Let's Talk - Cobra Kai

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005-2021)

November 11, 2020 Just Curious Media Episode 30
Let's Talk - Cobra Kai
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005-2021)
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Show Notes Transcript

Let's Talk - Cobra Kai
Episode 30: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005-2021)

Jason Connell and Sal Rodriguez discuss the popular TV series and its connection to The Karate Kid which includes a "You're The Best" montage, body bags, and a knockoff Cobra Kai karate gi.

Synopsis: Five friends with big egos and small brains are the proprietors of an Irish pub in Philadelphia.
 
Creators: Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton
Cast: Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Rob McElhenney, Kaitlin Olson, Danny DeVito

Original Episode: S02E19

Recorded: 10-27-20
Studio: Just Curious Media
https://www.JustCuriousMedia.com/

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https://www.instagram.com/SalvadorLosAngeles/

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Jason Connell:

Welcome to Just Curious Media. This is Let's Talk - Cobra Kai. I'm Jason Connell.

Sal Rodriguez:

And I'm Sal Rodriguez.

Jason Connell:

All right, Sal, here we are back for another special episode. Because we're waiting for season three, like everyone else. And today we're covering another classic show. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yes. Which is a show I knew about. I've seen the billboards. And you know what's funny is that though the advertising that the show uses gave it a wholesome look, you thought it was sort of the All American sitcom. But no, this show pushes the envelope big time.

Jason Connell:

Yes, it does. It's quite crude and funny. And I actually really enjoy it. It came out in 2005. And from what I saw, it's still running. There's a season coming out next year. So there was a bit of a gap a couple of years off. So that's a long running show. I've actually never seen any episodes until now until we looked into more shows that had Karate Kid Cobra Kai references in them. And this one does is why we're talking about it. I have a really good friend who has been telling me to watch the show. So this was my introduction to the show, and I probably gonna go back and see some more episodes about you.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, and you know what I did this time around. Unlike when we spoke about How I Met Your Mother, I watched the first episode season one, episode one. Before I watched any others, I wanted to get a feel for the show, kind of get the tone of the show, watch that first episode that'll set you up. So in subsequent episodes, you're like, Okay, this is the kind of stuff that they do

Jason Connell:

the shows created by Rob Mcilhenny and Glenn Howerton, who are both on the show, Rob plays Mack, who sounds he looks a little bit like Hailey Joe Osmond to me.

Sal Rodriguez:

You know, I kind of thought that too. Because the whole time I'm watching the show. I'm thinking, why does this guy look so familiar? So I look on IMDb. And he wasn't in anything before this, that I would have recognized him from. I thought maybe he was like a, maybe like a 90 sitcom kid grown up, you know, but No, the thing I find interesting is these guys who created the show, cast themselves in the show, as leads. Does that happen too often?

Jason Connell:

Not that often. But it's probably the only way they got it made. And I should also say that Glenn plays Dennis Reynolds in the show. And they're both fantastic. And yeah, I didn't recognize them either not knowing the show until research for this episode that we're doing of Let's Talk Cobra Kai, but they're surrounding themselves with some really good actors as well, which include Charlie Day, who I love him and everything I've ever seen him in especially Horrible Bosses. He had a breakout performance in that. He plays Charlie Kelly. And then there's Kaitlin Olson, she plays D. Reynolds, we talked before the recording, and you definitely spotted her from Curb Your Enthusiasm. And you're absolutely right about that. And then of course, it has one of my favorite actors of all time from TV and film. And that is who

Sal Rodriguez:

I would imagine you're talking about Mr. Danny DeVito. himself, yes, who plays Frank Reynolds. So he plays the father of Dennis Reynolds, and D. Reynolds. So Dennis and D are brother and sister and their father is Frank played by Danny DeVito. Exactly,

Jason Connell:

I should tell you this synopsis of the show. And it's essentially this five friends with big egos and small brains are the proprietors of an Irish pub and Philadelphia. And that's it. All the storylines come out of that. Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

it'd be like if friends were wasted. Yeah,

Jason Connell:

