Jack Black's Peaches Song Has The Internet Split Over Rickroll Fan Theory
"The Super Mario Bros. Movie" contains a love ballad performed by Jack Black called "Peaches." The song is written from the perspective of Bowser as he professes his love for Princess Peach, boldly proclaiming, "Peach, you're so cool, and with my star we're gonna rule." It plays during the film itself, but a live-action music video of it went viral soon after the film's release. The song has many of the signature trappings of Jack Black's other music, which fans of his comedic rock band Tenacious D will recognize, but a few fans have noticed some other potential influences in the song that have led them to believe that they've been subtly Rickrolled.
For those who aren't familiar, Rickrolling is an old internet meme where pranksters would link the YouTube music video for Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" to unrelated text in order to troll unsuspecting victims with a relatively harmless joke. It started around 2007 and has been one of the internet's more persistently popular means of deception ever since.
Some fans have noticed that the chord progressions in Jack Black and Rick Astley's songs sound suspiciously similar, however, and many have begun to question if Black managed to Rickroll his entire movie-going audience without them even realizing it. Others think there might be a different explanation.
Was Jack Black's Rickroll intentional?
The conversation seems to have begun on Charles Cornell's YouTube channel. He posted a video titled "Peaches by Jack Black is Unironically Really Good" where he deconstructs the song, breaking down the chord progression and explaining how it's played.
Several people in the comments pointed out that the progression is remarkably similar to Astley's. One said, "I can't believe I just got [R]ickrolled by a chord progression" while another argued that "If they used the Rickroll progression on PURPOSE then this gets even more legendary than it already is." Dozens of other fans seemed to agree as well. TikTok creator music.by.jazar even went so far as to layer the two songs together, to show how well they match up. He had to chop "Peaches" up a bit and might have sped up some of the segments to make them match, but there's no denying that the songs work together surprisingly well.
Others have argued that this is simply a popular chord progression that's used in music across multiple forms of media. Several people have pointed out that it even has a name in Japan: Ōdō shinkō, AKA The Royal Road Progression. David Bennett Piano made a video about its many uses, which range from Japanese pop to anime into videos. It was even used in the home screen for "Super Mario 64." Bennett argues that it's incredibly popular because it creates a feeling of melodrama that is simultaneously uplifting.
So was this intentional Rickrolling? Only Jack Black and "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" production team can say for sure.