[00:00:00]
Yes, sir. Remember you defense points come concentrate, focus part. Remember balance
line, that’s one point round kick.[00:01:00]
Todd: I I’m having a hard time turning it up, sweetie. You know why? Oh my gosh. We just did a podcast where, where songs that kind of get your, get your heart going. Uhhuh. This is g this has gotta be in there for you, but I gotta do this, sweetie.
Cathy: It’s because
Todd: that’s for us.
Cathy: You’re the best around Todd. That’s
Todd: right.
Todd: Um, hey everybody. Yeah. What are
Cathy: we, uh, we, uh, welcome to Zen Pop Parenting. Welcome to our show where Gen X pop culture meets real life reflection. You know what we’re doing? We are connecting families through movies, music, and meaning. And there’s a lot of meaning in Johnny from the Karate
Todd: kid. That’s right.
Todd: Well, but we’re not doing it just on Johnny. We kinda are, well, we’re doing it on the actor.
Cathy: We’re doing it. Well, let’s think about it this way. Okay. Johnny has a lot connected to him because he wasn’t just in the karate kid. No. What Johnny [00:02:00] was, um, or is, is a representation of a bully. Yeah. Okay. And it’s a very Gen X bully.
Cathy: Mm-hmm. To Todd’s point, he didn’t just play a bully in Karate Kid.
Todd: Yep.
Cathy: He was a bully in other movies as well, which we’re about to get to. And it had a really big effect on US Gen Xers and how we saw bullying. Um, so we will talk about the other movies he was in, things he has done, and of course where he is now with Cobra Kai.
Cathy: So much to discuss, but
Todd: it kind of gives us an opportunity to talk about a lot of these other kind of random eighties and nineties movies that we never would be able to talk about had it not been for. Good Point. Johnny Lawrence from the Karate Kid.
Cathy: Right. Or we know him now. With his name, William Zab, or when he was young, Billy Zab.
Cathy: Thank you. William. Did he pull,
Todd: uh, you know, Billy Corgan for a while wanted to be known, known as William Corrigan? Is that what Billy [00:03:00] Zab did?
Cathy: Well, I think from, um, my understanding is that when he was in these movies early on in the eighties, he was young. He was 17, 18, 1920s. So he’s Billy. Yeah. I think as you get older, you know,
Todd: don’t say that to my colleague Billy Jolly, who’s 60 something.
Todd: He is still Billy.
Cathy: Well, my name is Kathleen and I go by Kathy. So I didn’t, I didn’t, I actually, when I got to college, I think all my name tags said Kathleen, but I didn’t stick with it. Yeah. So, you know, we don’t always, but I think we can, we can just go with whatever feels right
Todd: today. So I’m still, uh, kind of figuring out what this podcast is all about and I’m, I’m developing a deeper appreciation for it.
Todd: Uhhuh. Me too. I thought we were just gonna kind of do what we did before with Pop Culturing, but we’re really trying to bring some of the best elements of Zen parenting to this podcast. So, and this is an easy one, obviously, because Johnny was a bully. Uh, but we’re also gonna have fun and talk about this actor and the roles that he was in.
Todd: So, um, how do we wanna start? Do we wanna set the scene or Let’s set
Cathy: the scene.
Todd: All right. So we [00:04:00] do have sound effects for each of these categories, and this is us setting the scene, everybody.
Todd: All right, so are we gonna set the scene with William Zko, with Karate Kid? All the above. Let’s
Cathy: talk about the movies that William Zko was in so people can get an understanding of why. Oh. That’s a lot of set in the scene. Yeah, let’s keep setting it. So what, so obviously let’s start with the Karate Kid.
Cathy: Yep. Um, 1984. So if you listened last week we talked about The Outsiders, which was 1983. If you listen, the week before we talked about MTV, which was 1981. So we just so happened to be going in this linear fashion. I don’t think it’ll always be that way. It’s by accident. It’s by accident. But, uh, karate Kid, 1984, and then in 1985, what movie did he do?
Cathy: Well, first of
Todd: all, sweetie, you skipped over his, uh, role in the Greatest [00:05:00] American Hero. Oh, in 1983. I loved that show. Yeah, I’m on his IMDB right now. So then 1985 is just one of the guys. He played a guy named Greg Tolan and then also
Cathy: in 1985, which before you get to him, yeah, Greg Tolan in just one of the guys is Johnny.
Cathy: Yeah, his name’s Greg, but it’s the exact
Todd: same. Not a big archetype. Not a big stretch. Although he wore these gloves in just one of the guys. He sure
Cathy: did.
Todd: He
Cathy: liked to flip tables.
Todd: I don’t think Johnny and Karate Kid did that. Uh, and. Later on that year, uh, national Lampoon’s, European Vacation 1985, and then the next year, 1986, back to school,
Cathy: which you can do all the talking you want about back to school.
Cathy: I will not be doing that.
Todd: Oh, sweetie. I’m gonna talk all about Back to school and then it’s a whole bunch of stuff. I’ve never heard of A lot of TV movies, a lot of TV series. Um, I’m trying to get to Hot Tub Time Machine in 2010.
Cathy: Was he in Hot Tub Time Machine?
Todd: Apparently I saw that movie. I didn’t particularly like it.
Todd: You and I saw it in the theater. Yeah. Can you believe that? [00:06:00] Um, and then he was
Cathy: on Psych in 2014. It’s our show. Well, of course he was. ’cause what Psych does mm-hmm. Is they bring in actors from the eighties. Yes. So they had a lot of that representation.
Todd: He played Johnny in How I Met Your Mother. Okay. Which the show you and I never watched.
Todd: Right. And then 2020 along comes co uh, Cobra Kai.
Cathy: Yeah. And it brought back his, you know, what he was most known for. So, you know, just a few like. Things about these movies that he was in or, or how he was represented when we were growing up, obviously in Karate Kid, which, you know, we played some of Karate Kid there at the beginning with You’re the Best Around.
Cathy: He was the guy who went after Daniel. He was the guy that Daniel was going to have to fight. He was the guy that was the villain. He was like a very clean cut, bad guy. At least he was in Karate Kid one. Okay. It was, don’t you think he was pretty clean cut. Uh, they didn’t give him a lot of room. No, not [00:07:00] a lot of rain.
Cathy: He was not a lot of range was
Todd: bad. He was the
Cathy: bad guy. Yeah, he was the villain and
Todd: he was the blonde hair, blue eyes. Very pretty looking dude.
Cathy: Very good looking
Todd: guy. Um, which is, I guess, I don’t know, maybe bullies are always portrayed as being pretty, but Johnny’s kind of pretty.
Cathy: Yes. And then, um, just a little bit about just one of the guys, which, um, Todd and I realized that we will never on this show be able to talk about this movie except right now.
Cathy: That’s right. But we do wanna talk about it because he and I both. Watched it a lot. Yeah. Um, I’ve seen just one of the guys, gosh, I can’t even count. And I had the flu a couple months ago and I watched it. So it’s very much in my mind and I can’t believe that movie. Um, but I can, because I watched it when I was young.
Cathy: But to watch it again is pretty crazy. And that story is about a girl, um, named Terry, played by Joyce Heiser, who decides that she’s not getting fair treatment at her school, that it’s a gender inequality issue, which I appreciate. And she wants to go to a new school, pretend she’s a [00:08:00] guy and be a journalist there so she can win an award.
Cathy: That’s what she’s trying to do, is be a journalist and she ends up. Falling in love with a guy and she ends up being bullied by Greg Tolman, who is, um, William Buddy, William Zab. And it’s a whole thing. And Todd likes this movie. Yeah. Because of this character named Buddy. Buddy.
Todd: Yeah, buddy. Do you have any clips
Cathy: of Buddy?
Todd: Uh, I don’t know. I mean, I have the trailer that you sent to me. Should we play a little bit of the trailer just to,
Cathy: I actually put that under WTF, but if you would like to play it now?
Todd: No, let’s, let’s save it. Okay. Uh, but yeah, so Buddy is the younger brother of Terry Uhhuh and Buddy is just like this walking hormone, testosterone sex, uh, driven 15 year olds or 14-year-old.
Todd: He’s
Cathy: basically the movie porkies and a human being. Yeah. It’s so over the top. Yeah. And so inappropriate.
Todd: Yes.
Cathy: And how old is this kid? Who’s playing this? This
Todd: character? I don’t know, but he is hilarious. I mean, once you get past his, [00:09:00] just need to want and talk about sex all the time. It’s super funny. I think he’s, he has sub scenes.
Todd: He’s the best part of the movie as far as I’m concerned.
Cathy: Well, you know, we were just talking about change of names. When he was in that movie, he went by Billy Jacoby and then when he got older and was acting, he went by Billy Jane.
Todd: Oh really?
Cathy: Yeah. He changed his name.
Todd: Oh. I’ve never seen him in anything other than that.
Todd: He was in Silver Spoons. He was, yes. Here we are face to face. Face to face. Face. A couple of silver spoons. I
Cathy: mean, can’t you see Billy Jacoby in Silver Spoons? Oh, for sure. With Justin Bateman. With, with, uh, Jason Bateman. That’d be Jason Bateman. Not
Todd: just Steam Bateman.