exactly. And that's why you get so many interesting storylines, and they're usually drinking and most of them. So unlike How I Met Your Mother, there's less tie ins to the Karate Kid and Cobra Kai, there's definitely not an appearance from William Zabka, or rough Macho. So we set the bar high on our pop culture tie in to TV shows and the show that we cover. But there are three episodes with references. And that's what we're gonna go through.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, this is one of those times where I really believe that after going through all this, where this is for the fan of Karate Kid, this is for the fan now of Cobra Kai, because when you watch these episodes, no, they do not even utter the words Cobra Kai, and only mentioned the words Karate Kid once in passing, which we will get to in a moment. But otherwise, they're not saying, Hey, everybody, look, we're tipping our hat to the Karate Kid. They're not doing that. In fact, if you blink, you might even miss some things. So we're going to help you stay tuned to all the Cobra Kai Karate Kid references and Omaze and tips of the hat in this episode. And I gotta tell you, Jason, I'm very excited because I have the silver lining type of mentality where I want to look at the bright side of things right. So here we are waiting on Season Three got delayed, but while we're waiting liquid we get to do we get to explore all over these avenues that we might not have visited if we were just focused on episodes of Cobra Kai. So this gives us an opportunity to kind of poke around and lots of cool things related to the Karate Kid and Cobra Kai universe.

Jason Connell:

So true. And it's kind of like we get to play Let's talk. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Sal Rodriguez:

That also sounds like a talk show. By the way. Have you been to Philadelphia yourself?

Jason Connell:

I happen to Philadelphia. I haven't went to see my beloved Washington Redskins now named Washington football team play the Philadelphia Eagles at the vet, which was a famous stadium that was blown up and made room for their new stadium. But yeah, I went there and enjoyed my time in Philadelphia. My cousin used to live there. Great city a lot of history saw the rocky statue really cool stuff. How about you

Sal Rodriguez:

know, I've never been the closest I've been was Pittsburgh, we shot an indie sci fi film in Pittsburgh and surrounding areas, but no never made it out to the city of brotherly love. No.

Jason Connell:

So we're gonna jump in in chronological order and tell you the season and episode the name of it in the air it came out and then just quickly cruise through each of these three episodes. So the first one season two episode$500 baby came out in 2006 already love the title though. Sal. It says it all Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

it's a tongue in cheek reference to of course Million Dollar Baby. Which stars Hilary Swank who is in The Next Karate Kid? Yes,

Jason Connell:

yes. That's a tie in.

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, there's a cool tie in our director here. Daniel at CES. It's ATT is he directed 16 episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, three episodes of The Sopranos. six episodes of six feet under one of our favorite shows. Yes, two episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer one of my favorite shows and 20 episodes of Beverly Hills 90210. It's quite possible. This guy directed me when I was young extra on Beverly Hills. 90210.

Jason Connell:

Love it. Wow. And also I was wanting to add a Million Dollar Baby was directed by Clint Eastwood, but it was produced by Albert s. ruddy. Now I executive produced a documentary, entitled, tough and enough conversations with Albert s ruddy. He's a famous producer. He created things such as Hogan's Heroes Cannonball Run, and did many other movies including Million Dollar Baby won an Oscar for that. And Tophane enough. We named it after a line in Million Dollar Baby.

Sal Rodriguez:

Wow. I love all those degrees of separation how you go all over the place. And here we are again. I love that. Yeah,

Jason Connell:

that's so good. So here's the synopsis for the episode. Inspired by the movie Million Dollar Baby. As we've already talked about, Frank teaches D to inflict punishment, while Dennis and Mack teach Charlie to take punishment. But both fighting careers are derailed by the use of performance enhancing supplements. My God so good. I really enjoyed this episode, Sal. So we're not gonna go beat by beat as we do on Cobra Kai, or as we do when we break down one of the movies The Karate Kid, Karate Kid. Part two, part three are as we do on Let's Talk movies, but we're gonna do broad strokes and hit upon the touch points that mentioned anything with Karate Kid or Cobra Kai.

Sal Rodriguez:

I do think it's worth mentioning the very first scene where they're walking down the street.

Jason Connell:

It begins with the gang all walking down the street. And they're in full on discussion about rocky for being the greatest movie of all time, Sal, which cracks me up and yet is a nother tie in. Because John G. Avildsen, who directed the Karate Kid, Karate Kid, Part Two Karate Kid part three, also directed Rocky and rocky five. So he's tied to both franchises. And it's just crazy, right?

Sal Rodriguez:

You know what, honestly, I'm kind of sad now because I wish you were here. I wish you were here to see all this. I feel sad for that, you know, rest in peace.

Jason Connell:

Rest in peace. Mr. Halverson, I would have loved to have the honor to interview him together for this podcast but but he loved us some incredible work that we're going to be talking about for many years to come. Let's hope

Sal Rodriguez:

and it just occurs to me that they love rocky for Rocky is the franchise set in Philly right Rockies from Philly. Oh, yes. And these characters are set in Philly. That's probably why they love Rocky. Yeah, hello. Now it all makes sense.

Jason Connell:

When you go to Philadelphia Sal, it will all make sense.

