system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Wars] How effective would a Death Star superlaser be against a gas giant or hot jupiter?

Edit- So I'm going to add two things.  

1. As I understand it a laser works by vaporizing a small chunk of whatever you're firing at, and that soild goes through a phase shift causing a small explosion as the gas or plasma state finds itself compressed into the volume of it's solid state.

1a If it's a plasma weapon then you're just talking adding a massive amount of heat to melt or eventually vaporise your target.

2.  The inside of Jupiter is hotter than the sun.  We're talking 24,000° C.  This is hotter than the surface of the sun at 5,000° C, and hotter than the core of the earth at 6,000° C. Adding enough energy to destroy Jupiter should be on a different level of magnitude than a rocky planet.
gpt
I imagine if the planet was big enough they might need a more powerful laser.  But even gas giants get denser as you go further down (maybe with a liquid or solid core) so the laser would 'hit' them and have a similar effect as with a rocky planet.