Film / Kung Pow! Enter the Fist

I NEED GOPHER CHUCKS!

"Betty has gone too far. Killing is wrong. And bad. There should be a new, stronger word for killing. Like...badwrong. Or...badong. Yes. Killing is badong. From this moment, I will stand for the opposite of killing: Gnodab."

— The Chosen One

An evil man kills an entire family to get at a baby that is destined to become the Chosen One. The baby escapes, grows up in the wild, fights off attackers by ripping their clothes into shred-bikinis, joins a school of martial artists who loudly admit that they wear push-up bras, eventually meets the evil man — who, in the intervening years, has changed his name to Betty — and later fights a cow. He is also the Chosen One because his tongue has a face on it; its name is Tonguey.

Oh, and there are French aliens.

No, really.

A refreshing comedy that's stupid — but amusingly so — Kung Pow! Enter The Fist is a 2002 film written and directed by lead actor Steve Oedekerk. The film uses footage from an obscure Jimmy Wang Yu kung-fu movie from 1976 called Tiger & Crane Fists, along with newly-shot and blue-screened footage (mainly to insert Oedekerk into the film), to create a rather anarchic parody of kung-fu movies in general. Virtually every line is insane — and very quotable; it was difficult choosing which one to put up at the top — and everyone's voice (save Whoa) is dubbed over by Oedekerk himself.

A sequel, Kung Pow 2: Tongue of Fury, was due to follow; it's been in Development Hell for years, though. Steve Oedekerk has stated that he is (still) trying to find the right Hong Kong movie(s) to lift scenes from.

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Tropes used:

• Affectionate Parody: Of low budget Hong Kong Dub Kung-Fu films. The cheap special effects seen later are parodies of mockbusters.
• Agony of the Feet: The mayor's big toe is cut off by Betty to bring him in line, causing blood to squirt out as he walks. Later on, his whole foot has been cut off.
• Ambiguous Situation: Whether or not Whoa is actually Chosen One's mother.
• Ambiguously Bi: The Ventriloquists.
  "But we both swing if you know what we mean..."
• Ambiguously Gay:
  • Betty. A feared, skilled, powerful male kung-fu master and warlord decides to go under the alias "Betty". Then there's this line:
    Betty: Hey, you guys, wanna, I don't know, scam some chicks or something?...I DO like the ladies you know, I do like 'em.
  • Master Tang. He has "special needs" that seem to involve a Glove Snap, and then he gets rather aroused while sensually rubbing Ling's father's mortal wound.
  • There are also the chants that his students shout during their exercises:
    Crane School Students: Our! Sexual! Preferences! Are! Our! Own! Business!
    Crane School Students: One! Of Us! Is Wearing! A Push-Up Bra! It's Lacy! And Cute! And Loaded! With! Support!
• Anachronism Stew: Played for Laughs. Let Ling's dad know if you see a Radio Shack. Also the car, the boombox (playing hits like MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" and Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back"), the lighter, the bowflex, Hooters, Taco Bell, the neosporin, the cellphone, the thermometer, and cans of Pringles. Mind you this all set in pre-industrial/pre-information age Imperial China.
• And That's Terrible: The Chosen One's description of killing as "bad" and "wrong". Eventually concluding that "killing is badong!"
• Animal Reaction Shot:
  • Dog gives a surprised noise when Ling takes her top off.
  • When Betty is demonstrating his ability to take blows, Dog's eyes are widened by CG.
• Animals Hate Him: Cows and Whales hate him at least. Rodents and small burrowing creatures really like him.
• Arc Words: The Chosen One is told at the beginning and end of the movie to "open your mouth!"
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Wimp Lo, despite being laughably incompetent. Not like he thinks so; he just never realized he'd been trained the wrong way.
  Wimp Lo: Face-To-Foot style, how'd ya like it?!
  • His counterpart in the original film was also one, if not quite so stupid. His entire character centered around refusing to see any value in the hero's Tiger Fist despite his own master explicitly telling him to learn Tiger Fist while teaching him Crane Fist in return, as combining the two styles was a long-standing dream of his.
• Balls of Steel:
  • This is one of Master Pain's/Betty's powers. The scene where Betty demonstrates said powers (where a guy strikes Betty/Pain directly in the crotch with a pole and he doesn't even flinch) was apparently the reason why Steve Oedekerk chose that particular film to use.