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay. Yeah, cuz everybody I know who has been to Philadelphia has run up the steps and done the arms thing. It's mandatory if you visit the array I think it's mandatory.

Jason Connell:

Yes. So besides the Million Dollar Baby tie in it also brings another movie in the fold is kind of like a mashup. And so what is the other movie? Well, definitely

Sal Rodriguez:

a lot of visual images related to fight club, although you can't say Fight Club, right? You can't. Right? Isn't that the whole thing? So first rule first rule of fight club but definitely looks like Fight Club. You know, because my cinnamon Asia I saw a Fight Club. I do remember the imagery of these underground basement fights.

Jason Connell:

And by the way, Fight Club incredible film by David Fincher. Brad Pitt at Norton. Amazing. Basically, in this episode, there's these two parallel storylines. Mack and Dan has stumbled into this underground situation where people are, you know, taking their shirt off and just just like fist fighting, just straight up out of the movie. And they really realize Charlie might be the toughest guy they know or the guy that can take a punishment. And they want to sign him up, make some money on him. They're trying to work with Charlie to get him on board who loves the idea of being a rock star in this arena. They're basically training him to take a punch, or throw a chair at him or do different things ending with a beer bottle, toughen him up so they can bet heavy on him or against him. And then there's the other storyline. You have Frank who wants to get his daughter D tougher so she could take on all the guys,

Sal Rodriguez:

we learn that Frank Reynolds, that's D and Dennis's father was called Frankie fast hands. He was a boxer in his youth. So he's agreed to train his daughter D on how to kick ass after she and the rest of the gang got mugged in the alley by the method with the knife and she was laying there just left behind when the gang ran off. So she wants to learn how to take care of herself.

Jason Connell:

That's right. She was super mad at them for leaving her because they were so busy in the Rocky four talk. This guy pulled a knife and they bailed and now she's pissed at them and wants to beat them up. So yeah, for father Frankie is taking her back to the old gym, the old boxing gym, straight out a Million Dollar Baby. It looks just like it. And she's pretty meek. And she's never done anything in a gym. I mean, even just grabbing a bar and doing anything with it. It's just It looks so unorthodox for her. So she's got a lot of work to do.

Sal Rodriguez:

As a former personal trainer myself when I watched the initial scene when they go into the gym, and he puts her under the squat rack in the way that he explains to her how to do a squat. Oh my gosh, I am wincing. I was wincing at this moment. Well, she's

Jason Connell:

even like, I don't think that sounds right. Lock your knees. Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

just locked lock those knees. That was at least well, the Olympic bars are standard 45 pounds. And even if those are 25 pound plates on either end, we're looking at about 145 pounds on the shoulders of a person who probably hasn't been to a gym ever or in a very long

Jason Connell:

time. And it weighs more than her most likely.

Sal Rodriguez:

And so cool. While they're at the gym, they run into Frank's old nemesis. His name is Bobby thunder son, played by Eddie Mecca.

Jason Connell:

I recognize him right away.

Sal Rodriguez:

It took me a second I'm looking at him going, Who is this guy? And of course, Eddie Mecca played Carmine, the big Ragu, Ragusa, from Laverne and Shirley.

Jason Connell:

Absolutely. I was like, Oh my gosh, whatever happened to that guy. He was such a big personality on the burden surely, and we're dating ourselves by talking about Laverne and Shirley. It was a show back in the late 70s, early 80s. It started Penny Marshall, who went on to become a great director in her own right from big to a league of their own, and many other films, but at the show was directed by Gary Marshall, her brother, who had a string of hits, which included Pretty Woman, and many, many others. And he would even pop up in movies, like lost in America as an actor, but I always enjoyed him. And he actually passed away a few years ago, as did Penny Marshall. So rest in peace to both of them

Sal Rodriguez:

rest in peace. Also, Jason, did you notice the guy who was paddling around with Bobby, the guy over his right shoulder? The other coach looking guy, the older guy, who do you think he looked like?

Jason Connell:

Oh, I don't know. I didn't get a good enough. Look.

