Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 199 - Bruce Lee: Life and Death of the Dragon

Episode Date: July 6, 2020

Today we dig into the life of a true citizen of the world, Lee Jun-fan; known professionally as Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee was a martial arts pioneer, known to some as the "father of MMA" and as the founder of Jeet Kune Do. He as also a Hong Kong and American actor who made some of the most profitable films of all time. One of the biggest pop culture icons of the 20th century, Bruce is often credited with helping change the way Asians were presented in American films. He had to bust his ass to make a name for himself in the US film market, and then right as his star began to rise to unprecedented heights for a Chinese man in America, he died unexpectantly at the age of 32. And then, years later, his only son Brandon followed in his father's footsteps, becoming an action star and then also suddenly and tragically dying just as his own star began to rise, at the even younger age of 28. Two remarkable lives lost in their primes. Sad endings, for sure, but the lives they lead, especially Bruce's, were incredibly inspirational. So dive in and be inspired in this kung fu, kick-ass edition, of Timesuck. We've donated $6,100 this month to the Innocence Project. The innocence project exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. To find out more, visit https://www.innocenceproject.org/ Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FqaHmQkDxJU Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Try out Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions: https://badmagicmerch.com/pages/contact Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 8500 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits

A true citizen of the world, Lee Joon-fan, known professionally as Bruce Lee, was a Hong Kong and American actor, film director, martial artist, philosopher, and founder of the martial art Jeet Kune Do. Lee was the son of a Cantonese opera star and actor, and became a child actor before he was even able to speak. Bruce Lee is widely considered to be one of the most influential martial artists of all time, and one of the biggest pop culture icons of the 20th century, also often credited with helping to change the way Asians were presented in American films. Because of the

international nature of his life, he would find himself fighting racism on two sides. On the one side, he was an actor with the acting and action chops to be a leading man, but because he was of Chinese origins, he was overlooked and even had his idea for a television show taken from him. On the other side, he was one of the most popular martial arts teachers in the western United States. He was challenged by other Chinese martial artists for teaching Chinese traditional hand-to-hand combat to non-Chinese students. But he didn't let racism stop him from teaching who he wanted to teach and acting in the kind of movies he wanted to act in. He worked his ass off and created his own incredible path, a path we'll learn about today. And his path

opened up a path for his son, Brandon, who, like his father, studied both martial arts and acting. Like his father, Brandon's life would also be tragically cut short right before he might have gone on to become as famous, maybe even more famous than his father. Today on Time Suck, we're investigating the brilliant lives of both Bruce and Brandon Lee. One was known as the dragon. The other became famous as the crow. Join us for a celebration of life and look at two heartbreaking deaths today on a Kung Fu busting through edition of Time Suck. This is Michael McDonald and you're listening to Time Suck.

You're listening to Time Suck. Have a good one. Super fan of Lucifina, the Suckmaster, and you are listening to Time Suck. Hail Nimrod, Lucifina, Bojangles, and Triple M. Tis the season for Yacht Rock. It'll put a smile on your face. More smiles needed in 2020. We're having a smile shortage, amongst other things. Recording in the Suck Dungeon again in CDA with the Suck crew, Reverend Dr. Joe Paisley and the script keeper, Zach Flannery.

Tag team in production duties. And yes, YouTube viewers, I do have a mustache. Despite heavy criticism, I intend to keep it for at least a summer. After that, maybe the beard comes back. Maybe the stache stays. Hard to say. Maybe I grow a mullet again. Return to my childhood Idaho roots.

Maybe grab a T-top Camaro and ride off into the sunset and live off nothing but Sammy Hagar and moonshine for the rest of my days. There's a lot of possibilities. Today we've got some new summer merch in the store. Beach towels and beach weekender bags. Kroll's Cafe style. You have to pop into badmagicmerch.com and see all this craziness. The Kroll's Cafe set is for the bravely irreverent only. Also a very cool tie-dyed set for everybody else.

Thank you, Logan Keith, for the awesome designs. Also Bad Magic Productions, that's us, we are donating $6,100 this month to the Innocence Project. Very excited about that. Thank you, Space Lizards. Founded in 1992, the Innocence Project, founded by two attorneys. They exonerate the wrongly convicted through DNA testing

and reform the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. The mission of the Innocence Project is to free the staggering number of innocent people who remain incarcerated and to bring reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment. To date, they've helped exonerate 198 innocent people, some of whom were sitting on death row. So it's a great social justice cause, helping make sure that the guilty are punished in America, as they should be, and that the innocent can walk free as they should. So hail Nimrod. Also, Patreon Space Lizards, don't forget our new trivia

feature starts today. Update those TimeSuck apps. Win monthly prizes. Beat your friends and fellow suckers. Trivia goes live for our Patreon Space Lizards at 3 p.m. Pacific time this Monday. Now, let's get to know Bruce Lee. Yeah, yeah, Kung Fu Grip. The bulk of today's suck will be found in our Time Suck timeline. But before we dig in, let's first look at one of the aspects of Bruce Lee's life that made him a hero to so many, not his fighting, but his philosophy.

Bruce Lee's philosophy has inspired him a hero to so many, not his fighting, but his philosophy. Bruce Lee's philosophy has inspired millions of people the world over, continues to inspire. He was a diligent journaler, left copious amounts of notes, yes, that reference was intentional, on the pages of his diary. He died young, but he left a lifetime's worth of thoughts and ideas on how to live a life to its fullest behind him. Here are just a few of his ideas, including perhaps his most famous, his recommendation to be like water. He said, empty your mind, be formless, shapeless like water. You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.

I love that. I've always tried to be malleable in certain ways. I've always liked to create. Most of my creative energy has gone into stand-up comedy, but not always, and it doesn't have to. When a stand-up path has been blocked and then a new path presents itself, I've taken it or I do really a lot of work

to try and find that new path. If a writing path is opened up, I've taken that, hope the stream would either reconnect back with standup at some point or widen up and become some new river I never had any intention of exploring. You just got to keep flowing with it all. Keep creating, have a vision, have goals for sure, but don't stay so tunnel visioned on the goals that you're ignoring, new promising streams, new goals you might not have ever considered. Streams that might take you further than the first path ever could. Allow yourself enough fluidity to be able to adapt to life's ever-changing circumstances. Sometimes you can paddle against the current, make it upstream. Sometimes it's best to just

kind of go with the flow and see where the current takes you downstream. Be like water. Lee had a lot of faith in himself. His confidence was extremely high. It was built on hard work, hard work in areas he was talented in. One of his philosophies has been embraced as always be yourself. This is how he explained this concept that is now a bit cliche, of course,

but he said, when I look around, I always learn something, and that is to always be yourself and to express yourself, to have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it. Start from the very root of your being, which is how can I be me? Love it. Who are you? What is your essence? What is your root? Do you have an innate talent for management, for facilitation, for organization, for creation. You know, are you creative with what?

Words, designs, music? Are you best with your hands like a mechanic? Better with your head like a teacher? Better with numbers or with abstract concepts? What's your route? Who are you? Challenge yourself with some introspection. Find your base and then build from it.

I didn't pick a career in comedy because someone else did it and I wanted to be them. I picked it because making a certain type of person laugh has always come fairly easy to me and I enjoy it. If I would have picked something just based on what I thought was cool, it would not have been comedy. It would have been music. Or I would have been an author. Or like Bruce Lee, I would have been a badass martial artist. Maybe I would have been a baseball player.

If I could hit a baseball like Ken Griffey Jr. could in his prime, if I could read pitches and knock line drives 500 feet into the stands, I wouldn't have fucked around with comedy clubs. But that wasn't the root of my being. Lee would also say, be a practical dreamer backed by action. This simple sentence is fucking huge. Do you back your dreams with action? Do you really work towards them? Do you put in hours, days, weeks, months, and then years worth of hard work, focused hard work, focused on your dreams? If you don't, then your dreams will very likely never be anything but dreams. If you don't plant your dreams in the earth of reality, water them with some hard work, they're just going to be seeds forever. Lee also said, research your experience. Absorb what is

useful. Reject what is useless. Add what is essentially your own. Learn from your mistakes. Learn from your success. Learn from the mistakes and success of others. Many of Lee's thoughts will be published in a posthumous book, The Tao of Jeet Kune Do in 1975. Compiled from Bruce Lee's notes and essays, this iconic volume is not just one of the seminal martial arts guides of all time, it's also a book of wonderful timeless philosophy. The science and philosophy behind the fighting system Lee pioneered, Jeet Kune Do, is explained in detail, depicted through hundreds of Lee's own illustrations, illustrations surrounded by these little wisdom nuggets. Lee expressed his worldly look at existence in his book, saying,

under the sky, under the heavens, there is but one family. Love that one too, Team Meat Sack, right? Lee dealt with racism in some interesting ways in his life. Chinese racists who didn't like him teaching Chinese martial arts to anyone who wasn't Chinese. And American racists who weren't ready to give a Chinese man a leading role in an American movie. Stardom wasn't handed to Bruce Lee, far from it. He had a hell of a time breaking through into meaningful roles in Hollywood. Then he seriously injured his back, briefly lost his ability to support his family through martial arts training. He was actually told by doctors at one point after this injury he would never be able to perform martial arts again.

