A group of rowdy teenagers were removed from a cinema during a screening of A Minecraft Movie – due to behaviour sparked by a bizarre TikTok trend.
The Stag Theatre in Sevenoaks, Kent, said it was the first time in “many years” staff had to hit pause and eject customers. However, the young people upset other movie-goers with the TikTok “Chicken Jockey” trend, which sees social media users record themselves shouting mid-film at the appearance of a character called Chicken Jockey.
In A Minecraft Movie, Jack Black’s character Steve shouts Chicken Jockey’s name, a trend replicated by the TikTok users in a raucous manner. However, the teens at The Stag Theatre became overzealous with their antics and had to leave the screening. The video below highlights an example of the trend – but is not of the teenagers in question.
Tony McEwen, deputy chief executive at the cinema, said: “The point of a cinema or a theatre is that you can come and you can get your entertainment socially and part of being social is not ruining it for everyone else….What you don’t want to do is jump the gun and I really, really, really want people to come and enjoy themselves and if you start putting measures in place to prevent the disruptive people, there’s a spillover from that.”
“That can’t be had because we’re trying to keep it friendly, especially for a small place like us and we rely very much on repeat custom from the same families.”
The film, which also stars Jason Momoa, is based on the popular video game launched in 2011. The Mirror told how critics had branded it “hectic” and “exhausting” after its premiere this month.
But it has still been drawing in the punters during the Easter holidays and, as it attracts more and more numbers, the TikTok trend attracts its new recruits. The so-called Chicken Jockey “effect” has been embraced by Cineworld though, as it has special screenings for the engagement, while encouraging people to be respectful.
However, The Stag Theatre has taken a harder line. Mr McEwen told Kent Online: “They are rowdy, they’re cheering and jeering and at specific moments throughout the movie and we asked them to calm down and they didn’t and then we asked them to leave and they didn’t.
“So unfortunately the very much last recourse of anything like this is you pause the film, and they have to endure the angry glares of the rest of the auditorium of people whose lives they have been upsetting during the course of the film and then, eventually, they leave.
“We haven’t had to do that for many years. Normally a few calm words and then a few stern words if needed will get most teenagers out of the room.”
A chicken jockey is a rare feature in the Minecraft game in which a baby zombie rides on the back of a chicken. While Mr McEwen acknowleges the movie must be consistent with the video game, he recommended other cinema bosses stay vigilant as the social media trend continues.
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