From the K-Tel Vault, 20 Kung-Fu hits by 20 Kung-Fu stars!

You see a lot of karate/kung-fu/Yubiwaza/whatever ads in comics, but rarely do they contain the item hovering at the center of this one: a record. Yes, a record, one perhaps pressed at home by the sensei of this do it yourself chop and kick course.

Maybe a karate course on vinyl is a good idea, no more odd than an instructive CD or a sound file for later generations. But you have to think that there’s a lot of physical tutoring with the martial arts, with a pupil’s eyeballs soaking in their teacher’s demonstrations. I don’t think the tai chi courses in my college days would have gone down as well without the short little guy barking corrections at my terrible moves — and thereby negating the relaxing, soul-centering aspects of the exercises. (Yes, tai chi is a martial art. Which makes me a trained martial artist. Which is a Barney Fife boast if there ever was one.) You have to believe that it just doesn’t have the same effect coming out of a turntable.

One also imagines that many of those poor records wound up karate-chopped (with poor form) by frustrated students.