Jack Black says hold the popcorn: ‘Minecraft' fans get a message about messy ‘chicken jockey' trend
The comedian and 'School of Rock' star surprised moviegoers at a showing of 'Minecraft' over the weekend and encouraged them to be on their best behavior, according to video shared Sunday by the Hollywood Handle. Disguising his voice as that of a theater spokesperson, Black can be heard telling fans 'for today's presentation of 'A Minecraft Movie,' please no throwing popped corn.'
'And also no lapis lazuli. And absolutely no...,' he continues his message before, screaming, 'chicken jockeys!'
In the video, Black introduces himself to the group of young, excited moviegoers. 'I am Steve,' he tells them, referencing his character in Warner Bros.' film adaptation of the popular video game franchise. Black also shows off his prop pickax and runs across the theater hyping up fans before the showing starts.
So what was the deal with his popcorn disclaimer?
The 'Kung Fu Panda' star encouraged audience members to restrain themselves after several videos showed 'Minecraft' viewers at various showings throwing objects, screaming and loudly cheering during a viral scene. In the film, which premiered earlier this month, Black and Jason Momoa's characters find themselves in the middle of a boxing ring. Their foe, in true 'Minecraft' fashion, is a blocky baby zombie riding a cubist chicken: a 'chicken jockey,' as Black's Steve properly notes.
Since its creation more than a decade ago, the 'Minecraft' franchise has spawned countless memes among fans and the rare combination of a chicken and a zombie in the game is among those inside jokes. The movie's nod to that bit of fan lore only took the meme to the next level.
In several viral social media videos, moviegoers break out into chaos during the 'chicken jockey' scene: They flash their phone lights, launch their popcorn and drinks toward the screen and scream throughout the fight sequence. In one video, a masked audience member can be seen holding a live chicken as they sit atop another moviegoer's shoulders.
As a result of the raucous crowds, theater workers — often left to deal with the messy aftermath — are also tasked with encouraging moviegoers to avoid throwing objects at the screen. Police officials have been recruited to escort some audience members out for their behavior. Beyond the chaos of 'chicken jockey,' some 'Minecraft' viewers have also personalized their showings with preshow speeches.
'It's been way too fun,' director Jared Hess told Entertainment Weekly. Hess, who directed Black in 'Nacho Libre' and broke out with 'Napoleon Dynamite,' said he didn't see the harm in the trend and finds it funny 'that cops are getting called for popcorn.'
'I'm just glad people are making memories with their friends and families,' he said.
On its opening weekend, 'A Minecraft Movie' earned a record-breaking $157-million domestic and $144-million overseas. A clear winner amid Hollywood's continued push for video game adaptations, the action-comedy bested 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' for the highest-performing video game film adaptation.
In her review, Times critic Amy Nicholson wrote that 'A Minecraft Movie' was 'essentially a meathead version of 'The Wizard of Oz.' ' The film stars Black, Momoa, Sebastian Hansen, Emma Myers and Danielle Brooks.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Brad Pitt's ‘F1' Races to the Top of U.K., Ireland Box Office
Joseph Kosinski's motorsport epic 'F1,' starring Brad Pitt, sped into pole position at the U.K. and Ireland box office, debuting with £7 million ($9.7 million), according to Comscore. Released by Warner Bros., the high-octane drama launched across more than 300 locations. Sony's dystopian sequel '28 Years Later' held firm in second place in its sophomore frame, earning £$3.2 million for a robust cumulative gross of $13.3 million. Universal's 'How To Train Your Dragon' followed in third with $2.7 million over its third weekend, bringing its total to $21.8 million. More from Variety Apple Finally Has a Box Office Hit With 'F1.' What's Next for the Studio's Movie Strategy? The Secret to Brad Pitt's Youthful Skin? His Skincare Brand Beau Domaine Brad Pitt's 'F1' Races to No. 1 at Korean Box Office Disney's 'Elio' added $1 million in fourth place, advancing its 10-day tally to $2.8 million, while 'Lilo & Stitch' held strong in its sixth weekend with $739,047, lifting its cumulative earnings to $48 million. Universal's horror sequel 'M3GAN 2.0' opened in sixth with $681,317, while Paramount's 'Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning' took in $435,678 in its sixth weekend to reach a running total of $34.9 million. Punjabi-language title 'Sardaar Ji 3,' released by White Hill Studios, debuted in eighth place with $318,607. Black Bear's adaptation of Raynor Winn's memoir 'The Salt Path' followed with $194,328, pushing its total to $10.1 million. Rounding out the top 10 was Aamir Khan's inspirational drama 'Sitaare Zameen Par,' which added $152,319 in its second frame for a total of $615,622. This week's U.K. and Ireland theatrical calendar features a high-profile franchise installment alongside a range of arthouse fare, restorations, and international titles, as listed by the Film Distributors' Association and Comscore. Leading the lineup is Universal's 'Jurassic World: Rebirth', opening Wednesday, July 2, in more than 300 locations. Directed by Gareth Edwards, this latest installment in the long-running dinosaur saga introduces a new cast led by Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Mahershala Ali, and Rupert Friend. Friday, July 4, brings a varied slate: animation 'Jungle Trouble', from Miracle Comms, targets younger audiences, while Mubi bows Berlinale coming-of-age film 'Hot Milk.' Studiocanal offers a newly restored 4K presentation of 'Hearts of Darkness', the legendary behind-the-scenes documentary chronicling the tumultuous making of 'Apocalypse Now'. Also opening is David Cronenberg's body horror 'The Shrouds', distributed by Vertigo Releasing and rated 15. It marks the Canadian director's return to cinemas following 'Crimes of the Future'. AA Films U.K. is releasing Hindi-language title 'Metro In Dino.' Finally, Anime Ltd presents the 4K re-release of Mamoru Hosoda's acclaimed 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' on Sunday, July 6 – an offering likely to appeal to anime fans and cinephiles alike. Best of Variety Oscars 2026: George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts, Wagner Moura and More Among Early Contenders to Watch New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts?