  • Wimp Lo apparently thinks he has this, considering his secondary style is Nuts-to-Your-Fist.
  • And the Chosen One learns the hard way that, no, he does not have this power. At all. He might not even have balls after the test run.
  • One of the Hilarious Outtakes shows that Oedekerk himself doesn't have this power, taking one fake blow before mentioning that he really needs a cup.
• Big Bad: Betty is the main antagonist but even he answers to the Evil Council.
• Bits of Me Keep Passing Out: The Chosen One is subjected to The Paralyzer, and then flails his arms around wildly trying to defeat Betty.
• Black Speech: One private meeting Betty has with the Evil Council shows the latter using undecipherable noises to communicate. This gets dropped completely once we know their true identity...
• Blade Run: Done by the baby Chosen One during the prologue.
• Boisterous Weakling: Wimp Lo was purposely trained wrong. As a joke. He is very smug about his "abilities."
• Bowdlerize: The movie omits the part of "Baby Got Back" where it talks about getting sprung by the sight of a big ass; after "you other brothers can't deny", it cuts right to "cause I'm long and I'm strong and I'm down to get the friction on".
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: "I swing a bit more. I swing a bit less. But we both swing if you know what we mean."
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • An intermission occurs midway through, where the characters tell the audience to go buy snacks, and Wimp Lo informs the audience of how much milk duds and his nipples look alike.
  • Whoa is the only character in the movie itself aware of the fourth wall, breaking it repeatedly.
    Whoa: We will meet many more times... in the sequel!
  • Master Tang is the narrator and gives comments about his own thinking in one scene.
• Brick Break: During his training montage, the Chosen One goes to punch a board, stops inches from it, then extends his index finger. The boards explode, sending the two men behind it flying.
• Bullet Time: Used during the cow fighting scene to parody The Matrix.
• Butt-Monkey: Wimp Lo is the subject to almost all the misery in the movie. Master Tang says it's by design.
  Master Tang: I must apologize for Wimp Lo. He is an idiot. We have purposely trained him wrong, as a joke.
• Calling Your Attacks:
  • Wimp Lo's attacks.
    Wimp Lo: Try "My nuts to your fist" style!
  • Betty also shouts "Paralyzer!" and "Another Paralyzer!" when attacking The Chosen One.
• Captain Obvious: Before going into invokedthe Nut Vendor's shop, the Chosen One passes by a group of playing children. The song they're singing?
  Children: We're children! We're children!
  • Also Wimp Lo: "My finger points."
• Catchphrase: Betty gets his shirt torn several times during the film.
  Betty: Shirt! Ripper!
• Character as Himself: Tonguey is credited to "Escobar Tongue."
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Chosen One's ability to communicate and work with small animals in combat. During the final fight with Betty, it turns out he had a squirrel in his tunic protecting him from Betty's fatal blows.
  • The nuts that the Chosen One buys late in the film turn out to be a bribe that he promised that squirrel in exchange for the protection.
• The Chosen One: The hero has No Name Given other than "Chosen One". As a parody, it's never actually explained who did the choosing and what he was chosen for. Only that "it will be significant".
• The Chosen Wannabe: Wimp Lo whines that he isn't the chosen one. He wants to be one, but he is so arrogant he was deemed unworthy and purposefully got trained wrong.
• Clothing Damage:
  • Betty is the victim of this several times which leads to a Catchphrase: "Shirt! Ripper!"
  • A mook in the beginning of the movie has his clothing ripped into a frilly bikini. This causes Defeat by Modesty.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Everyone in the movie. Chosen One slightly less. Comes across clearly compared with Ling and her father.
• Constantly Lactating Cow: This is weaponized when Chosen One has to fight Moo Nieu the cow, so he ends up having to dodge milk projectiles.
• Cool Car: The classic red convertible Chosen is seen driving during the post-opening credits montage is so cool that The Chosen One wears shades while driving it.
• Curse Cut Short: There is pretty much no cursing in the movie as The Chosen One's main chance to is interrupted.
  The Chosen One: I'm gonna count to three, and if I hear one more friggin' squeak, I'm gonna take his shoes and shove 'em up his-
  Southern-accented Asian man: [approaching from off screen] Chosen One, Master Pain's in town!
• Cursed with Awesome: As the Chosen One, he is mentioned to constantly come under attack throughout his life, but since he's endowed with extraordinary fighting abilities, that mostly isn't much of a problem for him.
