Boxing Lesson: Difference between revisions

** First, an early episode had Extroverted Nerd Steve Urkel dealing with a bully. He actually ends up challenging the bully to a boxing match, but having no experience and muscles like wet string, he knows he's in trouble. He convinces Carl to teach him to box. It's pretty much for nothing, though, and he's beaten down. Before the bully can finish him off, though, a spectator protests -- and then the whole crowd. The bully backs down in the face of pretty much the entire student body apparently being willing to fight on Steve's behalf.

** Second, Richie, a cousin of the Winslows who calls Urkel "Uncle Steve" (though they're unrelated), has trouble with a bully at school. Steve, apparently not remembering his own experience with the same tactic or maybe understanding Richie had more muscle than a quadriplegic orange (unlike him), advised Richie to stand up to him--physically if necessary. Richie got in trouble at school for fighting, and his mother was angry at Steve--until Richie explained that he was defending himself from a bully, at which point it became somewhat accepted.

* ''[[Punky Brewster]]'' tried, unsuccessfully, to learn to box when a bully was picking on her. Her friends told the bully that even if she beat up Punky, she'd still have to fight all of them, one by one.

* The pilot of ''[[Burn Notice]]'' has the Michael teaching a kid how to defend himself from bullies, using guerilla tactics. The implicit acknowledgment is that he suffered from bullying as a kid (either from his peers or from his father), and wished he had received boxing lessons as a child.

 

* ''[[King of the Hill]]'' put an interesting twist on the [[Boxing Lesson]], by having Bobby take a ''women's'' self defense course and then dealing a [[Groin Attack|savage groin kick]] to his tormentors. The trope is subverted nicely when Hank attempts to teach his son how to box, and receives a nasty kick to the testicles when Bobby gets frustrated with the lesson. Then double-subverted when he learns groin kicks do nothing to keep his mother from punishing him <ref>a break from reality</ref>.

* ''[[South Park]]''

** A variant occurs where both Tweek and Craig are taught different fighting styles for their upcoming fight. Jimbo intentionally teaches Tweek dirty boxing techniques (like nut shots) and Craig is taught sumo wrestling.

* Subverted in ''[[The Raccoons]]'' episode, "Black Belt Bentley," where Bentley is eager to learn martial arts from Sheaffer when he is bullied so he can smash their heads in. However, when Sheaffer learns of the young Raccoon's intentions, he promptly kicks him out of the class. However, Bentley does not get the message until he gets so psyched up improvising learning from a martial arts film that he inadvertently attacks Bert and breaks his arm. While Bentley is kicking himself for being so stupid, he meets the bullies again. However, chastened by his experience, Bentley uses his martial arts training with appropriate restraint to defend himself while reasoning with the bullies about the original misunderstanding that caused the conflict. The combination of Bentley's explanation and his fighting moves are enough to make peace with the impressed bullies. As a result, Sheaffer not only lets Bentley back into the class, but promotes him to the yellow belt training rank in appreciation of his solid learning and good attitude.

* In ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'', Phineas is forced into a fight with Buford the school bully...and he's trained by Evander Holyfield. Yes, it's ''that'' kind of show.

* In ''[[Home Movies]]'', Brendon's decrepit grandpa gives him an impromptu boxing lesson to help him deal with an angrily super-competitive goalie. The lesson quickly [[Crosses the Line Twice]] as grandpa's boxing gloves are filled with ball bearings for "oomph". When Brendon later encounters the goalie, he tries an alternative means of discussing the goalie's relationship with his overachiever father, and quickly ends up on the ground in an armlock.

* The ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'' episode, 'Hero Hampton' is based on this trope.