Next month, Jack Black will be receiving the Comedic Genius Award at the MTV Movie and TV Awards.
Black is the 5th performer to receive the award. Previous winners include Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, Melissa McCarthy, and Sacha Baron Cohen. Cohen most memorably took the opportunity last year to declare that he was “canceling himself,” and featured cameos from Borat, Bruno, and
Black is of course a pretty natural choice for the award, given his body of work. On top of his comedic roles in School of Rock, High Fidelity, Nacho Libre, Tropic Thunder, Orange County, and Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny, he’s also makes up one half of the latter Tenacious D alongside Kyle Gass.
They have released multiple studio albums including their self-titled debut Tenacious D, The Pick of Destiny, Rize of the Fenix, and Post-Apocalypto, in addition to their television series Tenacious D (1997–2000) and film Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny (2006). Since 2018, Black has maintained a YouTube channel called Jablinski Games.
In 1982, Black’s first acting job was in a television commercial at age 13 for the video game Pitfall!
In 2000, Black co-starred in the film High Fidelity as a wild employee in a record store run by John Cusack. Black considers his role in High Fidelity as his breakout into the Hollywood scene.
Black is an outspoken critic of Donald Trump. On the day of Trump’s presidential inauguration, he and Tenacious D bandmate Kyle Gass performed their 2006 protest song “The Government Totally Sucks”. Black said to the audience beforehand, “We haven’t played [this song] for years, because it just never felt appropriate—but now, we’re happy to unleash the beast. The government totally sucks.”
This year’s awards will be hosted by The Bachelorette star Tayshia Adams. The awards will air live on MTV at 8 PM ET.