Sal Rodriguez:

He looked so much like and I know that they wanted him to look like Mickey from Rocky, of course, played by Burgess Meredith. He looked like him. If you watch it again. Notice that that's what he looks like. That's who they made him to look like I'm sure Yeah,

Jason Connell:

no doubt. And also at the gym was Briana who was Bobby's daughter. And so then there starts to be a little bit of your Million Dollar Baby. Brianna wants to challenge D. And that starts to set things in motion. Briana is an actual boxer. She's in the gym, hitting people and knocking them down. She knows what she's doing.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, they they kind of make her look like she's she's ready for some actual competition. Yeah, right off the bat. She gives somebody an uppercut and knocks them out. So we know this girl can kick ass. So we'll see if D is up for the challenge here. But luckily for D she ends up meeting. Her name was Katie Chrysler, she is credited as shady woman so this shady woman in the gym approaches D and starts to basically push steroids on her or she calls them performance enhancing supplements. So they're not these are not steroids. So Dee starts taking these supplements and she starts going nuts. She starts having what you would call roid rage. She is flipping out and it's hilarious. The way she delivers these scenes, like yelling at her dad over the phone punching the wall. She is going nuts on these steroids. But guess what? She is ready to kick ass now.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, because they're doing the whole thing where she's at the gym and now she's lifting more weight and she's leaving these performance enhancing drugs at the bar and Charlie's starts to take him as well. So it's kind of funny how they're trained separately. They don't even know what they're up to. They're doing their own things. The guys are trained him her father's training her but they're chewing these things down like chewable vitamin C, it's pretty funny. But this leads us to our Karate Kid connection style. A Beautiful training montage, much like the one in Rocky four, which we also talked about on our Karate Kid part three special episode. also referenced in season two, episode seven of Cobra Kai, which was entitled lol when Sam and Tory are both training and we're going back and forth are different styles. It's all the same. However, unlike law or rocky for the song we hear in this montage style. What is it?

Sal Rodriguez:

We're talking about? Joe Esposito knows you're the best around as we know, the montage song during the 1984 all Valley tournaments so this song was played during the original Karate Kid during the all Valley tournament where hear the song is used during a training montage. And unlike any other training montage I've ever seen before my life

Jason Connell:

so true. They're chowing down on their performance enhancing drugs. They're doing various things, and we're getting stronger, like Charlie can now take anything they throw at him literally. And D is completely roided out and ready to fight any and everybody and she's never even been in a fight. So it is hilarious.

Sal Rodriguez:

Not to mention she's shaving the new found facial hair. First she's using a little disposable razor, then she goes full on with the electric razor all over her face. So she is having the hormone changes, as some of us have known about when it comes to steroid use drill.

Jason Connell:

So now we get to the day of the fights because of course on the same day, and Mac and Dennis are waiting for Charlie to show up. And they've named their fighter clown baby, which is hilarious. They've checked him in, but he's not there yet. We'll get to why in a minute. They're going back and forth and they're trying to get good odds because anyone named clown baby no one's gonna bet on him because they're gonna go heavy on Charlie because he can take a beating. And then meanwhile, at the boxing ring, these are no show. And Frankie fast hands is catching crap from Bobby and Brianna. Which starts to put some other things in motion, Sal.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah. What happens is D learns that Charlie has been taking her pills. They're at the bar. They wind up getting into a fight that involves a motorist. They're on the side so they end up going to jail. So yeah, she misses her fight and Charlie misses his fight. Mac has to take over. And then here now we have Frankie fast hands, ready to fight. Bobby thunder son, they're in the ring to avenge his previous loss from years prior when he believed was a sucker punch. Yeah, he says it was a sucker punch. So he wants to avenge his loss. So he sucker punches Bobby. And that might have been fine, right? But no, Bobby bumps into his daughter. The daughter falls onto a stool neck hits the stool.

Jason Connell:

Straight out of Million Dollar Baby. Yes. And

Sal Rodriguez:

Frank flips out and just runs off. And that's how the episode ends.

Jason Connell:

And we talked about this on the Karate Kid part three episode when Mike Barnes called Cox sucker punches Daniel to get a point taken away. And I thought That's so dangerous. That is such a scene out of million dollar babies. The slow mo everything's happening and yeah, we don't want to see someone else break their neck. So this show goes there. They say that Briana now has a broken neck and she's going to live out the way that Hilary Swank did a Million Dollar Baby. This show definitely pulls no punches, no pun intended. But meanwhile, the other storyline is they sign who up to fight because Charlie doesn't show up.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, since Charlie doesn't show up for the underground Fight Club fight. Mack jumps in to take his place. But then we learn that Dennis switched his bet around and actually bet against Mack clown baby. Yeah, against clown baby. Matt gets his ass kicked. He comes out of there a mess. They're walking down the alley, they get approached by the meth head again with the knife. He's gonna mug them again, like he did earlier. And Max like I don't have any money and he opens up his pockets. I don't have any money. But then Dennis, we realize has a wad full of cash because he ended up betting against Mac he won a bunch of money. And then what does Max say? Just stab him and he just walks off. And does Dennis give the method mugger the money.