Cathy: Exactly. So yeah, Jason Bateman was great in silver spoons as well.
Cathy: They kind of play a similar kind of character, like dry humor, but yes, it’s one of my favorite
Todd: TV theme songs.
Is it? Yeah, face to face.
To find kind[00:10:00]
together.
Todd: Um, Aaron Gray, I had a big crush on her. Yes, you did. In, in that show, he had a bunch of arcade games in his bedroom, in his bedroom or in the living room. And he had a game called Dragons Layer, which was most guys’ favorite game for a while because it was more of a cartoon than a normal space invaders, karate champ type game.
Todd: A
Cathy: little more to do. Yeah. And yeah, that was, that was at the time Ricky Schroeder then became Rick Schroeder and now is, uh, questionable in some areas of life. But anyway, going back to, um, just one of the guys, so I, what I was laughing about is who is in this movie? Because Joyce Heiser is the lead. Mm-hmm.
Cathy: And I don’t know if she’s been in anything else. The guy who plays Rick, who she falls in love with, Clayton Reiner.
Never heard of him. Never
Cathy: heard of him. Then we’ve got, you know, Billy Jane. Then we’ve got, um, Tony Hudson played Denise, who’s that? Then we do have somebody that was in a few things, Lee McCluskey.
Cathy: Who’s that? He was, he played Terry’s boyfriend [00:11:00] from the other high school. He was like the college guy. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He was in Dallas. He was Lucy Ewing’s husband. Oh, okay. Yeah. So he had a little bit of, and Sherly Fen was in that movie too, right? Correct. She’s the next, well, then it’s William Zappa, Greg Tollen, who, that’s who we’re talking about today.
Cathy: And then Sherly Fen was Sandy, big fan
Todd: of Sherly Fen, especially in Two Moon Junction.
Cathy: Correct? Correct.
Todd: But we’re not gonna talk about that.
Cathy: We’re not gonna talk about that movie. I don’t think we’ll ever talk about that movie unless did you
Todd: think the dude in Two Moon Junction? He’s like the long hair, long hair guy.
Todd: Yeah. Just he looked like a God.
Cathy: Yeah.
Todd: Did you, were you attracted to him or was that not your style?
Cathy: I saw Two Moon Junction in college and I think it was a little beyond me.
Todd: Yeah. Oh, me too. I, I don’t think I
Cathy: was there.
Todd: And Christy McNichol was in there and she showed her breasts. She did. And she was like, America’s sweetheart.
Todd: Like when she was a little kid, I, I just remember like, oh my God, I can’t believe this.
Cathy: There was a, okay, speaking of showing your breasts. Yeah. Okay. First of all, in just one of the guys, the reason that most people ended up watching it repeatedly is because Joyce Heizer, who placed Terry does show her breasts at the end of the movie, which is the [00:12:00] gratuitous nature of eighties movies.
Cathy: Like. Correct. She didn’t have to do that. No. It wasn’t necessary. And then also, you know, in the eighties, like, like you said, Christy McNichol showed her breasts and, um, who, uh, Julie Andrews showed her breasts. Oh yeah, that’s true. And she was Mary Poppins and Sound of Music. Right. It’s a little
Todd: crazy.
Cathy: It was kind of a thing.
Cathy: And then a bunch of famous people were doing Playboy. It just was a time Yeah. When there were, you know, and in some ways I would like to see it as a positive in that women got to own their own sexuality. Sure. Um, you know. A lot of times it’s gratuitous. Again, this is a gray area because it’s up to them.
Cathy: Yeah. If they’re being forced, no, that’s no good. Right. But if there’s, if that’s a choice they would like to make, that is, and should we
Todd: say, who was her name? Joyce Heiser. You said Joyce Heiser. Didn’t she have some famous boyfriends for a while? I don’t remember. Bruce Springsteen. Whoa. I think she dated him and some other crazy famous guy.
Todd: Mm-hmm. So maybe I’ll try to figure that out.
Cathy: Okay. So that’s basically, that’s just one of the guys, we’ll keep talking about that movie, but [00:13:00] the most important part is that Billy Zaka is, you know, Greg in the movie, he is the villain. And that in Back to School and European vacation. I’m not gonna talk about back to school.
Cathy: Are you gonna talk about it a lot? A little bit. In European vacation, um, Billy Zab plays Jack, who is Audrey. Um, Griswold’s boyfriend. Yeah. In, in European vacation. Dana Hill plays Audrey. Um, and he’s not necessarily a bully, but he’s definitely a jerk.
Todd: She’s very in love with Jack. His name is Jack, is that correct?
Todd: Right. Yes.
Cathy: And I actually sent you a clip.
Todd: I know. I’m trying to find it. Okay. I accidentally closed that screen. Sorry about
Cathy: that. Um, no, no. Take your time. So it’s again, when he would pop up in movies for us, we’d be like, oh, there he is again. Not that we always knew his name, but we were like, you know, it was very much, um, somebody that we knew and we knew what kind of character he was gonna play.
Todd: That’s right. Um, I think this is it.
Cathy: Okay.
Let’s light ’em [00:14:00] up. Yeah, that’s right.
Todd: It’s a little early though. That’s all right. We’ll let it play.
Audrey, will you please eat something? All right, now everybody, let’s listen up here. Let’s take a look at the map. Go over our schedule here. Okay. Now plane is gonna fly us from Chicago to London.
That’s Madrid. Dad. I think you’re right Russ. See Russ be one of those old, uh, medieval maps. But do we like Russ? Yes. Right. Dad, I’ve made a decision. I can’t leave Jack. Besides the food in Europe is fattening. Yeah. And I like her thing. She eats too much bad. Why don’t you and I just go alone? It’s obvious that the kids don’t even wanna go.
Of course they want to go. We’re a family. We’re gonna Europe as a family. Don’t we have a say in this? Yeah, I think we should have a vote on it.
Todd: So then they have a vote to see who votes for president and Clark wins because both Clark and Ellen vote for Clark. Um, Audrey votes for Jack and Russ. Votes for [00:15:00] Russ.
Todd: So anyways,
Cathy: well, you actually didn’t get to my favorite part. Oh, I’m sorry. But it’s okay. You got, we got the gist of Jack by body shaming his girlfriend. Yeah. So I think we, we got the gist. Yeah. Um, so basically let’s go back to setting the scene in terms of, you know, just really kind of giving you foundation of what we’re gonna talk about here.
Cathy: Thank you. Um, so Billy Zab is characters confident, physically dominant, totally arrogant, but he was very popular. Considered intimidating, backed by a gang. You know, he always had, he always had a crew with them. Right. Motorcycle
Todd: gangs.
Cathy: So he wasn’t just a villain in these movies or like, you know, the jerk, it was a cultural lesson for our generation about who had power Yeah.
Cathy: And who didn’t. That’s right. Okay. Um, so for us as Gen Xers, Billy Zab Ka, he shaped our early ideas about cruelty, masculinity and how power works in teen dynamics.
Todd: He was pretty, he was [00:16:00] athletic and he had money.
Cathy: Correct. And he used physical force. Sure. You know, or intimidation. So. You know, a lot of times, again, this is what the show is all about.
Cathy: We’re just kind of passively like, oh yeah, we grew up with those movies, but they’re outdated. They are in us.
Yep.
Cathy: These are the things we watched, learned. And to have a character that played that character over and over again, even if it was a different name in a different movie, it really was, uh, obviously a stereotype, you know, but it was, um, for us, a very, uh, good lesson in entitlement and who had power shortcuts to power.
Cathy: Um, and, you know, we didn’t really talk about them being troubled or anything at that time. They were just the ones who, um, you know, kind of took what they wanted and did what they wanted. That’s right. So you ready for the next category? I
Todd: am ready. And that means I’m playing this.
I remember when
you couldn’t wait.
Todd: Um, [00:17:00] I remember when, what’d you remember? Um, I just thought, not necessarily about Karate Kid, but I just thought about my. Life experience when it comes to bullying. Mm-hmm. Because that’s what Williams ABCA represents, represents, um, a few stories I’ll, I’ll, I’ll share the most embarrassing, well, they’re both pretty embarrassing now that I think about it.
Todd: Um, I won’t name last names, but I remember when, um, there’s a man named Steve in high school and I was kind of being a smart ass. Mm-hmm. And I just kind of thought that he was not a risk to me and he cold cocked me and punched me right in the mouth. And I was a freshman in high school and you know, I’m, my friends are probably like, go, go hit him back.
Todd: I was terrified. Like I just got clocked right in the mouth, like my lips were bleeding. So he bullied me. Thanks a lot. Or he just took a cold, uh, he took a cheap shot at me. ’cause I was, it’s not like we squared off or anything. I was just being a smart ass and he just hit me. And then my other reverses back to like [00:18:00] fourth grade and I was bullying this kid named Jim.
Todd: Uh, in gym class and I was kind of hitting my floor hockey stick on his leg and he was like really annoyed at me and I just kept doing it for like a long time. And then he was so distraught that he was crying, like chasing after me and I was faster than him. This is an awful story. Like I was just a very mean person that day towards you being a jerk.
Todd: I was being a total jerk because I thought I was cooler than him or whatever. Like you’re being a Johnny, just, I was being a Johnny. Fast forward like 25 years later. And I looked him up on Facebook because the story had been bothering me my whole life. And I, it turns out the dude is like a judge somewhere in Illinois.