Los Angeles Times
8 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Ritchie Valens died too young. His legacy will live on forever
This essay is adapted from Merrick Morton's 'La Bamba: A Visual History,' published by Hat & Beard Press. 'Dance!! Dance!! Dance!! to the music of the Silhouettes Band!!' read the handbill. The Silhouettes featured Ritchie Valens — 'the fabulous Lil' Richi and his Crying Guitar!!' — at a 1958 appearance at the San Fernando American Legion Hall in Southern California. He was 16 years old. The Silhouettes was Ritchie's first band, and they launched him into history. But a silhouette itself is an interesting thing: You can see the general shape of something while you hardly know the figure casting the shadow. Valens' musical story begins with the Silhouettes, and we have been filling in his story, and projecting ourselves onto it, ever since he left. A founding father of rock 'n' roll, he would lose his life barely a year later, when the plane carrying members of the Winter Dance Party Tour — Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Valens — crashed on Feb. 3, 1959, in an Iowa snowstorm. A Chicano icon. A stranger. Ritchie was a kid playing his guitar to make money for his family and one song he played was a version of 'Malagueña.' The number was rooted in centuries-old Spanish flamenco music that had spread in all directions, becoming a classical music melody and a Hollywood soundtrack go-to by the 1950s. In his hands, it became a catapult for guitar hero god shots. 'Malagueña' communicated experience and rico suave flair to his audience. Meanwhile, his mom was selling homemade tamales at his shows in the American Legion Hall. This guileless 17-year-old, Chicano kid from Pacoima found a way to introduce himself to America by taking something familiar and making it feel like nothing you had heard before. From the beginning, Ritchie heard the possibilities in turning a familiar sound forward. He saw, even as the teenager he will forever be to us, how in reinventing a song, you could reinvent yourself. Listen to 'Donna,' the heartfelt love ballad that felt familiar to Chicano ears, listeners who for years had tuned in to Black vocal groups. In the process, he cleared the way for so much great Chicano soul to come in the next two decades. Most of all, of course, listen to 'La Bamba.' A centuries-old song from Veracruz, Mexico; the tune has African, Spanish, Indigenous and Caribbean DNA. In the movie, he encounters the song for the first time when his brother Bob takes him to a Tijuana brothel, but however he first heard it, Valens viewed it as a prism, a way of flooding all that was in front of him with his voice and guitar. The music he made came from Mexico, and it came from Los Angeles, where 1940s Spanish-language swing tunes, Black doo-wop sounds and hillbilly guitar-plucking were mashed together in a molcajete y tejolote. Most of all, it came from the radio, which lined up sounds that were not like the ones that came right before and blasted them out on AM stations from corner to corner across the Southland. Radio devoured difference and transformed it, and if Ritchie is now regarded as a pioneer of Chicano music, he was in his own, brief time, a product of AM democracy, a silhouette with a spotlight shining on him. Danny Valdez knew all the songs. In the early 1970s, the artist and activist had released 'Mestizo,' billed as the first Chicano protest album put out by a major label. The singer-songwriter and his buddy Taylor Hackford would drink beer, belt out Ritchie Valens songs and make big plans. They talked about someday shooting a movie together, with Valdez playing Ritchie and Hackford directing. 'Neither of us had a pot to piss in,' said Hackford, 'so we never made that movie.' But years later, after Hackford had a hit with 'An Officer and A Gentleman,' Valdez called him and raised the idea once more. There were many steps to getting 'La Bamba' on the screen, but it began with an understanding that it would be about the music. That meant they had to make the music feel alive — namely the handful of recordings produced by Bob Keane that Ritchie left behind. The owner of Del-Fi Records, Keane was a guiding figure in the singer's life, recording his songs, urging him to mask his ethnicity by changing his name from Richard Steven Valenzuela and giving him career advice. Keane booked Gold Star Studios, cheap at $15 an hour, and brought in great session musicians as Ritchie's backing band, including future Wrecking Crew members Earl Palmer and Carol Kaye. But the recordings he made were not state of the art, even in their own time. 'They weren't high-quality,' said Hackford, comparing them to the early Ray Charles sessions for the Swing Time label. 'I had a commercial idea in mind, of music selling the film, of people walking out of the theater singing 'La Bamba' who had never heard of it before,' he said. That meant he needed contemporary musicians who understood the records and could re-record Ritchie's songs and reach an audience that was listening to Michael Jackson, Madonna and George Michael. Ritchie's family, including his mother, Connie, and his siblings, had already heard that Los Lobos were playing 'Come On, Let's Go' live in East L.A. When the band played a concert in Santa Cruz, where the Valenzuela family was living by the 1980s, a friendship grew. 'Danny and I knew Los Lobos in the '70s when they were just starting out,' says writer and director Luis Valdez, 'when they were literally just another band from East L.A. We were very fortunate that they were at that point in their career where they could take on this project. Without Los Lobos, we wouldn't have Ritchie. David Hidalgo's voice is incredible. I don't think we could have found other musicians to cover him. They come from East L.A., they're all Chicanos. They were paying an homage. We happened to be in the airport together when they got the news that 'La Bamba' had become number one in the national charts.' 'They called themselves the spiritual inheritors of Ritchie Valens,' says Hackford. 'And they went in and re-recorded Ritchie's songs plus several that he had played in concert but never recorded.' Now Hackford had his own album of old tunes that turned in a forward direction. Next, Hackford made sure there were roles for modern performers to play the classic rockers from the Winter Dance Party Tour. He cast contemporary performers who could re-record their material too: Marshall Crenshaw as Buddy Holly, Brian Setzer as Eddie Cochran and Howard Huntsberry as Jackie Wilson. Then there's the surprise of the first song heard in the film — a rumbling version of Bo Diddley's 'Who Do You Love?' that had Carlos Santana, hired as a soundtrack composer, playing with Los Lobos, and Bo himself offering a fresh vocal over everything. 'We were so happy to have the touch of Carlos Santana as part of Ritchie's story,' said Luis Valdez. 'It's his guitar that underscores a lot of the scenes and he had a theme for each of the players. We screened the whole movie for him first and he was very moved by it and ready to go right away once he saw it without his contribution. He was alone on the soundstage at Paramount, where we recorded his soundtrack, doing his magic with his guitar. He became a great friend as a result of that. It's incredible what an artist can do.' The original soundtrack recording topped the Billboard pop charts and went double platinum. Hackford loved pop music; his first feature film, 'The Idolmaker' (1980), was a rock musical. Releasing hit music became a key promotional element of the package. In advance of 1982's 'An Officer and a Gentleman' came 'Up Where We Belong' by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes. It went to No. 1 a week after the opening. For 1984's 'Against All Odds,' he selected Phil Collins to sing the title cut, a song released three weeks before opening; the song soon went No. 1. 1985's 'White Nights' had two No. 1 songs, Lionel Ritchie's 'Say You Say Me' and Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin's duet 'Separate Lives.' One looming problem for 'La Bamba' was that the 1987 moviegoing public was not familiar with the name Ritchie Valens. Hackford had ideas for that as well. He set out to introduce him to contemporary audiences — convincing the studio to fund a unique teaser trailer to run weeks before the official movie trailer went into theaters. The producer assembled a parade of familiar faces to reintroduce Valens. The short film included Canadian hitmaker Bryan Adams and Little Richard talking about the icon. There was also the vision of Bob Dylan in a top-down convertible riding along the Pacific Coast Highway. The 17-year-old Dylan was present at a Valens concert in Duluth, Minn., just days before the plane crashed; he popped up talking about what Valens' music meant to him. 'You bet it made a difference,' said Hackford. After the 'La Bamba' soundtrack became a hit (there was also a Volume Two), Los Lobos made the most of their elevated success. They had experienced head-turning celebrity with 'La Bamba,' and they followed it up with 'La Pistola y El Corazón,' a gritty selection of mariachi and Tejano songs played on acoustic traditional instruments. They had banked cultural capital and directed their large new audience to this music that many had never heard before. 'La Pistola y El Corazón' won a Grammy in 1989 for Mexican-American performance. The 'La Bamba' soundtrack helped set a precedent for the crossover global success of Latin music, which has become a major force in mainstream pop culture. From Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez to Shakira, Bad Bunny, Peso Pluma, Becky G, Anitta, J Balvin, Karol G and Maluma, among others who are dominating the charts, racking up billions of streams, headlining massive tours and festivals. Does Hackford think 'La Bamba' helped set the table for subsequent Latino pop star success? 'I think the one who set the table was Ritchie Valens. He recorded a song in Spanish, a rock 'n' roll version of a folk song, and he made it a huge hit. 'I challenge you, any party you go to — wedding reception, bar mitzvah, whatever it is — when 'La Bamba' comes on, the tables clear and everybody gets up to dance. That's Ritchie Valens; he deserves that credit. We came afterwards.' RJ Smith is a Los Angeles-based author. He has written for Blender, the Village Voice, Spin, GQ and the New York Times Magazine. His books include 'The Great Black Way,' 'The One: The Life and Music of James Brown' and 'Chuck Berry: An American Life.'
Miami Herald
8 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Explore Greater Miami and Miami Beach's Most Unique Neighborhoods by Starlight
It's no secret that Miami shines under the sun, but it also comes alive after dark. When gorgeous hues of a South Florida sunset fade and the lights flicker on, Miami's array of vibrant neighborhoods transform into buzzing hubs of music, food, culture and connection. Whether you're planning a weekend escape or a spontaneous night out, there's something unforgettable to be discovered during every star-studded evening in Miami. Start in Historic Overtown, where the smooth notes of soul and jazz echo through the streets. The Historic Lyric Theater, which was once a cornerstone of the Harlem Renaissance, is now home to live shows and performances that celebrate Black culture and history. Just a few blocks away, Downtown Miami shows off a different kind of electricity. At the Kaseya Center or the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County you might catch a popular concert, a Broadway touring show or a playoff game, depending on the night. Art doesn't sleep in Miami — and neither does Wynwood. By day, it's known for its colorful murals and buzzing cafés, but by night, the district turns into a mecca for creative cocktails, late-night galleries and performances by world-class DJs. Continue the artsy vibe in the nearby Miami Design District, where high-end fashion boutiques share the streets with outdoor installations and contemporary art museums. After hours, the district's luxurious dining rooms and stylish rooftop lounges are perfect for a sophisticated evening out on the town. No night tour of Miami would be complete without exploring Miami's rich Latin roots. In Little Havana, the sounds of live salsa spill out of open doorways as locals sip cafecito late into the evening. The nearby stretch of Calle Ocho is a hallmark of cultural pride every night, but especially so during festivals. For a more Caribbean-inspired evening, Little Haiti has many unique music venues and dance clubs that celebrate Haitian Kompa and other Afro-Caribbean genres. Across the bay, Miami Beach needs no introduction — its sun-kissed shores and Art Deco skyline set the stage for both vibrant energy and refined elegance. Beyond the palm-fringed boardwalk and oceanfront resorts, Lincoln Road is home to a world-class pedestrian promenade where high-fashion boutiques and curated cafés mingle with impromptu music and avant-garde art installations. As day turns to night, lantern-lit terraces and stylish lounges welcome you for cocktails infused with local flavors, inviting you to get a taste of Miami Beach's signature blend of glamour and sophistication. Just a short drive inland, Coral Gables showcases its own brand of polished charm. Here, bougainvillea-draped avenues lead to tucked-away speakeasies and grand Spanish-Revival landmarks that twinkle under soft, ambient lighting. Spend your evening catching a captivating performance at GableStage, then wander through courtyards framed by arched colonnades to discover opulent hotel bars steeped in history. In Coconut Grove, the pace slows down. Locals love this waterfront neighborhood for its laid-back nightlife, with wine bars, indie movie theaters and intimate live music venues tucked beneath swaying palms. Further west, Doral has quickly become a destination for top-notch shopping and upscale dining. It's ideal for those who want a chic, relaxed evening without heading into Miami's core. For a true off-the-beaten-path experience, head south to Homestead, where you can catch a race under the lights at the Homestead-Miami Speedway or stop by late-night food trucks serving authentic Cuban and Mexican eats. Meanwhile, Miami Springs and Miami Gardens — home to the iconic Hard Rock Stadium — are quietly carving out space in the local nightlife scene with community theaters, jazz lounges and delicious family-owned restaurants that stay open late. Every part of Greater Miami and Miami Beach showcases something different. You could find yourself front row at a 5-star show, dancing to incredible live music, exploring a local food scene or indulging in some retail therapy under the stars. But no matter what you choose, you won't be disappointed with the offerings in any of these iconic neighborhoods. So on your next visit, don't forget — the magic of Miami isn't limited to the daylight hours. A whole new experience is in store after sundown. Discover your ideal Miami experience at