• Cute and Psycho: Ling is very much in love with the Chosen One, but is also no stranger to hurting him.
• Dark Reprise: The ventriloquist's song.
  “We are both ventriloquists, ventriloquists, ventriloquists. We are both ventriloquists and we practice everyday. He carries the basket! He carries the paper roller! and we don’t have cysts. But there is one thing that’s for sure my friends, we are ventriloquists.”
  “We are both ventriloquists, but now we’re upside down. I swing a bit more. I swing a bit less. But we both swing if you know what we mean.”
• Defeat by Modesty: Chosen shreds a male attacker's clothes into a frilly bikini.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Betty, about The Chosen One:
  Betty: I'll kill him. I'll kill him dead. Like with, with a, rock or something. Like a, like a stone...
• Diabolus ex Nihilo: Moo Nieu, the cow. Outside of a vague warning from Whoa to avoid the meadow, this strong foe comes right out of nowhere.
• Dirty Old Man: Master Tang is unfazed by Ling's "shyness", wonders where his glove will go, and gives his students some embarrassing mantras to shout while practicing.
• A Dog Named "Dog": The Chosen One's pet dog, Dog. Who is never in the same frame as The Chosen One. Ever.
• The Dragon: Betty may be the main antagonist, but he's still merely the right-hand man to the Evil Council.
• Dying Declaration of Love: Ling says this to the Chosen One, though she does survive.
• Enhanced on DVD: "The Chosen Edition" includes a plethora of special features:
  • Multiple alternate audio tracks:
    • A Creator Commentary
    • The real audio track (for both the original Tiger & Crane Fists footage which is in Mandarin Chinese and the newly inserted footage)
    • The "long-lost" book-on-tape version
  • Several alternate dubs and extended takes of various scenes
  • A deleted musical number which also includes the real audio track, in which Steve sings his adulation of Sam Donaldson.
  • The original arc after the Chosen One was captured, in which he was kept captive by an old man named Chew Fat Lip, given a tattoo indicating where his mouth is, before finally escaping using his invokedprehensile boner in a fight to the tune of "Willy Won't Go" was probably better off cut, though. Some of this was repurposed for the trailer for the sequel at the end.
• Evil Laugh: Moo Nieu the cow lets out one after (temporarily) overpowering the Chosen One.
• Evil Sounds Deep:
  • The masked antagonist that Chosen One confronts early in the film has a deep, booming voice.
    Masked Man: OPEN... YOUR... MOUTH!!!!
  • Averted the rest of the film, Wimp Lo and Betty both have nasally, high-pitched voices.
• Fake-Out Opening: The first minute of the movie is serious in execution, complete with the murder of Chosen One's family... and then Master Pain speaks, and the rest of the movie is ridiculously silly.
• Fanservice Extra: There's a random bikini girl amidst the group of martial artists who are trying to kill The Chosen One at the beginning of the film.
• Far East: There's more than a few Japanese accoutrements to this Chinese movie - Mushufasa has a pair of katanas, and the Chosen One fights a guy in a kendo suit early on. In a smaller example, while Kung Pow is based on a Hong Kong movie (so the original language was Cantonese), the Chosen One's family speak Mandarin in the first scene.
• Filling the Silence: Parodied, when a relatively wordless fight scene between the main villain and two random guys in the original movie is turned into a more talkative fight between Betty and a pair of ventriloquists.
• Final Boss Preview: The Chosen One has two skirmishes with Betty prior to the final duel. The second one is considerably more brutal and unequal.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Master Pain renames himself "Betty" partway through the movie. This does not diminish his power.
• For the Evulz: Lampshaded when the mayor tells the arriving Betty that it's a great honor for their townspeople to be randomly beaten up by his henchmen. In fact, here it's actually a downplayed example of the trope compared to its source material, since it's implied that the henchmen are making sure that none of the townspeople are the Chosen One in disguise; in Tiger and Crane Fists they really did just beat up the townspeople for the hell of it.
• Foreshadowing: One of the Council's flying pyramids appears in the sky halfway through the movie.
• Funny Bruce Lee Noises: The Chosen One is prone to making a lot of noises while performing moves. At one point he holds one noise for so long he ruptures an artery.
• Futuristic Pyramid: The Council have a fleet of pyramid-shaped spaceships.
• Gag Dub: The entire premise of this film.