Todd: And I said, Hey, would you be okay for a phone call? And he said, sure. And I told him the story. He had no recollection of the incident happening at all. Um, and I really wanted to kind of just get this off my chest, which I did. And then after that, he’s [00:19:00] like, well, I don’t remember that, but thanks for saying it, Todd.
Todd: And then there was this. Total awkward silence. And I said, all right, good talking to you. And that was it.
Cathy: Yeah.
Todd: Those are my two bully stories.
Cathy: Yeah. Well maybe he thought maybe he didn’t remember and then he was like, okay, great. Thanks for sharing. Or maybe he did and he didn’t really feel like dealing with it could be either one.
Cathy: And he is justified in whatever he needs to. Sure. With his emotions. Um, I didn’t know we were gonna talk about that, but I guess I’ll share two stories since you shared two. Uh, number one, a story that I’ve shared a lot and I’ve written about was when I was in fourth grade, there were two boys who actually continued to be friends of mine afterwards, but they were telling me, um, that I had to do certain things or they would beat me up.
Cathy: Um, things like accept their advances mm-hmm. That were, um, romantic in nature, but not things that I was at all ready for in fourth grade. And it wasn’t necessarily overtly sexual, it was just things like, say you’re dating us or we’re gonna kiss you on the cheek. Or things that seemed [00:20:00] somewhat maybe benign.
Cathy: When you talk about it now, but I was not okay with this. And they were kinda, um, they would call like to my friend’s houses to see if I was there and threaten me. And it was just really scary. And so it’s a good story of my dad because I came home one time, just devastated. I tried to keep this all in ’cause I didn’t wanna get them in trouble ’cause they were guy friends of mine, which is, this is why it always gets really.
Cathy: Hazy and weird. But I came home crying and my dad’s like, enough, and he went over there to the playground where they were. Um, and he told them to never talk to me that way again.
Todd: Probably struck the fear of God into him.
Cathy: And then the next day at school, they brought me a very large Hershey bar.
Todd: No.
Cathy: Um, and that was it.
Cathy: Did you
Todd: eat the Hershey bar? Uh, I Did you share with your friends at lunch?
Cathy: I don’t remember. I just remember it was very large and I remember it wasn’t like all over. I remember I had to still go through some like embarrassment that Sure. That happened. Um, but that was very scary for me and it, and it did affect me.
Cathy: Yeah. Like I, I’ve read about it a lot because it went on a long time. And then I guess my other story that I’ll [00:21:00] share, ’cause there’s a few, but is that when I was in high school, there was this girl. ’cause by the time I got to middle school and high school, I knew how to play this game of not getting bullied.
Cathy: Yeah. I was very much a people pleaser. I could. Be a chameleon. People didn’t get mad at me very much. Sure. Do you know what I mean? I didn’t push things. I was like, I tried to be very friendly and, but there was this girl in high school who was mad at me for some reason that probably wasn’t a thing I really did, but someone told her it was.
Cathy: So she told me to meet her after school and that she was gonna beat me up. So I was like kind of a busy student. And I was like, okay. So I met her, like I met her in the hall where she told me to meet. And she showed up. And she showed up and she was like, oh, okay, well actually I just wanted your help with this one class and what do you think about this?
Cathy: Wow. And she had no intention of fighting me. She just kind of wanted to see if I’d show up. And I was like, I’ll show up. Um, I, it’s kinda hard to remember it all, but I do remember being like, okay. And then we were friends. From that point forward. Alright, so, um, so that’s that [00:22:00] story. My other remember win is that Johnny, William Zko was, um, on Tiger Beat and Team Beat just like all the guys from the outsiders, just like Ralph Macchio.
Cathy: Um, and, but. Girls didn’t really, I mean, maybe, uh, some people listening are like, no, no, Johnny was my guy. But because he was the villain, you weren’t as likely to put him on your wall.
Todd: Well, and I listened to a bunch of interviews of him, uh, the actor and he said it was really hard ’cause everybody thought he was his charact character.
Todd: I’m sure.
Cathy: I’m sure they did.
Todd: And it turns out at at least everything I can find, he’s just a sweetheart of a guy. Yeah. And really kind of funny and low key. And, um, I got some other kind of trivia things about him, but, uh, yeah, I think he was not nearly as possible, uh, as popular as whatever. Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise insert.
Todd: Not at all. Whoever you wanna do. And I think it’s because of the character,
Cathy: right. He was willing to be the villain. And the reason that we know that he wasn’t as popular is I didn’t know his name until Cobra Kai started. Yeah. Like, I watched all these movies. [00:23:00] Maybe I, maybe I would’ve like, had some name recognition, but I couldn’t just.
Cathy: You know, I I didn’t really know it. Yeah. And then Cobra Kai started, I’m like, oh, this is the guy from all these movies. So that’s the case. And then my last, remember when Todd is you and me? Uh oh. Because we dressed as Oh, we did Johnny and Danielle. Right. I forgot about that for Halloween. Do you remember which one you played?
Todd: I played the Cobra Kai.
Cathy: I think you were Johnny. Yeah. Yep. And I was Daniel. And we have a great picture of me doing crane kick, crank kicking. Yeah. You crane kicked me. Yes. At Marty’s
Todd: bar.
Cathy: At Marty’s Bar. And they were good costumes. Like we really got the costumes. Yeah. It was good.
Todd: Um, we should, uh, find that picture.
Todd: Oh, we will. Okay.
Cathy: I still have it. So, um, you ready to go to random facts?
Todd: Yeah, let’s head on over to.
Do you know the human head weighs eight pounds?
Todd: Random facts. I think I’ll go first. I don’t have that many here. Um, uh, extras. So we’re talking Karate kid. The original extras were so caught up in the tournament scene that they would boo William Zika [00:24:00] even when the cameras were not rolling. Zika’s mother was in the crowd and kept trying to tell people there’s actually a very nice in real life.
Todd: And they actually, you could see her in the background of some of the shots. No way. Yeah. So he points it out. And the other one I have is that of the actors who of the four main characters in the credited kid. Ralph Macchio, pat Marita, Elizabeth Shu, William Zaka, who does not have an Academy Award nomination.
Todd: Well, we know Elizabeth Shu does. We
Cathy: know, uh, I know that William Zaka does. Mm-hmm. Um, which we’ll talk about that later. Um, Ralph Macho, does he have a. I’m gonna
Todd: say Ralph Macho doesn’t. That’s correct. I’m good. Uh, Johnny or Johnny? William, Zack, um, was a producer of a short film or something. Yeah. Called Moore.
Todd: Called Moore. Mm-hmm. Never seen it. Have you ever seen it? No. I don’t watch short films. Um, neither. Yeah, I don’t really that much either. Um, and then Elizabeth Shu got it for leaving in [00:25:00] Las Vegas
Cathy: and she did not win on the re watchable. They always say she won. She did not win. Who won? Um, I don’t remember.
Cathy: Oh. But it was not her. And then Pat Marta received a best, maybe she did. Oh, shoot. I’m getting scared. Okay. That I’m giving you. Look
Todd: up Pat Marta to find out. Pat Marta received a best actor in a supporting role, nomination for Karate Kid. Um, and Z was not co nominated for his best short film live action for the 2003 Short.
Todd: Most,
Cathy: no, she was in, she got nominated. I got scared for a second, but it, Nicholas Cage won, um, for leaving Las Vegas, which they were in together. But you
Todd: don’t know who she lost to?
Cathy: Um, I’ll, I’ll find it. You give me your,
Todd: uh.
Cathy: Random facts. Um, okay. I will give you my random facts. Okay. Um, so my random facts are, I’m just gonna go back to just one of the guys, ’cause again, this is the only time we’re ever gonna talk about this movie.
Cathy: It was based on 12th Night by William Shakespeare.
Todd: Really? Did you know that? No. I never wrote 12th Night. You didn’t wrote it? I never, I never read it. I didn’t write it or wrote it.
Cathy: You [00:26:00] didn’t write it or wrote it or read it? Well, 12th Night is about a woman disguising herself as a man to access a world she’s been shut out of.
Cathy: And then she faces unexpected love, confusion, confrontation, just like in, um, just one of the guys. It just, it’s like such a crass movie that it’s funny that, you know, it comes from Shakespeare, but you know, that’s kind of a thing that like, uh, 10 things I Hate About You was based on Shakespeare. You know, we, we just do this.
Yeah.
Cathy: Um, so that is, uh, one, and I could go through who each character is, but I think that’s boring. We don’t wanna do that. And then the other thing that is kind of a random fact, and I did send you this video Okay. If you have it ready, is that Zab bka. So William Zab bka directed and starred in a music video for the band No More Kings.
Cathy: Mm-hmm. And he plays a fictional version of himself, obsessed with Johnny Lawrence, and still stuck in the 1980s and the.[00:27:00]
It’s funny.
Todd: It’s very funny. And the fact that he was on board with doing this is awesome. It just shows. It’s called Turn It Up,
it’s called Sweep the Leg, Johnny.
Todd: He’s got a sense of humor about himself.
Cathy: I know,
Todd: I love that.
