39,327
edits
m (categories and general cleanup) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Just the fact that they can release a fighting game starring Shaquille O'Neal and call it ''[[Shaq Fu]]'' pretty much proves that you can put 'Fu' at the end of anything. How about ''[[Robin Williams]] Fu'', or ''[[
[[As You Know]], "''Kung fu''" (Chinese: 功夫, literally "achievement through sustained effort") is a collective term for a number of fighting styles which have roots as ancient as the 18th century BCE and have continued to evolve to this day. The greatest spike in popularity and variety of ''Kung Fu'' came in the 20th century; not only did the now-iconic "drunken boxing", "five animals" and "tai chi chuan" styles develop during that period, but upon exposure to contemporary western pop culture, ''Kung Fu'' experienced a veritable ''explosion'' of applications to a variety of professions, aspirations and walks of life other than the canonical ''kung''.
Line 6:
Evidently, there was something exotic and evocative about the phrase ''Kung Fu'' and the excellence it symbolized that western culture found irresistible. Soon those privy to the great secrets of juggling liabilities and equity professed to be practicing the art of ''account fu'', green-thumb enthusiasts the world over discovered the inner focus allowing them to transform their mere gardening skills into ''snip fu'' and high-brow enthusiasts began polishing their assorted gambits and defenses into ''bona fide'' ''chess fu''.
Skills that were previously thought to be mundane were revealed to be [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|awesome beyond imagination]], with those graceful enough in their application often finding [[Adrenaline Time|time speeding up and slowing down]] in the appropriate dramatic fashion as they [[Some Dexterity Required|snip a particularly difficult bonsai tree]], perform ''[[That One Rule|en passant]]'' or [[Needle in
The term ''"Foo Fu"'' for this general phenomenon was coined [[Just for Pun]], and basically means the same as "X Fu" or "Whatever Fu". It comes from ''"Foo"'', a placeholder often used by programmers as a stand-in for whatever should be there instead (the technical term for this kind of placeholder is "[[wikipedia:Metasyntactic variable|Metasyntactic Variable]]").
Line 40:
== Anime & Manga ==
* From ''[[Ranma ½
Line 48:
== Card Games ==
* The ''[[Munchkin (
** The various style cards also all end in "fu". Banana Fu, Clown Fu, Gun Fu, etc.
== Films -- Live-Action ==
* ''[[Howard the Duck (
* Joe Bob Briggs' "Drive In Reviews" would often use the "fu" suffix when listing the various weapons used in the target movie, which would lead to line items like "hubcap-fu", "tree branch-fu" and "brick-fu".
== Literature ==
* The ''[[
* In her book about her life with Jim Morrison, the writer Patricia Kennealy refers a lot to "evil fu"...
== Live-Action TV ==
* Willow's Witch Fu is admired in an episode of ''[[
Line 83:
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''Cyberpunk'' has "Gun-Fu", the fine art of running up to people and shooting them.
* The ''[[
Line 94:
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[
** A variation when Schlock refers to the company lawyer as having "owned you with his legal-jitsu." Jitsu means art, so it actually is kind of appropriate.
** Played straight with the same character here: "Shodan told me you passed [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20060621.html his unarmed combat course]".
* Inverted in [http://www.footloosecomic.com/footloose/pages.php?page=50 one chapter] of ''[[Footloose (
* The webcomic ''[[What the Fu (
* [http://www.applegeeks.com/comics/viewcomic.php?issue=297 Strip #297] of ''[[
== Web Original ==
* The Cheerleaders, a trio of supervillains from the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', regularly use their "Jiggle Fu" distraction powers against male opponents.
* [[
{{quote| "[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/2453-howard-the-duck Well, the superior joke here would be Tai Quack Do...]"}}
* [http://images.google.com/images?q=%22Cat+Fu%22 Images-Googling for "Cat Fu"] can get you some hilarious results.
Line 110:
== Western Animation ==
* The Flash cartoon ''[[Skunk Fu!]]''
* [[Darkwing Duck]] and his master Goose Lee are "Quack Fu" martial artists.
* Although it may looks like it at first glance, ''[[
* ''[[Yin Yang Yo
* A martial arts themed segment of the ''[[Super Mario Bros Super Show]]'' has a scene in which Mario and Luigi try to learn karate and fail miserably... so the martial arts master trying to train them makes up a plumbing-themed martial art called "Plumb Fu", which they master immediately.
|