Let’s make a mainstream comedy with a pair of intensely unlikable characters with a pathological fixation on power; a failed footballer who tackles children (Jake Johnson) and a games designer who’s upset that he doesn’t run the place (Damon Wayans Jr).

Let’s allow them to indulge their power trip by impersonating police officers, because that is the title of the film I guess?

Let’s squander the abundant comic chemistry between those two leads by saddling them with a series of sexist and racist jokes (Chang is a funny Chinese surname, haha, ching chong! Keegan-Michael Key is a Spanish caricature who “looks just like” Wayans Jr!). There are maybe two laughs to be found.

Let’s not forget about the ubiquitous gay panic jokes, while we’re at it, the kind of jokes that are almost too lazy to be offensive. Jokes like a pinboard with a bad guy labelled “Gay Dude” and that’s the entire ‘joke.’

Let’s make an unconvincing attempt to redeem our characters by introducing some bad guys: east-European mobsters straight out of John Wick, complete with a crazy kingpin who looks kinda like Ethan Hawke with neck tattoos after a meth binge (Methan Hawke?).

Let’s Be Cops? Let’s not.