If there's something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call? If it involves a class-5 full roaming vapor, you may have to call the Ghostbusters. If it's involving a paranormal phenomenon with UFOs or vampires, you might need to call Fox Mulder and Dana Scully from The X-Files to investigate. However, if it's something so massive that the general public would be thrown into a panic if they found out, you'll need people that can discreetly take care of the situation, as well as mind-wipe people so they forget the event ever happened. Those people will also have to wear stylish suits and Ray-Ban sunglasses. We're talking about the Men in Black!

The MiB agency monitors aliens on Earth and makes sure that the public never finds out about them. The Men in Black (although there are women members as well) maintain the peace, armed with futuristic weapons and Neuralyzers, devices that remove memories so that the MiB activities can remain clandestine. There was a comic book series, three films and an animated series, but do you know everything there is to know about the Men in Black? What was Edgar the Bug's real name? Who does the Neuralyzers not work on? What actor won their role in a poker game? Which alien race was cut from the first film? These answers and more as we examine 20 Weird Secrets About Men in Black (That Only Agents Know).

20 WHAT'S MY NAME?

You may love Vincent D'Onofrio from the Stanley Kubrick film Full Metal Jacket, in which he gained around 70 pounds to play Private Pyle (a record weight gain at that time). You may also be a fan of his when he played the intense Detective Robert Goren from the show Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Our favorite Vincent role to date is Edgar the Bug!

Edgar was a farmer who had the unfortunate chance encounter with a bug from outer space. The bug offed him, then used his flesh as a disguise, giving D'Onofrio the chance to create a very weird and memorable character. In the novelization of the movie, it's revealed that the Bug's real name is Kerb!

19 HIDING IN PLAIN SITE

The good news is that Area 51 is a real place and does exist in Nevada, the bad news is that we may never know what actually goes on there. It tests experimental aircrafts and weapons systems but its actual purpose is unknown. Rumor has it that it has something to do with aliens and unidentified flying objects.

This was one of the reasons why the Men in Black headquarters was originally set in a remote location, such as in a field in Kansas or a Nevada desert. When a place is that far from the general population, who knows what's going on there? However, director Barry Sonnenfeld wanted them hiding in plain site, so he moved MiB headquarters to NYC, specifically 504 Battery Drive, the location of the ventilation tower of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel.

18 THE MEN IN BLACK SYNDROME

Did you catch the Men in Black animated series when it aired from 1997 to 2001? It featured the adventures of Agents J and K, as well as former coroner Dr. Laurel Weaver, now known as Agent L. Tony Shaloub and even Vincent D'Onofrio lended their voices to the series.

Not only was the show cool, but so were the names of the episodes. Ever notice how all of the episodes for Friends all start with words: The One Where? Same thing with Men in Black. All of the animated episodes were titled The ______ Syndrome. For example, in The Head Trip Syndrome, Agent J becomes super smart thanks to a Cerebro-Accelerator.

17 THE OTHER MEN IN BLACK?

the blues brothers with the cast in the background

Men in Black was a great combination of comedy, science fiction and action. When the script first started to do the rounds in Hollywood, who were some of the people originally considered to direct? Steven Spielberg was offered the gig but decided to just be the film's Executive Producer.

Interestingly enough, John Landis was offered the director's chair. He had already directed a movie starring two men in dark suits: the 1980 film The Blues Brothers. Landis thought that if he directed the movie, the film would have become The Blues Brothers with aliens. Hey, that's a movie we'd want to see!

16 FRANK THE PUG

Frank the Pug, whose real name was Mushu, must have been really liked by someone working on the film. In an age where shows get rebooted and actors get recast, director Barry Sonnenfeld made sure that Mushu was available to reprise his role as the Remoolian alien that happens to look like a dog in the MiB sequel.

Five years had passed between Men in Black and MiB II and they actually used makeup to cover some of the gray hairs that Mushu was sporting. Mushu passed away before the third film was made, and instead of recasting him they have him do a cameo on a billboard in Coney Island. Rest in peace, little fella!

15 NOT JUST ALIENS...

Did you know that Men in Black was based on a comic book entitled The Men in Black? It was originally published by Malibu (which was purchased by Marvel Comics in 1994) and first went to print in 1990. Just how different was the comic from the movie?

In the comics, the Men in Black did investigate alien activity on Earth, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. Similar to The X-Files (which came out three years later) the MiB also investigated cases involving the supernatural as well. They explored cases involving aliens as well as demons, werewolves, zombies and more!

14 SCRIPT? WHAT SCRIPT?

There was a 10-year gap between Men in Black II (2002) and Men in Black 3 (2012). The first two movies combined made over $1 billion at the box office so it was no surprise that a third movie was made, but it certainly took some time to make! Considering all the time they had, it's even more amazing that they went into production without a full script!

The start date of the shoot was pushed multiple times due to script issues, and due to scheduling, the guys had to start filming using a script that only had the first act written. According to make-up artist Rick Baker, dialogue was literally written moments before actors had to deliver the lines to camera.

13 NEURALYZER? ONLY ON HUMANS

If you see a man in a black suit holding a long, cylindrical device while putting on sunglasses, you better close your eyes quicly because you're about to get neuralyzed. The electro bio-mechanical neural transmitting zero synapse repositioner, or Neuralyzer, is capable of deleting your memories in a flash.

In the movies, the Men in Black used the Neuralyzer many times to prevent people from remembering they saw an extra-terrestrial. In the animated series, there's one key element revealed about the device: it only works on humans. This makes sense: why would you need to remove an alien's memory? It's the humans that the MiB are concerned about!

12 MANY BUGS, ONE VOICE

Rumor has it when they were casting for The Real Ghostbusters cartoon, Ernie Hudson was not cast as Winston Zeddemore because he didn't sound like Winston Zeddemore! For the cartoon series of Men in Black, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones did not reprise their roles for Agents J and K but some stars from the movies did make some voice appearances.

The alien Jack Jeebs was actually voiced by Tony Shalhoub for a few episodes, but was later replaced by Billy West (voice of Philip J. Fry from Futurama). Edgar the Bug may have died in the first Men in Black, but that didn't stop Vincent D'Onofrio from coming back and voicing Edwin, his twin brother. In fact, he provided all of the bug voices in the series!

11 PRANK CALL?

Will Smith has made some amazing career choices. Independence Day, Men in Black and I Am Legend all came out on various years but all in the month of July, making Will Smith the box office King of 4th of July. He's had rare missteps like Wild Wild West (he made that film after turning down The Matrix), but otherwise Smith puts up solid numbers at the box office.

Smith is a big Hollywood name, but that doesn't stop him from sometimes second-guessing himself. Steven Spielberg turned down a chance at directing Men in Black but stayed on as Executive Producer. When Spielberg called Smith to get him to star in MiB, Smith thought he was being prank called! He didn't think he'd ever get a call from Spielberg himself!

10 BUDDIE$

Why do you go to the movies? Is it for the special effects? The twists and turns of the plot? How about the characters? On-screen chemistry is vital to having audiences suspend their disbelief and become entranced by the relationships on screen. This is important for a romance, but especially important for a buddy comedy.

Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker were hilarious on screen together in the 1998 film Rush Hour. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence mixed action and comedy together with the 1995 film Bad Boys. However, it's the pairing of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black that made for the highest grossing buddy comedy of all time!

9 THE ULTIMATE LEADER

In Men in Black the animated series, we meet Agent A, one of the people that helped found the Men in Black. He became the group's first chief and even recruited Agent K, eventually also serving as his mentor. Unfortunately, the power went to his head and he became an adversary to the MiB.

Agent A eventually went by the name Alpha and used a Cosmic Integrator to fuse alien body parts to his own body. After two decades of looking for ways to genetically modify his body, he returned to fight the Men in Black as a grotesque hybrid of creatures he found over the years.

8 BEFORE HE WAS HEAD OF MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE...

Alec Baldwin first made his appearance in the Mission: Impossible franchise with Rogue Nation. Although he initially wanted to shut down the Impossible Missions Force, he eventually changed his views and became the Secretary of the IMF. At one point, he was also scheduled to be the head of the MiB!

Initially, Alec Baldwin was scheduled to be in Men in Black 3 and play Chief X, the head of the MiB in the 1960s. The film had delays in its shooting schedule due to the profound rewrites happening to the script and unfortunately Baldwin had to drop out. His part was played by David Rasche, famous for starring in the television series Sledge Hammer!

