According to Dave Chappelle on The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986), a scene was written during filming in which his character was to wear a dress while disguised as a prostitute. Chappelle adamantly refused. The writers complained to the producers who then tried to convince Chappelle to do the scene but he still refused. According to Chappelle, he felt that it was part of a disturbing trend in which African-American men wear dresses in films.
During pre-production, the film was originally supposed to carry a hard R rating, but after deliberations, the studio had to tone down the film's script to PG-13. This meant changing the plot, dialog and characters. John August was hired as a "script doctor" to make these changes.