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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"We would parade across the rooftops in the still of night, making naught but a whisper. By the time they realized there was a parade it was already over..."''|'''Karashi''' (on [http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/0393.html ninja marching bands]), ''[[Adventurers!]]''}}
In shows which feature martial arts heavily, there are a lot of different styles found in [[The Verse]]. This is [[Truth in Television]] somewhat as there have been many martial arts developed throughout history often based on local needs. For example [[wikipedia:Okinawan kobudo|Okinawan weapons]] were developed from household and farm implements.
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The [[Inverted Trope|inverse]] of [[I Know Madden Kombat]]; this trope covers instances where martial arts are used for mundane tasks, or a martial art is developed from humble beginnings. This trope is sometimes invoked by games that seek to be [[PVP-Balanced|balanced for PVP]] or [[Competitive Balance|competitive dueling]].
Compare [[Mundane Utility]], [[
Contrast [[What the Fu Are You Doing?]]
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime
* ''[[Ranma ½]]'' is likely the [[Trope Maker]], certainly the [[Trope Codifier]], and the list of just how many different styles that the anime ''alone'' named is ridiculous. Most, but not all, are based specifically on one of the many [[Cooking Duel|strange competitions they have]]. But yes, it does include Martial Arts Calligraphy in a [[Filler]] episode. In general, you have "serious" ones (that is, ones where the contestants actually aim to hurt each other), and "contest" ones (martial arts that tend to be goofy even by this series' standards).
** On the serious side, we have these gems...
*** Martial Arts Cookery: though never explictly named, there are implied to be quite a few of these in the world of ''Ranma ½''. [[Unlucky Childhood Friend|Ukyô]] [[Bifauxnen|Kuonji]], one of the main characters, practices a variant revolving around okonomiyaki, and in the late manga we are introduced to a childhood rival who practices a variant involving takoyaki. An anime episode has Ukyô fight a practioner of Martial Arts Crepe Cookery, and the episode ends with the implication of Martial Arts Sushi/Sashimi Cookery.
*** Good Old Days Martial Arts: an anime-only martial art that involves using old-time toys (trading cards, tops, marbles, hackey-sacks, thread, etc.) as deadly weapons.
*** Martial Arts Calligraphy: while the combatants do aim simply to be the first one to draw a certain kanji/hiragana symbol, they are also allowed to beat the snot out of each other with letter openers, paper weights, ink, paper and calligraphy brushes the size of quarterstaves. An apparently lost variant allows the practitioner to draw special designs on a person's body that can manipulate their internal
*** Martial Arts Figure Skating: teams of two in extravagant costumes zipping around on an ice-skating rink and beating the living tar out of each other. This one is actually very dangerous, and the story arc involving it features arguably the most violent fights of the series. After all, you are fighting with the equivalent of daggers strapped to their feet, and over a hard, rough, icy surface.
*** Martial Arts Tea Ceremony: yes, [[Rumiko Takahashi]] turned the most peaceful of Japanese ceremonies into a martial art. It uses items from tea ceremony, including stirring sticks, spoons and tea whisks as weapons. Combatants must fight from the formal kneeling
*** Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics: implicitly a girls-only style (explicitly stated to be so in an anime filler episode involving an attempt to create a men's version), combatants use gymnastic props to beat on each other. Oddly enough, Ryôga knows this art well enough to teach it to Akane.
*** Martial Arts Cheerleading: another "girls only" style, Martial Arts Cheerleaders attempt to bolster their team through a mixture of cheering on their own teammates and beating up the opposing team, usually with very flashy moves.
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*** Bathhouse Fu: an anime style (though hinted at by Happôsai in an early story common to both canons), this fighting style is amphibious in base (combatants attack both from under water and on the surface) and uses items from around the bathhouse, like towels and pails, as weapons.
*** Martial Arts Shogi: the most ridiculous of the serious styles, combatants dress up in shogi piece costumes and adhere strictly to the actual rules of the shogi piece they are ranked. What keeps this from being a hokey style is the fact that they do legitimately try to pulverize the other team.
** There're actually more serious
*** Martial Arts Dining: this style gives a whole new meaning to "food fight". The objective is to be the first one to clear all of the many plates of food you're
*** Martial Arts Watermelon/Carry The Snowman Race: two different versions of a contest, one for beaches, one for mountains, and both essentially based on the [[Smashing Watermelons]] game. With a watermelon/miniature snowman in one hand and a bokken in the other, race for the finish line while smashing the items carried by the other racers and avoid getting your own smashed.
