Among the rather, uh, vast range of reactions to the death Thursday of Queen Elizabeth II, people on social media made a ton of references to baseball legend Reggie Jackson thanks to his cameo in the 1988 comedy film “The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad.”
We’ll explain the cameo below, but first, it turns out Jackson himself was paying attention to all the chatter, because the 5-time World Series champ weighed in with a tribute to Elizabeth that also topped any of the jokes people had been making about him.
So for those who haven’t seen the film, “The Naked Gun” is a parody of cop shows created by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker (the team behind “Airplane!”). The plot involves a shady businessman planning to assassinate Queen Elizabeth, who happens to be visiting Los Angeles during the film.
Near the end of the movie, during a California Angels baseball game attended by the queen, the villain hypnotizes Jackson and forces him to robotically march over to her with a gun in his hand muttering “I must kill the queen.” Fortunately, the film’s hero Det. Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) stops him in time.
If you’re curious, you can watch the full scene here. Or see some of it below:
