OK, Bruce Lee lovers, what do you think?

[Bill Glasheen]

I had a childhood friend (now an MD in Florida) send this YouTube link to me. I realize that Bruce Lee was a phenomenal athlete, and his movement looks about right. But could he have been that accurate with the nunchakus?

Pretty amazing one way or another. I'm thinking this Nokia commercial will at least sell a few phones.

Bruce Lee plays ping pong with nunchaku

Nothing about this on Snopes - yet.

- Bill

[hoshin]

looks like a pretty good piece of CGI to me. i dont think Bruce wore that yellow jump suit as often as people think. as far as i know he wore it once for his last unfinished film. (later finished by others in a lame attempt ) but it seems to me if you wanted everyone to know or think it was Bruce "just put him in a yellow jump suit and people will buy it. also in my personal opinion bruce was not that good at nunchucku. Dan Insanto maybe. from what i have seen Bruce do on film he was very basic and made lots of mistakes. (missed catches ect.)

however it looks really cool

[nosib]

Tiger's golf ball bouncing is soooo "yesterday".
I wonder how many ping pong balls have been
obliterated since the airing of that video.

[TSDguy]

I'm pretty sure they used footage of him from Game of Death and plopped it into a ping pong game.

And nosib points out the obvious, that would certainly do some damage to a ping pong ball.

[Bill Glasheen]

I buy the following:

• Bruce Lee wasn't as good with nunchakus as Dan Inosanto.
• Bruce Lee made some occasional "mistakes" with hand exchanges.
• Nunchakus would be a bit rough on a ping pong ball.
• They don't really show this person's face in the commercial.

I'll also add that...

• 99% of what Bruce did with the nunchakus on film was useless "flash."

All that being stated... What Bruce was doing here required no hand exchanges. What you see is pretty much what Bruce did in his movies - and what a traditional kobudo artist would do - in a "real life" situation. Bruce's prequel to the fight was the flash. The actual fight scene was pretty basic stuff.

There were a few basic postures here. There was constant movement of the chakus. Only occasionally did "Bruce" throw in a little Ali-like flash.

Has anyone tried this? I have the nunchakus and a bit of experience, but no ping pong table. I think I could hit a ping pong ball, but don't know that I could place my shot or avoid cracking the ball.

It's also worth mentioning that when you slam a shot, the ball hits the table pretty hard. I've broken a ping pong ball or two in my day, but for the most part you can hit it hard and not have it crack.

I really am interested in some kind of verification (or debunking) on this. It has me intrigued. And frankly if you knew Bruce, you would know that this is exactly the kind of Hollywood demo that he would love to do. It would sell a lot of posters and movie tickets, and satisfy his constant craving for the center of attention.


I'd love to have our resident JKD expert (Raffi) weigh in on this one.

- Bill

[Glenn]

Sounds like a job for Mythbusters.

[Bill Glasheen]

This is a book that I read a few years back.



Dominicans are highly over-represented in professional baseball. Why? They are poor and so don't have a dozen sports to choose from. And like I did in my childhood, any group of a dozen kids could come up with a ball, a bat (even if taped), some gloves, and a place to play.

Sometimes you play stickball.



If you live in the city, you do what you gotta do to get a game going.

David Ortiz talks about his childhood, and variations on the game of stickball. One thing he emphasizes in his book is how a particular variation on the game helped him learn how to hit a curve ball. You know what that was? They used bottle caps. Do you know the break you can get on a bottle cap? Do you know how hard it is to hit a bottle cap with a stick?

Do kids today even know what a bottle cap is?

When you think about it that way, then Bruce's feat doesn't seem that unreasonable.

Don't believe me about the stickball and bottle caps? Google it. You'll find a number of references to it online, and not just from David Ortiz.

- Bill

[f.Channell]

Bruce, ping pong, nunchuks?
Genius ad
Not enough to make me fork up $1300 for a phone though.
Fun to watch though. Those passes around the back would send the ping pong off to the side. No way to angle the ball either.
Obviously fake.

f.

[hoshin]

BIll,
i think you got it right when you said that it would be difficult to place a shot. a nunchuck is round and i think swinging in various directions as he is doing there would be so much "english" (spin) from two round objects it would be impossible to keep the ball on the table.
but if i get some time i might go thru the "game of death" footage i have and see if any length of movments or actions could have been lifted. the spin kick would be a dead give away.

oh yeah and not to mention he didnt miss even once!!

[Stryke]

what more priceless the add , or some folks wondering if it`s fake ....