*** Martial Arts Pingpong/Badminton: just like the ordinary game... only the balls that the fighters bat back and forth can contain all sorts of booby traps, like exploding in a shower of glue.
*** There was also a Martial Arts Marriage Contest,\ in the second movie.
** It also seems that every mundane task in [[The Verse]] gets not only a martial art, but specific fighting moves in Anything Goes. Crouch of the Wild Tiger, anyone?
* And then of course there's ''[[
* In ''[[Cromartie High School]]'', Masked Takenouchi masters the art of pillow-jutsu, in which he softens a pillow by beating it with a stick according to the desires of the pillow user. [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|He takes out a whole bike gang with this type of combat.]]
* Every school club in ''[[Futaba-Kun Change!|Futaba Kun Change]]'' seems to have a martial art based upon whatever the club's focus is. Including martial arts calligraphy.
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* ''[[Hikkatsu]]'' is centered around the main character trying to turn [[Percussive Maintenance]] into a martial art.
* ''[[Mad]]'' had a reportage from the noble martial art of "House-Fu", where you use household items in combat. And the combat is assumed to take place in the kitchen.
▲== Comics -- Books ==
▲* ''[[Mad]]'' had a reportage from the noble martial art of "House-Fu", where you use household items in combat. And the combat is assumed to take place in the kitchen.
* [[TMNT|Raphael]] using Chinese Butterfly Knives to trim a Christmas tree. This scene made it into the 2000s ''TMNT'' cartoon.
* In one issue of ''[[The Muppet Show Comic Book]]'', the special guest is the master of stealth tapdancing, [[A Worldwide Punomenon|Ninja Rogers]].
* A long-running cartoon in British newsmagazine [[Private Eye]] was ''[[The Cloggies]]'', an [[Oop North]] morris-dancing team who elevated traditional northern English clog-dance to the status of a lethal martial art, frequently winning dances by ''three groinings and a right uppercut''. Eventually collected in comic-book form detailing the lives and times of northern folk. Homaged by Terry Pratchett as the Lancre morrismen (see below).
== Fan Works ==
* Parodied in ''[[Naruto the Abridged Comedy Spoof Series Show]]'', where just about anything is a ninja thing.
{{quote|
* During the golden age of ''[[Ranma ½]]'' fan fiction during the late 1990s and early 2000s, fan writers took ''Ranma'''s propensity for diversely silly martial arts and turned it [[Up to Eleven]], featuring such ''ryuu'' as Snack Food Martial Arts, Martial Arts Interpersonal Relationships, Martial Arts Speed Reading, the Sakkiken and Martial Arts Non-Violence in their stories. As early as 1998, [https://www.sanjiyan.co.uk/showthread.php?t=69982 attempts to compile lists of all such fan-created styles and schools]{{Dead link}} were already numbering in the dozens, easily outpacing the "canon" arts from both the manga and the anime.
** The classic ''Ranma'' fic ''[[Girl Days]]'' is the source of Snack Food Martial Arts, plus one other -- the "[[Baka]]-ken", possibly the ultimate example of this trope. An attempt to weaponize [[Insane Troll Logic]], it revolves around the idea that one can be so bizarrely bad at fighting that it goes all the way through incompetence and out the other side into mastery. Ranma refuses to fight its one practitioner, on the grounds that he's [[Insistent Terminology|a loony]].
== Film ==
* Parodied, of course, by ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'''s "Martial Arts Picking Up a Dumpling with Chopsticks" training scene.
* In ''[[The Long Kiss Goodnight]]'', the protagonist become really good in the kitchen shortly after a car-crash. She thinks her memories are starting to return after six years of amnesia, and that her great skill with knives mean she used to be a chef. She's right about the first part.
▲* In ''[[The Long Kiss Goodnight]]'', the protagonist become really good in the kitchen shortly after a car-crash. She thinks her memories are starting to return after six years of amnesia, and that her great skill with knives mean she used to be a chef. She's right about the first part.
* ''[[Shaolin Soccer]]'' is centered on this trope. Stephen Chow's character believes that martial arts can be used for every day tasks. To promote the usefulness of kung fu, his [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits|ragtag group]] of former shaolin monks use their kung fu superpowers to play soccer. We also see kung fu used to trim trees, park cars, and fetch objects from high shelves. Tai Chi is also used to cook.
* Stephen Chow's earlier film ''[[God of Cookery]]'' featured Shaolin-style cooking, complete with an over-the-top martial arts contest.