Cathy: I love that too. And that someone would write a song called Sweep the Leg.
Todd: Sweep it, Johnny Sweep it.
Cathy: That is hilarious. So, um, that’s all I have for random facts.
Todd: Um, I do want you to know that Elizabeth Shu, lost to Susan Sarandon.
Cathy: Okay. For Dead Man Walking. Dead
Todd: Man Walking in 1985. Okay. Thank
Cathy: you for that clarification. Um, and now I will never forget,
boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got outta hand fast.
It jumped up a notch.
Todd: It did, didn’t it? This is [00:28:00] the WTF portion of the podcast. Um, one of my WTF is, let’s, let’s go to the beginning of Karate Kid part two. Okay. Which was actually the original ending of Karate Kid part one. Right. Uh, they decided to end with the Kick and Johnny giving, uh, Daniel the trophy.
Todd: But originally the ending was gonna be the beginning of Karate Kid two, which is, um, the, what’s his name? Crease. Right. Crease who is, who really is the bully of this show. He’s the villain of the show. He’s the villain of the show. Mm-hmm. And, and he’s Johnny’s
Cathy: coach
Todd: for Cobra Kai. And I feel like, I wish I could pull it up.
Todd: I don’t know if I can, but it is. Do they like jump Daniel in the parking
Cathy: lot?
Todd: What is, well, let me see if I could find it. I might have it here. Where are you? Um, go ahead Todd. So while
Cathy: you’re looking for it, um, I will talk about also, um, the end [00:29:00] of Karate Kid. And this is a WTF moment, which is the Daniel wins the tournament with a crane kick to Johnny’s face.
Cathy: Yes. But under all the All Valley rules. So All Valley is where they do this karate tournament. Kicks to the face were illegal, which means that Johnny should have won. That’s right. He should. So Johnny was robbed and Daniel should have been disqualified. And it, that’s a big part of Cobra Kai’s lore.
You’re really sick, man. Hey, come on.
Todd: So Crease is choking Johnny right now.
Really?
Todd: Yeah.
Find your business. You kill him. Sensei, please. You’re hurting him. He’s sorry. Okay. He really is. Please thank him both. Yeah, he’s right. Let go. I see. Let him go. Speed it slow. Oh, you next, uh, oh.
Todd: So [00:30:00] then, uh, priest tries to punch Mr. Miyagi and Mr. Miyagi dodges it and Crease puts his hand through a car to a car window.
Cathy: So that was supposed to be the end of Karate Kid.
Todd: Yeah. You know what? I’m glad they didn’t make that. No, no. They, they knew what they were doing on how they ended it, but it’s just like crease man.
Todd: Get a grip. I know. It’s so over the top. Which Cobra Kai is over the top show. Well, and what’s also interesting is, well, I hope we talk about Cobra Kai because it is an amazing show. I loved it. I just remember laughing belly laughing throughout that series, even though I’ve never seen the last season, season
Cathy: one.
Cathy: Especially episode one. Season one. I mean, we’ve seen the whole thing except for the last, um, season. Yeah. So we saw season one, two, and three. Um, but the very first episode, Todd and I were like, this is genius.
Todd: It is genius. And here’s the question. As we take a quick detour from the WTF moments, is there any other TV show or movie that we watched in the eighties that would, that would work nearly as well as a rebirth of the Karate Kid [00:31:00] series?
Todd: Mm. Can you think of any? And I can’t, like it’s just So it’s gotta be a TV show or a movie. Yeah, just some type of revive. ’cause they’re al whenever anybody revives anything it’s always bad.
Mm-hmm.
Todd: And you know, 20 or 30 years later they did this and they did it well because? Because they made fun of themselves.
Todd: They did it with Full House. They made Fuller House. Yeah. And I didn’t really see that show. And did they do with Brady Bunch or that was different actors?
Cathy: It’s so funny that you should ask this question because I just saw, I don’t know why this came up. You know, it’s probably ’cause I’m always looking at entertainment stuff, but the Brady Bunch had a TV show.
Cathy: That only lasted a few episodes. Sweetie Brady Bunch was a TV show and it was called The Brady’s. No, it was like a TV show when they were adults. It was like after the Brady Christmas and after all that.
Todd: Okay.
Cathy: And everybody was in it except Marsha.
Todd: Oh,
Cathy: wow. So it’s like, you know how the Brady Christmas, Cindy wasn’t in it.
Cathy: Okay. And then this TV show, the Brady’s Marsha wasn’t in it, but everybody else did it. And not only that, Todd, I’m gonna connect to this. Ooh, I love it when this happens. [00:32:00] I’m gonna connect this to our first episode of Zen Pop Parenting about MTV. Martha Quinn was a vj. Martha Quinn played Bobby’s.
Cathy: Girlfriend Martha Quinn Brady. Is she an actress? I guess.
Todd: Oh, I didn’t know that.
Cathy: And she, it w the show was on so briefly that
Todd: it didn’t become anything. The show appeared in February of 1990 on CBS. Mm-hmm. They had six episodes canceled after low ratings. I would’ve watched it.
Cathy: What? But when you say I would’ve watched it, you were around
Todd: one hour.
Todd: Why did you watch it? Well, I was going into college And you were going into freshman year or sophomore year of college. So we were
Cathy: watching Days of Our Lives.
Todd: You were at Peggy’s drinking Beer, sweetie. I was. It is a one hour format. Most of the original cast returned, uh, how it was different. Unlike the late hearted vibe of the Brady Bunch, the Brady’s tackled dramatic and adult themes.
Todd: Oh, no. Bobby became paralyzed in a racing accident. Marsha struggles with alcoholism. Oh my gosh. Anne and Philip. I think that was her husband. Yeah. Philip was her husband. It was fertility [00:33:00] issues and adoption. Oh boy. Peter has relationship trouble with his older partner and Mike runs for political office.
Todd: Wow. Uh, the reason it failed is ’cause it aired on Friday nights at 8:00 PM Yeah.
Cathy: Nobody’s wanting to see the Brady struggle unless it’s with something like getting hit in the nose with a football. Like let’s keep it basic.
Todd: That’s good
Cathy: stuff. Um, but yeah, so it is kind of crazy that, that and that show was rebooted.
Cathy: I, you know, they’re, they always try and like, things get rebooted like about last night became, you know, came out again a few years ago, not a few years ago, maybe like five years ago. Like, they’re always trying to reboot things. Yep. But it’s gotta have a different spin. Like, the reason Cobra Kai was successful, at least for the first three seasons, is because it, it took us, it made us look at the show differently.
Cathy: So just, you know, since we’re here. Cobra Kai made us turn the show around and say, who is actually the villain? Was it Daniel or Johnny? Mm-hmm. Because really [00:34:00] Daniel, if you kinda look at the scenes in a different way, Daniel was kind of not great to Johnny,
Todd: right?
Cathy: He took his girlfriend, he dumped water on him in the bathroom.
Todd: Oh, we’re gonna get to all that y you
Cathy: know, so anyway, I, I’ll, I won’t step on the next category. I feel
Todd: like, uh, I wanna play a little bit of the final scene where Johnny does the illegal crane kick. I’m sorry. Which is Daniel, the illegal crane kick to Johnny, which
Cathy: is WTF.
Todd: First of all, goosebumps. Second of all, Johnny comes over.
Cathy: Don’t do it ’cause don’t step on it. Oh. ’cause I have that later.
Todd: Anything. Okay. So we’ll will step on it. Hold that quote. It might be my favorite quote, holding that quote. Um, what else do you have for wtf? Last thing,
Cathy: play The first couple, the first minute of the, just one of the guys trailer.
Cathy: Oh, okay. Because it’s so WTF. Yes. And you guys will get the gist and maybe you can go [00:35:00] find it on Pluto or Tubi or something. I don’t know where it’s playing these days.
Terry’s a girl who wanted to be taken seriously. I am going to be a reporter, but her body kept getting in the way. Hey girl, you could be a model.
Sometimes I just wish I were a guy, but you know, the male body needs sex at all times. It’s a living hell. So to prove to the men in her life, she had a mind. Terry decided to try life as a guy. How do I look? Dashing my zippers open. That was the dashing party.
Cathy: I think that’s funny. Fox like a, it’s
Todd: a great movie.
Cathy: First of all, her body keeps getting in the way. That’s
Todd: right.
Cathy: It’s her fault that she’s got it like a rocking body. And because she’s got a good body, she can’t be taken seriously anywhere. Yeah. It’s such a trope. I mean, I’m even thinking about working Girl. I remember working girl, Melanie Griffin, Harrison Ford, everybody.
Cathy: Um, and that was like the problem, you know, like she had this rock and bod [00:36:00] and you know, it just gets in the way of business. That’s right. Um, you know, and who’s the one looking at it?
Todd: Right
Cathy: guys? They’re getting in the way. Yeah. Maybe they need to get their act together. But anyway, so I’m ready for Zen parenting music whenever you’re Oh,
Todd: okay.
Todd: Thank you for that. All right. This is, uh, tipping our cap to the first 15 years of our podcast. And we’re gonna talk, uh, about some, I don’t know how you describe it. We’re gonna talk about, let’s roll in the deep, let’s, let’s get deep ahead and do that.
Cathy: Let’s get deep. All right.