7 WIPE YOUR MIND... OR DIE!

The Men in Black comic was very different from the movie trilogy as well as the animated series. The comic was created by Lowell Cunningham for Malibu Comics. Just like the movies, the Men in Black investigate alien (as well as paranormal) activities on Earth. To hide their actions from the general public, MiB agents also mind-wiped citizens using a device called a neuralyzer.

The biggest difference is that the agency in the comics is far from benevolent. Although they had the ability to delete memories from people, that didn't stop them from straight up committing murders! Not only that, the Men in Black organization conspired to change the world to support their sinister agenda.

6 CHUBBCHUBBS!

In Men in Black II, we see a lot of frightening alien races. In the MiB headquarters, we see a member of the robotic squid race as well as a spider bunny-type creature. There was the tiny One Eye Guy as well as the massive Tricrainasloph, but the most helpful alien was the Chubchubbs!

The Chubbchubbs was a short film that aired before Men in Black IIMiB II was supposed to have a scene involving UFOs being released from the World Trade Center, but the scene was cut after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. With the scene cut, the film ran under 90 minutes, and The Chubchubbs was added due to MiB II's incredibly short runtime. The Chubbchubbs was about an a janitor at an alien nightclub trying to be a singer.

5 EXPENSIVE BUGS

If you ever hear about a film needing to do a reshoot, don't panic, it's more common than you think. While the film is being edited, rough cuts are viewed and the director or producer may opt to reshoot moments to either provide more clarity or to even give characters more screen time. For Men in Black, it was about the movie's climax.

The end of the film depicted the climactic fight scene between Will Smith and the Bug. Originally the bug was going to be an animatronic creature and it took eight months to create. The animatronic bug was not well-received and it was scrapped in favor of a CGI creation. Although the Bug effects alone cost an additional $4.5 million, the expense was worth every penny.

4 THIS BETTER GET BETTER

Scripts go through tons of revisions during pre-production and even during the filmmaking process. After a script is "locked," any additional changes to it come in the form of color-coded pages. If you see a script that looks like it's got all the colors in the rainbow, that means lots of people had lots of notes!

When approached by Steven Spielberg to play the role of Agent K, Tommy Lee Jones was apprehensive. He was eager to work with Spielberg and Barry Sonnenfeld, but didn't like the first draft of the script. Jones said he would take the role if Spielberg promised the future drafts of the script would improve on the writing and bring the tone closer to the comic. One out of two ain't bad!

3 SING ALONG

Will Smith Suicide Squad

Will Smith not only starred in Men in Black, he made music videos for the first two films. The Men in Black song featured on the film's soundtrack was a hit, but no one could predict the success of what was, at the time, the most expensive music video ever made.

Remember, if you want something good and fast, it's not going to be cheap. The music video cost $1 million to make and was shot in about four days (with three weeks of pre-production to create the alien named Mikey that danced next to Smith using fairly new motion capture technology). The video would win Smith a Grammy and eventually became triple platinum.

2 LINDA FIORENTINO WON HER ROLE IN A POKER GAME

Edward Furlong was cast as John, Sarah Connor's son, by James Cameron and Linda Hamilton when they spotted Furlong at a playground. It was a case of right place and right time. It was that kind of luck that helped Linda Fiorentino land a role in Men in Black!

Fiorentino and director Barry Sonnenfeld met at a poker tournament, and as the verified story goes, she won the game and was then cast as Doctor Laurel Weaver in MiB. It's unclear if she literally won the part by winning the match and neither the director or actress will clarify. Was that part of the grand prize? A role in the film?

1 ALIEN RACE ON THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR

It's often said a film is made three times: first you write it, then you film it, then you edit it. Sometimes plot elements can land on the cutting room floor because of time constraints or ideas that worked in the script didn't work in the cut. With Men In Black, a big part was removed from the original film.

In the movie, the Arquillians were demanding the MiB deliver the galaxy or the Earth would be destroyed. However, earlier versions of the film involved another race, the Baltians, at war with the Arquillians. Original drafts also had Vincent D'Onofrio's character of Edgar being a Baltian, but these elements were removed from the film to streamline the plot.