* In ''[[Hero (film)|Hero]]'', one's skill in swordsmanship directly crosses over into skill at calligraphy. Nameless studies Broken Sword's calligraphy to get a better impression of his warrior skills. This is actually a reference to some Samurai
* In ''[[Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon]]'' one of the protagonists comments on the princess' calligraphy skills, comparing it to swordplay. She tries to [[Obfuscating Stupidity|act dumb]], but [[Action Girl|her secret]] is clearly out. Tiny [[Anvilicious|anvils]] begin to rain as she goes on to comment on how her name looks like "sword".
* In ''Kung Fu Dunk'', the main characters uses a [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique|special martial arts technique]] in the finals of a basketball game to ''travel through time'' in order to make the winning basket. In the same vein, his [[Mentors|Masters from Kung Fu School]] show up to play after the most of his team is incapacitated by the opposing one. [[Hilarity Ensues|Projectile weapons are thrown, over-the-top slow motion is used and pressure points are hit]].
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** There's more Martial Arts Calligraphy to be had in 1982's ''The Prodigal Son''.
** Jet Li repeatedly does Kung Fu Healing People in the ''Once Upon a Time in China'' series.
** Almost anywhere you find a training scene in an old kung fu movie there's likely to be something like
* ''[[The Karate Kid]]'' has the infamous "[[Wax On, Wax Off]]", not to mention "paint the fence", "paint the house" and "sand the deck". Nothing for Crane Kick, except getting free pizza from the delivery guy. Another example of kung fu healing.
** Everything is kung fu.
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* ''[[Gymkata]]'' featured the deadly combination of ninjitsu and... ''gymnastics''. It also completely fails at both. To be fair, pommel-horse fu is scary... if you're within two and a half feet of a pommel horse.
* ''[[Dreadnaught]]'', a 1981 Hong Kong film directed by Yuen Woo Ping, may prove to be the [[Trope Codifier]]. This martial arts comedy (with dashes of horror) contains all of the following kung-fu applications: Medical treatment, Lion Dancing, being fitted for a custom-made suit, and a kung-fu serial killer using Chinese Opera motifs. But the biggest example from this movie is Yuen Biao's character, whose family's unorthodox ''laundry'' methods turns out to be the fabled Eagle Claw. He didn't even know it was Kung Fu until Master Wong Fei Hung saw him using it, and he ended up using it to defend himself against the aforementioned serial killer. Chris O'Donnell's laundry scene in ''Batman Forever'' is a shot-for-shot homage of Yuen Biao doing his laundry work in this movie.
* ''[[Bloodsport]]''
== Literature ==
* ''[[Discworld]]''
** In ''[[
** ''[[
** A throwaway one-liner in some supplementary material indicates that in the Discworld's equivalent of Wales, "choral singing has been elevated to the level of a martial art".
** ''[[
* Deconstructed in the ''Age of Discovery'' trilogy by Michael Stackpole and done entirely seriously. A true Martial Artist may achieve true magic and potential immortality by completely mastering his style. But then again, so can a basket-weaver once he completely masters basket-weaving.
* Ambient magic in ''[[Circle of Magic]]'' books ''is'' this trope. Ambient magic is when people have magic that reacts to certain
== Live-Action TV ==
* A variation appears in an episode of ''[[Sliders]]'' on a world where they have "seers" for every imaginable
* ''[[The Goodies]]'' episode "Kung Fu Kapers" featured the Lancashire martial art of Ecky-Thump, which consisted of hitting people with black puddings.
* [[John Belushi]]'s famous series of Samurai sketches on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' in the 1970s, in which he portrayed a samurai running various mundane businesses (Delicatessen, Tailor, Hotel, Bakery, etc.) and speaking only (fake) Japanese.
== Tabletop Games ==
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* The ''[[Diana Warrior Princess]]'' [[Tabletop RPG]] includes the ancient numerology-based martial art known as The Way of the Exploding Grid, or Su Doku.
* Parodied in ''[[Ninja Burger]]'', where characters use their ninja skills for fast food delivery, losing honor if they're seen or late. Their slogan? "Guaranteed delivery in 30 minutes or less, or we commit seppuku!"
