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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"[[Jackie Chan]]'s got everything on me. Don't move over, [[Bruce Lee]]"''|'''Tripod''', "Krap Karate"}}
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This is sometimes the result of [[I Know Kung Faux]]. May include [[Funny Bruce Lee Noises]].
Expect this to stop once a character [[Took a Level
Compare [[Wimp Fight]] (when this is applied to a whole fight scene).
Contrast [[Artistic License Martial Arts
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* A mook in ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUlFqL72iV0 tries using Hokuto Shinken on Kenshiro] and [[Crowning Moment of Funny|fails miserably]].
* In the third ''[[Naruto]]'' movie, Rock Lee manages to knock himself in the head with nunchucks, despite being an otherwise competent fighter.
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== Comic Books ==
* Near the beginning of ''[[Tintin|Flight 714]]'', Prof. Calculus mentions that he practiced Savate in his youth and tries to demonstrate a high kick (lit. "face kick"), but only manages to fall on his back and empty all his pockets.
== Film ==
* ''[[Who Is Harry Crumb]]?'' had the titular Harry trying to show off aikido, so he does a backflip over the couch (imagine doing that when you're the size of [[John Candy]]), and the landing causes the dinosaur egg to fall. His boss catches it, though.
* Sing (Stephen Chow) in ''[[Kung Fu Hustle]]'' before he develops his powers.
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* In ''[[Donnie Brasco]]'', Donnie's first "mission" with Lefty is to collect a debt from a guy whose response is to claim to know kung fu and to adopt a movie-style martial arts stance (it is the '70s, after all). Needless to say, Donnie has little trouble dealing with this and they leave with the man's car.
* In ''The Adventures of Johnny Tao'', Johnny grew up watching [[Wuxia]] films. He spends his free time training with the moves he saw, thinking they are real martial arts. While he can hold his own in a fight, whenever he tries an [[Awesome but Impractical]] move like a flying kick, he ends up looking like a spaz. Later, when he is given ''real'' martial arts training, he becomes much more impressive.
* In ''[[Ip Man|Ip Man 2]]'', [[Big Bad]] boxer Twister mocks the "dancing" of the martial arts demonstration.
== Literature ==
* In ''[[
▲* In ''[[Discworld/Sourcery|Sourcery]]'', Nijel The Destroyer, a barbarian hero wanna-be gives quite a swordsmanship show when confronted with multiple guards... culminating in the sword getting stuck in the ceiling.
* In ''[[Heralds of Valdemar|Exile's Valour]]'', two students try to show off using stage fighting. A thrown sword shatters a huge mirror.
== Live
* In an episode of ''[[The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air]]'', Will Smith visited a dojo to learn martial arts. He finds a convenient block of wood on a stand and tries to hand chop through it. One hurt hand later he tries it with his foot and actually makes to break through it. Then he finds a samurai sword lying around while waiting for the sensei. He picked up the sword and proceeded to strike dramatic poses with it while talking with his mouth out of sync with his words. The sensei came in while he was going this and asks him if he's having fun and tells him that everybody tries that. On the other hand,
▲* In an episode of ''[[The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air]]'', Will Smith visited a dojo to learn martial arts. He finds a convenient block of wood on a stand and tries to hand chop through it. One hurt hand later he tries it with his foot and actually makes to break through it. Then he finds a samurai sword lying around while waiting for the sensei. He picked up the sword and proceeded to strike dramatic poses with it while talking with his mouth out of sync with his words. The sensei came in while he was going this and asks him if he's having fun and tells him that everybody tries that. On the other hand, he wonders who broke his coffee table. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-xTRt2wAeM\]
* Bulk in multiple episodes of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]''. In one episode called "A Star Is Born," there were auditions for a commercial about karate. Bulk entered the audition and showed of his "incredible karate skills" (read: making random movements while shouting). He passed the audition, but at the end of the episode we see the finished commercial; Bulk is the "before" and Tommy (who actually ''is'' a competent martial artist) is the "after".
** And he continues it in ''[[Power Rangers Samurai|Samurai]]'', as early as the first episode. Poor [[Generation Xerox|Spike]], being taught to be a samurai by "Uncle Bulk".
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* The infamous "Hi-KEEBA!" pratfall from the ''[[Women of the Prehistoric Planet]]'' episode of ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''.
** Also seen in ''[[Master Ninja]]'', where Timothy Van Patten's character tries showing off to his [[Ninja]] master, Lee Van Cleef's character.
* ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)|Home Improvement]]''
** One episode had Tim attempting to break a board with his head. Take a wild guess what happens.
** Al, on the other hand, has a rare [[Badass]] moment when he successfully pulls it off. (He achieved it first, which convinced Tim that he had to be able to do it...except that Al had studied the martial art in question.) Also a case of Al being the better handyman, as Tim tried to break it against the grain instead of along it.
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* ''[[Doctor Who]]'':
** In "The Vampires of Venice", Rory faces down a vampire with a broom, which he attempts to use to intimidate the vampire... by flailing it around wildly as if he was a master swordsman. Unfortunately for him, the vampire he's facing ''is'' a master swordsman. Cue [[Oh Crap]] on Rory's part.