So what did he do? He became water. He didn't fight to start fighting again. Right away, he rested and recovered and turned to self-help books. He took one of his business cards and wrote the words, walk on, on the back and placed it where he could see it as a constant reminder to always keep moving forward. With this as his mantra, Bruce Lee worked himself back into physical health. He used all the hours he couldn't train physically initially to work on mental exercises. He wrote down his many thoughts on martial arts and life, resulting in the wonderful writings we now have today. The writings I've already shared with you, many more stuff like, when life gives you obstacles, you must summon the courage and walk

on. Good advice, Bruce. Hail Nimrod. Now let's get into some more advice and a lot more action in this episode's Time Suck Timeline and see what further inspiration we can uncover. we can uncover. On November 27th, 1940, the year of the dragon, between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m., known as the hour of the dragon, Li Junfan, Bruce Lee, is born at the Jackson Street Hospital in San Francisco's Chinatown. Junfan means return again. And this birth time, according to tradition, was a strong and fortuitous omen, and it certainly wound up feeling predictive

as Bruce would later be known as the Dragon. Why was 1940 the year of the Dragon? There are 12 Chinese zodiac animals used to represent years. The cycle repeats every dozen years. 1940 was a dragon year. 2020 is a year of the rat. Sounds about right, doesn't it?

Of course, 2020 would be the year of the rat. Actually, most of 2020 is the year of the rat. The Chinese year of the rat began on January 25th, and it'll end on February 11th, 2021. And then the year of the ox will begin. Chinese zodiac calendar runs a little differently than the Gregorian calendar. In traditional Chinese culture, zodiac signs can be used to determine your fortune for the year, marriage compatibility, career fit, best times to have a baby, and so much more.

The same 12 signs rotate monthly for the year as well. I'm a Taurus in Western astrology, but a snake in Chinese astrology. And then these same signs cut up the day into 12 two-hour increments. Bruce Lee was a dragon by year, a dragon by hour, and a rat by month. And he was also a phoenix, kind of. His parents would actually call him the Chinese word of little phoenix at home, a girl's name in Chinese. Why call him a girl's name? Well, because before Lee was born, his parents had lost another son. And according to tradition, if they didn't refer to Bruce by a male name, it would confuse the spirits who might try and steal his soul. Lots of these type of superstitions in traditional Chinese culture. So how does the name Bruce fit into all this? The English name Bruce is thought to have been given by the hospital attending physician, Dr. Mary Glover,

and if not possibly by one of the nurses, Bruce already listed as a nickname on some immigration paperwork when little Bruce headed to Hong Kong a few months later. Not sure how a doctor or nurse pulled that off. That story is true. How do you sneak that into conversation or registration? What's your son's new name? Lee Junefan. What was that? Do you say Bruce? I heard Bruce. Ah, cool. Bruce it is. Yay. Write Bruce down.

Great pick. The Jackson Street Hospital where Bruce was born, pretty unique hospital. Known also as simply Chinese Hospital. It's actually the only Chinese hospital in the entire United States in the sense that it's primarily a hospital serving Chinese patients. Where Chinese is the primary language spoke, one of only a handful of such Chinese hospitals that exist outside of China. I've been to Chinatown in San Francisco so many times. The hotel I've stayed at when I worked a little comedy club over the years

in San Francisco, the Punchline Comedy Club, just a few blocks from this hospital. I've walked by the hospital a dozen times easy, never knew it was where little Bruce Lee came kicking and screaming into the world. I love learning little details like that. Makes that place more magical to me now. Bruce was born the fourth child of five children. Phoebe Lee, Agnes Lee, Peter Lee, and Robert Lee were his siblings. We won't really follow their lives as Bruce's timeline goes forward. So allow me to give some details about them to show what kind of family Bruce was born into. Bruce's older brother, Peter,

aka Lee Jung-Sum, became a respected meteorologist who was a world champion fencer as a young man, competing internationally. He was married for 20 years to 1975's Miss Hong Kong. Before that, he was married briefly to Eunice Lam, a Hong Kong novelist who published more than 80 books, some of which were adapted into films. A woman often called the prodigal daughter of Hong Kong.

Peter died in Australia at the age of 68. He was a professor at the University of Melbourne as well. Bruce's younger brother, Robert Lee Jun-Fai, still alive, a musician who was famous in Hong Kong in the 1960s as a member of the Thunderbirds, also married a very popular Hong Kong actress. Phoebe, Agnes, Robert, also alive. No real information is given on Phoebe or Agnes other than they both have been heavily involved in making sure Bruce's legacy lives on, taking part in books about Bruce, museum exhibits, giving interviews on their brother, et cetera. Bruce wasn't the only Lee to do well.

He came from a family full of high achievers. Lee's father was Lee Hoi Chuen, well-respected star of the Cantonese opera in Hong Kong, who also appeared in many different films. At the time of Bruce's birth, his parents were in the United States due to his father touring with the Cantonese opera company. They weren't actually living in the US. And that's how Lee ended up being born in the U.S. Nice, lucky bit of

happenstance that would make it much easier for him to gain citizenship down the road. Lee's mother, Grace Ho, she, interesting, was a powerful 12th-level wizard known mainly for her meteor swarm and prismatic wall spells. She had exceptional power. For example, while the normal range for a meteor storm is a mile, Grace Ho could rain down a meteor storm in a 100-square mile area. Instead of dealing out 20 die 6 worth of damage, her storms would deal 20 die 10 worth of damage. And that's another

reason she and her husband were invited to the U.S. for her powerful magic demonstrations. Sorry, my blood sugar dipped a little bit low there for a second. I started talking crazy talk. That was my mustache talking. Ignore it. That was a bunch of D&D nonsense. It has nothing to do with Bruce Lee's mom. Lee's mom, Grace Ho,

was a member for real of the influential Ho Tong Bosman family, known for their business dealings and philanthropy, my God, in Hong Kong. Very well-to-do, very upper crust. So Bruce Lee born into, you know, some money and some fame.

Not a blue collar, you know, kind of and some fame, not a, not a blue collar, you know, kind of upbringing. Bruce Lee had a blue collar work ethic, but the Lees were not blue collar people. Mom came from a lot of money and social standing. Dad was an opera singer. You know, he came from a high social standing. I did not expect that. Not sure why I did not expect that, but just didn't. Also long erroneously reported that Lee's mother was half German, still shows up on a lot of lists on the internet. That's not true. Immigration documents from the family's trip back to Hong Kong shortly after Lee's birth

reveal that Grace identified her father as Chinese and her mother as British. So Bruce believed to be, you know, quarter British. At three months old, Bruce debuts in his first movie, Golden Gate Girl, in San Francisco, California. He plays the role of an extra, of a female baby actually, carried by his real father on screen. For sure did not expect that. Bruce Lee, the most famous martial artist in history, played a baby girl in his big screen acting debut. Nice little trivia nugget there for you to whip out and impress your friends with at parties.

In April 1941, Lee and his parents returned to Hong Kong after the movie was filmed and his dad's opera tour was over. They returned to Kowloon, their family home, a district within Hong Kong. Kowloon means nine dragons. So much dragon talk with Bruce. A lot more dragon talk to come. A little background on Bruce Lee's real hometown of Hong Kong. Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the Qing Empire ceded Hong Kong Island at the end of the First Opium War in 1842. The colony expanded to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 after the Second Opium War, further extended when Britain obtained

a 99-year lease of the new territories in 1898, and then the whole territory was transferred to China in 1997. Hong Kong, incredibly urban now, the 426 square mile territory, one of the most densely populated places in the world with over 7.5 million people, not nearly that crowded in 1941. 1941, it had 1,640,000 people, and that number was double what the population had been just 10 years earlier in 1931. 1941, the Lees lived in an apartment at 218 Nathan Road in the Kowloon District of the quickly growing and changing Hong Kong. They would actually live in Hong Kong

during the most volatile period of Hong Kong's history. On Christmas Day, 1941, Japan began a nearly four-year-long occupation of Hong Kong, and things got real, real rough for many in the area. Large-scale deportations of the largely Chinese population were carried out due to World War II-inducing food shortages. By August 15th, 1945, when the Japanese left, the Hong Kong population had lost over a million people, only around 600,000 remained, and little Bruce Lee and his family were there for it all,

escaping the worst of this due to having a little more money, a lot more social clout than the average Chinese resident. After the war, most of those who had been tossed out did return and the population would swell up to over 1.8 million by the end of 1947. So it was crazy volatile times in Hong Kong. In 1946, just following the end of the war,

at the age of only six, Bruce makes his first major childhood movie appearance in Hong Kong, starring in The Beginning of a Boy, also known as The Birth of Mankind, his first real acting role. By the time he was 18, Bruce would appear in 20 different Hong Kong films. On these films, the vivid facial expressions Bruce would later become famous for began to develop, foreshadowing the looks he'd use in his now uber-famous kung fu movies. It's pretty cute, little Bruce Lee doing a lot of the moves, you know, that he would do later as an adult. I found a scene that lasts, I don't know, several moments of little eight or nine-year-old Bruce,

a parent in the 1950s. The kid, he plays a 10-year-old orphan, raised by his uncle, groomed by a skilled thief, gets himself into a whole heap of trouble, and hijinks ensue, and he's pretty damn adorable. Very cool to see such a young Bruce Lee on screen. He does a great job. As little Bruce struggles to do the right thing and not lead a criminal life like his mentor, a kindly factory owner played by his real life dad attempts to get him to realize the benefits of,

who attempts to get him to realize, sorry, the benefits of honest living. So little Bruce Lee, child actor, maybe not quite Hong Kong's equivalent to Shirley Temple, Corey Haim, or Haley Joel Osment. He didn't get the lead role in several different, you know, big Hong Kong movies, but he was a bit of a local star as a kid.