• Gag Penis: A deleted scene (which the MPAA demanded be cut for a PG-13 rating) involves Chosen One fighting off a captor and his guards with his (fully clothed) erection, due to his hands still being tied. The fight is set to the song "Little Willy Won't Go Home" by Sweet.
• Gender-Blender Name: Master Pain (a man) declares that his new name is "Betty" partway through the film. The Chosen One Lampshades it:
  Master Pain: From this day forward, you will all refer to me by the name 'Betty'. Ennnh, heh heheheh!
  The Chosen One: But! Isn't Betty a woman's name?
  ["Betty" whips off his jacket, clearly annoyed at the Chosen One]
  Mayor: Easy, easy! We don't want to lose any more toes here!
• Glove Snap: Happening off-screen in one scene.
  Master Tang: Eeny meeny miney moe, I wonder where my glove will go...
  Wimp Lo: [winces]
• Go for the Eye: Early in the film, Chosen One picks out the eyes of five adversaries.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The Evil Council has a very vague plan, has a lot of firepower they can bring to bear and are clearly Betty's boss.
• Groin Attack:
  • One of Betty's special abilities allows him to resist shots to the groin. The Chosen One tries to see if he possesses this ability only to play the trope straight...
  • In the credits, we see an outtake of this scene.
    Steve Oedekerk: Oooooh! OK, I'm gonna need a cup.
  • According to the DVD commentary, this scene from Tiger & Crane Fists is what led to it being picked.
  • In a deleted scene from the final fight, the Chosen One unleashes a barrage of kicks, punches, and headbutts upon Betty's naughty bits, to absolutely no effect.
  • One of the deleted scenes features an attack with a groin as the Chosen One escapes from a torturer by beating him and his guards up with his... well... y'know.
  • Wimp Lo has a special technique that involves him being the victim of this trope.
• Harmful to Minors: Master Pain and his minions have no qualms of trying to assassinate the Chosen One as a child, even resorting to burning down his parents' home with him in it when the baby puts up a resistance.
• Heroic BSoD: Chosen One's inability to find a way to remove the metal spikes protecting Betty's weak points causes him to throw a major hissy fit.
  Chosen One: DON'T LOOK AT ME!
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: The Evil Council, although their army can be seen in the "sequel" teaser, and they were planned to have been shown during the final battle.
• Hilarious Outtakes: There are the traditional outtakes over the end credits but the DVD also has many worthwhile alternate tracks and deleted scenes.
• Hong Kong Dub: Parodied. At one point, Dog barks and lays down, at which point we hear the sound.
• Hope Spot: Parodied; Chosen One finds that all his friends, who he thought were killed by Betty, are actually alive. He then concludes that rival Wimp Lo must be alive and goes to find him. We're not shown the results, but there are flies buzzing around and Chosen One makes a very disgusted face at whatever has happened.
• I Know Kung-Faux: Wimp Lo thinks that being hit demonstrates proper technique of certain styles.
  Wimp Lo: "Face-to-Foot style", how'd ya like it?
  
  Wimp Lo: How about we try "My-nuts-to-Your-Fist?"
• Imperial China: This is ostensibly the setting of the movie but there are Japanese references, modern American stores, French aliens and modern technology that it may as well not matter.
• Improbable Weapon User: The Chosen One can use a pair of gophers biting a piece of fabric as a set of improvised nunchucks leading to the infamous "Gopher Chucks".
• Inescapable Net: Spoofed. The hero is trapped in a net that isn't even big enough to cover his head.
  Betty: Yessss, the tiny net is a death sentence. IT'S A NET AND IT'S TINY!
• Instant Chucks: Need chucks? Get some friendly gophers to bite on a piece of ripped shirt and you are good to go!
• Intermission: Yep, there's one here, despite that it's only an 81-minute movie. Of course, the intermission is only about 15 seconds long.
  • This (and Chosen One's backwards escape from the tiny net afterwards) was a last minute replacement for a scene that had to be cut in order to keep the film's PG-13 rating. That scene had Chosen One being captured and tortured, only to escape by fighting off his captor with his erect (but still clothed) penis.
• Intimidation Demonstration: Various times, such as the "gopher-chucks" scene where The Chosen One is scaring off his opponents by twirling his gopher-chucks, much like someone would show off normal nunchucks.
• Just a Stupid Accent: There are many accents and voices used in the movie. Very few of them are Chinese accents, if any.
• Kick Chick: Dairy cows are female, and a good majority of the cow's moves are kicks.