** In his début episode the recently-regenerated-more-than-slightly-insane Fourth Doctor chops a brick in half with his bare
* One episode of ''[[Friends]]'' involves Phoebe spending the day with her younger half brother, Frank Jr. At one point (after having gone to Times Square to get ninja stars), he's on the Friends' rooftop patio thing flailing around with nunchucks.
* In the fifth season premiere of ''[[Psych]]'', Shawn gets into a fight with a Triad enforcer in a martial arts studio. Shawn had taken his first martial arts class earlier that day, and with little kids at that, but was genuinely extremely confident that he was going to win. He is knocked through a wall immediately, then spends the rest of the fight trying to survive. Eventually Juliet comes in and saves him, but he's still convinced he won.
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* In the ''[[Blackadder]]'' episode "Born To Be King", Edmund challenges McAngus to a duel; he flails his sword around, trying to look like he knows what he's doing, then McAngus takes one swipe, cutting his blade in half.
* ''[[Cheers]]''. Cliff, a notorious braggart, claims to know martial arts. He busts a board in half and his friends are convinced. Quietly he asks Diane to take him to the hospital, for he has broken many fingers.
* Anytime someone is shown with [[
* Invoked in ''[[Kamen Rider Fourze]]'': In one episode the [[Monster of the Week]] attacks [[Second Rider|Ryusei]], who defends himself with his considerable Jeet Kun Do skills. However, he realizes that [[Goth|Tomoko]] (a member of the Kamen Rider Club) is watching, and in order to maintain [[Obfuscating Stupidity|his cover]] as a [[Lovable Coward]], he throws out a really clumsy kick that lands him on his butt, then runs screaming away from the monster.
== Newspaper Comics ==
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== Professional Wrestling ==
* One episode of [[TNA]] featured James Storm trying to use nunchucks on his opponent, only to hit himself in the head with them.
== Video Games ==
* ''[[Breath of Fire]]''
** Near the beginning of ''[[Breath of Fire III]]'', Ryu (no, not [[Street Fighter|that one]]) is just an amnesiac kid who's fallen in with bad company and been handed [[With This Herring|a shortsword]]. Resultingly, his basic Attack-animation consists of him turning his back to the enemy, covering his face with his arm, and flailing his sword wildly in the general direction of his foe. After he's gotten some experience and [[Character Development]], it turns into a conservative-but-effective shoulder-slice, but strangely enough, [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|this affects neither his hit-percentage nor his damage-output]]...
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== Web Comics ==
* Kiel'ndia from ''[[Drowtales]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20200812171229/http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?order=chapters&id=766 smacks herself in the head with her own chain whip] after Kyo'nne (the girl she's trying to rescue) tells her to stop attacking.▼
▲* Kiel'ndia from ''[[Drowtales]]'' [http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?order=chapters&id=766 smacks herself in the head with her own chain whip] after Kyo'nne (the girl she's trying to rescue) tells her to stop attacking.
* This exchange in ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'':
{{quote|'''Massey''': I shall defeat them with my legal-jitsu! ''[strikes "kung fu" pose]''
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== Web Original ==
* ''[[Whateley Universe]]'': Generator tries teaching herself using her roommate's nunchuks and clocks herself. Even after she uses her powers and 'possesses' the nunchuks, she still gets hit. By possessed nunchuks that are trying to tell her something.
* The battle between [[The Cinema Snob|Kung Tai Ted and Master Kempo Dojo]] feature this heavily due to deliberately bad acting, and both of them manage to inflict a [[Groin Attack]] on themselves with their nunchuks.
* See ''[http://www.thearma.org/essays/nobest.htm There Is No Best Sword]'' article by Hank Reinhardt on the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts site. In short, swords are tools developed each for very specific purpose and limitations, and styles were developed to use them optimally for a given purpose. Since the show business people from Hollywood (and consequently those who didn't see anything better than that) don't bother with learning context, they usually have no idea of what the Fu they are trying to do.
{{quote|On another occasion I watched a young guy pick up a large two-hand claymore. He immediately assumed some of the stances made popular by Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan -- stances also based on katas for the katana. After manfully trying to whirl the heavy sword one-handed, he handed it back to the owner, said "Nice balance" and strutted off, obviously convinced the people watching were impressed. Alas, most of them were giggling. It was obvious he couldn't handle the sword; it was simply too big for the way he was trying to use it. }}
== Western Animation ==
* Sokka of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', when he was trying to find a good weapon. He kept falling over or smacking himself until he found a sword.
* ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'' played off Po's clumsiness in the beginning of the film.
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== Real Life ==
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXFCIjk01xA Diemon Dave], an Appalachian [[McNinja]] with his own line of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuigcXvcy1A training videos].
* Anyone, anywhere, who watched a lot of kung fu flicks and thought they could fight by imitating what they saw (commonly referred to as a [[Kung Fool]]).
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]
[[Category:Just for Pun]]
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[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]
[[Category:Foo Fu]]
[[Category:
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