1951, Bruce enters LaSalle College in Hong Kong, called a college, more like a Catholic junior high school and middle or high school combined. Kind of like seventh to 12th age range, roughly. Bruce was 11 when he began going to school there. And it was either there or just before there when young Bruce began to do what would later make him very famous, fight.

Bruce didn't show a lot of interest in his studies at school. His teachers found him to be lazy, stubborn, and rebellious. He was too busy being a big deal, Chinese Corey Feldman, and pretty focused outside of school on being a little tough guy. Chinese students at LaSalle College had quite the rivalry with the British students of King George V. Some kids who studied just up the hill from LaSalle. Both of these schools still around today. Bruce is the most famous alumni of LaSalle, at least in America he is, and the most famous alumni in America for King George, that school, Michael Hutchinson, deceased lead singer of NXS, and Kim Gordon, who played bass, guitar, and sang for Sonic Youth. Anyway, Bruce and a group of LaSalle kids would get into big street

fights with a group of the King George kids. Bruce actually became the leader of a gang that would hang out after school behind King George's sports field. And then Bruce later talked about taunting British students. Interesting since his maternal grandma was British. So again, he was a quarter British and huge fights would break out between these youthful gangs that would often have to be stopped by the police.

Mostly fist fights, but Bruce did speak of using shit like a chain during these fights. Young Bruce Lee, bopping kids with a using shit like a chain during these fights. Young Bruce Lee bopping kids with a metal chain on the streets of Hong Kong. Chinese versus British. It all feels very much like something from The Outsiders, to cite that not actually very good

movie, two weeks in a row. Stay gold, pony boy! Stay gold. Not sure who the greasers are and who the the socias are in these Hong Kong fights. 1953, a big year for young Bruce. Between April and November, the 12-year-old gets leading and supporting roles in five Hong Kong films,

leading or supporting roles. 1954, another big year for young Bruce. He gets his ass kicked for the first and only time in his life, supposedly. According to the legend of Lee, this is the only time he loses a fight. The 13-year-old had never taken any formal martial arts training

and the experience of getting his ass whooped motivated him to start taking lessons. He begins to study the art of Wing Chun Kung Fu under private tutelage from the famous master of Wing Chun, 60-year-old Yip Man. Grandmaster Yip Man spent his entire

adult life championing the teachings of Wing Chun Kung Fu. Throughout the world, students of Wing Chun Kung Fu. Throughout the world, students of Wing Chun would continue to publish articles about Grandmaster Yip that continue to this day. Several movies have been made about the guy. He was already a renowned instructor when Bruce started to work with him. His students were routinely whooping the asses

of other students in regional martial arts tournaments. During this time, Bruce also takes up cha-cha dancing. Dancing some cha-cha. In addition to being a skilled martial artist, he was also apparently quite the dancer. And he studies fencing with his older brother, Peter. He was an active young man. No sitting around playing video games,

eating Cheetos for little Bruce. Partly because there was no video games or Cheetos yet. At least there wasn't Cheetos in Hong Kong. Cheetos did start to, you know, pushing delicious Cheetos on American youth in 1948. Anyway, Bruce was an active lad. His family nickname when he was younger was Never Sit Still. I think my family nickname for a little while was Squirming Herman.

Seriously, my poor mom. She wanted a little cuddle bug, and all I wanted to do was run around Idaho, play in the dirt, and catch some damn snakes. Not even kidding about the snakes. I was very into catching snakes for a while. Back to Bruce. 1955, Bruce never sits still. Lee continues his Wing Chun Kung Fu training, receiving private instruction from Yip Man, also another local martial arts master, Yip Man's assistant, Wong Shun Wang.

This dude Wong sounds like quite the Kung Fu badass. Wong would actually end up spending the most time with Lee, teaching him how to fight. And according to himself, Wong was quite the street fighter. In interviews, he claimed to have won at least 60 and perhaps over 100 different street fights. That's a lot of street fights, over 100, against various other martial artists. So it's not like he was just fighting chumps.

It's not like he was just, you know, smacking around old ladies. Apparently Hong Kong in the 1950s was basically a never-ending version of the 1988 Jean-Claude Van Damme movie Bloodsport. Just a city of never-ending illegal underground MMA fights. That's how Phil sometimes researching this. Just sounds pretty badass.

Would have been badass for me. I would have probably been getting my ass kicked constantly by faster, tougher kids. But it sounds like quite the childhood for people like Bruce and Wong. According to Wong, Lee stood out amongst other students for his speed and precision with which he was able to deliver his kicks. From January 1955 until February 1956, Bruce would act in seven more films. Just starring in movies, training in kung fu, dishing out street fight beatdowns.

This dude had a way cooler childhood than I had. Holy shit. When I was 14, the coolest thing I was doing was rollerblading. And I know that's not very cool. And I wasn't even very good at it. September 10th, 1956, due to poor academic performance, possibly due to poor conduct as well,

i.e. too many fights, 15-year-old Lee transferred to St. Francis Xavier's College, another Catholic high school still in existence. No alumni that are well-known in the Western world other than Bruce. And here Bruce would be mentored by Brother Edward, a teacher and coach of the school boxing team. Now he's training as a boxer as well.

Fight, fight, fight! Bruce would act in three more movies between December 1956 and December 1957. Also continued to train in martial arts in 56 and 57. Yip Man tried to keep his students from fighting in the street gangs of Hong Kong by encouraging them to fight in organized competitions. But Lee was not interested in that. He wasn't able

to keep Lee from continuing to fight in various petty gang squabbles. He'd rather fight in the street than fight in a tournament. He wasn't interested in point fighting. He liked real fighting. And again, just kind of more outsiders type shit. More whipping people with chains and nunchucks and stuff. Not even kidding about the nunchucks. I keep getting the 1974 Carl Douglas disco lyrics stuck in my head when I was doing this research. Everybody was

kung fu fighting. Those kicks were fast as lightning. Good luck getting that out of your head now. Is it in your head right now? What if I do this? Now is it in your head? Okay, good. Then I guess we're even. Around this point is Wing Chung training most of Yip Man's other students began to refuse to train with Lee for reasons we mentioned earlier. In 1957,

you know, there was a fair amount of racism going on there in Hong Kong. And also, I didn't mention this earlier, but some think that the reason people initially decided to stop training with Lee

was because of his street fight tactics. He started bringing the wrong type of change to his fights. Here's the deal. With these street fights, you could bring a grade 30 chain to a fight. You could bring a zinc plated coil chain to a fight, but you couldn't bring a zinc plated grade 30 coil chain to a fight. I don't know if you follow me. And when word got out that Bruce liked to swing a grade 30 zinc plated coil chain, not to mention a 275pound load limit this chain had, 50 minutes more than the acceptable street fight load limit, he was blacklisted from organized illegal street fights. And that's not true. I just started thinking that for some reason, how ridiculous it would be to have very specific chain regulations for street fights, for illegal street fights. Just, hey, whoa! What you swinging there, Bruce?

What kind of chain is that? Is that zinc-plated? Is that a grade 30, 275-pound coil load chain? Are you fucking kidding me? You want to swing some chain? You swing some fucking chain. You knock some teeth out. You crack some skulls.

But you don't swing that chain, you son of a bitch. No, it was racism. Other students began to refuse to train with Lee because they learned about Bruce's mixed ancestry, found out he had some English in him. At that time, the Chinese, you know, were very much against, in general, teaching martial art techniques to anyone who was not Asian, not Chinese specifically, actually. This would come up later in the timeline and lead to one of Bruce's most famous fights. Lee continued to train privately though with Yip Man.

Yip Man didn't care, but some of the other students did. Early 1958, 17-year-old Bruce wins the Crown Colony Cha-Cha Championship in Hong Kong. Dance lessons paying off. Bet mom was happy. Man, dude was handsome, starring in movies.