* ''[[Dungeons
** ''Complete Warrior'' [[Drunken Master]] prestige class. 'Nuff said.
** In ''D&D'' versions 2 and up you can really get creative if you felt like it. This troper remembers making an elf fighter who carried a big ass sword... and never used it for anything other then intimidation. Instead, he specialized in the simple throwing dart as his weapon of choice and had the non-weapon proficiency "wild fighting". Imagine a pointy-eared [[Conan the Barbarian|Conan]] dropping his sword and throwing darts at people. When your 7 or so darts per attack deal 1d3+2 damage (and HP in the second edition was not as padded as in its future incarnations), landing even 2-3 of those darts could seriously mess someone up.
** In the 3rd and 4th editions there were a handful of feats: weapon proficiency, exotic weapon proficiency, etc. that allowed you to specialize in virtually any "weapon" of your choosing that your GM would allow. My buddy told me how a GM let his kid brother quite literally specialize in using armor as a weapon, as he smacked enemies around using a suit of enchanted armor stuck on a training dummy. Picking the right feats and mixing and matching your class/prestige classes in 3rd edition, or the right powers & parargon paths in 4th edition, can lead to unique styles. Your mileage may vary, of course.
* ''[http://www.sirlin.net/yomi Yomi]'', an upcoming card game currently in beta, is based around a Olympic-style martial arts tournament. While some of the characters the players can use make sense to be in a martial arts tournament, four other characters make less
== Video Games ==
* ''[[Fruit Ninja]]'', well, the title says it all, really. The game is about using your cool katana to chop up fruit.
* The plots of [[Nasuverse|Type Moon's]] ''[[Melty Blood]]'' [[Fighting Game
* ''[[Disgaea]]'': Chaos Fire Style Kitchen Fist, [[Verbal Tic|Boom!]]
* In ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'', civilian miners can be drafted into the military in an emergency, and are actually quite useful. The game uses their (quickly trained) mining skill instead of a weapon skill, their attributes are often much higher than your slower-working carpenters and masons, and pickaxes are fearsome [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|organ-lacerating]] weapons.
** The same goes for your woodcutters; they use ''battle axes'' to chop down trees. Tree trunks, legs... not a huge difference, right?
* In ''[[No More Heroes]]'', the story revolves around climbing the ranks to become the Number 1 Assassin. The problem is there are many characters, and none of them are an Assassin in any sense of the word. They clash giant, loud lightsabers, pilot giant robots, launch very illegal fireworks, and act like loud lunatics with random weapons.
== Web Comics ==
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** No, that honor has to go to the obsessed vampire who turns people he bites into werewolves.
** No, that honor has to go to the sociopathic teddy bear [[Played for Laughs]]. NMS, by the way, has ninja bookkeepers. Not just bookkeepers who are ninja, but people ''trained in the art of ninja bookkeeping''. Both bookkeeping with ninja skills, [[Ambiguous Syntax|and]] keeping ninja books. *stage whisper*: They really only call it that to make the extremely elderly bookkeepers feel better about not reliably being [[Badass Grandpa|Badass Great-Great-Grandparents]].*/stage whisper*
* Thief, in ''[[8-Bit Theater
* ''[[Freefall]]''
** The [[McNinja|French ninjas]] of "Le Restaurant des Ninjas" run their restaurant without being seen. Everything from directing patrons to their tables, to delivering [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1100/fv01082.htm menus], [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1100/fv01093.htm food] (including [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1200/fv01110.htm desserts], [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1100/fv01083.htm drinks] (including [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1100/fv01090.htm refills]), and the [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1200/fv01112.htm bill], all while being completely stealthy. Well, ''[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1100/fv01081.htm almost]'' [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1200/fv01113.htm completely]. They're so effective at hiding, [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1100/fv01079.htm they hide their restaurant.]
** Ninja accountants appear on-screen in [https://web.archive.org/web/20120506224544/http://www.goats.com/archive/011119.html Goats].
** Oddly, this plays into a real life example, with [https://web.archive.org/web/20131028153447/http://www.ninjanewyork.com/ Ninja New York], an actual ninja-themed restaurant in which your servers will appear from nowhere, and you might just get assassinated.
* Played with in ''[[The Order of the Stick]],'' where a waitress, upon sneaking up on her customers and startling one, admits that she's waiting tables to pay for ninja school.
== Web Original ==
* Chaka, at [[Super-Hero School]] Whateley Academy in the ''[[Whateley Universe]]'', has the superpower of Ki control, and has invented new
* ''[[Fighters High]]'' sports this as an essential part of the eponymous school's culture. Within the first 10 minutes of the first episode, we've seen the school's cook face off against a student, blasting him into a wall using a fireball generated via spatula.
* ''[[Atop the Fourth Wall]]'' features a ninja-style dancer.