Todd: All right. Okay. What do you got? You want me to start or you gonna start? Uh, it’s totally
Cathy: up to you, honey.
Todd: Uh, you start.
Cathy: Okay. So let’s just talk, let’s just get deep about the eighties bully. Okay? Because this is really what we wanna talk about in terms of how we can better see ourselves and our children, right?
Cathy: So the eighties bully is totally external, totally obvious, totally one dimensional. Mm-hmm. Okay. They are just a [00:37:00] bully. There’s not much more to them. And, uh, you know, Joey Lawrence, or not Joey Lawrence. That’s a different guy from the eighties. That’s right. Johnny Lawrence and Greg Tolan and Jack from European vacation.
Cathy: All these guys were meant to be hated. Mm-hmm. That was the goal, is to have someone for the protagonist to push up against, um, privilege, arrogance, violence. Um, he shoved, he humiliated, he assaulted. And this is what Gen X grew up with. You guys. Bullying happened out loud. Okay. So bullying was obvious. It was in broad daylight.
Cathy: It was often resolved with some kind of big climactic confrontation. Okay. So we had to have some like, big end fight or, you know, something where, um, you know, like a crane kick to the face or in just one of the guys, um, the guy who Terry is into I, Rick,
yeah.
Cathy: He, once he feels cool because Terry gets him good clothes and he feels cool.
Cathy: He starts making fun of Greg in the lunchroom because Greg, Greg’s big thing to intimidate people is he goes [00:38:00] around the lunchroom and flips everybody’s lunch table and food goes all over the place. So Greg starts pointing it out and saying like, let’s, I, I think I actually sent you a clip.
Todd: Um, of which one?
Cathy: It’s, it’s, uh, from just one of the guys and Greg. Yeah. Right here. Okay.
The reason why I went through Puberty’s, I think you can forward a little bit. Johnny’s about to jump. Oh, he hit it. I wanted to get to the part where Greg says something about it. Got it. I just will apologize about, um, neglecting you yesterday, so it felt terrible.
And just want you to know, I
Cathy: think I put a number under it.
Todd: Oh, you did? Mm-hmm. Let me just head on overhead,
find out a little bit about the man behind the mess. Greg, may I call you Greg? Now? Now tell us, Greg, how did you first get into spilling food? Huh? Were you a messy baby? Did you hate your string peas?[00:39:00]
Well, you know, most, most psychologists tell us that guys, well, they get into bodybuilding to compensate for either a lack of IQ or a small weenie.
Cathy: Is that good? So, yeah, that’s good. That’s Rick. Making fun of Ray standing off. So that’s the big confrontation. Yeah.
Todd: Right.
Cathy: You know, and there’s a few others at the end, but that’s like the first time where you’re like, oh, he’s getting, you know, someone’s taking him to task.
Cathy: Right. Um, so I’ll end with this part and then you can go on. Is that reason we need to see this cultural script that we’ve written about what bullies are from our generation is how different it is now because, uh, today’s bully is a lot more subtle. A lot more social and a lot more psychological. It’s very different.
Cathy: It doesn’t look the way it did when we were growing up. Um, the modern, you know, our bully today is not punching people. Sometimes they are, I guess, but that’s not really it. It’s about manipulating group chats, spreading rumors, weaponizing social media, um, icing someone out, you know, so it looks accidental, but really it’s not.[00:40:00]
Cathy: It’s relational, performative, persistent. And it’s not just about doing harm, it’s about controlling people’s narratives. It’s about changing the way you look at people or like canceling them or, you know, deciding who their audience is or should be. So, you know, our generation says things to our kids like, well, they’re not hitting you.
Cathy: You know, you’re not getting hit or beat up, so just ignore them. But this is kind of an old blueprint to understand what’s happening. And I’ll dive more into parenting when we get to that part, but that’s kind of the way I see it.
Todd: I have a few things to add to your list. Yes. So Jen, I’m just calling it Gen X versus Gen Z.
Todd: Gen X, bullying, there’s a social hierarchy based on looks and athletics, kind of what we talked about. Absolutely. Um, gen Z not that looks and athletics aren’t still important, but social clout tied to ident identity, performance, and likes. Yeah. Um. In Gen X humiliation in public. Yeah. And Gen Z humiliation goes viral.
Cathy: And so yeah. It’s all on social media.
Todd: Uh, gen X rare adult intervention, gen Z teachers and parents expected to step in.
Cathy: [00:41:00] Yeah. In Gen X. Like most of the time our parents didn’t even know these things were happening unless we got beat up and came home. Beat up
Todd: Gen X. Bullies are easy to spot. Uh, gen Z today’s bullies may be silent, subtle, and even posing as allies.
Cathy: Yes, exactly. That’s the thing is sometimes it’s really, it can be really manipulative because it can be done behind the scenes.
Todd: And lastly, in the eighties, bullies punched you in the face In 2025, they ghost you. Meme you destroy your self-worth in the group chat.
Cathy: Yep. Yeah, that’s exactly it. So we got, we have a really good archetypal eighties bully
Todd: Yeah.
Cathy: That we can talk about.
Todd: Yeah.
Cathy: And he happens to be running the country.
Yeah.
Cathy: Okay. Um, Trump is the archetypal eighties bully. Okay. He wealth as dominance. I’m rich, so I’m right. Cruelty as strength name calling belittling public humiliation as a form of power. Um, do I need to say more? That’s on during debates, rallies, tweets, uh, charisma [00:42:00] that polarizes people either fear him or follow him.
Cathy: It’s so Gen X, you guys, and here’s the problem. Like the, it’s so familiar for people that are our age that we, it’s recognizable, but it’s normalized. Mm-hmm. Like, we’re kind of like, yeah, that’s what they do. Instead of like recognizing how deliberate and painful and that it can really be harmful. Um, like our conditioning is dulled.
Cathy: Um, like we said, we say things like, oh, he is just being blunt. Or, you know, he just tells it like it is. But you know, our culture rewards these things that are actually so harmful. And our gen, our kids’ generation, or at least most of them, I mean, some of them I. Gen some Gen Z is being, are being pulled in different directions, but for the most part, they’re so much more emotionally astute.
Cathy: Like they understand that kind of psychological harm so much better than our generation does. They’re just emotionally fluent, you know? So they recognize gaslighting, manipulation, toxic power, even if they don’t always have the words for it. They know, [00:43:00] you know, it’s so, it’s so Gen X and it’s not really edgy, it’s just kind of embarrassing, you know?
Cathy: Um, so I just found that kind of interesting, you know, that that is, it’s such a, it’s such an archetype and I’m sure we could come up with others. Sure. It just happens to be something that we’re watching every day. Yep.
Todd: Are we ready for pg? Um, let’s parental guidance.
Cathy: Let’s do it. Let go.
Cats and cradles and the ceiling. All
Todd: right,
Cathy: parental guidance. What do we mean by this category,
Todd: sweetie?
Cathy: So this is just basically what we can, we kind of touched on this, enrolling in the deep, but what we can take from it to better understand ourselves and our children, you know, the best predictor of a child’s wellbeing as a parent’s self understanding.
Cathy: Did you know that? I
Todd: do.
Cathy: So it’s something that we’ve said a lot. Um, and so this is a, you know, a, a way to relate to our kids in a different way. And you know, the thing to start on is [00:44:00] that our generation, we were trained to tough things out, right? Um, every, you know, the whole idea of like sticks and stones, we latchkey kids.
Cathy: We solve our problems by ourself. We were taught to minimize emotional pain. We were taught to survive rather than talk about what was happening to us. Um, you know. That is ours was so literal and so physical and so repressed. Okay. And our kids say things to us like. I’m really upset because this person left me unread.
Mm-hmm. Okay.
Cathy: Or they say, my friend just took me outta the group chat. These things we were talking about before and to us, um, you know, to parents. Sometimes this can sound petty, overly sensitive. Um, when we grew up in an age where what we saw as bullying was getting a black eye or being put in a locker.
Cathy: Yeah. Like even just think about, let’s take it off of, you know, Billy Zaka for a second. Pretty and pink. You know, what did they do to ducky? They throw him in a locker, you know, some kind of wonderful, what did they do? Technically
Todd: they threw ducky into the bathroom. [00:45:00] I don’t think they threw him into a locker.
Cathy: Oh. Who did they throw in a locker?
Todd: I don’t know. Let’s think
Cathy: about movies where they threw someone. Oh, 16 candles. No,
Todd: no. He Farmer Fred or Farmer Ted. Ted was under the, in the table In that glass table. He
Cathy: was in the glass table. Um, yeah. So, but you’re being pushed around and put somewhere, you know, somewhere away from people.
Cathy: I mean, there’s plenty of TV shows where people are thrown in lockers. Yes. You know, that is kind of a stereotype of, you know, did you get thrown in a locker? Yeah. You know, you know what that means. And that’s, we just had such more of a physical bullying that when our kids, you know, say things to us like, someone left me on red.
Cathy: We view them as overly sensitive without acknowledging that that is the bullying of their time.
Yeah.
Cathy: That is their experience. And so we can unintentionally invalidate them.
Yep.
Cathy: You know, by saying, well, in my day, you know, I had to run from the kids or whatever. And so it becomes a double wound for our kids when they’re not only dealing with exclusion.