Jason Connell:

I think we just cut right there. Okay, but what cracks me up is he didn't tell Mac and nor was he going to tell Mac which it was a big secret. And then joke's on him because he pulls out the water as you just spoke of when Mac leaves them. He says to him, don't act like a baby. And I really think he should have said clown baby. Just one more time. You know, right on the nose. I thought oh, that was a missed opportunity to bring him back one more time. Because essentially, Mack became clown baby Maybe because Charlie was the No Show, which I thought was pretty funny. Yeah. And so now we don't show him getting stabbed. We just assume he gave him the money and went on his merry way. And that concludes that episode. So there's your tie in, they did get Joe Esposito song, the actual song, you know the best. And that may that sequence great, it took the episode to another level, because so I think anytime you drop that song, and you've got gold.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, you and I think so and I agree with you. But like I said earlier, if you were not a fan of Karate Kid, if you did not know your stuff, that scene would just fly by like any other montage scene, you may you might think, oh, that song sounds familiar. You might think that, but you're not going to think ah, Karate Kid. So this show is full of these nuggets that are, I think, really for the fan themselves.

Jason Connell:

I think it's a great song nonetheless. So moving on to the next one, season four episode 13. The Nightman cometh 2008

Sal Rodriguez:

And this episode was directed by Matt Shakman, who directed 43 episodes of the show. One episode of six feet under one of our favorite shows, episodes of Chuck and weeds and two episodes of I know this is one of your favorite shows. Game of Thrones.

Jason Connell:

Yeah. Wow. Good director.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, they some of these directors Geez like top shelf TV directors on some of these shows.

Jason Connell:

Absolutely. If you look at any prominent directors, IMDb, you'll see that usually, they've jumped on various shows like modern family or It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, or Hi, my mother, you see that a lot. So the synopsis for this episode is Charlie stages a rock opera based on his song night man, and recruits the rest of the gang to help him with it. So So I would say the Karate Kid Cobra Kai tine to this episode is very minimal. So we'll just do some broad strokes. Talk about the episode briefly. Because it's not that prevalent in this episode.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, Charlie writes a musical called the night man cometh. And right away Mack who has a role all the gang takes a role in this new musical. And right away Mac wants to give his character a karate flair. And he says under his breath, a put on a clinic. So he's going to put on a clinic, doing some karate moves, which by the way, have nothing to do with his character in the play. He just decided to add karate moves to his character. So this is the first time I think we see in this episode, anything karate oriented, is by Mack himself delivering these

Jason Connell:

moves. And this is a wild musical. And some of them had real singing talent. I gotta give them credit. But it's just crazy. It's an over the top premise. But yes, our first and only reference to the Karate Kid in this episode is when we finally see Mac, and he's wearing a black T and the arms are cut off very Cobra Kai esque, if you will. And he's got a black belt of which I don't think he earned sow.

Sal Rodriguez:

No. And again, that's one of those other things where I think only the true Karate Kid fan is going to see the parallel where they're teasing him about an unearned Black Belt. But what happened in the Karate Kid when they go to the tournament? How does Daniel Russo get his black belt? At the tournament?

Jason Connell:

Right courtesy of fast fingers. Mr. Miyagi? Yeah, so

Sal Rodriguez:

some of these, I think are little tips of the hat, where only the the AWARE fan is going to be catching on to these little nuggets. I love them. I see the parallels. Yeah, but I'm just wondering if a lot of things are gonna pass over people's head. And one thing also Mac where's the Cobra Kai knockoff gi in this but there's no emblems on it at all. There's no, there's no snake on the back, as we're gonna see in a subsequent episode. So this is definitely a knockoff Cobra Kai gi because it doesn't even have a snake on it at all.

Jason Connell:

And he's got slicked back hair, tattoo tattoos, which he has anyway, so it makes him look more crease esque. And for his role in the musical. He has cat's eyes. Yeah. What's your hilarious

Sal Rodriguez:

and an incredibly elaborate eyeliner? So he's got a very interesting, kind of cool, no, I think he looks pretty neat. But it's it's so wacky, because it has nothing to do with with the character, or should I say he kind of created this character. He was given a role in this musical written by Charlie, and he just kind of created this character. And the character wears a GI eyeliner, and cat eye contact lenses and does karate and does karate, just every now and again.

Jason Connell:

I should also say that most people in this musical kind of went rogue a little bit and did their own thing. I mean, Dee, she created her own little side song to sing and Charlie's like, oh my god, I'm gonna kill your face. You can't sing your own songs. But back to Mac. He's doing his little like crazy. karate moves almost like a ballet across the stage. It's quite funny and you can also tell that as much as he likes karate and he wants to be Yeah, Black Belt. He's like the furthest thing from it, Sal. He's a poser.

