Line #51 Main/KungFoley


1	->''"... every single punch in this scene sounds like one of the Foley guys is whaling on a naugahyde sofa with an aluminum baseball bat."''
2	-->-- ''Website/TelevisionWithoutPity'' recap of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', "[[Recap/SupernaturalS02E14BornUnderABadSign Born Under a Bad Sign]]"
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4	So you've dedicated years of your life to mastering some obscure martial art with the intention of avenging your family's murder at the hands of [[BigBad an evil man]] [[FluffyTheTerrible named]] [[Film/KungPowEnterTheFist Betty]]. Only you'll never sneak up on him because your slightest movement causes horribly loud '''swoosh'''es and '''crack'''s.
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6	Maybe you should have studied something other than Kung Foley.
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8	Kung-Foley is the hyper-exaggerated sound effects that go along with almost any ''really serious'' action sequence. From high risk martial arts to [[MundaneMadeAwesome zipping your fly]], it's all fair game. It's moved from Kung Fu trope to cliché to high {{Camp}} to {{Satire}} to acceptance as a mainstream trope. This is odd as it represents a backwards evolutionary trajectory.
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10	Martial Arts equivalent of NoisyGuns, BangBangBANG or AudibleSharpness. Subtrope of TheCoconutEffect. Named for a comment from the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' version of ''Film/WarriorOfTheLostWorld''. The "foley" portion referring to Foley artists, the people responsible for making sound effects synced to the events on screen.
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12	'''This Trope is specifically about the hyper-exaggerated applications of foley in action sequences.[[note]]({{Fight Scene}}s, {{Training Montage}}s, {{Lock And Load Montage}}s, {{Chase Scene}}s, etc.) and spoofs thereof.[[/note]] For more applications of this art, and examples of non-action uses, see TheCoconutEffect, the supertrope to Kung-Foley.'''
13	----
14	!!Examples
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16	[[foldercontrol]]
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18	[[folder:Advertising]]
19	* Parodied in the ad for the Samsung Epic 4G called "Epic Sound Effects".
20	* Parodied in commercials for the restaurant Steak & Shake. A hammy martial arts master is demonstrating the available $4 meals to his pupil, but every time he gestures to a burger and fries, a whip-crack is heard.
21	-->'''Pupil:''' What's that sound, Master?\
22	'''Master:''' Kung fu elbow. ''[demonstrates; more whip-cracks are heard as he swings his arm back and forth]'' Try it.\
23	''[The student swings his arm, but only produces the squeaky sound of rusty hinges.]''
24	[[/folder]]
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26	[[folder:Anime]]
27	* ''Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi'' has a suit that produces Kung Foley in one episode.
28	[[/folder]]
29
30	[[folder:Film]]
31	* In the film ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'', TheBrute Bane tosses a group of {{Redshirt}} thugs through the air, complete with a slide-whistle sound effect.
32	* All of Creator/BruceLee's martial arts films use this to an extent by nature of being...well, 70s martial arts films, but ''Film/TheBigBoss'' takes it further than any of the others, with every punch and kick sounding like a gunshot and every jump sounding like a plane taking off.
33	* The live action films ''Film/{{Guyver}}'' and ''Film/GuyverDarkHero'' are full of bizarre sound effects. The first one decides that the Zoanoids should sound like elephants and/or lions while the second one decides that every movement of the titular Guyver must sound like scraping metal.
34	* Done InUniverse in ''Film/HerculesReturns'', as the protagonists are forced to GagDub an Italian sword-and-sandal movie that doesn't have an English soundtrack. An on-screen fight is intercut with the people in the projection room slapping each other and smashing things to provide the required sounds, and eventually fires are being lit backstage or the projectionist is smashing his head into the wall. Later the villainous movie mogul who arranged for them to get the undubbed movie storms up to the projection booth to put a stop to things, with the subsequent YouFightLikeACow dialogue [[TwoScenesOneDialogue matching what's happening on screen]].
35	* PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/HotFuzz'', where even the act of writing a report was turned into an action sequence using this technique.
36	* The distinctive and immediately recognizable "Mm-PSH!" swing-and-punch sound effect from the ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' series was achieved by hitting a stack of leather coats with a baseball bat.
37	* ''Film/OutOfThePast:'' The fist fight between Jeff and his blackmailing partner Fisher continues for some time, with each hit in the face emphasized by a loud "sock" — each of which would probably have rendered the recipient unconscious, and/or broken the hand of the hitter.
38	* A foreground element of ''Film/KungPowEnterTheFist''.
39	* Parodied in the first ''Film/PoliceAcademy'', where Larvell Jones puts his beatboxing skills to use and imitates a Kung-Fu movie, complete with the wooshes, cracks and out-of-sync dubbing. This trope is played straight everywhere else in the movie series, though.