Cathy: From their [00:46:00] group, but they’re also the pain of not being believed by their parents
truth.
Cathy: You know? So it is a cultural mirror for us to be like, you know, I, the kind of bullying from Gen X still happens. Of course it’s out there, but, but
Todd: pile on this other
Cathy: thing to it.
Todd: Forget it. Correct. Yeah. Are we ready for, what did it teach us?
Cathy: Uh, well, just a little bit more just, uh, something that I wanna say about Billy Zab. Pka is that something that is really important to understand as far as the archetype is how, what does the archetype become? So like in, in a situation like our leader of our country, that whole bullying thing hasn’t changed.
Cathy: There’s been a maintenance of the same kind of power dynamic. I’m gonna keep doing the same thing I’ve been doing my whole life. Where the interesting thing about. William Zab and doing Cobra Kai later on is it’s an aging bully who is learning self-awareness. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And so he’s trying to, he, he’s a parent in Cobra Kai.
Cathy: He has a son [00:47:00] and he’s trying, and he has another kid that he’s teaching that is not his son, but he’s te you know, uh, having him be like a son kind of figure, what am I saying? He treats him like a son. Sure. That’s what I would say. And so he’s parenting through his emo his emotional blind spots. He’s trying to find humility in the things he does.
Cathy: He’s growing. You know in he’s realizing that the power that he used to exert when he was younger does not work when you’re a parent. That kind of overt cruelty or authoritarianism or power over, it doesn’t help you stay connected to your kids. And so if that is our modus operandi, it’s something that we need to reconsider as far as being effective.
Todd: I don’t know where I wanted to put this into the podcast, but I’m just gonna throw it in here. It’s Johnny’s talking to, what’s his name, ma? I’m sorry. Yeah, Johnny’s talking to Miguel. This is in Cobra Kai?
Cathy: Yes. This is Cobra Kai. So Miguel is not his son, but it’s someone that he kind of feels like fatherly torque.
Todd: And this clip is called Johnny Spins the 1984 Story His Way.
Cathy: Oh good. [00:48:00]
Todd: Then Daniel
LaRusso came into it. Sit. This is the end of the line. Next thing I know he’s hitting on her. I see the two of ’em flirting with each other. What did you do? I walked over to have a civil conversation with what is your problem?
Why don’t just take your little Kai and get at Oh yeah, right? That’s gonna everything
get lost. You in business outta nowhere. The guy sucker punches.
What an asshole. I know, man. I did what any dude would do. I defended myself. Now I figured that was that Larussa wouldn’t leave it alone at the Halloween dance. Sitting there minding my own business, he douses me with a water hose.
Seen the guy in months and turns a water hose on my head. So I chase him [00:49:00] down, try to put it into things that night. Right? Turns out the guy’s got a karate master of his own guy comes outta nowhere, jumps us, assaults, me and my friends. I think my buddy Tommy got brain damage ’cause of that fight. Oh my God.
Eventually we decided to work things out at the All Valley Tur.
We both made it to the finals. It was two to two.
What? What happened? Who won Lar Russo won. I lost, but what’s worse is I lost Ali. Mm-hmm. Yeah. All right. The reason I’m telling you all this. It’s ’cause you gotta watch out for the LaRusso.
Todd: That’s such kinda encapsulation.
Cathy: It [00:50:00] is. And Miguel is kind of into Danny Daniel Lar Russo’s daughter. Samantha. Samantha, Sam. But he doesn’t say
Todd: that the crane kick was illegal. He says it at other parts of the show. He does.
Cathy: He does. And ’cause he doesn’t show it. You know, that he stops the comment. But yeah, he said it was an illegal crank kick.
Cathy: So basically that’s a beautiful synopsis and so we can see, you know, to close this category out, like we can see William z Zab as a guy who was shaped by his culture, shaped by his time, but he wasn’t given emotional tools. No, right. That’s so Gen X, and in a way he becomes the metaphor for Gen X itself because he’s trying to catch up emotionally and he’s trying to parent differently.
Cathy: He’s trying to understand what went wrong and how to make it right. So he is a reflection of our generation, what we came from and what we’re trying to be.
Todd: There you go. Okay. What did it teach us? Are you ready for that or did you already do that one?
Cathy: Let’s do it.
Todd: All right. What did it teach [00:51:00] us? I don’t know if I have anything in here. Um, yeah, it’s kind of cheesy. Winning at all costs, leaves you hollow. You need to have honor. That’s what I got for What did this? Karate Kid, trilogy, whatever it is. Actually there’s like five movies. Uh, teach me, you know, you know, winning isn’t necessarily gonna get you what you want.
Cathy: Uh, I agree. And also that the way we look at people, if we’re gonna use empathy and compassion here, like Johnny wasn’t born a villain, right? He was trained to be a villain.
Yeah.
Cathy: Okay. From crease. From crease and from whoever Greg LAN’s dad was. Yeah. And just one of the guys and whatever. So, um, we know that Johnny in these movies was abused and manipulated by adults.
Cathy: He wasn’t evil, he was insecure and angry and wanted belonging. He didn’t get the tools he needed to deal with emotion. So he kept repeating the same patterns. So bullying is a symptom. It’s not the core issue, right? Bullying is always a symptom. ’cause as we always say, hurt people, hurt people. Um, and, you know, generational pain, how do we [00:52:00] change that?
Cathy: Yeah. Um, you just don’t grow out of it. You have to unlearn it.
Todd: You ready for some crease highlights? Let’s do it. Oh, that means I. It’s a really good clip, but it’s all set to music. I wanted bummer to hear him talk. That’s too bad.
Cathy: Um, can I offer one other thing that maybe could have gone under parenting?
Cathy: Sure. But I guess we can, you know, talk about it in terms of, you know, what it taught us. Um, there has been some good like, pop culture shows that have been more helpful than, you know, the Gen X stuff. Like, even though this was somewhat controversial, 13 Reasons Why, which was on Netflix. Talked about social bullying and you know, unfortunately in this show there’s a girl who, um, dies by suicide.
Cathy: Mm-hmm. So, um, it’s pretty intense. Uh, but at the same time it’s about, you know, when adults aren’t noticing these things, then we had mean girls, you know, which was,
Todd: oh sweetie, you’re stepping on some toes of mine. Oh, sorry. No, it’s okay. Um, I was gonna, I was gonna do something fun that you don’t know about yet.
Cathy: Well, I’ll say this. Just a few things that we can say to our kids, um, [00:53:00] to rewire our Gen X response. Yeah. So because we have to have a better understanding of what bullying is for them, instead of saying to them, that’s just drama. We can say, tell me what happened.
Mm-hmm. How
Cathy: did it feel? There you
go.
Cathy: Instead of saying they didn’t do or say anything that mean. We can say, I wonder how you felt when that happened. Tell me about it. Instead of, you need to toughen up, which is, so, gen X is, you don’t deserve to be treated that way. I agree with you. Like, let’s talk about this and, you know, I happen to write a book called Restoring Our Girls, where I give a bunch of examples like this, um, where we, you know, how to relate to our kids, even though we may have not had the experiences they did.
Cathy: Their experiences are their own, they’re brand new. And our way of relating to them and asking good questions is how we stay connected to them. So it just shifts the door from, you know, the cultural message that we’re kind of shut down to validating, connecting and healing. All
Todd: right. I’m gonna play a little bit of [00:54:00] John Crease being a bully.
Todd: Okay. And then I’m gonna, uh, I came up with a little fun little thing that I want you to answer questions to. Okay. Okay.
But essentially I can beat this guy,
run him beat, but I’ll be disqualified.
Todd: Thanks a lot Chris. And what
is he telling
Todd: him to do? To, to go for his knee.
That’s right. Turn nail,
sweep the leg. We tell that you have a problem with that
Todd: Mr. So at that moment you can feel sorry for Johnny. He doesn’t have much of a choice other than to stand up for this guy. Stand up to this man who’s probably gonna dude kill him if he doesn’t do what he says.
Cathy: Literally. Yeah. He’s being so [00:55:00] manipulated.
Cathy: He’s been taught to be this way. I mean, the whole thing about Cobra Kai is no mercy. Yep. That’s their tagline. And then in, you know, as you already played, the guy chokes him.
Todd: Yeah.
Cathy: Like with a trophy,
Todd: right? Yeah. Like. 10 minutes later, after ten’s over. Okay. So this is the fun thing. Okay. We’re gonna come up with the best movie that talks, that has some element of bullying in it.
Todd: Okay? Okay. I have eight different movies that you’re familiar with. Okay. And you’re gonna go, you’re gonna pick, I’m gonna give two movies to you, and you pick one, which, which one should advance to the next round. Okay. Got you. Ready? Mm-hmm. Pretty in pink. Okay. Ducky Gets a Little Bullied By Steph. By Steph and the whole Blaine thing.
Todd: And the movie Carrie. Oh, Carrie’s worse. Okay, so you’re, and and there’s no exactly. There’s no, um. Uh, parameters. I just want you to pick whatever movie you think should advance, whether it’s
Cathy: think we should Advance,
Todd: whether it’s how good of a movie it is, or whether how good of a movie about bullying it is.
