Jack Black Demonstrates Movie Stars’ Disastrous Judgment and Disney’s Hypocrisy

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Someone in Hollywood did something awful again; I’ll imagine your shock if you imagine mine. This time, it comes from an unfortunate source: Tenacious D,  the rock band consisting of Jack Black and Kyle Gass. Yesterday, July 14, was Gass’ birthday, and while Tenacious D was performing, the show featured what looked like a guy dressed as a robot bringing out a cake as Black sang “Happy Birthday.” Black then told Gass to make a wish, and here’s what he said, courtesy of DC Draino:

Jack Black asked his friend to “make a wish” on stage and he said:

“Don’t miss Trump next time”

Boycott these scumbags @jackblack

They’re inciting violence!
pic.twitter.com/sByu56z2Fq

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) July 15, 2024

He is, of course, referring to the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump on July 13 that left the former and possibly future President and several others wounded and one man dead. I’m not going to get into the event or anything surrounding it; I have opinions – believe you me, I have opinions – but this isn’t the venue for that. However, the incident with Tenacious D illustrates a couple of things about the entertainment industry: its hypocrisy and the zeal celebrities seem to have now to enrage at least half their audience.

Let’s examine the hypocrisy first. If you’ll recall (hopefully not because you saw it; if you did, I’m sorry you had to go through that), Jack Black guest starred on the Disney+ Star Wars series The Mandalorian, where he played some king or other married to Lizzo, because that’s what Star Wars is now. Do you remember someone else who appeared on The Mandalorian who was fired by Disney and Lucasfilm on the cusp of getting her own spin-off Star Wars show because she shared a political post on Instagram? Pepperidge Farm remembers, and so does podcaster Rob Smith, who posted about the Tenacious D incident on X:

While @ginacarano was fired and blacklisted from Hollywood for FAR less than the rhetoric seen here, @jackblack will likely not be held accountable by ANYONE in Hollywood.

No studios will release a statement.

He will not lose roles.

DOUBLE STANDARD! https://t.co/4kuvmb3wYz

— Rob Smith (@robsmithonline) July 15, 2024

Gina Carano shared Smith’s post with some commentary of her own:

Would @Lucasfilm or @disney like to comment on one of their actors on the Mandalorian promoting and at the very least not backing down and calming the actual abhorrent rhetoric on stage about joking about the assassination attempt failing to kill President Trump??

Or is calling… https://t.co/EJOHQ8M8BL pic.twitter.com/wpI60cgYrC

— Gina Carano (@ginacarano) July 15, 2024

I’m glad Carano brought up something that rarely gets mentioned when her firing is discussed: her point was a call for Americans to treat each other as human beings because demonizing your neighbors is the first step on the path to atrocities. Kyle Gass, on the other hand, is calling for a politician he disagrees with to be assassinated the day after someone actually tried to assassinate him (and killed someone else), and Jack Black, who shared the stage with him, has said nothing to counter that. If you consider sharing a sentiment on social media to be akin to saying the message yourself, shouldn’t Black’s silence as his music partner calls for the death of a President be treated the same way, especially as it took place less than twenty-four hours after someone tried to kill said President?

It’s also important to remember that Gina Carano is currently suing Disney and Lucasfilm for her firing. She’s brought up other incidents of Disney having a political double standard by allowing speech they agree with – speech that was much more hateful than Carano’s. And this one is off-the-charts worse, no matter what one tries to read into the post she shared. Now, Disney and Lucasfilm can’t really fire Jack Black because he was a guest star on one episode of a show that may not even return to Disney+ (and I doubt he’ll be in the movie). But part of Carano’s argument is that Disney/Lucasfilm tarnished her reputation and ruined her career by publicly vilifying and slandering her when they terminated her employment, so if they don’t want Carano and her legal team to use this as further proof of their hypocrisy, they may want to issue a clear, stern denouncement soon (not that I want to give them tips or anything).  

The other stunning aspect of this is how willing Jack Black is to let himself get associated with a despicable sentiment like the one Kyle Gass expressed. Jack Black is well-liked and has a ton of goodwill; he’s a funny guy whose persona (cultivated or not; in show business, it makes little difference as long as it’s maintained) is that of a down-to-earth dude you’d want to be friends with. Kung Fu Panda 4, the newest entry in his series of animated movies for DreamWorks, was successful this year while so much of Disney’s output failed. That’s largely because people trusted a Kung Fu Panda movie – and Jack Black – to entertain their kids without any kind of social or political indoctrination or any of the other disturbing things Disney puts in their family films now. That “Hit Me Baby One More Time” cover he and Gass did to promote Kung Fu Panda 4 was wonderful and exactly the kind of thing people love from him:

And look how quickly Black threw it all away. In June, he stumped for Joe Biden, which was a mistake that politicized him in a way he wasn’t already. I know he was always a liberal who hated Trump, and he endorsed Barack Obama years ago. But this is a different and much more divided time, and people in the public eye have to roll with things like that. Black has to have seen many of his peers lose their luster with moviegoers over their overbearing political nonsense (Seth Rogen, Jennifer Lawrence, Brie Larson, Chris Evans), yet he chose to let himself get dragged into one of the most contentious political climates we’ve ever seen just after starring in a successful movie. But even that pales in comparison to being associated with Gass’ wish for the death of President Trump. If he wants to save face, he’s got to make a statement; too much time may have passed already, but he may at least be able to stop the bleeding if he says something. If he doesn’t, I doubt a huge part of the audience will be forgiving; if you haven’t been paying attention, people are angry right now, not to mention afraid thand a celebrity seen as endorsing an assassination attempt on a President – and the murder of a supporter who died simply because of where he sat at a rally – may find their career gone quicker than a Kung Fu Panda kick.