• Killed Off for Real: Wimp Lo. Played for laughs when it turns out everyone else was Not Quite Dead.
  Chosen One: Hey, if you're all alive, then surely Wimp Lo... Wimp!
  [Chosen One runs over to Wimp's off-screen body, only to hear flies buzzing around]
  Chosen One: ...Oh. [slowly backs away]
• Kung-Foley: There are lots of smack and flip sound effects during the fights. Even simply waving one's arm can produce a "woosh".
• Left the Background Music On: It gets to the point where Betty asks for background music to fight to.
• Lemony Narrator:
  • Master Tang provides running commentary on the movie.
    Master Tang: At that moment, the Chosen One learned a valuable lesson about iron claws... THEY HURT LIKE CRAP, MAN!
  • Master Tang uses the narration to express one line of in-character thought:
    Master Tang: OK, so here were my options - A.) Quickly duck sideways, dodge the claw, then take him out with a spinning back kick, or B.) Take the claw in the face, then roll on the ground and die. [proceeds to take claw to the face] Hmm, should've gone with A.
• Lip Lock:
  • Almost always ignored for humor, except when it is occasionally followed... for humor. Example:
    Betty: People say that I do things that are not... [pause] correct-to-do.
  • And in the climax, complete with a close-up on his mouth:
    Chosen One: And I don't like that kind of thing.^note The only difference is he'd originally said "sort" instead of "kind"
  • Attention is drawn to this quite often. Example: Oedekerk's character looks to be shouting something with a lot of emotion and the camera zooms in on his face, but you hear him say, in a less-than-excited voice, "I implore you to reconsider." The words Oedekerk is really yelling: "I'M SOMEBODY'S MOMMY!!". Oedekerk had his cast read an entirely different script while filming new material, so the lip sync, or lack thereof, would match the 1970s material.
  • Parodied with Ling, whose line always end before her lips stop moving, so she ends most lines with "wee-ohh, wee-ohh" noises.
    • Ling and "Betty" get a particularly hilarious instance where a notable dialogue between them ends about four or five lines early. Cue Ling's "wee-ooh, wee-ooh" and Betty's "nyeeeh" extended for about 10 or 15 seconds merely so the speaking matches up with the original length of the dialogue for the scene.
  • And of course, Dog.
    Dog: [visibly barks, proceeds to lay down] ...Arf!
  • Also parodied with the ventriloquists, who never open their mouths.
• Long-Lasting Last Words: Master Tang seemingly dies a few times during his dying last words. He lampshades this saying someone is not dead just because the say "aughhcchc" and lolls his head to the side like he died before resuming.
• Made of Bologna: The Chosen One punches a mook in his torso so hard that a circular chunk comes out the other side. This is lampshaded by the narrator.
  Master Tang: I mean, crap, man! Look at that! ...I mean, th-that doesn't even seem possible, when you think about it, with body organs, and cartilage, and bones... I mean, I'm no doctor, but it was like one clean chunk!
• Made of Plasticine: The above mentioned "stomach plug" mook the Chosen One punches. Nobody else in the movie falls victim to this.
• Master of the Mixed Message: Ling is very indecisive about how much she loves the Chosen One. Even though she repeatedly flashes her breasts to him, she doesn't want him to think she's a slut.
• Mentor Archetype: An eccentric, comedic example with Master Tang.
• Mighty Whitey: The Chosen One is a white man despite having two Asian parents.
• Moses in the Bulrushes: Subverted. The first woman who finds the Chosen One as a baby lying on the side of the mountain he's rolled half-way down stops, picks him up, and coos "So cute..." before bidding him farewell as she lobs him to roll down the other half of the mountain. He is eventually found, and raised by "various rodents".
• Multiboobage: Inverted with Whoa having one boob in the middle of her chest.
• Murderous Thighs: An utterly ludicrous example occurs when Moo Nieu the cow, during battle with the Chosen One, locks his head in a hold with its hind legs and whacks him in the face with its tail while he's immobilized.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Inverted when Master Pain changes his name to Betty.
• Nested Mouths: The sign of the Chosen One is that he has a cartoon face on his tongue. And, yes, said tongue does in fact have a tongue of its own.
• Neutral Female: See Fanservice Extra above. She contributes absolutely nothing to the mob scene early on.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Master Pain/Betty falls into this when he tries and fails to kill the child destined to defeat him and kills his entire family instead.