Todd: You decide Karate Kid versus My Bodyguard [00:56:00] from the 1980s. Matt Dylan, Chris Maker piece.
Cathy: I know that movie. Um, and so I’m gonna, because we’re talking about Johnny, I’ll do
Todd: Karate Kid, all Kar. I like my bodyguard though. Kid goes to the next round. Dazed in Confused. Okay. I don’t know how many times you’ve seen that.
Todd: A
couple
Todd: and can’t buy me love with Ronald Miller. I’ll go, can’t buy me love. All right. Can’t buy me Love gets that one. And then lastly, mean Girls. Okay. Versus Revenge of the Nerves. Oh,
Cathy: why’d you put those two against each other? I
Todd: don’t know. You gotta choose one, babe.
Cathy: I’m gonna go mean girls. Even though Revenge of the Nerds mean
Todd: Girls Advances, now it’s c Carrie versus Karate Kid.
Todd: Oof.
Cathy: I’m going Carrie,
Todd: Carrie, I figured and then can’t buy me love versus Mean Girls Mean Girls. So in the championship round, it’s mean Girls versus Carrie. Carrie wins. I figured she’d win.
Cathy: Dude. They were so cruel to her. And then she, they poured pig blood on her. Yes. And then she had to shut the doors and [00:57:00] bad things happened.
Cathy: A lot of bad things happened. Yes. It was not good. We’ll just say that. Um, that was good.
Todd: Okay. Are we ready for cringe class? Yes, I
am.
Nobody puts in.
Todd: Nobody, and I mean nobody puts ba This is a great category for this podcast because I think this is an absolute classic
Cathy: cringe or classic and you go classic
Todd: because they rebooted it in a way that was amazing. Cobra Kai is just a very funny, I think it’s more funny than anything else. Oh
Cathy: yeah. It’s so satisfying.
Todd: Yes. And they like just make fun of each other in a really funny way. Like something, I think Johnny paints a penis on a billboard
Cathy: that says Daniel for Daniel dealership. Daniel Ru dealership. Daniel has a car dealership. It’s just,
Todd: it’s just hilarious.
Cathy: Okay, so let me just, it’s say this to you because we’re talking about many things in this episode.
Cathy: Uh, the character of Johnny Cringe or [00:58:00] classic. Um, I think he’s a classic bully. Okay. Uh, William Zaka as an actor. Classic. Love it. I
Todd: love I all the video, all the interviews. I saw him. He seems like a very tenderhearted sweet man. Smart, smart. Yeah. I’m going classic for him.
Cathy: Okay. Uh, karate Kid. You already said classic.
Cathy: Yeah. Yeah. Cobra Kai
Todd: Classic.
Cathy: Just one of the guys. Classic. Really? Yes. Okay. Um, let’s go back to school.
Todd: Uh, we didn’t talk about that much. Back to the school is pretty cringey. I do have one, I think one little clip from back to school. Let me see if I can find it. It’s right here. Yeah, I know. Hi, Valerie.
Hi.
Todd: That’s Johnny.
You look great. Thanks. Uh, are you taking astronomy too? Um, yeah. Yeah, I guess so. I don’t really want to, I’m a business major, you know. Mm-hmm. But for some reason they want us to take a science. Listen. You mind if I sneak in a line here with you? Oh, um, well actually these guys were nice enough to let me in, so it’s really up to them, I [00:59:00] guess.
Todd: And those guys are the guy from Christine that you hate. Oh, that actor, I can’t say. And Robert Downey Jr. Says he’s about to talk
Melon Buddy. What do you say? Let me in. Okay. I don’t think so. Osborne Melon about your friend here. Straighten him out. Look, Chad, there’s a lot of people waiting. It wouldn’t really be fair.
You know, it’s, I’ll tell you what, maybe if you got a note from each and every one of these people saying that it was all right. Then we’d reconsider. But until that day, take a hike. You elitist fraternity scumbag. Ooh.
Todd: The only reason
Cathy: they’re pushing back on Chaz. Oh yeah.
Todd: And Chaz looks like Johnny, except he’s got longer hair.
Todd: Yes. It’s like a mullet. Much more wavy hair. So anyways, so yeah, uh, back to school is pretty cringey.
Cathy: Okay. And then, uh, we a European vacation.
Todd: It’s got the best rest of all time.
Cathy: Todd, that is European so
Todd: wrong. It, it is not wrong. I know Anthony Al fine. I’ll give that to you. He
Cathy: is the best Rusty. And the best Audrey is in the original vacation as well.
Cathy: [01:00:00] Um, maybe close second. Juliet Lewis in Chris in Christmas.
Todd: Yeah. Well, I mean, she’s not that good in Christmas, do you think? But
Cathy: it’s just Juliette Lewis, so I just like her.
Todd: Yeah. Um, Goink
Cathy: Goink.
My good man.
Todd: I’m the only one who likes that movie line, but I love it. So anyways, um, we only
Cathy: like one scene from that movie. Um, okay. So I am gonna agree with you on everything except back to school. Okay. But you, did you call it cringe or classic? I called
Todd: it cringe.
Cathy: Okay, then I agree with you on everything.
Todd: There you go. Okay, let’s do the best quote. Oh, I thought we were doing mu uh, music game. Best quotes next. I, sorry. Oh yeah, you’re right. Yeah, I think so. Music came at the end.
May the force be with you. May the force be with you. May the force be with you and the fools be with you. Made the force. You made the force
Todd: be refused.
Todd: All right. What do you got for best quote, sweetie?
Cathy: You almost said it earlier, which is, you’re all right. LaRusso.
Todd: Yes, that is good.
Cathy: When Daniel, you know, wins the match, um, Johnny actually comes up to him, brings the trophy and says, you’re all right, LaRusso, which is a quick [01:01:00] turn. Like, you know, considering we’ve had two hours of him not being all right with LaRusso, but I think because of the sweep, the leg fiasco, he kind of has a change of heart.
Todd: Yeah. I wanna find the scene where they say the most famous line of all time. You know the one I’m talking about, wax on, wax off? No, um, hold on, I gotta find it. Uh, that’s the one right there.
So you Okay. Can you go on?
Good morning.
Cathy: But you can’t use, get him a body,
so you Okay. Can you go on?
Alright.
Todd: That line. Has been said so many times in my circles of guy friends who
Cathy: says it? It’s not Johnny.
Todd: It’s some topo kid who’s a Cobra Kai. Yeah. But it’s awesome. Yeah. It’s like that’s the best quote,
Cathy: you know? And it was improvised, right? Was
Todd: it? I don’t know. I have no idea. I feel
Cathy: like we did, we [01:02:00] actually did a, uh, pop culturing it.
Cathy: An old podcast we used to do. Yeah. About Cobra Kai, I think. And you know what, maybe we’ll put it on this feed. Um, who knows? As like, we’ll replay it. Sure. Like a, a looking back. Um, so yeah, so that’s my book. Excel
Todd: X off is probably my second favorite. Yeah. Um, are we ready for, where are they now? I am.
Where are you now?
Cathy: Perfect.
Todd: Um, what do you got for, where are they now? Can do this one? I just focused
Cathy: on Billy Zaka. Um, and, you know, he’s married, he has two kids. They kind of, uh, they have a very private life. Like, you know, his wife doesn’t really show up to all the things, which I can totally understand. She does sometimes, but, um, and he, as we already discussed, he got an Academy Award nomination for co-writing and producing a short film called Most in 2003.
Cathy: And then obviously being a big part of Cobra Kai, he’s a [01:03:00] producer on Cobra Kai. Like, he’s not just acting, he’s like part of the writing and producing process,
Todd: and I also think he’s an atheist.
Cathy: Oh, interesting. Yeah. Where did that come from?
Todd: I don’t know. I found it somewhere. No shade. You know, believe what you want.
Todd: Absolutely. Absolutely. But I thought that was interesting. Um, okay, so music game, music game first, I gotta play the song.
No. No.
Todd: Okay. So, um, my understanding of this category is if we were going to encapsulate either this podcast or the topic of this particular podcast, William Zaka, bullying Karate Kid, what would that song be? Definitely, definitely. Is that a good way of explaining it?
Cathy: I would say, as our girls would say, it’s more of a vibe.
Cathy: Yeah, definitely. It’s what is the vibe of what we’ve been talking about today on this podcast? What is the vibe of the history of, you know, Johnny Lawrence [01:04:00] and Bill, you know, William Zaka, and again, I always say this on the show, it’s, it shouldn’t be super obvious. Like, we wouldn’t choose you’re the best around from Karate Kid.
Cathy: ’cause that’s way too obvious. It has to be something that we are willing to share. It’s kind of, uh, introspective and thoughtful, and we’re willing to fight for it.
Todd: Okay, so you go first. I’m a little worried that you’re gonna make fun of mine. I, I’m worried we’re gonna have the same one. I don’t think there’s any chance we have the same one.
Cathy: Oh, okay.
Todd: Um, I’m first gonna set it up and then I’m gonna play the song.
Cathy: Okay.
Todd: Um, my setup is Johnny came in the eighties, 1984. He sure did. Johnny came back strong in the two thousands, and I’m playing this song from the nineties. Okay. That, um, kind of speaks to not not giving up.
Okay.
