Jack Black isn't Jack Black's original name

Jack Black has been gracing our screens for years now and has made his mark as a national treasure.

Making us belly laugh as delightfully awkward and hilarious characters in films like Nacho Libre, Shallow Hal andYear One.

It's a pretty wild trip if you somehow haven't seen it.

As familiar as we all are with Black, you've probably never thought to question his name.

However, it may come as a surprise that his name hasn't always been Jack Black.

Black was born in Santa Monica, California as Thomas Jacob Black, back in the summer of '69.

Perhaps he should have been called Bryan Adams instead.

But he developed the nickname 'Jack', which is a shortened version of his middle name, Jacob, and, lo and behold, the name stuck.

And arguably, Jack Black does have a better ring to it.

Black has been in the industry since 1982, so he's been around for a bit.

And with a long-standing career like that, sometimes things might slip through the cracks, like any forgotten roles for instance.

But it turns out that a young Black had graced our television screens at just 13-years-old.

Does that ring any bells?

Many pointed out that is basically what Black's character does in the Jumanji movies.

And people have been absolutely loving this weird connection through his career, declaring that 'Jack Black was in Jumanji before he was in Jumanji'.

Someone else said 'his body was built specifically for a pith helmet', noting that the hat a teenage Black wore in the advert was basically the same as the one he had for the Jumanji movies.

Others found it a bit weird to see Black as a kid, with one person commenting 'it never occurred to me that Jack Black was ever a child', and we can kind of understand what they mean.