'Chicken jockey!’ isn't 'Minecraft's' only viral moment, Jack Black says

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Some screenings of A Minecraft Movie have descended into chaos when Jason Momoa’s Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison dukes it out with a zombie riding a chicken inside the squared circle as Jack Black hilariously announces, “Chicken jockey!”

Teens have greeted the character’s arrival by hooting and hollering and wildly throwing popcorn at the screen.

With the film already the biggest box office hit of the year (it’s already racked up more than US$552 million at the box office), theatre owners have warned crowds against rowdy behaviour.

In one viral video that has been viewed more than 443,000 times on X, one moviegoer was seen perched on someone’s shoulders wielding a live chicken.

Black turned up at a recent screening to beg attendees not to turn the auditorium into pandemonium.

“No throwing popcorn! And absolutely no chicken jockeys!” Black yelled to huge applause.

The film’s director Jared Hess, who Black worked with on Nacho Libre, finds the reactions “so bananas.”

“It’s been way too fun. People are sending me these really hilarious speeches that a lot of teenagers are giving right before the movie. It’s so hysterical, man,” Hess told Entertainment Weekly in an interview.

“It’s weird when you’re having too much fun and the cops get called,” Hess added. “It’s funny because I think it’s just literally cheering and throwing popcorn, which is so funny to me that cops are getting called for popcorn. Yeah, it’s hilarious. I’ve seen so many funny videos. It’s great, especially when people are climbing on their friends’ shoulders and standing up and cheering for those moments. It’s like this crazy anticipation. But, man, I’m just glad people are making memories with their friends and families.”

The character is a fan favourite from the Minecraft universe and Hess said in a separate interview with the New York Times that he’s getting a kick out of seeing the moment turn his film into a Rocky Horror Picture Show (whose raucous screenings have also been known to get out of control) for a new generation.

“It’s been a total blast. I’m just laughing my brains out every time someone sends me a new video.”

Hess credited the way Black, who plays the main character Steve from the game, screams “Chicken jockey!” for helping make the scene go viral.

“Jack says it with such passion,” Hess tells the Times. “Everything that comes out of his mouth in the film is spoken with such authority and seriousness, like this is the most important thing anybody has ever heard in their life. I think people just love the craziness of it.”

“There was no voice or anything for me to study,” Black said of his brash interpretation of Steve in an interview with Postmedia last month. “It’s what you imagine. So, I was able to bring my own energies and my own creative force to it … But that’s the job. You’re looking at a tennis ball and using your imagination … That’s kind of fun to do.”

Minecraft is an open-world game made up of blocks that lets users build structures and craft storylines on their own. “You can survive the night or build a work of art – the choice is all yours,” an official logline for the game reads.

Since arriving in 2011, the title has sold more than 300 million copies and spawned numerous spinoffs, including Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Earth, Minecraft Dungeons, and Minecraft Legends. 

A Minecraft Movie expands the imaginative world onto the big screen with a story that finds Steve teaming up with four misfits — Momoa and Danielle Brooks, along with two youngsters played by Emma Myers and Sebastian Eugene Hansen — after their virtual utopia is threatened by hostile mobs from another dimension.

But the “Chicken jockey!” scene isn’t the only highlight. Black said a sequence in which he has to form a “man sandwich” with his head nestled in Momoa’s crotch is another highlight.

“We rehearsed that with a stunt team because it required weights and pulleys and wire work and choreography … I think we choreographed it four different ways before we settled on what we thought was the funniest way to do it. A lot of time went into that. It was one of my favourite scenes in the movie and it’s one of the funniest scenes in the script. You get to that and you go, ‘What? This is crazy,'” he said with a laugh.

“It’s what we call in the business a set piece. It’s a big expensive moment in the movie that’s worth it.”

Warner Bros., the studio behind the film, sees the enthusiasm surrounding the scenes as “a testament to the game’s loyal fan base,” marketing executive vice president Dana Nussbaum told the Times.

But Black said he wanted to make Minecraft because he was a lifelong gamer.

“I love video games. Weirdly, my first job was a commercial for Pitfall! for the Atari system way back in the ’80s, dude. So, it makes sense that I would be in these video game movies because of my love and passion for them,” he said.

A Minecraft Movie is in theatres now.

mdaniell@postmedia.com