Todd: Okay. You with me?[01:05:00]
Todd: Johnny gets knocked down, but it, it came full circle. He was the good guy in Cobra. Kai. You
Cathy: know what? I think it’s good. Nice. I like your pick. I was a little nervous. Yeah. All right. So my pick is more, uh, in the eighties, the vibe of. Johnny from that time. Okay. Uh, or the character that William Zko would play.
Cathy: And I’m going with Whitesnake.
Todd: Oh, here I go again. Correct. Here I go again. All right, let’s get a little bit of that going.
Todd: Two solid picks, sweetie.
Cathy: I think this, if Johnny could sing a song, I think he would sing this song.
Songs. [01:06:00]
Todd: Dude’s got quite the head of hair.
Todd: All right. Can’t play the whole thing
Cathy: even though it’s one of the best songs of all time. Um, can I say something quick about this? Sure. Uh, about this white snake song. I wanna say that. Why our generation loves this song so much as all of us thought we were like the person singing this. I think there’s something interesting about being a teenager where you’re so angsty and you’re like, even like, high school was great to me.
Cathy: I loved high school. It was, you know, fine. I really, for all the challenges that I had emotionally or whatever, it was great. But still I’m thinking that that song represents the way I was feeling. Right? It’s so silly and, but it’s not silly ’cause in the time you’re feeling it, you just feel like everything is just on your back.
Cathy: You know what I mean? And I, I just think it represents our generation so well because do you know anybody who doesn’t like this song or have a, like a story about this song? [01:07:00] Like most people, even if they don’t like hairbands, they love this.
Todd: I think this is one of those songs where most people will pro if they, if you gave ’em truth serum,
Cathy: they would say, of course they would say,
Todd: yeah, I remember the song. It was catchy. They might be like, well, it wasn’t my favorite song, but most people would agree.
Cathy: I also think that as I’m talking about it, I probably would guess we didn’t rewatch Cobra Kai, but I think they probably played this in Cobra Kai.
Cathy: Um, yes,
Todd: because they played a lot of these types of songs. Yeah. That Johnny’s like driving down the car in his Trans Am or whatever it was driving down the road. Yeah. And these are the types of songs that he would play.
Cathy: So because we’re talking about songs, can I just offer one more thing? Sure. There’s sometimes songs that we don’t really understand what they mean and, but we like them and we consider them like vibes or jams and we’re like, oh, we love this song, but we don’t know what it means.
Cathy: Um, for example, pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People. Okay. Do you know what that’s about? I don’t. Um, people love that song and it’s got this really like, like indie kind of [01:08:00] tempo, you know, it’s like, um, and it’s actually, well play it first so people could kind of know what it.
Is this it? Uhhuh?
Maybe get to the chorus a little bit.
I’ve never
Todd: heard this though.
Cathy: Okay. So this song is about someone contemplating a school shooting.
Todd: Oh wow.
Cathy: I know. And every time I hear it when I’m with Skyler,
Cathy: it’s like a terrifying song, but people like think of it as being really poppy. Another one that I always find interesting is Chandelier by Sia. Mm-hmm. I think that people think about that song being like, I’m gonna go out and have fun. But really the whole song is about her alcoholism. Oh really? Um, yeah.
Cathy: It’s about addiction and spiraling into mental health and.[01:09:00]
Cathy: Autobiographical for Sia. And then the last one I’ll do, I have like eight, but I’ll just do one more. Okay. Um, Mr. Brightside By The Killers, this song is about total obsessive jealousy about spiraling into paranoia after a breakup. It’s like a total anxiety attack, but we think about it as like, you know, this is such a party song.
Alright.
Cathy: So anyway, it’s just, I think about that with your, I go again because all of us think that we like, get the song, you know, but, and we
Todd: probably don’t. No.
Cathy: Okay. Are you ready for trivia?
Todd: I’m ready. Uh, okay. So I think these first one are about, oh yeah, I have trivia. That’s right. Forgot about this.[01:10:00]
Todd: Um, I think these first set are about either Karate or Cobra Kai. Um, some of ’em are easy, some of ’em are medium, some ’em are difficult. What is the name of the dojo? Daniel de Russo runs.
Cathy: Miyagi
Todd: do. Very good. Uh, what unique costume does Daniel wear to the Halloween dance? He wears the shower. Very good curtain that he wore to, yeah, the shower curtain.
Todd: What’s the name of Johnny’s son in Cobra Kai?
Cathy: Uh, uh It’s not Ricky. Um, I know it because I think Wyatt looks like him. Yeah, he does look like him. What is his name? His
Todd: name is Robbie. Robbie. Thank you. Um, what is the name of the new dojo? Johnny Lawrence starts in, in season three of Cobra Kai
Cathy: uh, Eagle Scream.
Todd: Eagle Fang Eagle Fang. [01:11:00] Which actor plays John Crease? Johnny’s former sensei in Cobra Kai. I don’t know that guy’s name. His name is Martin Kob, who is also in Cagney and Lacey. I’ll have, you know
Cathy: really? Was he their
Todd: boss? No, I think he was like just a sidekick. He was side cop. Oh. Uh, what’s the motto? Cobra Kai Dijo.
Todd: Uh, dojo. Uh, no Mercy. No it isn’t. No Cobra Kai Dojo. I don’t know. Strike first. Oh, strike hard. No mercy. Got it. Okay. What does Mr. Miyagi gift Daniel for his birthday? Uh, car. A convertible. A 1948 Ford Super Deluxe, which Ralph Macchio still owns to this day. God. Uh, that’s cool. What’s the name of the apartment complex where Daniel and his mother move?
Todd: Oh, I don’t know the name of it. I can see it in my mind. South Seas. I never got that. Uh, what city do Daniel and his mother move from? Somewhere like New York, New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey. Yeah,
Cathy: New Jersey.
Todd: I. What’s the name of the Cobra Kai student who tells Johnny to
Cathy: get him a body bag? That’s what I was asking you.
Cathy: [01:12:00] What was his name? Um, I feel like it was a nickname.
Todd: What’s funny is, and funny, not funny. First of all, his name was Tommy. Tommy, okay. Tommy. And in Cobra Kai season one, the character dies and they zip him up in a body bag. And later on that year or the year after, the actor actually died.
Cathy: So they were trying to be kind of silly.
Cathy: Yeah. But he would actually died.
Todd: Yeah. Uh, which character wins the 50th All Valley tournament in season one of Cobra Kai? Uh, I think Miguel very good. Yeah. Who’s the co-founder of Cobra? Kai alongside with John Crease. Um, that guy with the ponytail, uh, his name is Terry Silver. Terry Silver,
Cathy: yes.
Todd: Yeah. Um, some back to school trivia, which you’re gonna be bad.
Todd: I’m not gonna,
Cathy: I haven’t
Todd: gonna know about him. One famous writer made a cameo appearance in the film. No idea. Kurt Vonnegut. Okay. What eighties band performed at Thornton’s party? No idea. Boingo Boinga. Oh,
Cathy: sweetie. Used
Todd: to think that was a punk
Cathy: band.
Todd: I did. What’s the name of the outrageous Dive Thornton does [01:13:00] in the swim competition?
Todd: Uh, no idea. The Triple Lindy. Okay. Do you know these? I do. Should I be asking you? Yeah, but I ca I I had to find ’em. Oh, okay. Um, just one of the guys. You ready? Oh, I
Cathy: think I could do it.
Todd: Let’s see. What does Terry suggest using to hold on an earring when the back is missing
Cathy: an
Todd: eraser. The end of a pencil eraser.
Todd: What’s the name of the guy Terry Falls for? While disguised as a boy? Correct. Very good. What is Terry’s disguise that ultimately gives her away at the prom?
Cathy: Her. Her disguise. She
Todd: what? What is Terry’s disguise that ultimately gives, so why, what, how is she, how does she reveal that she’s not who she is? She opens her shirt and shows her breasts.
Todd: Very good. Finally, European, what game show do the Griswolds win their European vacation on? Uh, pig. In a Poke. Very good. And lastly, what historic landmark does Clark accidentally destroy?
Cathy: I don’t remember.
Todd: It is Stonehenge.
Cathy: Stonehenge. Oh, yes. Um, you know what we didn’t talk about? Not that it’s super important, but we say it all the time.[01:14:00]
Cathy: We have this thing where we’ll say, when we talk about Cyndi Lauper. Yeah, I know. I couldn’t find it. You couldn’t? No, we say Cyndi Lauper. Yeah. And we got that from just one of the guys. Yeah. Because Rick said, because I think Terry comes up to him and says, I’m a guy. Yeah. And he says, and I’m Cyndi Lauper.
Todd: Um, should we play off with Cruel Summer by banana ring? That’s a great idea. All right. Um, so, which is in both
Cathy: Karate Kid and Cobra Kai. Yeah.
Todd: So I don’t know what our next one is gonna be, sweetie. Do you
Cathy: what it’s gonna be or when it’s gonna be what? It’s gonna be next week?
Todd: What?
Cathy: Um, I have some ideas, but I’m not sure.
Todd: Okay.
Cathy: But stay tuned because something good’s coming.
Todd: Thanks for checking us out. We’ll see you guys next Tuesday. Keep talking.
Round two. Change a little bit. And change a little bit. Pretty [01:15:00] pleasant.
