memory. But I will never forget how over-the-top the boy\u2019s recitation of my work was.

He was operating, it seems to me now, under the influence of stereotypes about what poetry was and who poets were. He was histrionic, theatrical, loud. What\u2019s more, the poem was about dancing. The boy sensuously acted out all of my most ridiculous turns of phrase, running his hands over his body, doing dance steps, and chewing the scenery. I felt like I\u2019d been liquified. I was, as I say now when I can\u2019t stop laughing, no longer alive.

I wish that my first encounter with poetry off the page had been under my own power\u2014that I\u2019d had the chance to read my work aloud or have it read aloud because I wanted it to happen. But back then I wasn\u2019t ready, and the boy who stole my work and mocked me ensured that I stayed silent for a while longer.

Though I relish giving public readings now, as an adolescent I was not only terrified of the prospect but also certain that poetry\u2019s first home was on the page. It could be contained there, made private and safe. I admired Dickinson\u2019s fascicles and had only just begun to dream about what it meant to write for an audience.

As I grew older, I was erroneously taught that there were two kinds of poetry: a false binary between \u201Cpage\u201D poets and \u201Cstage\u201D poets. The former intended for their work to be read, and the latter intended for their work to be heard. Page poets were literary, academic. Stage poets were Judy Funnie types who were more invested in the performance art aspect of their work.

Mercifully, those distinctions have broken down and those stereotypes are, I hope, dissipating. We\u2019re more attuned to the inherent racism of denigrating an art form that has historically been important to and led by people of color. Slam poetry, spoken word, and poetry readings are all more nuanced, more powerful, and more relevant than the stereotype of the slam poet that my childhood bully acted out.

In their description of the multiracial Dark Noise Collective, The Poetry Foundation calls the page vs. stage distinction \u201Carchaic,\u201D and rightly so. (See more about Dark Noise and some of its members in the Pop Palate Cleanser below.) Today, poets of all kinds write books and give skilled readings of varying intensity. You can do both; you can be both. Slam poetry is not a punchline.

But no one told Jonah Hill about any of this.

In 22 Jump Street, Jonah Hill treats audiences to a slam poetry performance that is definitionally stereotypical. It\u2019s the same kind of histrionic, theatrical, and loud poetry reading that kid did when he stole my poem. The difference is that my traumatic pseudo-slam performance took place around 1998; Hill\u2019s took place in 2014.

My friends, it\u2019s time that we do better.

The premise of the movie has police officers Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Charming Potato\u2026 I mean, Channing Tatum) going undercover as college students to track down a synthetic drug supplier. This assignment involves acting like college students both in and out of the classroom: going on Spring Break, doing science labs, and trying to get girls. In a bid to woo co-ed Maya (Amber Stevens West), Schmidt attends a slam poetry performance with predictably disastrous results.

When the emcee asks if anyone would like to take advantage of the open mic, Maya puts him on the spot because she thinks he\u2019s lying about loving slam (he is). Undeterred, or only slightly deterred, Hill gets up on the mic and puts on the perceived mannerisms of slam poetry and even speaks them aloud. Here\u2019s his poem, as I would transcribe it:

This is\u2026 not good. Schmidt\u2019s whole straw-grasping free association has him emphasizing parts of names in order to draw out homophones (i.e., \u201Csin\u201D in \u201CCynthia\u201D and \u201Churts\u201D in \u201CRoberts\u201D). When he does this, he looks at the audience like, \u201CRight? That\u2019s something, yeah?\u201D He\u2019s completely flying by the seat of his pants, and while seasoned freestylers are quite good at this, Schmidt is not.

Coupled with his delivery, the finished product is ridiculous. Jenko gives him the \u201Ccut\u201D signal and urges him to get off the stage. While this is a comedy and Hill\u2019s performance is kind of funny, behind the laughs about Schmidt\u2019s terrible slam poem lurk two more sinister stereotypes about slam poetry in general.

When we don\u2019t know what we\u2019re doing, we revert to what we do know. For example, we might assume that walking a cat might be like walking a dog, so we put a harness and a leash on Whiskers. We might be shocked when we learn that Whiskers would rather have his lifeless carcass dragged across the lawn than walk like a dog, but we tried.

Why does this matter? Why am I harshing this movie\u2019s enviable mellow? Because when people believe these things, it\u2019s easier for them to jump to darker, more damaging conclusions, like this one: Slam poetry isn\u2019t serious and doesn\u2019t matter. Slam poets are not real artists. The poetry in college textbooks is real, but the stuff that young folks are spitting is just nonsense. That\u2019s dangerous.

At the same time, Schmidt is so laughably bad that his performance highlights how skillful good slam is, in some ways. This is one small silver lining a can find glinting in this portrayal. I can\u2019t tell if the popularity of the slam poem online is a way that folks express their admiration for the movie or if it\u2019s a long-lived way to dunk on slam poets. I mean, you can even buy a print of Schmidt\u2019s \u201Cverses\u201D if you\u2019re so inclined.

Poets working today know how vital the human voice is when it comes to poetry. Long gone are the days when we drew a distinction between the page and the stage. Part of the magic of slam is that it\u2019s liberated from the page. But because it\u2019s not voiced when it\u2019s encountered, page poetry has other tricks up its sleeve: line breaks, for example. As so often is the case, nothing is one or the other. It\u2019s always both. Written poetry is good and serious and spoken poetry is good and serious. Multiplicity and multivocality are the orders of the day.

The slam poet stereotype has its roots in the derision of the Beat generation and Beat stereotypes that are popular in depictions of poets, too. But from where I\u2019m sitting, exciting performances of poetry are not only a part of poetry\u2019s past but also an exciting and critical part of its future.

Since 22 Jump Street features two white boys making fun of slam poetry or doing it very badly, I\u2019ll end with some of my favorite poets who are incredible both on the stage and on the page. Poets like these make us remember that poetry began its life as an oral art form and destroy outdated dichotomies. Their work is immediate, powerful, quick-witted, and sparkling. I\u2019ve had the pleasure of hearing most of these poets in person, and though they\u2019re even better live, these videos should give you a taste of their magic.

Writer and performer Smith has been a finalist for the National Book Award, has been on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and has written several incredible books, the most recent of which is Homie (Graywolf Press, 2020). You can visit Smith\u2019s website and learn more here.

Choi doesn\u2019t describe herself as a performer, but her hypnotic, energetic readings always move me. Choi and Danez Smith are members of the Dark Noise Collective and host a podcast together called VS, where poets \u201Cconfront the ideas that move them.\u201D Choi\u2019s latest collection, Soft Science, was published with Alice James Books in 2019.

A former National Poetry Slam Champion, Elizabeth Acevedo has written several books of poetry and fiction, including The Poet X, which was a New York Times bestseller. You can learn more about Acevedo\u2019s many talents here.

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