Sal Rodriguez:

I thought maybe he's taken some classes. Like he didn't look like a complete green novice. He looks like he's maybe taking a course or two. You don't believe it?

Jason Connell:

No, I think he's a guy that's watched karate. felgo. And maybe he had a book like Daniel had in the Karate Kid. That's what I think. I think there's an attraction to it. But he knows nothing about it. Because he wouldn't treat it this way. He wouldn't be wearing a gear around with a black belt that you didn't know. Okay. And this isn't Halloween. No, I look at him as a complete poser. Okay, so and then he goes on to fight Dennis. Yeah, in this hilarious little sequence where they're almost like Mr. Miyagi and Terry silver when Terry Sciver was mocking him when they fought in the dojo, a little bit of that's going on. Like, they're just kind of playing it up for the audience, if you well, and you do hear another reference to the Karate Kid, which is what Sal

Sal Rodriguez:

Mack goes in for a punch. And we heard him say, bodybag. See, see catches that but the fan who catches that,

Jason Connell:

I'm sure it's sunny and Philadelphia's fan base is pretty well dialed into references. So most people in a certain age bracket are gonna get that, but I love it. He says it in that context. We've never heard it that way. thrown a punch, buddy, man. Of course, we know this from the Karate Kid, and it was wonderfully tied into Cobra Kai. When Rest in peace, we lost Rob garrison and the way they brought him back to the show that we see him in a body bag in that episode, and then he dies. You know, X amount of months later. It was really just poetic. And so that's kind of forever in Karate Kid Cobra Kai folklore. But I've never seen it this way. And it's never been funnier than in this way.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, I want to start using this phrase now. Like if even simple things like I stubbed my toe body bag like I'm just going to use bodybag for like anything now.

Jason Connell:

I love it. I love it. So the fight continues between them. And out of nowhere, Dennis pulls a move right out of Roadhouse, and he goes ahead and he takes max heart, as Patrick Swayze did as Doulton as he took Jimmy's heart out and a great karate fight. And he pulls his heart out and holds it out. And he wins the fight. I love it. This fight had a body bag and had someone pull someone's heart out come on this is like Mortal Kombat. What a fight Yeah.

Sal Rodriguez:

And what's funny is if you look at the audience there you see the audience watching his little musical like nobody is it's not the kind of crowd you think would even want to see hearts ripped out of the chest like it's like the residence of a senior center. Yeah,

Jason Connell:

that's exactly what it is. Yeah, there was like do we apply there? So the musical comes to an end. And we finally find out that Charlie put this whole thing together to do what sell

Sal Rodriguez:

at the very end of the stage production Charlie comes down with like on a like on a moon like from from the ceiling. My son yells at the sun. And he says sort of like an A Willy Wonka type costume. And he sings and proposes to this girl in the front row who he invited. He invited her. Apparently he stalks this woman and told her if you come see my musical, I'm not going to stalk you. I will leave you alone forever. So she comes to see the musical sits in the front row in a reserved seat. Of course, she says no, and walks off. But a hilarious ending to an already hilarious musical on top of a hilarious sitcom.

Jason Connell:

So good. Yeah, she was so annoyed and just repulsed by him. She only came there to get away from him. And then as she walks away, he's like, Well, I didn't sign anything. So I'll see you tomorrow, because you don't have that in writing. So I'll be stalking you still get everything in writing. So now we're on to the third and final episode that we're covering, which is season nine, Episode Five Mac day 2013.

Sal Rodriguez:

And this is directed by Richie Keane, who directed 11 episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, three episodes of The Goldbergs episodes of shameless superstore and young Sheldon another top notch director here Wow.

Jason Connell:

And five episodes of Golden Girls Diddy now he's too young. The synopsis for this episode is as such, each member of the gang gets one day to do whatever they want while the rest of the gang must participate. This is Max day.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, it seems like the gang here has agreed where one day out of the year you just are allowed on your day to have your friends do the dumbest, silliest outlandish things. And today is Mac day and we are joined on Mac day with Project bad ass so good. So along with Project badass is country Mac country Mac is MAC's cousin, played by Sean William Scott we all know him and love him as Stiffler from American Pie, he shows up and they greet each other with like fun karate sparring moves they do on each other, and they do the little that is funny.

Jason Connell:

That is a great intro. And really this episode starts to get hijacked by country Mac, because this guy is super cool. He rides a motorcycle. He always has a beer like endless beer. He's always got a new one. He jumps off bridges. He gets everyone high. He's kind of Fonzie ask when Max bag of chips gets stuck in the vending machine, he can't get him out and country Mac just goes over and barely touches it in the right spot much like Fonzie would do and they drop. He's just super cool.

