History Main / EverybodyWasKungFuFighting

* Justified in the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'' stories; in this CapePunk world, just having powers of some sort marks one as a target of both FantasticRacism and SuperhumanTrafficking, so the [[SuperHeroSchool Whateley Academy]] school administration is determined to give every one of their students at least some sort of fighting chance. Students have to take either introductory martial arts ("introductory" in the [[BoxingLessonsForSuperman superpowered sense of the word]]) or Survival (which is more about [[CombatParkour evasion techniques]] than wilderness survival), and those who don't take it in their first semester usually regret it when they discover the Combat Finals at the end of term. As a result, huge numbers of mutants at the school can pull off some aikido or Shaolin kung fu or whatnot, and fair number are quite proficient; there are even two rival 'schools', the Dragons and the Tigers, within the school walls. There are over half a dozen teachers whose job is teaching martial arts, in a school of under 600 mutants. At least three students (Fey, Bladedancer and Pejuta) have ''personal'' martial arts trainers, though these specialists also help with some other students sometimes.

* ''Film/RushHour 3'': Carter clearly knows how to fight by now against other fighting experts. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BvJZTe4L88&feature=related He even breaks into song]] [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments afterwards]].

* On ''Series/{{Lost}}'', everyone except Hurley is an expert marksman and close-combat fighter. Hurley makes up for this lack by [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome running people over with a bus.]]

* ''Film/{{Blade}}'' has Blade repeatedly fighting scores of {[mook}}s with martial arts. Vampires don't seem to hand out many guns to their minions.

* AncientGreece was a place where ''everyone'' knew how to fight. It usually was wrestling or Pankration, but there were also pugilists and the like. All those myths in which random people killed each other for little reason? TruthInTelevision, for them.

* Justified in the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'' stories; in this CapePunk world, just having powers of some sort marks one as a target of both FantasticRacism and SuperhumanTrafficking, so the [[SuperHeroSchool Whateley Academy]] school administration is determined to give every one of their students at least some sort of fighting chance. Students have to take either introductory martial arts ("introductory" in the [[BoxingLessonsForSuperman superpowered sense of the word]]) or Survival (which is more about evasion techniques than wilderness survival), and those who don't take it in their first semester usually regret it when they discover the Combat Finals at the end of term. As a result, huge numbers of mutants at the school can pull off some aikido or Shaolin kung fu or whatnot, and fair number are quite proficient; there are even two rival 'schools', the Dragons and the Tigers, within the school walls. There are over half a dozen teachers whose job is teaching martial arts, in a school of under 600 mutants. At least three students (Fey, Bladedancer and Pejuta) have ''personal'' martial arts trainers, though these specialists also help with some other students sometimes.

* ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid'' gives us a glimpse of what non-military life in Mid-Childa is like through the eyes of Nanoha's daughter. After a few chapters, it becomes this. ThoseTwoGirls? HeirToTheDojo of an ancient martial art and a {{Golem}} [[MarionetteMaster manipulator]] [[spoiler:who could also fight as a DittoFighter in close combat]] The BlitheSpirit nun-in-training? Tonfa-based WarriorMonk {{Trickster}} speedster. TheOjou? [[KnightInShiningArmor Literal]] MagicKnight fighting style passed down from Ancient Belka. The only named new character who hasn't been revealed to have a fighting style of some sort so far is TheOjou's butler, who is a very minor person.

* Justified in the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'' stories. At the [[SuperHeroSchool Whateley Academy]], students have to take introductory martial arts ("introductory" in the superpowered sense of the word) or Survival (which is more about evasion techniques than wilderness survival), and those who skip out usually regret it when they discover the Combat Finals at the end of term. So huge numbers of mutants at the school can pull off some aikido or Shaolin kung fu or whatnot, and fair number are quite proficient; there are even two rival 'schools', the Dragons and the Tigers, within the school walls. There are over half a dozen teachers whose job is teaching martial arts, in a school of under 600 mutants. At least three students (Fey, Bladedancer and Pejuta) have ''personal'' martial arts trainers, though these specialists also help with some other students sometimes.