• Nobody Here but Us Birds: An ambush party makes bird noises to communicate while stalking Master Tang. Betty doesn't quite do it right, not that it hurts him.
  Betty: Nng, I'm just a birdie too...
• Not Quite Dead: A whole sequence is dedicated to apparently killing off Master Tang, Ling, and the Dog, but it turns that they were all only slightly injured:
  The Chosen One: Oh, Master! You're alive!
  Master Tang: I only did this: HGGGGGNN!
  [Tang drops his head on the ground as if he's dead]
  Master Tang: That doesn't mean a person is dead!
• No Indoor Voice: The peanut vendor is just so excited about selling nuts.
  Peanut vendor: THAT'S A LOT OF NUTS!
  
  Peanut vendor: THAT'LL BE FOUR BUCKS BABY, YOU WANT FRIES WITH THAT?!
  
  Peanut vendor (on a cellphone): HE JUST LEFT... WITH NUTS!
• Obviously Evil: "The Evil Council" is up to evil. Obviously.
• Offscreen Inertia: A hawk is eating Master Tang. Fade to black.
  Master Tang: Hey, just because you fade to black doesn't mean he stopped. He's still eating me! I promise!
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: Attempts to learn of The Evil Council's plan are futile
  Betty: Nnnng... Yes, the Council!
  Mayor: Master Betty, might I inquire: What is the Evil Council's plan?
  Betty: Nnnng. It is EVIL! Mnyah! It is so EVIL! It is a bad, bad plan...that will hurt many...people...that are good. I think it's great 'cause it's so bad!
  Mayor: I see. I think...
• Overly Long Gag:
  • A scene near the beginning is around two minutes of Whip-Zooms accompanied by dramatic musical stings and a parody of another kung fu movie that Steve Oedekerk found while researching for this film.
  • And also when Ling calls out to him later in the film.
    Ling: Chosen One! (randomly quacks)
    C.O.: [from far away] Ling?
    Ling: Hurry!
    C.O.: [running towards her] I'm coming!
    Ling: Chosen One!
    C.O.: [now closer, still running towards her] I'm coming!
    Ling: Chosen One!
    C.O.: [suddenly far away again, still running towards her] I'm coming!
    Ling: Chosen One!
    C.O.: [now closer, still running towards her] I'm coming!
  • Ling does this once while maintaining Lip Lock.
    Ling: Chosen One, I want to help...but I...I...I...I...I...I...I...
  • The Chosen One rolling down the mountain as a baby.
• The Paralyzer: Betty's signature attack is the Trope Namer.
• Plot Hole: During the final battle, there's no explanation as to how Master Betty loses his iron claws or what The Chosen One is holding at the start of the battle. In the original film, Jimmy Wang Yu's character uses fireworks fuse to burn the cable that connects the claws. That part was left out of the film as a deleted scene and the fuse is what the Chosen One is actually buying instead of nuts in the earlier scene.
• Pocket Protector: The Chosen One is saved from Betty's deadly technique with...a squirrel. This is actually similar to what happened in the original film, only there the hero used a metal plate.
• Portmanteau: The Chosen One has a hard time expressing his anguish at the near death of his friends.
  The Chosen One: Killing is wrong. And bad. There should be a new, stronger word for killing. Like badwrong, or badong. Yes, killing is badong. From this moment, I will stand for the opposite of killing: gnodab.
• Product Placement:
  • A couple of characters just call out brands by name.
  Master Tang: Oh, Taco Bell, Taco Bell, product placement with Taco Bell!
  Master Tang: Ba na na na na, Neo! Ba na na na na na na, Sporin!
  Ling's father: Tell me...if you see...a Radio Shack.
  • If you look closely when during the scene in which Betty goes to fight Master Tang, during the zoom out you can see people moving tables, and on the left side you can clearly see a Hooters.
  • When The Chosen One goes to buy nuts, there is a shelf of Pringles behind him.
• Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: The Chosen One has a hard time fending off Moon Yu for a while, before figuring out that milking it into submission is more practical. He fares even worse against Betty afterwards.
• Raised by Wolves: The Chosen One was raised by "various rodents" after his family was killed and a passerby woman simply made sure he was rolled to the bottom of a ravine properly.
• Real Trailer, Fake Movie: Sadly, Kung Pow II: Tongue Of Fury will probably never happen. A lot of the shots used for it are taken from deleted scenes.