Sal Rodriguez:

But look at look at the universe that we're in. Yes, he's like Fonzie, but he was a little more gentle and methodical. So more like Miyagi. He was like Fonzie. Miyagi.

Jason Connell:

Absolutely. So the Karate Kid tie in for this episode? Is that Mac in the midst of his day where he's taken him to go do all this wild stuff. From observatory to filming him fake jump off a bridge of which country Mac does jump off the bridge? He takes him to a karate tournament to observe. And I think, what to be a judge or something.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, I think he says he's gonna go be a judge. But what happens is the gang signs him up to fight. So while he's sitting in the bleachers, and they tell him, Hey, we signed you up, and then they start to ask some questions about his black buddies, because he's wearing a black belt. Oh, yeah. He's

Jason Connell:

definitely wearing his gear again with the black belt. But this brings up a couple points. One, he doesn't want to do it until a country Mac is willing to do it. And then he's like, oh, you know, yeah, I'll fight and two, it's much like the Karate Kid, when they go to sign Daniel up at the tournament, the all Valley karate tournament under 18. And Daniel hadn't done any real training. He wasn't a real belt. So it's like, yeah, this kid is a black belt. So you really can just sign up for karate tournament and fake it. So here we are, and Mac is being thrust into this arena. In my opinion, he's never been to one karate class. Well,

Sal Rodriguez:

his tough guy, cousin, country, Mac says to him shit Mac, you can do it. Just go right for the guy's throat. So that's his. That's his message. Just go for the throat. He says

Jason Connell:

while drinking a beer. And we now we see his GI and it's changed just a little bit because this time sow. He has some sort of snake. I don't know if it's a cobra, but a red snake on the back of the GI that he was wearing from the musical.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, I did a freeze frame and he is wearing I believe the same gi from the previous episode, but this time we have a snake on the back. It is not the Cobra Kai Cobra. Okay, but it is a cobra. I did. I did study it but it does not say Cobra Kai. Obviously this is a red and black emblem not a yellow and black emblem like Cobra Kai. So it's just a cool Cobra. It doesn't have as big of a hood. The Cobra Kai Cobra has a very large hood. It's sort of a little brother to the Cobra Kai emblem that we all know and love. And it's there, emblazoned on his back of this knockoff ghee as we're calling it.

Jason Connell:

Yes. And so again, much like in the musical before they fight because he's about to face off with another black belt or a black belt. And he's doing all his little jumps and things and just looking like a buffoon to be completely honest with you. And then as the ref brings them into bow, what happens now,

Sal Rodriguez:

the ref says to the fighters, bow, Mac turns to the ref and bows. And that's when the ref says, not to me Karate Kid. That's where we hear the words Karate Kid, and I go haha, he said it.

Jason Connell:

So he doesn't know anything about the tradition of martial arts. So he's completely lost. He's a total fraud. But however, that said, the fight begins. And what happens?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, I guess Matt gets lucky the fight starts a kick comes his way. And he blocks it looks like it's sort of a double arm block. He gets a point he gets a point for blocking a kick. It's kind of accidental. He turns towards his friends. He's excited. He got to the point. He's gloating there that he got a point against a black belt against a real black belt. Yeah, he's excited. But then this is when I think we're getting into some of these illegal kicks. It looks like he just turns around. They're not in the official round. No. And this guy does some sort of spinning kick and kicks the crap out of him. Yeah, he does

Jason Connell:

a really nice like spinning back heel kick, I believe and hits him right in the head knocks him out. But this was in between you're supposed to come back and reset. So in my opinion, Sal Mack wins by dq. Yeah, if I was the referee, but essentially he got his ass beat. And after that happens now, all hell breaks loose in the arena country Matt comes down and goes after the throat of the blackbelt that just knocked down or knocked out Mac and the whole tournament is off we have panic on our hands

Sal Rodriguez:

well first country Mac gets this guy in a rear choke then like a couple of beats later he takes off his shirt and gets the guy again and the gang is watching from the stands just they can't believe what's happening there. Their eyes are huge and then at the end when this is all over, they're all walking out. Everybody's all about country Mac so they're like country Mac is so badass. And Max like what about me? You know, I scored a point in a black belt karate tournament like he wants some of the some of the kudos he he's getting none of the kudos

Jason Connell:

No, none of them so I like when they come outside that a really big guy and the black belt both come up to them because they want to continue the fight but country Mac yet again best them. And this time How did he do it country

Sal Rodriguez:

Mackey was able to deduce that this guy had a knife in his boot and he reached for the knife grabs the knife and disarms this guy, totally squashing the whole situation. And this biker type guy gets his knife taken from him and him in the black belt walk off. Totally best. So this gives the viewer and our cast more reason to just love country Mac and just talk about how fantastic and awesome and what a badass he is.

