Basic Trope: A character tries to intimidate their opponents by claiming to know some form of foreign-sounding martial art that isn't actually a martial art.
- Straight: Alice is accosted by a robber, and she warns him to back away because she has black belt in Origami.
- Exaggerated: Alice rattles a whole list of "martial arts" she is supposedly a master of, and none of them are actual martial art styles (Origami, Ikebana, Yakitori, etc.).
- Downplayed: Alice claims to know "that martial art movement Bruce Lee created".
- Justified:
- Alice hopes to get away from the encounter unharmed, but doesn't know any actual martial arts name, and spouts a random foreign word, hoping it would intimidate her attackers.
- Alice knows the craft and hopes that her assailant associates her claim with him being the 'paper'.
- Inverted: Alice, a self-proclaimed art fan, tells her peers that she has studied Naginata, not realizing that it's a weapon, and not an art form.
- Subverted:
- Alice warns a mugger that she's trained in Origami, and her opponent laughs it off... only to realize too late that Alice is a Martial Arts and Crafts practitioner who can weaponize her paper creations.
- … Only to realize too late that she can use him as the paper.
- Alice claims to be trained in Origami, but only because she has forgotten the name of the actual martial arts style she's trained in, and was simply using a random Japanese word to substitute it.
- Double Subverted:
- Alice's Martial Arts and Crafts turns out to be ineffective in genuine combat, and she gets beaten quickly.
- His new form doesn't last long enough for her to either get away or actually deal with him.
- Alice is not trained in Origami... she's actually trained Ayatori (cat's cradle).
- Parodied: Alice tries to intimidate her opponents by claiming to be trained in embroidery. They immediately run away screaming.
- Averted: Alice makes no attempt to intimidate her opponents and simply give up or run away.
- Enforced: Rule of Funny
- Lampshaded: After a Beat moment, the bad guy asks incredulously, "You're trained in the art of paper folding?"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Alice can't think of a suitable word that sounds sufficiently intimidating, so she gives up looking and goes for I Know Karate instead.
- Discussed: "Really, Alice, is it too hard for you name even ONE actual form of martial arts?"
- Conversed: "Wouldn't it actually be better for the characters to pretend knowing a real, well-known martial arts that these bad guys can be intimidated by?"
- Deconstructed: ???
- Reconstructed: ???
- Played For Laughs: After Alice claims to know Origami, her opponent tries to one-up her with another foreign-sounding word that, and Alice retaliates by coming up with an more ridiculous foreign word. This continues indefinitely.
- Played For Drama: Rather than intimidate her opponents, Alice's pretense to know martial arts provokes them to attack with even more fervor, and she gets badly beaten up as a result.
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