• Related in the Adaptation: The counterparts of Ling and her father in Tiger and Crane Fists were unrelated, with the latter just being an old friend of Master Tang's counterpart.
• The Rival: Wimp Lo would like to think so but he is no match for the Chosen One because he was trained wrong. As a joke.
• Rule of Cool: The Chosen One is able to do fifteen backflips in mid-air (even losing and regaining momentum doing it) before landing and is able to do push-ups without touching the ground by blowing the ground.
  Master Tang: I'll have whatever he's smokin'!
• Rule of Three:
  • To the point of reusing the same footage of Chosen One saying "Hmm?" three times.
    Whoa: The supreme gift.
    Chosen One: Hmm?
    Whoa: You must trust the power of the tongue.
    Chosen One: Hmm?
    Whoa: But I must warn you...
    Chosen One: Hmm?
  • Footage is used three times during Master Tang's opening scene of him brushing his arm past the camera. Complete with "whoosh".
  • The scene where Master Tang is talking about when he learns about the Chosen One has three short flashbacks.
• Sabotutor: Master Tang intentionally trained Wimp Lo wrong as a joke.
• Schizo Tech: Played for Laughs when Master Pain uses a crack lighter to ignite the Chosen One's house.
  Master Pain: Mmmmm...lighter.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The entire Evil Council retreats, after Chosen uses his tongue to destroy one of their ships.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Master Pain/Betty falls into the classic trap of trying to kill the child destined to defeat him and only managing to kill his entire family instead, giving the child a motive to kill him which he wouldn't otherwise have had.
• Sequel Snark: It spends a good deal of time at the end of the movie showing a full trailer for the sequel, made up mostly of scenes deleted from the first movie. Naturally, no such movie exists, though an unrelated sequel is currently in invokedDevelopment Hell.
• Shirtless Scene: The Chosen One gratuitously rips off his shirt before his first fight of the movie.
• Shout-Out:
  • To The Lion King in the form of Mushufasa, who calls the Chosen One "Simba" before finally settling on "Chosimba One".
    Mushufasa: [fading back into the clouds] This...is CNN.
  • Mushufasa is also a portmanteau of Mufasa from The Lion King and Mushu from Mulan.
  • Ling sounds an awful lot like Miss Piggy.
  • Master Pain: "ORSON!". Minions: "Your Welles."
• Sissy Villain:
  • Played straight and inverted. Wimp Lo has a very high voice and is indeed wimpy, but Betty is pretty manly despite the high, nasally voice, name, and the Chosen One has his own points of sissyness.
  • Early on, he is assaulted by a large masculine man who says "Your days are over, Mister" in a high-pitched lisp. The Chosen One shreds his clothes into a bikini, which causes him to wrap his arms around himself as if to protect his modesty and run off crying.
• Smoke Out: Averted when the smoke is too small and conditions are too windy to hide the ninja.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Master Tang and the ventriloquists' counterparts died in Tiger & Crane Fists.
• Stealth Pun: The gopher-chucks - gophers are a smaller variant of woodchucks, therefore he was still using "chucks", just a different type.
• The Stinger: No one actually recovered Master Tang after his "death" scene, and the crew just laugh as a hawk arrives to eat him. Also, "Save the Whales".
• Stock Footage: The movie itself is pieced together from Tiger & Crane Fists, and there are numerous other instances in the movie, all done deliberately for laughs:
  • Certain shots of baby Chosen One rolling down the really tall mountain are recycled in that sequence.
  • The introduction to Master Tang has footage of Tang swooping his arm in the air three times.
  • When Chosen One meets Whoa, footage of him saying "Hmm?" is used three times in quick succession.
  • The footage of Betty swinging his chain at the waterfall is used a few times in the same scene.
  • The footage of Chosen One running towards Ling in an open field ("Chosen One!" "I'm coming!") is recycled, parodying continuity errors.
  • The footage of Chosen One coming across dying bodies of Tang, Ling, and Dog is recycled numerous times.
  • The animorphically stretched stock footage of squirrels near the end of the film.
• Stylistic Suck: The whole movie. To give the sense of bad dubbing, Steve Oedekerk wrote scripts that had nothing to do with the actual story and had everyone use them on set. Then they were all later dubbed over by Steve, or Jennifer Tung in the case of "Whoa".