Jason Connell:

Absolutely, and yet another reference to Roadhouse and that movie, when Swayze was at the door, and one saner adult and he says right boot, as these guys came in to perpetrate the double Deuce and one of his bouncers looked at the boot and there was a knife coming out of it a little different, but the same, he was so quick to deduce this guy's got trouble. Look at the knife. And so this guy was channeling some of that Swayze country Mac was. And so they love him. In fact, they want to do a replacement. They want country Mac instead of Mac moving forward. And country Mac's a man of few words, where Mac will just talk to them forever and beat them into submission with his words. And so he agrees to be part of their gang. And then he gets on his motorcycle, and what happens?

Sal Rodriguez:

Country Mac drives a few yards, he rides a few yards, and then he just kind of stops and kills over and, and dies. He's just he just kills over, drops his bike and dies. And by the way, Shawn Williams Scott's actual birthday is 1977 but in this movie it has his birthdate is 1976 which I thought was interesting. I mean, if you if you're gonna go that far, I wonder why you didn't just make it the same birth year as the actor portraying the character so I wonder if there was any significance to the birth year have been 77 versus 76.

Jason Connell:

That's a good point. And our current reminds me of the Karate Kid or Cobra Kai when they had Mr. Miyagi live much longer than Pat Marina the actor

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah. So there you go country Matt gets cremated he dies, he gets cremated and they have awake. This is all in the same day. Yeah. To Mack day. Come on. Okay, so what happens at the very end, Danny DeVito. Frank Reynolds looks at his watch. He tells everybody Hey, Mack, day is over. It's now Frank day. And I couldn't believe it. I mean, this is one of those things where you see okay, this is what the show is about. This is the kind of over the top stuff this show does. Frank grabs country Max earn pours it in the toilet flushes country Mac down the toilet is that was the demise of country Mac.

Jason Connell:

That's right. And right before Frank day, a Mac was doing his little speech to everybody saying some good things about country Mac and they were all looking on. But he started do some karate moves again. Yeah. And he does his little karate number. And then he ends south with a nama sting. Yeah. Which is an expression from karate, which was too funny to me. And he's like now we're gonna go berry country mag and a beautiful scenic place and and that's when Frank chimes in the show pulls no

Sal Rodriguez:

punches. Yeah, no holds barred on sitcoms nowadays.

Jason Connell:

So that's all we got super fun to run through another show, a show that I'll probably be revisiting on many other episodes. I really enjoyed it. And Sal and I are going to be looking for other shows with references from the Karate Kid. Or Cobra Kai, because these are a lot of fun. So

Sal Rodriguez:

yeah, as we're waiting on Season Three to drop from Netflix, the date is January 8 2021. Until then, we are killing some time by exploring the Karate Kid Cobra Kai universe. So if you've got any tidbits, or any news or insight or anything you'd like to learn more about, please let us know. We're always here to listen.

Jason Connell:

And in your spare time, feel free to visit or other show. Let's talk movies. Or the first season is 10 movies from the 80s and each year is a different movie. So a lot of hard choices. But don't worry, I'm sure we'll revisit the 80s some point in time, but I don't know what season two is gonna bring. It could be the 70s it could be the 90s. But Sal's come on for a couple of great episodes he did American Werewolf in London with me as well as the fly. Another great one to check out is to live and die in LA, a favorite film of mine by William freakin who did the Exorcist, French Connection. And it's a great movie. If you ever get a chance to see it. Please do and the podcast will take you through it from A to Z. Salvia actually listen to that one. Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

yes. As a matter of fact, I have. You know, one thing I really liked doing with these let's talk movies, podcasts is watching the movie. I mean, it's no different than Cobra Kai, watch the content, and then listen to the podcast at your leisure. One thing I'm really enjoying are these little nuggets of trivia that we like to give out. And I just imagined somebody's out there, possibly driving a truck all day, listening to every detail of these movies and learning all kinds of cool tidbits.

Jason Connell:

Absolutely. Thank you so much for listening, and we'd greatly appreciate it if you could subscribe rate and review us wherever you get your podcast.

Sal Rodriguez:

You can also follow us on social media at let's talk Cobra Kai and please message us if you have any comments or questions.

Jason Connell:

If you'd like to become a patreon supporter of the show, just search for let's talk Cobra Kai. And if you're just curious about our other shows, please visit just curious media.com

Sal Rodriguez:

No Mercy

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