He could really fight well. He could fucking dance. Get crazy six-pack abs. I bet the ladies hated Bruce Lee. Right? Poor guy. Probably spent all his time alone. That year, Bruce also had a leading role in the film The Orphan. This is the last movie Bruce would make

as a child actor. March 29th, 1968, Bruce enters a citywide annual high school boxing tournament. And guess what? He fucking wins the whole thing. Oh, surprise, surprise. He defeats several contenders, knocking them all out in the first round en route to defeating the reigning three-year champion, Gary Elms, who he knocks out in the third round.

Fist of Fury. May 2nd, 1958, Bruce predicts his future fame. He gets in yet another street fight, takes some shots in this one, comes home with a black eye and a busted lip after beating up some other martial arts student. When he gets home, his dad's furious. His dad's not a fan of Bruce's fighting.

He goes off on Bruce in front of the family. You know, tells him he's bringing shame to the family with all his stupid fighting. Bruce's sister, Phoebe, would later recall Bruce yelling back at his father, I'm not good at studying, but I'm good at fighting. I will fight to make a name. And then he fucking chain whipped his dad in the

face. Pow! Grade 30, 275 pounds. No, he didn't do that. He did tell his sister. She expressed concern over his black eye. He said, these are just surface level wounds on me. Used to have seen the other guy. I sent a few of his teeth flying.

And then he wrote in his diary that he knocked the other guy out cold. So he's super into fighting. April 15th, 1959. This is going to come as a shock. 18-year-old Bruce gets in. Another street fight. This time the police are called.

These street fights are becoming more and more frequent. A little more and more violent, according to legend. And this time Bruce beat up the wrong guy. Son of a feared local triad gang leader. Lee's father then urges Bruce to leave Hong Kong to pursue a safer and healthier life in the United States when the police inform Lee that there is a possibility that there's now a contract out for Bruce's life. The police also

inform Bruce's father that on the path he's on, he's going to end up in jail real soon. And that is when Bruce beat his entire family, that officer with the chain. It's chain o'clock, motherfuckers, wake up! He didn't do that. But he did as he left. Bruce's father and mother tell Bruce to take a trip to his birthplace, San Francisco's Chinatown, and he listens. Because he was born there, he could also claim

American citizenship if he didn't wait too much longer to return. On April 29th, 1959, Bruce travels back to San Francisco via the President Wilson steamship. Gets a third-class ticket, but ends up spending most of his time riding a first class by giving some cha-cha dance lessons to the first class passengers. He is now a younger version of Patrick Swayze's character from Dirty Dancing. Again, ladies must have hated him. Bruce's penis was probably the one opponent that he never beat, never had to. By the time he'd make it to his groin, someone else had already, you know, made it there first and beaten his wing. By the time he'd make it to his groin, someone else had already, you know, made it there first and beaten his wing. You get it.

Someone else has always beaten him. May 17th, 1959, with $15 from his dad and $100 from his mom, Bruce arrives in the U.S., stays with an old friend of his father's, initially works a variety of odd jobs. Several months later, he moves up north to Seattle. But there's also a large Chinese community, and he works for Ruby Chow, another friend of his dad's. Ruby Chow, she was a big deal in Seattle's Chinese community. She was born in Seattle in 1920. Her parents were both Chinese immigrants. She dropped out of high school during the Great Depression to work as a waitress,

and she opened Ruby Chow's restaurant on Broadway in Jefferson, first Chinese restaurant outside of Seattle's Chinatown, and the restaurant became super successful. 1973, she ran for the King County Council as a Democrat and actually had a run-in with another Time Suck subject, serial killer Ted Bundy. Young Ted tried to get her to run as a Republican. Lucky for her, Ted only seemed interested in killing young white women. Ruby didn't listen to Ted. She went on to become the first Asian American elected to King County Council and, yeah, and ran as a Democrat.

One of her sons is now a judge in King County District Court, the first Asian American in the state of Washington to win election as a judge. And I could go on and on about Ruby. Pretty cool how connected the Lee family was. Late 1959, 18-year-old Bruce Lee worked for her in her restaurant as a waiter, also rented a room and lived above the restaurant. Lee's elder brother, Peter, joined him in Seattle for a short stay around this time before moving on to Minnesota to attend college. While Bruce worked at Ruby Chow's and lived above it, he also, for the first time, began to teach martial arts skills, initially in backyards and city parks. Humble martial arts

instructor beginnings. Bruce taught his own style he called Jutfan Kung Fu, which literally translated as Bruce Lee's Kung Fu, best described as a modified variation of Wing Chun Kung Fu. Lee taught friends he met in Seattle, starting with judo practitioner Jesse Glover, who would continue to teach some of Lee's early techniques after Lee moved away. Japanese-American Take Kimura became Lee's first assistant instructor, continued to teach his art and philosophy long after Lee's death. Kimura would be a pallbearer at Bruce's funeral, still alive and living in Seattle today at 96 years young. Despite starring in those 20 films by the time he was 18, Lee now temporarily abandons the thought of a film career in favor of focusing on a martial arts career. He had no idea at this time how beautifully those two career paths would soon merge.

June 22, 1959, Bruce flies to New York to visit his dad. He's performing for three weeks with the Hong Kong Cantonese opera troupe, Cantonese. While there, he takes Southern Prane Mantis-style martial art lessons from King Fun Grandmaster Sifu Gin Fun Mark. So, you know, very into learning everything he can about martial arts. On September 3rd, Bruce continues his education, enrolls in the Edison Technical School in Seattle. Then on December 2nd, 1960, Bruce receives the equivalent of a U.S. high school diploma from Edison Technical, now Seattle Central College, located on Capitol Hill. Continues to teach Kung Fu, gathers more students, occasionally gives demonstrations around town to bring in more students. On March 27th, Bruce enrolls at the

University of Washington. The dragon is now a husky, the age of 20. Would have preferred him to have been a zag, but still pretty cool. Bruce majors in drama, so maybe he's now reconsidering a life of performance. Also studies philosophy and psychology and various other subjects. considering a life of performance, also studies philosophy and psychology and various other subjects, continues to teach his style of Kung Fu. Now many of his classmates on campus are also his students. Also meets his future wife, Linda Emery,

while he's studying at UW. Linda, when he met her, was a 16-year-old high school student attending Garfield High School. They met when Bruce went to Garfield High School and put on a Kung Fu demonstration, and then later she would become one of his students. And then a few years after that,

they would play a little naked bedroom Kung Fu, focusing mainly on not defending, various thrusting and gyrating attacks. April Fool's Day, 1961, Bruce gets back to fighting. I was wondering when we get back to some real Kung Fu fighting in this timeline. He was challenged by a rival Chinese martial arts instructor who was pissed off that Bruce was teaching Kung Fu to Westerners. And according to legend, Bruce

knocked this motherfucker out in 11 seconds. Not sure if someone was running like a stopwatch or something to make sure that that's a very specific time. But that's the legend. 11 seconds. So he blocked this dude's attack with his forearms and then very quickly punched him into an unconscious state.

Also, Bruce does this at only 5'8 and roughly 140 pounds. He was not a big man. Kicked a lot of ass for a guy who wouldn't even be considered that big for an eighth grader. And then it doesn't appear that Bruce threw out any cool tough guy lines at his fallen opponent, which is a real bummer. If only he would have had the help of today's first sponsor. Today's Time Suck is brought to you by the Superkillers Black Belts and Machine Guns self-offense classes. Hello, comrade.

It is I, Sasha, Alexander Solonik, Russian Superkiller. Remember, I don't only teach self-offense fight moves. I also teach cool tough guy lines for people who know how to fight tough but not how to talk tough like this. Can you find quarter? I think I drop quarter on ground right after I drop your body. Keep quarter you find. Used to call mommy from payphone. Maybe she give you hug. I all out of hug. infomercial music so much. Call back to the Solonik suck for confused new listeners. And since I stopped the show momentum

with that nonsense already, probably a good time to get to our real sponsors, all of whom are way cooler and tougher than Alexander Solanik. And now we're back to Bruce Lee's early adult life. In April 1962, Bruce opens his first official martial arts school,

the Jun Fan Gong Fu Institute in Seattle's Chinatown, 609 South Weller Street. All are welcome. In late 1962, Bruce visits friends in the Bay Area, also picks up 1,500 copies of Bruce's book, Chinese Kung Fu, the Philosophical Art of Self-Defense from a publisher in Berkeley, California. He's an author now. from a publisher in Berkeley, California. He's an author now. Topics in this book include basic Kung Fu stances, waist training, leg training,

the theory of yin and yang. The book includes Lee's illustrations to help readers figure out how to learn his moves. And Kung Fu, by the way, is just an alternate spelling of Kung Fu. August, 1963, Bruce proposes not to Linda Emery. He proposes to a woman named Amy Sanbo, his first love in America. And Amy turns him down.

Turns Bruce Lee down. No idea why. Maybe she hated washboard abs. Maybe she hated slick dance moves. I get it. I probably would have been her type of dude. No sick abs, no slick dance moves. So much silly goose. Bruce returns to Hong Kong to visit family, then heads back to Seattle, arriving at the end of August to return to UW. August 5th, 1963, Bruce moves his first June Fan Kung Fu Institute into a building, 4750 University Way, near the university campus in Seattle's Chinatown.