  • Interestingly, Steve Oedekerk looks very little like Jimmy Wang Yu, yet looks rather well integrated in scenes using little more than a green screen and another person as a placeholder for the Tiger and Crane Fists actor's movements. So some more obviously not well-integrated moments, like the baby rolling down the mountain or the somewhat outdated-looking Moon Yu CGI, are probably this just because it fits with the more slapstick nature anyways.
• Theme Music Power-Up: Betty has a guy with a boom box playing "Can't Touch This" and "Baby Got Back". Also when the Chosen One changes the music to "Black Betty"
  Master Tang: Beware...his song...about big butts...He...beats you up while he plays it!
• Took a Level in Badass: Probably not intentional, but Betty seems to have done this after the intro. At the start of the film, the Chosen One delivers a beatdown on him... as a baby. The next time they clash, many years later, Betty returns the favor.
• Torso with a View: The stomach plug mook is punched through so cleanly that you can see the background and other mooks through the hole in his stomach.
• Translation: "Yes": Wimp Lo has a conversation like this with another student when the Chosen One shows up. This preserves Lip Lock.
  Wimp Lo: Hey, who's that guy?
  Student: ______________________________________________________ I dunno.
• Trivially Obvious: Mushufasa doesn't bring much information to light when he reveals the symbols of the two competing factions.
  Mushufasa: Behold the two symbols...one, over here...the other one, over there.
• Unbuilt Trope: The movie itself plays out much like an Abridged Series, years before Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series debuted.
• Vagueness Is Coming: Master Tang's friend told him of the Chosen One's coming and that "It would be significant"...before he killed his dog by farting.
• Ventriloquism: Parodied with the two ventriloquists in their only scene as dialogue is spoken but their mouths are shut.
  "We are both ventriloquists, ventriloquists, ventriloquists. We are both ventriloquists and we practice everyday."
  "He carries the baskets."
  "He carries the paper roll."
  "And we don't have cysts, but there is one thing that's for sure, my friend, we are ventriloquists."
• Verbal Tic: Developed to fill time when the characters are still talking on the film but have run out of dialogue. Eventually leads to this exchange:
  Betty: Nnnnnng...
  Ling: Wee-ooh woo-oh, woo-ee pee-oo wee-oo pee-oo wee-oo!
  Betty: NnnNNGEHNngh...
  Ling: Wee-ooh woo-ee Ooh woo-ee-oo!
  Betty: NNNNGGGHHHNGGNHNGH...
  Ling: WEE! [kicks random mook] OOH! [beats another one]
• Vocal Dissonance:
  • Admit it: You were surprised the first time you heard Master Pain, a sinister-looking martial artist, speak in that high-pitched goofy voice.
    Master Pain: Open da mouth.
  • One of the villagers, an Asian, speaks with a Southern drawl.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Averted. Master Pain/Betty is defeated easily by the Chosen One as a baby. When they meet as adults, Betty is the only opponent Chosen One is unable to overpower. The narration makes it clear that Chosen has become much stronger in the time between.
• Voodoo Shark: Played for laughs with the "I am a great magician" sequence. Steve Oedekerk wanted to edit two shorter dialogue scenes into one long scene, but found a major problem in that the mayor was wearing a black robe in one scene and a red in the other. So he stuck in some dialogue regarding Betty's great magical powers, and had him change the mayor's clothing when needed.
• Walking the Earth: This is what The Chosen One is doing at the beginning of the film.
  Master Tang: So on he walked... and sometimes, drove... and occasionally, partied with the desert creatures.
• The War Sequence:
  • The Chosen One faces down the army of the Evil Council...in the sequel.
  • A smaller one that we actually see occurs near the beginning with the Chosen One facing off a couple dozen mooks.
• Wimp Fight: Wimp Lo. Justified, as the dojo deliberately trained him wrong "as a joke".
• Would Hurt a Child: Betty attempts to kill the Chosen One as a baby. Unfortunately (for Betty), the infant already knows how to do some sick kung fu moves.
• Wrestler in All of Us: The Cow has a mean piledriver.
• Wrestler of Beasts: One of the Chosen One's opponents is a cow named Moo Nieu.
• You Are Not Ready: Ling tries to warn The Chosen One from facing Betty too soon in an eloquent manner.
  Ling: You'll never make it. Never make it. Never make it. Never make it, never. Don't you see you can't make it?
• You Killed My Father: Betty (then still known as Master Pain) killed the Chosen One's family. And he doesn't like that kind of thing.

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"We will meet again, Chosen One. Many more times. In the sequel."