TMNT: Mutant Mayhem Almost Axed That Hilarious Viral Karate Rap Reference [Exclusive]
This post contains minor spoilers for "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem."
Despite the numerous adaptations of the heroes in a half-shell known as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the origin story of how these radical dudes came to be is pretty much always the same, save for a few occasional alterations. Thanks to some radioactive sludge, a bale of baby turtles mutated and were trained in martial arts by their surrogate father, a mutant rat sensei named Splinter. It's even referenced in the lyrics to the updated 2012 version of the famous theme song, "Can't stop these radical dudes / The secret of the ooze made the chosen few / Emerge from the shadows, to make their moves / The good guys win and the bad guys lose." And if the audience is lucky, an adaptation will include a flashback to Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo as Turtle Tots, honing their martial arts skills as youngins.
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem," the newest adaptation of their story, is no different. Early on in the film, there's a montage where Splinter explains how and why he trained the Turtles in martial arts, complete with an array of footage of Jackie Chan movies, other martial arts flicks, and even instructional YouTube videos with humans wielding swords, bo staffs, and other miscellaneous weaponry. At the end of the scene, the Turtle Tots are flipping around and knocking boards on a wooden pole, cutting to show the Turtles as we know them today as tubular teens. As they each strike their fighting poses, a sound bite can be heard of "I'm a ninja!" It's clearly a reference to something, and if you were also chronically online during the aughts, you might recognize it as a sample of "The Karate Rap" from 1986, a video shared like wildfire after it was uploaded to YouTube.
'I train in my car, I'M A NINJA!'
After the success of "The Karate Kid" in 1984, America exploded with martial arts fever. This time period also brought the explosion of rap and hip-hop to the mainstream, which built the perfect storm to create "The Karate Rap." The song is cheesy, the bars are weak, and it's a painfully '80s video, pivoting out of the dojo and into a flashy, excessive live music performance that looks like it reeks of aqua net. To put it simply, it's the type of "so bad it's good" video destined to go viral during the early age of YouTube.
So to hear it in "TMNT: Mutant Mayhem" is a hilarious treat for those in the know and according to director Jeff Rowe, it almost got cut. Editor Greg Levitan ("The Mitchells vs. the Machines") is responsible for finding the clip, an example of his brand of humor. As Rowe told /Film's Ethan Anderton in a forthcoming interview:
"At some point, people would be like, 'That is the dumbest thing. Why is that in there? You have to get rid of that,' and then at some point, we got rid of it, and other people were like, 'What happened to 'I'm a ninja?' You got to bring I'm a ninja back, that was the best part.' And then we ultimately settled on 'I'm a ninja,' I think because it got a laugh at a screening in Burbank."
The sound was so nice they used it twice, again following a huge fight sequence where Splinter saves his Turtle boys ... striking a cool final pose. I doubt anyone involved in "The Karate Rap" could have predicted their weird video would make it to the big screen, but they did try their hand at making their own movie in 1994 called "Sister Sensei," which is available to rent on Vimeo here.