He continues to teach any person of any race. At Garfield High School, Bruce also demonstrates the famous one-inch punch for the first time. Highly recommend watching the YouTube video of Bruce Lee's one-inch punch for the first time. Highly recommend watching the YouTube video of Bruce Lee's one-inch punch. Pretty badass. So much force generated through so little movement.

I'll describe it a little later when it comes up again. On October 25th, Bruce takes out now 18-year-old Linda Emery to the restaurant in Seattle's iconic Space Needle for their first date. How sweet. The following spring, Lee drops out of college to pursue martial arts full-time. The dragon is a husky no more.

In the summer of 64, Bruce opens the Second Jun Fan Kung Fu Institute in Oakland, California, with James Yim Lee, no relation. James was a well-known martial artist in the Bay Area, one of the first to write books in English about martial arts. He actually helped Bruce publish

Bruce's first book earlier. Bruce, man, he had a good inner circle, good connections, good friends. An important part of his success was having these friends. When Bruce heads to Oakland, he leaves his good buddy, Taki Kimura, to take over as head instructor in Seattle. On August 2nd, 1964, Ed Parker, known as the father of American karate, Kenpo, invites Bruce to give a demonstration of his abilities at the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships. James Lee had introduced Bruce to Ed. Ed was a big deal in America. He trained Elvis Presley. He'd also trained Chuck Norris. He was the current martial arts trainer to the stars. Bruce would soon largely take over. And Long Beach, young Bruce

wows spectators by doing numerous two-finger push-ups using the thumb and index finger of one hand with feet approximately shoulder-width apart. Pretty badass. Also performs his famous one-inch punch. Here's how that went down. Lee stood upright, his right foot forward with knees slightly bent,

in front of a standing stationary training partner, Bob Baker, a man a little bit bigger than Bruce. Lee's right arm was partially extended, his fist approximately one inch away from his partner's chest. And without retracting his arm, without pulling his arm back at all, Lee then forcibly delivers the punch to his partner

while largely maintaining his posture, sending Bob backwards and falling into a chair. Bob's momentum caused him actually to fall out of the chair and onto the floor. And Bob recalled later, I told Bruce not to do this type of demonstration again. When he punched me, I had to stay home from work because the pain in my chest was unbearable. Bruce would later break boards in demonstrations using the same one-inch punch, which is incredibly impressive, I think. At this tournament, Lee met Taekwondo master Jun Gui. Lee considered to be the father of Taekwondo in America. Lee would go on to help train boxing

legend Muhammad Ali for a few fights. And in the 80s, this is so good. He opened up a bunch of martial arts studios in Washington, DC. And I'm just getting this thing queued up here. And became locally famous thanks to a ton of sweet, catchy 80s commercials. I guess this commercial that I'm about to play has a very Adult Swim vibe now,

played like for years and years and years in D.C. When you take jewelry self-defense Then you too can say, Nobody bothers me. Nobody bothers me. Call USA 1000. Junery means right for right.

Nobody bothers me. Nobody buys me. Nobody buys me either. and then there's some of his students doing cool martial arts moves as that stuff's being played and at the end, I believe it's his two kids and the last little voice there nobody bothers me either gives like a little wink, speaking that little kid voice adorable! and I'm sure also after you've heard it for five years

be like motherfucker, that's going to be in my head for a week again nobody bothers me except for Bruce Lee and his regulation chains. Non-regulation, never, I blew it. Lee and Lee would go on to develop a lifelong friendship. June would invite Bruce to Washington, D.C. to appear in tournaments. Lee taught Lee the sidekick in great detail. Lee taught Lee the non-telegraphic punch. Lee, you know, quickly becoming part of the U.S. inner circle of elite martial artists.

Also this tournament, Jay Sebring, the hairstylist for Batman, the Batman TV series, the dude who dated the gorgeous actress, Sharon Tate, the man who we met way back in the Charles Manson suck man who would be along with Sharon Tate brutally murdered by members of the Manson family. Uh,

he sees Bruce and he's, and he's blown away. So Jay tells his buddy, William Dozier about Bruce Williams, a big hotshot Hollywood producer tells his buddy, William Dozier, about Bruce. William's a big hotshot Hollywood producer looking to cast a part in a new TV series. Bruce will later fly down to LA for a screen test because of this introduction. The tournament was Lee's big American break in a variety of ways. While Bruce is making all his big time career moves in Central and Southern California,

he's also missing his girl from Seattle. A girl who has just told him that she's pregnant with his baby. Whoops. Little Brandon Lee in there. Should have spent a little less time working on his one-inch punch and a little more time working on his six-inch pull-out. You get it. Come on. Guessing on the six-inch. Bruce Lee's erect

penis length does not come up in any of the research. Weird. I don't know. August 4th, 1964, he flies up to Seattle to ask Linda to marry him. She says yes. And he celebrates by beating up a dozen dudes at once. He doesn't know. August 4th, 1964, he flies up to Seattle to ask Linda to marry him. She says yes, and he celebrates by beating up a dozen dudes at once. He doesn't do that. Pretty sure he's celebrated by having little Bruce Kung Fu chop Linda's vagina again. Guessing. Also doesn't come up in the research. Just 13 days later, August 17th, 1964, Bruce and Linda are married at the King County Courthouse. Linda's Baptist family, apparently not overjoyed at the sudden shotgun wedding,

but they will come to love Bruce. In late August, Bruce brings Linda down from Seattle to Oakland, and they move in with James Yim Lee and his family. Later that year, Bruce heads to Hollywood, where he successfully auditions for the role of Kato for the popular action series, well, kind of popular action series, The Green Hornet. Thank you, Jay Sebring. After his Hollywood audition, Bruce is signed to a one-year option for The Green Hornet. Thank you, Jay Sebring. After his Hollywood audition,

Bruce is signed to a one-year option for The Green Hornet. He's paid an $1,800 retainer, equivalent to about 15 grand a day. And then since filming won't end up starting for over a year, he gets right back to teaching his new brand of Kung Fu. In early 65, he gets into another fight. This is maybe his most famous real-life fight. He has a controversial run-in with Wong Jack Man, leading Kung Fu practitioner in the Oakland Chinatown community. According to Lee, Wong and the Chinese community had issues with him teaching, you know, non-Chinese students and they issued an ultimatum.

And when he refused to comply with the ultimatum to stop teaching, he was challenged to a combat match with Wong. The arrangement was that if Lee lost, he would have to shut down his school, no longer teach Westerners. But if he won, he would be free to continue teaching whoever he felt like. This is Lee's side of the story, at least. Wong would later deny this, saying that he just challenged Lee to a fight because Lee had bragged during one of his demonstrations at a Chinatown theater that he could beat anyone's ass in the San Francisco area. And Wong felt insulted and disrespected. Several people would witness this match, including numerous leading Bay Area martial artists. And there's a few different accounts of how it went down. Mostly there is Wong's account

of how it went down. And then there's everyone else's. Wong later stated that the fight lasted an unusually long amount of time, 20 to 25 minutes. He claimed he'd originally expected a serious but polite bout. He'd expected gentlemanly rules of no eye jabs, no groin kicks, et cetera. And then according to the lore that surrounds this fight, Hong Kong street fighter and chain enthusiast Lee said, quote, I'm not standing for any of that. You've made the challenge. It's all out. It's no holds barred. Fuck yeah. Bruce had been knocking out T since he was 12. He's not interested in some cute little point contest. It's a blood match. Despite the all out rules,

Wong said that the fight ended due to Lee's unusually winded condition as opposed to a decisive blow by either fighter. Wong also later claimed he never kicked Lee in the fight because his legs were so dangerous that they would give him an unfair advantage. So he decided not to kick because he didn't want to go to jail for murder. Uh-huh.

So Wong may have been a tad bit full of shit, if all this is true. According to later accounts given by Bruce Lee, his wife, Linda, and most of the other eyewitnesses, the fight lasted about three minutes, tops. And Lee decidedly beat the shit out of Wong. In Linda's later account, she said the fight ensued. It was a no-holds-barred fight. It took three minutes. Bruce got this guy down to the ground and said, do you give up? And the man said

he gave up. Rick Wing, a dedicated student of Wong's, presented the following account. He said, Wong did not believe Bruce would actually fight and tried to delay the match. Bruce became angry, insisted that they not wait. Wong then tried to put limitations on techniques. Bruce refused. Bruce begins to pound his opponent in only a couple of seconds. As Bruce is winning, Wong attempts to flee, but he is caught by Bruce. Bruce begins to beat him on the ground. Students of the other teacher attempt to step in and help their teacher, but he is caught by Bruce. Bruce begins to beat him on the ground. Students

of the other teacher attempt to step in and help their teacher, but Bruce's friends prevent them. This is one of Wong's former students saying this. Sounds like Wong, yeah, just got fucking trampled by Lee. Numerous witnesses did say that at one point, Wong literally tried to run away from Bruce. He started running off, and then Bruce chased him down and just kept punching him in the back of the head until they knocked him down. Sounds like Wong tried to steal one of my best fight moves. Run, I hope you get away. Lee later said he got a little winded chasing Wong and he changed his physical training going forward,

wanted to be in even better shape for future fights. Lee will incorporate his new physical training regimen into his Jeet Kune Do fighting style that he's still developing, the art of the intercepting fist. JKD will include techniques of all types of fighting, American boxing, Thai kickboxing, Japanese karate, et cetera. And it'll include training for muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance,

flexibility. Lee will incorporate traditional bodybuilding techniques to build muscle mass. He'll add various mental and spiritual training techniques to, you know, increase the strength of the mind. Bruce Lee's style was basically all style and no style, just whatever worked. February 1st, 1965, Brandon Bruce Lee is born in Oakland, Bruce and Linda's first child.

