“Chickn Jockey”: the phenomenon of ‘Minecraft’ that unleashed uncontrolled reactions in cinemas
Some young people were expelled from the cinema after reacting exaggerated to a specific scene of A Minecraft moviein which a “chickn jockey” appears (poultry rider).
On Sunday, Township Theater, in New Jersey, published a Facebook statement in which he reported that, from now on, minors must attend accompanied by a responsible father or adult to the functions of A Minecraft movie. The measure arises after an “unfortunate situation” recorded during Saturday’s projection.
The cause? A scene in which the character of Jack Black sees how a zombie baby falls on a chicken … and the audience crashes: screams, uncontrolled laughs and popcorn flying throughout the room.
For those who are not familiar with the term, a “chickn jockey”, that is, a zombie baby mounted on a chicken, is one of the rarest phenomena of the Minecraft video game.
For one to appear, players must wait for zombies to generate, which only happens at night. Then, they need the zombie to be a baby, something that also happens little frequently, and that there is a chicken near the exact moment for the zombie baby to appear mounted on it.
On the Minecraft page on Wikipedia it is explained in detail how the appearance of a “chickn jockey” in the game works. Every time a baby zombie appears (it can be a normal zombie, a husk, a zombie villager, a zombified piglin or a drowned), there is a 5 % probability that the system checks if there is a chicken nearby, within an area of 10 × 6 × 10 blocks. If you find one, the zombie baby can appear mounted on it.
If that first 5 % is not fulfilled, there is a second chance with another 5 % for the baby zombie to appear on a newly generated chicken. In case there are no chickens, the total probability of generating a chickn jockey is 0.25 %. But if there are chickens in the vicinity, that probability rises to 0.4875 %.
In the game, the chicken jockeys sometimes appear equipped with weapons, such as a golden sword or even a trident.
Despite having received warm criticism from the specialized press, the film has been a resounding success at the box office, with $ 163 million collected at its first weekend in the United States and another $ 150 million internationally.
In social networks, many fans shared that they witnessed – or lived in their own flesh – moments of collective euphoria during the scene of the Chickn Jockey In cinemas.
“In the room where I was, they applauded every time Jack Black appointed some Minecraft object that already came out in the trailers. And when he shouted ‘Chickn Jockey!
“I just left the movie and confirm that everyone in the room shouted at the same time ‘Chickn Jockey!’ At that moment.
In contrast, some film workers turned to Tiktok to ask the public to keep the order during functions and avoid leaving garbage or causing disasters in the rooms.
“I work in a cinema. When they throw water, popcorn and all that to other people, as many do it lately, we are much more complicated,” said a user.
“I also work in a cinema. Please, they are not upset. I was two days of the premiere and it was a nightmare. There is nothing wrong with the important moments, but do not begin to shout rudeness,” said another worker.
Translation of Leticia Zampedri
