School of Rock: Resurfaced scene goes viral for its ‘revolutionary’ body positivity message

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Washington Bureau Chief

A scene from the 2003 high school comedy School of Rock has gone viral for its progressive message about body positivity.

The film, directed by Richard Linklater, saw Jack Black star as a music-obsessed slacker who poses as a substitute teacher to assemble a band from a class of schoolkids.

A clip from the film has been liked more than 400,000 times on Twitter (and has garnered over 7 million views), after it was shared with the caption: “This scene is more revolutionary than I think they even knew and it really stuck with me as a child. Especially the last line.”

In the scene, Black’s character Dewey is seen speaking to one of his students, Tomika (Maryam Hassan), who is voicing her concerns about performing.

After she tells Dewey that it’s “because I’m fat”, he replies: “You’ve got something everybody wants, you’ve got talent, girl!”

After mentioning the example of Aretha Franklin, Dewey then asks her who else “has a weight issue”.

“Me,” he says. “But once I get up on stage and start doing my thing people worship me! Because I’m sexy and chubby, man!”

After Tomika asks why he doesn’t go on a diet, he responds: “Because I like to eat, is that such a crime?”

School of Rock is set to return to Netflix in the UK and Ireland in May.