It'll be Bruce's only son, a lot more on him later. Sadly, just six days later, Bruce's father passed away in Hong Kong. On February 15th, Bruce returns to Hong Kong for three weeks for his dad's funeral. As February 15th, Bruce returns to Hong Kong for three weeks for his dad's funeral. As tradition dictated, in order to obtain forgiveness for not being present when his father died, Bruce crawls on his hands and knees across the floor of the funeral home towards the casket, wailing loudly and crying. My God, super glad that tradition does not exist in my family.

That seems unnecessary. Everyone's already sad. No need for people to be crawling around wailing. You know, I don't know. It just seems excessive. Later that fall, Bruce signs a full acting contract with 20th Century Fox on September 21st. The child star back in business, showbiz. That's how they do it in Hollywood. Following March 1966,

Bruce and his family moved to Los Angeles. They live in an apartment in Wilshire and Gailey in Westwood, which is crazy to me because I had no idea that he lived there. I lived less than a mile from that spot for several years, drove past that intersection all the time. April 30th, 1966, Bruce finally begins working on The Green Hornet as the show's hero's sidekick, Kato. So what was the show about? Here's a little description. Originally developed as a serialized radio show in the 1930s,

The Green Hornet was about a playboy bachelor and media mogul, Britt Reid, owner and publisher of the Daily Sentinel newspaper. In the mass vigilante, The Green Hornet, he fights crime with the assistance of his martial arts expert partner, Kato, and his weapon-enhanced car, a custom imperial called the Black Beauty.

The Green Hornet masquerades as a criminal so that he can infiltrate and battle criminal gangs. Beyond Kato, Brent's dual identity known only to his secretary, Lenore Casey Case, and district attorney, Frank P. Scanlon. So basically, Kato is Robin, you know, and the Green Hornet is Batman. Okay. And the series would not do well. It didn't do well because it was seen as a Batman knockoff. It only lasted one season. But Bruce Lee's sidekick character did become popular. By far the most popular part of this show, American kids did love Bruce's kung fu moves. And to Bruce's credit, once he got this role, once he started filming, he didn't just think, ah, got it made. Let's kick back and assume that things are just going to keep going well.

Now he's going to be a big star and make all kinds of money now. Now he doesn't think he's going to live off Kato fame for the rest of his life. He was a hard worker. I respect that so much. After filming began in LA, he opened a third branch

of the June Fan Kung Fu Institute in Los Angeles's Chinatown at 628 College Street. And speaking of Batman a moment ago, Burt Ward, the actor who played Robert at the same time The Green Hornet was out, had a black belt in Taekwondo and lived in the same Westwood condo complex as Bruce.

I think that's such a weird coincidence. In the giant LA metro area, so many different places one could live, thousands of apartment buildings, the guy playing Robin on the currently on-air Batman TV series living in the same building as the guy playing the superhero sidekick in the

Green Hornet. So weird that Robin and then Robin's equivalent living in the same apartment building. The two would often go to dinner together, even trained and sparred together, and then have a famous on-screen run-in during an episode of Batman a few months later. Primary filming of the Green Hornet begins on June 6th, 1966. Bruce has paid $400 per episode, about $3,300 per episode in today's money. Uh, Bruce treats himself by buying a 1966 blue Chevy Nova. On September 9th, the Green Hornet series premieres on ABC. And it's during this, uh, one season run on the Green Hornet that Bruce finishes creating, uh, yeah, he finishes creating his own iconic martial arts style. He finishes Jeet Kune Do. On January 8th, 1967,

Bruce writes down Jeet Kune Do for the first time in his journal. On January 27th, he appears as Kato with the Green Hornet and makes his premiere. No, I'm sorry. He shows up as Kato with the Green Hornet on Batman on January 27th. On paper, the main event is supposed to be Batman versus Green Hornet in Batman on January 27th. On paper, the main event is supposed to be Batman versus Green Hornet in this little series crossover. What everybody really wanted to see was Robin versus Kato. Actually, TV historians think that part of the reason the Green Hornet series wasn't more popular, that it didn't make it to season two, is because Bruce Lee was cooler

than the Green Hornet. The sidekick was cooler than the main dude. Van Williams, who played the Green Hornet, would only star in the lead of one other series, 1975's Saturday morning NBC family show, West Wind. West Wind would chronicle the adventures of the Andrews family as they sailed the ocean on a yacht. It doesn't sound very exciting. They're out there just on a yacht, just doing yacht shit. The show would only last one season.

It did feature actor John Carradine playing a pirate in two episodes. Captain Hooks. John is the father of David Carradine who will show up way too much as this timeline goes on. Back now to Decado vs. Robin. Pow! Bonk! Zap! Hoingy-boingy!

Oofta! Oofta! Batman was so much more popular and it was his show, so the script was supposed to have Batman and Robin win the fight. And that did not go over well with Bruce Lee. Legend has it that he refused to lose to Robin and actually walked off set. Dude had some giant stone balls walking off the set. He isn't even the lead.

He's the sidekick on the show. That's not even that popular. A compromise scene is quickly rewritten to have the fight end in a draw. And then the rest is TV history. In Burt Ward's later book, Boy Wonder, My Life in Tights, he says this fight scared the shit out of him. He says that leading up to the fight scene, Lee decided to mess with him. Bruce Lee didn't say a word all day to his friend,

just stared at him menacingly, acted like he was pissed at him all day. Then he spread a rumor that he was going to beat Ward's ass for real on camera. By the time the filming started, I guess Ward looked like he was going to beat Ward's ass for real on camera. By the time the filming started, I guess Ward looked like he was about to have a panic attack. And then Lee burst out laughing, revealing that the entire thing was a joke. It was a super funny joke for everyone but Burt Ward!

February 9th, 1967, Bruce holds an open house seminar at the new Jun Fan Kung Fu Institute to get himself some students. Good thing he did because on March 8th, he learns that the Green Hornet has been canceled. Over the next four years out of his new studio or going to students' homes, Lee works as one of Hollywood's new, you know, go-to martial arts guys, really the premier, you know, martial arts guy.

He lands some bit parts and a few supporting roles in various films and TV series, but it doesn't make much money as an actor. Most of his income now comes from private lessons, where he charges up to $250 an hour to teach martial arts to people like Steve McQueen, James Coburn, James Garner, Lee Marvin, Roman Polanski, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. That equates between $1,500 and $2,000 an hour in today's money. Good for him. Get it if you can get it. He also makes regular appearances at martial arts tournaments. On May 6,

1967, Bruce meets Chuck Norris in Washington, D.C. at the 1967 National Karate Championships and dies tragically when Chuck Norris round-hand kicks his fucking head off. And he flies across the Pacific and lands at his mother's doorstep in Hong Kong. No, no, the two don't fight.

Not yet. Bruce is making a special appearance as Kato. Chuck Norris is actually fighting. 27-year-old Chuck Norris would defeat seven dudes to win a tournament. And he and Bruce would later have a legendary on-screen fight in Lee's mega hit Kung Fu film, Way of the Dragon. Bruce would also go on to train Chuck Norris a bit shortly after

meeting him. Bruce would actually instruct several world karate champions, including Chuck Norris, Joe Lewis, and Mike Stone. Those three men during their time training with Bruce would win every major karate championship in the United States. On August 25, 1967, Bruce trains legendary leading

man Steve McQueen for the first time at McQueen's home, and the two become fast friends. Lee really coveted McQueen's film star career and he wanted to be just as famous. The following year, on August 27th, 1968, McQueen actually gave the Lees a puppy. Little riff. On August,

October 1st, excuse me, 1968, Bruce is making enough money to buy a home for the family in the ritzy neighborhood of Bel Air where the Fresh Prince used to live. Prior to this home and after the Westwood apartment, the family rented various homes in Englewood and Culver City. There's actually a pretty cool website if you're a huge diehard Bruce Lee fan. It's called BruceLeeWasHere.com that lists the addresses for all the places that Bruce lived, if you want to check that out. They bought their Bel Air home at 2551

Roscomere for $47,000. According to the real estate app Zillow, this three bedroom, two bath, 1900 square foot home is now worth over $1.7 million. That's some serious appreciation. It's worth over 35 times what the lease paid for it 52 years ago. Ah, man, that's why unless you already have a piece of expensive property or you make a lot of money or you have a big inheritance coming from a family member or a family member's willing to give you several hundred thousand dollars, you're going to have a hard time buying a home today in Bel Air. When I was living in LA, the only friend I knew that bought a house when I was friends with him down there, his parents gave him $500,000

to help with the down payment. Ah, must be nice. November 12th, 1968, Bruce films an episode of the TV series Blondie. It was the last episode of the series. It's never been released. Sitting in a damn vault somewhere in Hollywood or Burbank.

