Part of the fun of cultural acceleration is that it’s now possible to feel nostalgia about things that happened as little as a few months ago. These days, fads and memes and modes of entertainment emerge in our shared zeitgeist like bubbles popping up to the surface in a boiling soup, and they pop almost as soon as they reach air. Most will be forgotten within three months. But one fad from an entire three years ago has stuck with me for its weirdly wholesome vibes, which is how I found myself looking at the big viral chicken jockey meme out of A Minecraft Movie and realizing I miss the days of GentleMinions.
Chicken jockey videos are currently going viral on TikTok. There’s a scene in A Minecraft Movie where Steve (Jack Black) and Garrett (Jason Momoa), a pair of doofuses from the real world, attempt to grab a quest item in Minecraft’s Overworld in order to get back home. They get captured by Vindicators and tossed into a makeshift boxing ring, where Steve is tied in a corner and Garrett is ordered to fight a blocky little chicken. But then the Vindicators drop a baby zombie onto the chicken, and Steve screams “CHICKEN JOCKEY!” with all the manic energy Jack Black can muster. (Which, as we all know, is quite a bit.)
The fad has audience members (and fans of the game) responding wildly to the line. In some theaters, fans just scream the words along with Steve. Other videos have viewers riding each other’s shoulders as if they’re in a chicken fight, leading sustained cheers, stomping or clapping, and throwing popcorn or drinks.
#chickenjockey #minecraftmovie #fyp #viral @Brennan
Naturally, the trend has thrown new fuel on the constantly burning online conversation around theater etiquette. As many readers have pointed out online, most people don’t want to pay first-run movie-theater prices to watch a film that gets hijacked by someone else’s showy attempt to go viral online, and no one wants a soda dumped down the back of their neck when they’re trying to watch a movie.
the audience was so hype 🔥 #minecraftmovie #minecraftmoviememe
Others, though, have made it clear they’re looking forward to participating in a Rocky Horror Picture Show-style group ritual, or (in comments on this news story) mocked anyone who finds the trend annoying: “How dare the youth in this country go outside their houses, visit a movie cinema, and have a good time with other human? [sic] What is this world coming to?” one comment reads. “Let them have their fun, if you don’t enjoy their enthusiasm, the movie probably isn’t for you anyway.”
Police had to kick several kids out of the theater during a showing of #Minecraft They were screaming and throwing popcorn during the ‘Chicken Jockey’ scene(via Salesmenpod | TikTok)
— Culture Crave 🍿 (@culturecrave.co) 2025-04-06T16:26:07.030Z
chicken jockey scene was amazing
— zoidy laughter (@zoidylol.bsky.social) 2025-04-06T02:50:33.659Z
Personally, I get the joy of a shared communal experience in the theater, whether it’s competing for most-laughed-at comment at Rocky Horror Picture Show, observing the rituals at screenings of Tommy Wiseau’s The Room and Big Shark, dressing up to celebrate Barbenheimer, or just having a spontaneous moment of vocal excitement over a long-awaited reveal.
But there are basic rules to being a good human citizen: You don’t do anything that could damage the screen, the theater, or other patrons. You don’t make a huge mess and leave it for someone else to clean up. (Unless you’re paying a premium for exactly that, which is standard for a lot of Rocky Horror and The Room screenings, where it’s expected that people will throw toast or plastic forks.) Even the theaters holding special “Chicken Jockey 4DX” showings — meaning “whooping, clapping and shouting ‘Chicken Jockey’ as you see fit” is permitted — still ban throwing anything. (Or recording any video of the screen, but that’s a different issue.)
And “spontaneous response” is harder to buy when people are recording their own friends’ attempts to live up to a viral trend. At that point, participation is demonstrably less about a shared experience in the theater, and more about gunning for likes after the show.
All of which has me missing the GentleMinions phenomenon, a similar social media trend led by TikTok in response to the release of 2022’s Minions: The Rise of Gru. That fad similarly got out of hand, with participants trashing theaters and getting kicked out of shows, leading to theaters banning viewers wearing suits. But when the GentleMinions business started, it was just about people dressing up for the theater and acting fancy — about whimsy and conjuring up a comedically dapper vibe.
GentleMinions had two important things that “Chicken jockey!” lacks. First, the social media elements were primarily about pre-show ritual. Initially, at least, the stunt was about performing suaveness outside the theater and in the theater before the movie, instead of trying to outdo each other with programmed audience response.
And second, the GentleMinions trend had a clear author and a clear face for the movement: teenage TikToker Bill Hirst, who posted the original viral GentleMinions video, and went on to give interviews asking people to stop ruining other people’s theater experiences. “There’s a way to have your fun and also be respectful,” he told NBC News in 2022. “Being polite throughout the film is probably the best way to go about it. … Obviously, turning the cinema into a mosh pit is not the right thing to do.” The chicken jockey fanatics could use a little of that spirit themselves. And also maybe a nattier dress code.
— PocoAgitato (@pocoagitato.bsky.social) 2025-04-07T17:09:24.212Z
From Polygon via this RSS feed