== Western Animation ==
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* ''[[Kim Possible]]'' of course has the standard Mountain Temple Ninjas, Monkey Ninjas, and [[Mighty Whitey|Aristocratic Englishman Monkey Ninja]]. It also has Embarrasment Ninjas. Dr. Drakken speculates that in that field it pays to specialize. And don't forget [[Square Race Round Class|Sumo Ninja.]]
* In the first episode of the original ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' series, the turtles walk through the "ninja district" of the city and, after finding their original destination (Ninja Pizza), see signs for Ninja-run dry cleaning, shoe repair, video rentals and ''dentists''. At said Ninja Pizza, the food is thrown like shuriken at the customers (and either you catch it or it ends up all over you).
{{quote|
'''Leonardo:''' What is it, a threatening note?
'''Raphael:''' Worse than that... it's the check! }}
* ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'': In one episode, it is revealed that SpongeBob is nigh-obsessed with karate, driving his boss Krabs to nearly fire him from his frycook job due to the fact this obsession is interfering with his work... until he realizes that SpongeBob's karate can also be used to mass-produce burgers and to put on a very entertaining show for customers.
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* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', the various bending techniques are shown to have various practical applications. These range everywhere from the sensible (i.e. using firebending to set stoke a boiler, earthbending for stonemasonry, and waterbending to propel river boats) to the somewhat ridiculous (i.e. using earthbending to send mail).
** Cases such as the latter double as [[Awesome Yet Practical]], because it really is an effective system.
== Real Life ==
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* When there wasn't anyone to spy on or assassinate, the [[Ninja]] worked as gardeners.
** After Tokugawa Ieyasu became shogun (and started the centuries of seclusion) the ninjas of the time found their job opportunities, i.e. assassinations, were running out. The shogun, not wanting a bunch of well-trained killers angry at him, made a large chunk of them into his personal spy network, answering only to him and the Emperor of Japan. To hide their ''real'' job they often worked as carpenters and gardeners in the homes of their lords.
*** In the ''[[Command
** They did this as a "social stealth" tactic as well... no one looks at the peasant gardener.
*** [[Monty Python's Flying Circus|NOBODY expects the]] [[A Worldwide Punomenon|Spinach Infiltration!]]
* Traditional [[Samurai]] martial arts included not only a variety of fighting styles, but every necessary skill for a soldier, split up into different techniques or ''jutsu''. This meant a well-trained warrior knew, besides the better-known ''jujutsu'' (unarmed technique) and ''kenjutsu'' (sword technique), things like ''suijutsu'' ("swimming in armour technique") and ''kajutsu'' ("burning down peasant huts technique"). All of these are still taught by a few hardcore traditionalist schools, although one wonders how they practice arson at the dojo.
** Probably with Rebuilding Jutsu so they can perform arson again and again for practice.
* The ubiquitous "dragon dance" seen at Chinese New
** Since the original meaning of the word gōngfu means [[wikipedia:Kung fu (term)|"one's expertise in any skill achieved through hard work and practice, not necessarily martial"]], ''everything'' is a form of Kung-Fu.
*** The [[Jackie Chan]] ''[[Karate Kid]]'' makes [[Bilingual Bonus|so much]] [[Fridge Brilliance|more sense]] knowing that!
* Most of the "Animal Style" Kung Fu traditions have a legend about their founder watching some animal in
** Another view is that some wise old master looked at the beauty of nature
** A third point of view is that the monks were getting fat and lazy, so they said, hey animals are never fat, if we copy their moves, maybe we could drop 30 pounds.
* A lot of weapons started out as agricultural and gardening tools including scythes, flails, and even kunai! In fact, the French Revolution was mostly fought with farming equipment.
** In fact, save for obvious exceptions such as swords and firearms, most weapons have mundane predecessors. The spear and bow were originally hunting tools, for example, and axes and hammers were and still are construction tools.
*** Gunpowder was invented in an alchemy experiment that was ''trying'' for an [[Immortality Inducer]], and a sword is just a longer knife. A great many battles have also been fought with hunting guns—the sharpshooter units of many European armies are called "hunters" (chasseurs in French, Jägers in German) ''[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|because that was what they did for a living in peacetime]]''.
* The French fighting style ''Savate'' originated in [[Bar Brawl|harbor brawling.]]{{context|reason=How is this an example of the trope as written?}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Improvised Index]]
[[Category:Just for Pun]]
[[Category:This Index Knows Kung Fu]]
▲[[Category:Combat Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Cooking Stories]]
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