Going to see motion pictures on the big screen — whether with family, friends, or on a date — is a staple in how people socialize. Movies are always a topic that can be brought up in conversation anywhere you go, from favorites to actors, to the storylines and messages within them. Though how people connect through film goes beyond that, with how bonding over movies has most recently come in the form of social media. Trends, edits, video analysis and discussion boards are just some of the few ways people hundreds of miles apart can share their appreciation of a good movie. One movie that has influenced the most extreme trends so far this year has been “A Minecraft Movie,” which was released in theaters on April 4. 

Starring Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Emma Myers, Jennifer Coolidge and more, “A Minecraft Movie” is an adaptation of the well-known game Minecraft, one of the many video games that has been made in a live action film in the past years along with “Sonic the Hedgehog” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”However, “A Minecraft Movie” has gotten the most visual reaction out of these by far. While at first, this information may seem generally good — and for publicity, it most likely is — many theaters and the staff who work there would disagree. 

Specifically, a viral TikTok trend that rapidly spread, which seems to have caused the most literal damage, has been the “Chicken Jockey” trend. During the movie, a scene depicts a zombie character riding on a chicken in a wrestling ring with Black and Momoa, which has prompted movie-goers to wreak havoc by throwing food and drinks at the movie screen, all for the sake of their video going viral. A person in one of these videos is even seen having snuck a live chicken into the theater just to hold it up during this particular sequence. 

This brings to discussion when social media trends have been taken too far, which this one most certainly has. While people going to the extreme for the sake of social media fame is nothing new, this blatant lack of respect for theater employees who have to deal with the mess once the movie’s over is completely unnecessary and just plain rude. 

When “harmless” jokes disrupt the lives of others — like workers just trying to do their jobs or other patrons trying to enjoy a movie — trends like this are no longer funny for the sake of it, but at someone else’s expense, which even elementary-aged children can tell is not okay. Respecting customer service workers should be an unsaid rule everyone is aware of, but it is clearly a lesson some were never taught. Ruining another person’s day for the off chance of becoming a social media star should never be acceptable, and it says a lot when these actions become as popularized as the “Chicken Jockey” trend has for “A Minecraft Movie.”