40	* While not "martial arts" the foley sounds of {{Eye Poke}}s and {{Dope Slap}}s in ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' are masterful foley work, making the actions even more exaggerated and comical. It also made it possible for the Stooges to not actually hit each other that hard, as the sound effects carried the bulk of the implied violence.
41	* The movie ''U.S. Seals II'' -- every movement of a hand, head or ''finger'' is accompanied by a whoosh sound, as if the foley artist was paid per foley.
42	* ''Film/WaynesWorld2'' takes this to whole new limits when Wayne and Jeff are fighting: Every single motion is Kung-Foley'd, even when Wayne operates his telephone in mid-fight.
43	[[/folder]]
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45	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
46	* ''Series/Batman1966'': the Creator/AdamWest series was even more ridiculous. MickeyMousing was used heavily, while the (in)famous written sound effects (Pow! Biff! Wham!) popped up on the screen.
47	* ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho'' (and ''Series/{{Chespirito}}'''s other works, for that matter) has pretty original elements; among them, every time a character punches (or otherwise hits) another character you can hear a boxing bell. Bonus points for having it done live.
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49	* ''Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'' and ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' both made heavy use of this trope, with nearly every punch, throw, and glance accentuated with sound effects. No surprise, since executive producer Creator/SamRaimi is generally fond of this trope, which also shows up in his ''Franchise/EvilDead'' movies.
50	* Foley is parodied in the ''[[Series/TheGoodies Goodies]]'' episode ''Kung Fu Kapers'', when Tim and Bill are fighting -- Tim tries to hit Bill, finds it produces a honking noise, then just touches him for a while to explore the sounds that ensue, which include alarm clocks and party horns. Bill laughs and plays a few notes on himself by tapping his head and knees. Tim pushes Bill's stomach and produces a loud honk. They both laugh ... and then Tim clobbers Bill over the head accompanied by a huge, rock-smashing sound effect.
51	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' often has loud punches and crashes accenting the fight scenes.
52	* Played with in Creator/{{Netflix}}/Creator/{{Marvel}}'s ''Series/{{Daredevil\|2015}}''. The usual foley is there, but the staging of the scene often draws attention to it -- because the title character is blind and relies on his much, much [[DisabilitySuperpower better than average hearing]] to compensate.
53	* Lampshaded with in-universe foley effects in ''Series/AgentCarter''. Peggy Carter beats up a crook while the [[ShowWithinAShow Captain America radio show]] is playing, and her punches are intercut with shots of the radio show's foley artists making sound effects by hitting slabs of meat and crushing lobsters.
54	[[/folder]]
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56	[[folder:Music]]
57	* Parodied in Music/WeirdAlYankovic's video ''Fat'' (itself a parody of Michael Jackson's video ''Bad''). Al suddenly realizes he is causing sound effects with every slightest move, first regular swishes and cracks, then ratcheting and glass breaking. And further parodied when after one hand movement that ends out of the shot causes a loud snapping noise, he pulls it back to show the mousetrap that's closed on it.
58	[[/folder]]
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60	[[folder:Radio]]
61	* It's impressive to watch the foley for ''Radio/APrairieHomeCompanion'' in action; he's able to simulate, among other things, a helicopter hovering over a house being torn apart by an earthquake while pterodactyls close in.
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64	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
65	* In classic ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'' rules, there's an InUniverse example: martial artists can take the disadvantage "The Cup Overflows". It means that all their combat moves result in hammy sound effects and possibly even '''Franchise/{{Final Fantasy}}''-esque battle auras and flashes of light. Not only does it makes stealth harder, it also makes hostile martial artists think your character is more dangerous than they are and target you with their strongest techniques; non-martial artists simply think you are a [[BurnTheWitch sorcerer]].
66	[[/folder]]
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68	[[folder:Video Games]]
69	* Done to a rather ridiculous extent with Tenpouin Keiya of ''VideoGame/EvilZone'', whose barehanded strikes make whipping-like sounds regardless of whether or not they actually connect with the opponent.
70	* In ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'', the first iteration of the Staff Fighting powerset was criticized for having sound effects that were too weak. In response, the sound artist "punched up" the the effects a bit, to the point that it sounded like you were channeling Zeus with each blow. Things eventually settled down to producing a solid "thwack" on impact.
71	[[/folder]]
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73	[[folder:Web Original]]
74	* In the Literature/WhateleyUniverse, martial arts whiz Chaka makes that 'crack' noise when she punches at high speed. Even when she's wearing a sleeveless blouse. Justified since it's implied she's actually breaking the sound barrier.
75	%%* Parodied several times in ''WebVideo/SonicTheOtherMovie'', particularly during the Tornado's launch sequence in episode 1.
76	[[/folder]]
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78	%%[[folder:Western Animation]]
79	%%* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' uses this to add to the brutal effectiveness of its amped-up fight scenes.
80	%%[[/folder]]
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Context Main / KungFoley