Libs of Tik Tok Posts Bonkers Jack Black ‘Get Woke, Go Broke’ Story — That’s Satire Debunked a Year Ago
Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File
Chaya Raichik, better known by her Libs of TikTok social media handle, posted a tweet Friday gloating that actor and musician Jack Black had lost nearly $15 million in concert tours because he “went woke.” The screenshot of an article Raichik shared with her tweet, however, draws from AI-created fake news and satire sites that have been circulating for over a year — and were debunked long ago.
“Get woke, go broke,” wrote Raichik, along with a screenshot that appeared to be from an outlet called “Usatoday” in a blue sans-serif font and the headline “Breaking: Jack Black Loses Nearly $15 Million in Concert Tours After He Went Woke.”
She followed that with a tweet that included a video clip of Black’s band, Tenacious D, performing in Sydney, Australia, which she captioned “‘Don’t miss miss Trump next time’ – Tenacious D band.”
For starters, the video Raichik shared was not Black, but his bandmate, Kyle Gass, speaking. The incident in question happened in July 2024, when Gass made that comment after Black led the audience in singing “Happy Birthday” to him and then asked him to “make a wish.”
“Don’t miss Trump next time,” said Gass — an inflammatory thing to say, especially since it happened just one day after Trump was nearly assassinated at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Black denounced Gass’ comment in an Instagram post, writing that he was “blindsided by what was said at the show” and “would never condone hate speech or encourage political violence in any form.”
“After much reflection, I no longer feel it is appropriate to continue the Tenacious D tour,” he added, “and all future creative plans are on hold.”
Gass posted his own apology that same day, writing that he wished to “profoundly apologize” and was “incredibly sorry for my severe lack of judgment,” for making a comment that was “highly inappropriate, dangerous, and a terrible mistake.”
So to recap, Gass — not Black — said the comment about Trump, Black said it was wrong, Black made the decision to cancel upcoming concerts, and Gass said it was wrong and apologized.
Libs of TikTok has twisted these facts to put the blame on Black and insinuate concerts were cancelled as a backlash to him “going woke,” instead of Black himself making that call. But it wasn’t just Raichik promoting this fake news; the claim comes from several Facebook pages and articles on websites labeled as satire or that are documented as using untrustworthy and inaccurate AI-generated content.
Neil Stevens, a longtime conservative writer who currently serves as the chief technology officer for The Daily Caller, tweeted that Raichik had taken her screenshot from a website peddling “actual fake news,” noting that usatoday.uk “is definitely not USA Today, but is trying to mislead you into thinking it is.”
“It’s a scam site full of AI slop,” Stevens added.
Articles and Facebook posts, like the one below, claiming Black lost “$15 million” because fans turned on him for being woke, still proliferate online.
Screenshot via Facebook.
In August 2024, Snopes debunked the claims in these posts and articles, specifically rating the claim that “Tenacious D frontman Jack Black lost nearly $15 million in concert tours ‘after he went woke’ in the summer of 2024” as “Labeled Satire.”
One of the articles Snopes reviewed in their analysis appears to have the same text as the one on the “Usatoday” site Raichik screenshot for her tweet.
Wrote Snopes reporter Nikki Dobrin, besides the fact that the article came from a website that declared it was satire, its content “was not a factual recounting of real-life events.”
Dobrin wrote that Black had cancelled the remaining tour dates, but “no evidence supports the claim of a specific monetary loss of ‘nearly $15 million,'” adding the tour “was on its final leg.”