Just gathering dust. Classic Bruce Lee lost footage. Just sitting in some fucking warehouse. Blondie was some terrible seeming sitcom based on the Blondie comic strip. I actually remember seeing that a bunch as a kid. Not a big fan. Not a big Blondie fan. The missing episode entitled, Pick on a Bully Your Own Size.

Blondie starred Patricia Hardy and Will Hutchins as Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead. Those names. Suburban couple raising two precocious children. Plots mixed, you know, typical sitcom tropes from, you know, home life and work life. In the missing episode, the father, Dagwood, and Alexander are victims of bullies from the Colby family. And Dagwood thinks the solution to not being bullied anymore is to take self-defense classes. So he enrolls at a karate school

where, of course, Bruce Lee is Dagwood's karate instructor. And in this missing episode, Lee allegedly went batshit crazy on set. The story goes that Will Hutchins, aka Dagwood, considered himself to be a bit of a tough guy. He boxed during the Korean War

when he was in the army, and I guess he did pretty well. You know, kind of a bigger guy, at least compared to Bruce. He's over six feet tall, you know, definitely had more reach than Bruce. So, you know, bigger, thought he was a lot tougher as well. He played a lot of dorky characters over the past few years, and I guess quite the chip had grown on his shoulder by the time he met Bruce, and he didn't want to do sitcoms anymore. He wanted to be an action star. He didn't want to be cast as the goofy dad. And he thought that getting tough with Bruce Lee would really help make that possible.

He knew that if he could beat Bruce Lee in a real fight, word would get around town. You know, be great tough guy publicity. No more Dagwood. I think you see where this is going. He also knew that the show was likely going to end soon and he was going to need a new gig. And during a scene where Bruce and he spar, he throws a real punch. Bruce is caught off guard, but he still blocks it, barely. And Will laughs about it, that he could tell that Bruce was a little bit scared. Bruce assured him, definitely not scared, and tells him to stick to the script, warns him. It's probably the better adjective,

stick to the script. When they start filming again's probably the better adjective. Stick to the script. When they start filming again, now Will throws a real kick at Bruce, and then he goes to throw another kick at Bruce. Bruce does block them both. He's also had enough. He quickly hits Will in the sternum, right in the center of the chest,

hard enough to crack his sternum. The punch stuns Will, knocks the wind out of him. Then Lee supposedly kicks Will in the stomach once he falls to the ground and yells, do I look scared now? Then this is far from over. Lee then grabs Will by the hair, drags him up to his feet, drags him out of the studio, outside into the parking lot. Everyone's screaming for him to let him go. He throws Will to the ground by the sidewalk, kicks him again in the stomach,

drags Will to the curb where the parking lot meets the sidewalk, tells him to open his mouth, tells him to, quote, kiss the curb. Dagwood does in front of coworkers, some of whom are now crying. Will's crying as well now. Everyone's freaked out. Bruce asked him again, do I look scared now? And as Will starts to say no, Brulee fucking curb stomps him. The stomp that almost killed his career. He stomps on the back of Dagwood's skull,

fractures his jaw, breaks out several of his teeth. And then he yells and I quote, that's how we do it in Hong Kong, motherfucker. Fuck with me again. You see what happened, you Dagwood son of a bitch. And then Steve McQueen picks him up in his Porsche, drives him to an orgy with Farrah Fawcett,

Goldie Hawn, Dionne Warwick. You know that never happened. That's way too much. I took that way too far. But my mustache, which is it, my mustache wrote that entire dream sequence. In reality, no idea why the episode has never seen light of day.

CBS just said they won't say. Why they won't release the footage, I just, I don't know why I find it just very funny to me of just fucking Dagwood, like the most harmless suburban dad character being, being curbed in a studio parking lot by Bruce Lee. Anyway, I'm back now. Actress Pamela Ferdin, who played Cookie on Blondie, later recalled this about the Lost episode. She said, Lee was charming and friendly. He wasn't curbside with anybody. Had a great sense of humor. He also had an amazing skill. This is pretty cool.

This is a real thing. No bullshit this time. This is pretty cool. This is a real thing. No bullshit this time. This is really cool. She said, getting ready to shoot one scene set in the martial arts school, Lee asked the director if he could demonstrate a whirling kick move on Will Hutchins. You know, Dagwood. And the director said no. He said he didn't want to risk Hutchins getting hurt if Lee accidentally kicked him in the face.

Lee said he understood. Started walking away. Then suddenly whirled around and kicked backwards at the director. And then she said, we all froze until we saw Lee standing there on one leg, smiling with his foot about an inch from the director's face. And then she said, we applauded. Lee got to do his kick in the scene. That's pretty badass.

Who fake kicks a director when he's on as a guest star? Bruce Lee and no one else I've ever heard of. By the start of 1969, Lee has grown frustrated with his lack of progress in Hollywood. He's handsome. He's one of the best martial artists in the world. He can dance, damn it. He's been acting in film since he was a baby, literally. He's still not getting, you know, like real roles that he wants. He had a brief taste of American TV star popularity with his role as Cato in the Green Hornet, but not even close to being an American star. Not considered for leading roles, not really in film or TV. He's hanging around a lot of stars like his buddy, Steve McQueen, but not a star himself. He's a high paid martial arts instructor, but he wants more.

So he writes himself a little note to motivate himself. On January 7th, 1969, he writes a note titled, My Definite Chief Aim. I love how direct that is. My Definite Chief Aim. And it read simply, I, Bruce Lee, will be the first highest paid Oriental superstar in the United States. In return, I will give the most exciting performances and render the best of quality in the capacity of an actor. Starting 1970, I will achieve world fame. And from then onward till the end of 1980, I will have in my possession $10 million. I will live the way I please and achieve inner harmony and happiness. That's pretty awesome. Right now, it's in big goals. He actually would be worth randomly $10 million when he died.

He put it on paper. I love that because I think there's real power in that. Like no joke. I think there really is. It makes it feel more real, more tangible. You hold yourself accountable. I do it every year. My goals aren't that big, but I do something similar. I think at the start of each year, what is lofty but also feels attainable? What is at least somewhat realistic? What will push me but not burn me out? And then I write that down. And then when I'm feeling tired throughout the year, uh, you know, or discouraged, I read it. And at the end of the year, I review how close I came to attaining the goals that I wrote. Sometimes I hit them. Sometimes I blow them out of the water. Sometimes I fall short. Sometimes

I fall very far short. Don't come close, but I'm always thankful, thankful that the, that the goals gave me a yearly focus, right? Thankful that they remind me to keep on, you know, pushing. So thank you, Bruce, for reminding me to keep doing that from beyond the grave. January 13th, 1969, working towards his goals, Bruce meets with screenwriter Sterling Siliphant and actor and friend James Coburn, both students at Leeds, to discuss an important film project of Bruce's called The Silent Flute. If Hollywood won't cast him, or if Hollywood won't cast him, excuse me, he'll cast himself. On February 13th, Bruce begins listening to motivational tapes,

starts working on his treatment for The Silent Flute. On April 19th, in beautiful Santa Monica, California, Bruce's daughter, Shannon Lee, is born. Shannon Lee works very hard today to keep her know, keep her dad's name alive. Very much a big part of the Bruce Lee estate. The film Marlowe is released to mediocre reviews on Halloween in 1969. Leaf made a brief appearance in the Siliphant Penn film where he played a henchman hired to intimidate private detective Philip Marlowe, played by James Garner. By smashing up his office with leaping kicks and flashing punches, only to later accidentally jump off a tall building while trying to kick Marlowe off of it. Bruce's role is good, but brief. The movie does little to advance his film career. On January 29th, 1970, Bruce closes

all of his martial arts schools. He made his assistant instructors, Dan and Santo in LA or Insosanto, James Lee in Oakland and Taki Kimura in Seattle promised they would never teach the martial art form in a commercial school. They would only be allowed to instruct a handful of students informally in backyard settings. Despite this instruction, you can find instructors teaching Jeet Kune Do all over the place today. Not sure if Bruce would think they're teaching it the right way, but they claim to follow his methods. Why did Bruce shut it all down? It wasn't because there wasn't students. Not sure entirely. I mean, I'm guessing maybe because he wanted to focus more on his, you know, becoming a big star

and not be tied down to running his businesses. In mid-February 1970, Lee teaches martial arts to film director Roman Polanski while in Switzerland. When I first read this, I thought, gross. Why would you want to teach that pedophile anything? Then I remember that Roman Polanski didn't plead guilty to sodomize in a 13-year-old when he was 43 until 1977. Good chance Bruce did not know what a dirtbag he was yet. That is so fucking, I will never understand why people still work with Roman Polanski. March 27th, 1970, Bruce brings now five-year-old son Brandon back to Hong Kong. When he arrives, he is shocked to be swarmed by adoring fans. Supposedly, Bruce had no idea he was super popular now in Hong Kong. Locals were more impressed by his cameos and supporting roles

than Hollywood was. You know, one of their own was on the American screen. His role as Cato, especially made him truly famous in Hong Kong, where it was played in theaters episodes of the green Hornet were. And I love this now, thanks to social media, people know where their fans are.