* One episode of ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' had no supernatural enemies whatsoever. Instead the episode's villain was a corrupt District Attorney who was trying to frame his mistress for murder. Towards the end of the episode the mistress confronts the District Attorney and the two of them suddenly engage in a brief kung fu fight completely out of left field.

* ''Film/KungFuHipHop'' features kung fu fighting hip hop dancers]]

** One of the funniest scenes in the movie is when Sing tries to start a fight with the residents of Pig Sty Alley. They ''all'' start to converge on him in unison until he backpedals and tries to make it a series of one-on-one fights instead, specifically singling out women, children and the elderly. The child and elderly man turn out to be built like brick walls (''especially'' the kid,) a short guy he singles out turned out to be sitting on a chair and is twice as tall as the others, and the woman punches him in the gut so hard he coughs up blood.
* Everybody knowing kung fu is a staple of almost every modern day Hong Kong MartialArtsMovie made since the '70s. There have been movies involving:
** Kung fu fighting basketball players
** Kung fu fighting chefs
** Kung fu fighting mahjong players
** [[Film/KungFuHipHop Kung fu fighting hip hop dancers]]

* A plot point in the movie ''Film/ShaolinSoccer'': the hero wants to spread Shaolin Kung Fu and points out to a soccer coach how it could be used to improve peoples' lives (like avoiding {{Banana Peel}}s and [[MundaneMadeAwesome parallel parking]]). After they win a soccer tournament with an entire team of Shaolin monks, the hero gets his wish, and we get a {{Montage}} of people using kung fu [[MundaneUtility in their everyday lives]]. In the English dub, the song that plays in the background is a cover of ''Kung Fu Fighting'' by Carl Douglas.
* Played with in the 2008 ''Film/SpeedRacer'' film, as everyone in the Racer family is able to prodigiously defend themselves against enemy racers, ninjas, etc. Most of them somehow know Kung Fu, although Pops doles out a beatdown with GoodOldFisticuffs. The exception is the Racers' mechanic Sparky, who [[NonActionGuy is totally useless in a fight]] and repeatedly has to be bailed out by his infinitely more skilled companions.
** Pops even wears a ring attesting to his wrestling championship fame.
* ''Film/{{Blade}}''. Also ''ComicBook/{{Blade}}'', ''Series/{{Blade}}'', and oh yes, ''Anime/{{Blade}}''.

* The two-person non-lethal takedowns in ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' often begin with the targets attempting to expertly melee Jensen followed by an equally expert counter and finishing move. Said takedowns can be done not just on enemies but also regular [=NPCs=]. Which means that you can witness elaborate martial battles not just between Jensen and soldiers, but between Jensen and ordinary civilians or even between Jensen and ''street prostitutes''.

** Ditto for Israel with [[CombatPragmatist Krav Maga]].

* As said above, AncientGreece was a place where ''everyone'' knew how to fight. It usually was wrestling or Pankration, but there were also pugilists and the like. All those myths in which random people killed each other for little reason? TruthInTelevision, for them.

-->--'''Carl Douglas''', "Kung Fu Fighting"

* Happens quite frequently in the [[Creator/TimBurton Burton]]/[[Creator/JoelSchumacher Schumacher]] ''Film/{{Batman}}'' films. While roughly half the arch-villains ([[ComicBook/TheJoker Joker]], Penguin and Riddler especially) are [[NonActionGuy very unathletic]] and/or [[SissyVillain physically weak]], their {{Mooks}} are often improbably masters of kung fu, karate and various other styles, some of them even wielding ''[[KatanasAreJustBetter katanas]]''. For ''Film/BatmanReturns'', Burton even had to hire ten (mostly) nameless guys from a Hollywood dojo specifically for a fight scene. Gets ''really'' ridiculous in ''Film/BatmanForever'', where an entire street gang who spend most of their time threatening and mugging teenage girls are all skilled at kendo and various forms of hand-to-hand combat. A more realistic approach was taken in [[Creator/ChristopherNolan Nolan's]] ''[[Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy Batman]]'' films, where the {{Mooks}} for the most part don't know how to fight and just rely on guns.

