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Blunt Weapons

Sticks and stones will break your bones, and so will a heck of a lot of other things! Lisa Gemino joins Toren, Joe, and Kevin for a look at all kinds of blunt weapons from sticks to maces to truncheons!

Music: “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” by Duke Ellington

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43 Responses

  1. I’ll start right off with my own personal favorite blunt weapon from cinema history.

    Edit: If others post their favorites as simple YouTube links I’ll do what I can to change it to the embed code when I see it. I’d add a plugin that lets you do it but I’d rather verify they’re on-topic first.

  2. Clearly, this episode needs more videos. Namely, Lisa’s kali demonstration and Kevin’s bayonet and rifle butt bonanza! 😀

  5. I just rewatched Kick Ass, where he carries a pair of clubs on his back, even though he’s not terribly effective with them.

  7. Lets not forget one of the coolest heroes ever to wield a blunt weapon, the Monkey King. Havoc in Heaven still clings in my memory having seen it once 25 years ago.
    Also, the main story about him, Journey to the West, inspired the japanese series Starzinger, so there is nostalgia all around.

  8. Simpsons in Australia, Bart and Home escape from parliament: “That throwing stick stunt of yours has boomeranged on us!”

  11. There’s another Australian Aboriginal weapon you might have mentioned: the Nulla Nulla, or at least that’s what they were called in Alice Springs where I grew up (also known as a Waddy, apparently: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waddy). Made from a thick root or a branch with a diameter around 5-6cm it might be straight or have a slight bend in it like a boomerang (though not as pronounced a bend). It has a smooth surface and the ends might be tapered down to a point (a bit like the tip of a missile). At least that’s what the one my folks had looked like (there’s was a display piece painted with an Aboriginal dot painting). Sorry I can’t find a pick of it. It’d do you a bit of damage if you were whacked over the head with one and occasionally I remember hearing about fights around Alice Springs where they were used (not very often, thankfully).

    Also, with regard to the swans being killed in England, I thought English swans were all under Royal protection, like Bald Eagles in the US (not like Kangaroos and Emus in Australia, which are yummy!). I thought that was one of the reasons immigrants were suspected of killing them, perhaps not knowing that. At least some swans in England are under the protection of the Queen anyway.

    I don’t know if you guys ever got to see Monkey Magic but that had some pretty awesome blunt weapons in it (and sharp ones, but the fighting was pretty daft). It was a series about the Monkey God, a fish demon and a pig demon who were forced to protect a Bhuddist pilgrim in ancient China, and was a Japanese TV show from the 70s. Wonderful stories even if the fighting was silly, and it had a really good moral-telling aspect to it, much better than the Cosby Show, because it was all part and parcel of the Bhuddist nature of the story. Anyway, I really liked it and can recommend it. I’m pretty sure there were a few Oni in it too.

    Great episode everyone, and another wonderful guestpert appearance from Lisa. 🙂

    1. The ongoing joke, it seems, is that the Queen is the only one who’s allowed to eat swans.

  13. Awesome episode!

    Boomerangs were primarily used as lures, to imitate a low-flying bird, so that birds would come and investigate.

    Blunt trauma in movies- Dr. Lecter’s one breakout moment of violence in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, where he beats the cop to death with a baton to the strains of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. “Ready when you are, Officer Pembry…”

    My favourite blunt trauma, however, remains Norman Bates braining his “Mother” over the head with a shovel at the end of PSYCHO II (1983)- it’s an amazing scene with no cutaway that still holds up and leaves me gasping to this day…

  14. That Psycho reference of Gavin’s reminded me of the hammer Kathy Bates used in Misery. Still makes my stomach flip to think of it.

    1. The plot of the 3rd Resident Evil hinged on being able to fly from Las Vegas to Alaska with about 10 people in a helicopter. With no way to refuel.

  16. There is something incredibly homoerotic about Hawkman and that may be his entire appeal. Hawkgirl gets all the character work – Hawkman just needs to put leather chest straps on over his bare chest and he’s delivered all that is expected of him.

    1. hmm, i should check out this… Hawkman you speak of.

      but all i can think of is BRIAN BLESSED’s character from the 1980s Flash Gordon.

      1. also, now that i’ve finally fully listened to the episode and see that BRIAN BLESSED was in fact mentioned, one issue: you didn’t pronounce his name *quite* right. it must always be spoken with volume and projection as if BRIAN BLESSED himself were saying his own name. ;P the man is a beast.

  17. Thank you for preventing me from experiencing the clearly true horror of the Daredevil film. The snippet above will last me a lifetime.

  18. My favourite blunt weapon use in a film: The hallway fight in Park Chan-wook’s “Oldboy”.

  19. Your song selection for this episode was awesome. It’s been awhile since I laughed that hard.

    1. I have to agree. This was one of my edits, but I asked Toren for input on songs. He sent me several to choose from but after sampling them it was obvious one of his choices was genius, and I simply couldn’t use any of the others.

      So I’ll take a bit of credit for recognizing it, but I’m going to say it was mostly Toren.

  21. I thought that Mjolnir deserved more than a throwaway mention. Thor’s hammer is one of the iconic blunt weapons in myth, not to mention comic books and 2 movies in the last year or so.

  22. The bat and the Bear Jew is a pretty good scene. I wish they would’ve showed the head deform but it was still great.

  23. Not sure why but the web site keeps losing my posts so forgive me if this post shows up more than once. I’m removing the youtube links. That might be the issue.

    I was surprised you didn’t mention the quarterstaff. Particularly in the pop culture section. It is an iconic weapon and was featured prominently in Robin Hood stories and parodies. For example, the electro quarterstaff of little John in Rocket Robin Hood. Or the comedic misuse of the quarterstaff by Daffy Duck in Robin Hood Daffy. DODGE! PARRY! THRUST! Also Gabrielle of Xena: Warrior Princess fame used one. I believe Joe is familiar with this based off one of his past Hallowe’en costumes.

    1. I can’t believe I didn’t mention the double knockout in KICKASS between the title character and Red Mist while Hit Girl was in the other room going toe-to-toe with the boss-man.

  28. I still loved the club thing from gangs of new york. With the notches added onto it.

  30. great that Thundercats got a mention. however two other Thundercats (Cheetara and Bengali) also used blunt weapons (staff and hammer, respectively) but nunchuks were all the rage at the time so nobody noticed.it’s funny because they put so much effort into making Panthro the bad-ass of the team, and he get’s his butt handed to him or humiliated almost constantly. one could even say that he should be the one the trope ‘Worf Had the Flu’ is named after, but meh.

    the new series isn’t bad, but i find the ‘Quest for the Inifinity McGuffin-Guantlet’ a bit too cliche, though i’m not sure how i could write something else that wouldn’t be too adult for a kids’ show. it is definitely waaaaay better than the original, which i tried to rewatch a while back. just… painful. moments of cool buried under so much crap.