Like, like I know I'm for sure not blown up in Hong Kong, but back in 1970, Bruce had no idea. He was so adored. What an awesome surprise to walk off the plane and have a bunch of fans that you didn't even know existed. Bruce will soon use his adoration to blow up and to become a huge star. April 7th, 1970, when Bruce and Brandon are interviewed for a local show called Enjoy Yourself Tonight,

the normally busy streets of Hong Kong become nearly deserted because everyone is at home watching the interview. While in Hong Kong, Bruce is approached by the Shaw brothers, huge movie producers, who at the time produced two-thirds of all the Chinese films made in the world. But they didn't pay very well. They offered Bruce a contract for seven years for $2,000 a movie. He turns them down. He can make $2,000 in fucking two days,

martial arts lessons. When Hollywood continues to reject him though, he will return to Hong Kong to build his fame. Bruce returns to America on April 16th, gets right back to making good money, teaching martial arts. Several months later on August 13th, Bruce's career comes to a grinding halt,

injures his sacral nerve, his sacral nerve while lifting weights and experiences severe muscle spasms in his back while training. The injury is severe enough for doctors to tell him that he'll never kick again. This is what we talked about before the timeline. And if he can't kick again, he can't train again. He can't be an action star. This is devastating news. But Bruce immediately rejects the diagnosis, starts rehabbing himself slowly at first. Initially, like we said earlier, uses a lot of that downtime to work on his philosophy.

You know, he could have just laid around, felt sorry for himself. Some would in that situation, but not Bruce. He documents his training methods while he can't actually train. Writes down his philosophy of Jeet Kune Do. According to Linda Lee Cadwell, you know, she's known as, his wife, Linda Lee, to Linda Lee Cadwell, you know, his, uh, she's known as his wife,

Linda Lee becomes Linda Lee Cadwell, uh, after his death. Uh, Lee read tons of philosophy, uh, at this time, especially from, uh, is this a tough one? Krishan Murthy, an Indian author, philosopher, and mystic during his recovery turned, turns lemons into lemonades and the lemonade. What am I? My mouth is all over the place there. Turns back pain into philosophy. Down but not out. January 29th, 1971. Bruce is all better. His back hurts.

He'll have to manage back pain the rest of his life. Take a lot of cortisone. But he can do all his moves again. He's back to full strength. And he travels to India with James Coburn and Sterling Siliphant to scout locations for the Silent Flute. Still trying to get that passion project off the ground. They spend over a week searching before Coburn backs out of the project. Oh well.

Bruce quickly moves on to another project. Old Never Sit Still comes up with an idea for another film, Game of Death, where a fighter mastering several techniques will go from one level to the next in a temple. The first level, the level of weaponry, the second level, the level of the nine degree black belt, and the third level, the level of the unknown. He just, he continued to create, keeps pushing. In May of 71, another Hong Kong film production company called Golden Harvest sends a producer to Hollywood to convince Bruce to star in two of their films. They'll pay him $15,000 for both movies. So 7,500 a movie. He does sign this contract. In late June, before flying out to Hong Kong for the first movie, Bruce acts in a supporting role

in the first episode of a TV series titled Long Street. The episode is titled Way of the Intercepting Fist. Lee ended up appearing in three more episodes of Long Street.

These episodes written by his buddy, Siliphant. Lee played the martial arts instructor of the title character, Mike Longstreet. And because of Siliphant and Lee's previous friendship, important aspects of Lee's martial arts philosophy are written into the script. Another bit part, one of Bruce's last. On June 28th, Bruce flies to Hong Kong to appear in his first Golden Harvest movie, The Big Boss.

Playing the undisputed lead in this one. This film would go on to gross nearly $50 million worldwide. That's equivalent to approximately $300 million adjusted for inflation against a tight little budget of a hundred grand. The highest grossing film in Hong Kong film history, and it would remain the highest grossing film until Lee's second Golden Harvest film came out, Fist of Fury. Huge success. But while he was filming it, Lee was miserable. The first four weeks of filming took place in Pak Chong, a small town 90 miles north of Bangkok. In letters to his wife, Linda, Bruce described Pak Chong as a lawless, impoverished, and undeveloped

village. Due to no access to fresh food, they apparently didn't have a first-class nutritionist on set. Bruce lost weight on a diet of mostly canned meat. I personally love canned meat, but Bruce, a little bit healthier than me. His body, a little bit of a cleaner temple than mine is. Probably didn't thrive on canned meat the way I feel like I would. Bruce occasionally lost his voice trying to shout out his lines on a noisy set. Mosquitoes and cockroaches were everywhere. The tap water in

the hotel was so dirty it was yellow. Ah. And to drink yellow tap water or be thirsty, not exactly star treatment. On September 6, 1971, an exhausted Lee heads back to Hollywood to film three additional episodes of Longstreet. And a few weeks after that, on September 24th, Bruce meets with Warner Brothers head of television, Tom Coon, to discuss what would end up becoming the TV series Kung Fu. I loved to watch reruns of Kung Fu as a kid. That show ended up running for three seasons. ABC tentatively scheduled the air date for the first episode for February of 1972. Bruce had actually helped develop the show.

This show was developed with him in mind. Wasn't his show, though. This meeting with Coon wasn't a formal audition for the lead role, but after this meeting, despite being immensely impressed with Lee's physical abilities, Coon expressed concerns about Lee's accent. He even reportedly said Lee is too authentic. Pretty fucked up. Really fucked up considering who is eventually cast in Lee's place. That's going to be addressed soon in this timeline. On October 11th, Lee heads back to Hong Kong with his wife, Linda, and kids, Shannon and Brandon, to promote Big Boss.

On October 23rd, 1971, the film premieres at the Queen's Theater in Hong Kong's Central District for a now legendary midnight screening. Linda would recall it in the 1975 book, Bruce Lee, The Man Only I Knew. This is so cool. What an awesome night for Bruce and his family. Linda wrote, every dream that Bruce had ever possessed came true that night. The audience rose to its feet, yelling, clapping, cheering. It was almost impossible to leave the theater. We were absolutely mobbed. it was almost impossible to leave the theater. We were absolutely mobbed. How awesome.

Lee is now a bonafide superstar in Hong Kong. Local boy makes good. Within a month, over 25% of all of Hong Kong had paid to watch the big Boston theaters. How crazy is that? Over 25% of the entire population had paid to watch this movie. That's fucking insane. It was the most successful release

in Hong Kong history by far. Incredible. Hollywood, though, still doesn't really give a fuck. Hong Kong was seen by LA execs as a small and not incredibly worthwhile market at the time. On December 7th, while still in Hong Kong, Bruce receives a telegram notifying him that he had not been chosen for the lead role in the upcoming series, The Warrior, that would be renamed Kung Fu. This is ridiculous. David Carradine is chosen. David Carradine will play the Chinese monk and martial arts master, even though he's not Chinese. And he didn't know fucking anything about martial arts. Carradine was as white as I am. His ancestry is English and Dutch, German, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh. And he played a Chinese monk for three seasons. Dude would be crucified if he were alive and did that shit today. And if you're a Carradine fan and you

know him as a martial artist, yes, he would become a martial artist. He would become an avid practitioner and ambassador of Tai Chi and Qigong. And he started training in those disciplines after landing his role in Kung Fu. That show would have been so much better with Bruce Lee. To Lee's credit, in an interview two days after finding out he didn't get the role, he said he understood Warner Brothers' reluctance to casting him. He said, they think that business-wise it is a risk. I don't blame them.

If the situation were reversed and an American star were to come to Hong Kong and I was the man with the money, I would have my own concerns as to whether the acceptance would be there. Very nice of him. I still think he's ridiculous that they cast a white dude as a Chinese monk. Lee doesn't let the news get him down. He quickly films a second Golden Harvest movie, Fist of Fury, in late 1971, early 1972. On March 22nd, Fist of Fury released in Hong Kong, even more successful than the previous movie. Bruce Lee is now far and away the most famous person in the

entire history of Hong Kong. Both of these movies weren't just successes in Hong Kong also. They were both given wide international releases after their initial success, and they did very well, really, really well, in a number of markets. