The recent release of the hyped-up A Minecraft Movie has been a hit nationwide with people from all age ranges, from young children, to high school students, to parents. However, the movie’s initial success has caused some controversy.
Before A Minecraft Movie’s release, various teasers aired on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. These teasers came from official verified accounts and would often have scenes of Steve (Jack Black) cut out of context.
“I’m all for fun, but this is just ridiculous and immature. It’s gone too far.”
Raymond Kresge ’27
One of these many teasers was the infamous “Chicken Jockey” scene.
These clips, while meant to foster attention for the movie, gained heavy traction online on these same platforms, but for the wrong reasons.
People on the internet turned these clips into a “meme,” pointing out the ridiculousness and cliché one-liners, and eventually it became a trend to post clips of the movie before the release to the public.
This escalated to the trend of attending the movie and causing a ruckus.
A similar phenomenon occurred in 2022, when it became a trend for large groups of high school boys to attend Minions: The Rise of Gru dressed in formal attire; however, this trend didn’t end nearly as catastrophically as the Minecraft Movie trend did.
The social media teasers inspired substantial numbers of high school students to attend the movie solely for these quotes, and to record videos of themselves shouting out the quotes, throwing popcorn, or even showing a real chicken, solely to post them online for a sliver of internet fame.
This spiraled into the trend to trash movie theaters by throwing popcorn, slushies, drinks, and simply overall making a mess during teased scenes, which has resulted in movie theaters experiencing misbehavior from young high schoolers nationwide.
“I’m all for fun, but this is just ridiculous and immature. It’s gone too far,” Fourth Form President Ray Kresge said.
This trend is not something that has escaped the Haverford community.
According to an anonymous Fourth Form student, a group of Haverford students attended a showing of A Minecraft Movie and had to leave early due to misbehavior.
While the trend seems to have died down, it could potentially set a precedent to “condone” the immature behavior of high school students, begging the question: will there be more trends to attend hyped-up movies, being disrespectful, and posting it online, or will students finally realize the importance of their actions, even when they do not believe it matters?
