Basic Trope: Hero warns an adversary that they know martial arts.
- Straight: While facing a menacing mook, Bob warns him that he knows karate.
- Exaggerated: Bob starts a long enumeration about how he has black belts in karate, judo, aikido and Brazilian jiu-jitsu and a white rope in capoeira.
- Downplayed: Bob warns him that he is accustomed to fight and his opponent wouldn't want to face him.
- Justified: Bob's martial arts school especifically obliges its trainees to warn it before a violent confrontation.
- Inverted:
- The mook warns Bob that he knows karate.
- Bob warns his opponent that he doesn't know karate and begs him to go easy on him.
- Subverted: Bob warns his opponent he is a black belt in karate, but actually he is not and gets beaten to the ground.
- Double Subverted: ...but then Bob reveals that he is a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, so he drags the mook down and chokes him.
- Parodied: Bob tries to warn the mook that he is trained in Daito-Ryu Aikijujutsu, but he can't spell the name and needs a break to get it right.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob is going to tell the bad guy he knows karate to dissuade him, but he refrains from doing it as he thinks it would be useless. Alice passes through and casually tells the mook that Bob knows karate and he would better run away. Seeing her a weaker opponent anyways, the baddie turns to Alice and tauntingly questions whether she does it as well, but she denies it. The mook attacks Alice, but then she reveals to know judo and wrecks him. At the end, Bob admits to her that he actually doesn't know karate - he knows kung fu.
- Averted: Bob doesn't warn his opponent about martial arts.
- Enforced: The productor is a black belt in karate, so he pushed for the character Bob to say the line.
- Lampshaded:
- "I know that nowadays this could sound somewhat bombastic, but... I know karate."
- "Couldn't you use a more original phrase to try to intimidate me?"
- Invoked: Bob has just received his black belt and he wants to boast of it in front of Alice, so he gets in the fight only to warn it.
- Exploited: After Bob warns a bar room full of brawlers that he knows karate, his Bumbling Sidekick Chuck adds that he also does despite not being true, hoping them to be scared away by Bob before he have to fight.
- Defied: Bob thinks of warning the mook that he is a black belt, but he then thinks better and goes right to fight.
- Discussed:Mook: What's that, a karate stance? That stuff only works in movies, chap!
Bob: Well, I admit that with the turn of the millenium traditional martial arts have got watered down on its training and methods, but I would like to make a point about the validity of the art I practise...
Mook: Stop babbling and come to fight!
Bob: ...I warned you. A sort of.\// - Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Bob warns his adversary he knows karate, but the latter starts laughing and doing Funny Bruce Lee Noises.
- Reconstructed: ...but then Bob takes advantage of it and high kicks him in the face mid-laugh, knocking him out him.
- Played For Laughs: Bob warns that he knows karate before realizing his opponents are the staff of a karate Thug Dojo.
- Played For Drama: Bob warns the mook that he knows karate, but it brings him memories of how he accidentally killed his opponent in a full contact tournament, which has tormented him since.
Back to I Know Karate