* ''Series/{{Batman}}''. Two heroes vs. the episode's main villain and their henchmen? Seems like fair odds.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/KungFuHustle https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kungfuhustle_3689.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:This is why you should never enter a fight without knowing your enemy, why you should never pick a fight with a building full of kung fu masters, [[SpaceWhaleAesop and why you should never make your landlady angry.]]]]

-->-- "Kung Fu Fighting" by '''Carl Douglas'''

** In a time-travel ep set during the character Jackie's childhood during the 70's, a fight breaks out between present-Jackie, past-Uncle, present-Jade and the Dark Hand, prompting one of the kids to say [[TitleDrop 'Everybody is Kung-Fu Fighting!']]

* As [[LemonyNarrator VJ Emmie]] happily puts it, everybody in Uganda knows kung fu in ''Film/WhoKilledCaptainAlex'', from the terrorists to the military soldiers. Interestingly enough, all the actors in the movie [[WriteWhatYouKnow have some knowledge of mixed martial arts, either self-taught or learned from others]].

* ''Film/RushHour 3'': Carter clearly knows how to fight by now against other fighting experts. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BvJZTe4L88&feature=related He even breaks into song]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny afterwards]].

* On ''Series/{{Lost}}'', everyone except Hurley is an expert marksman and close-combat fighter. Hurley makes up for this lack by [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome running people over with a bus.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''; almost every main-character, both good and evil, knows a version of kung-fu. Most of them know [[ElementalPowers ''superpowered'']] kung-fu. Exceptions are Sokka, who functions as the team's BadAssNormal (eventually), and a few minor characters, like Yue, Yugoda and the Cabbage Merchant.
** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], since Kung-Fu is how to use [[ElementalPowers superpowers]] in the world.

* ''TopGear'' created a TitleSequence for ''The Intercepters'', a non-existent Seventies action show, which featured members of Top Gear in PornStache taking out various villains with a well-placed karate chop. Eventually even hapless hotel butlers and dancing females are on the receiving end.

* Happens quite frequently in the [[Creator/TimBurton Burton]]/[[Creator/JoelSchumacher Schumacher]] ''Film/{{Batman}}'' films. While roughly half the arch-villains ([[TheJoker Joker]], Penguin and Riddler especially) are [[NonActionGuy very unathletic]] and/or [[SissyVillain physically weak]], their {{Mooks}} are often improbably masters of kung fu, karate and various other styles, some of them even wielding ''[[KatanasAreJustBetter katanas]]''. For ''Film/BatmanReturns'', Burton even had to hire ten (mostly) nameless guys from a Hollywood dojo specifically for a fight scene. Gets ''really'' ridiculous in ''Film/BatmanForever'', where an entire street gang who spend most of their time threatening and mugging teenage girls are all skilled at kendo and various forms of hand-to-hand combat. A more realistic approach was taken in [[Creator/ChristopherNolan Nolan's]] ''[[Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy Batman]]'' films, where the {{Mooks}} for the most part don't know how to fight and just rely on guns.

* ''{{Lovejoy}}'', a British TV series (very!) loosely based on some novels about a conman-cum-antiques-dealer, subverted this one in a scene where Lovejoy's ally of the week, a Japanese man, frightens off a gang of thugs by ''pretending'' to know kung fu. After they're gone he explains that everyone just assumes he can kick their butts because he's Asian.

* Outdoor aerobics-style tai chi classes are extremely common in China, predominately for health benefits. Since tai chi is a martial art, in theory, the people in these classes can defend themselves if they just perform the movements faster. Thus, A Reasonable Amount Of People Might Be Kung Fu Fighting If They Really Needed To.

[[caption-width-right:350:This is why you should never enter a fight without knowing your enemy, why you should never pick a fight with a building full of kung fu masters, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and why you should never make your landlady angry.]]]]

* ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs'': Most people, including all mooks and many male civlians, know kung fu in HongKong. If you hijack a car or start punching people in the street, you may be surprised by the number of people who will at least try to hit back.

* One of the initial criticisms of ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' was that seemingly every villain was an expert hand-to-hand combatant, including traditionally poor fighters like Joker and Penguin. For better or for worse, this was toned down as the show went on, although it always existed to some extent.

* One of the initial criticisms of ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' was that seemingly every villain was an expert hand-to-hand combatant, especially the Joker and the Penguin.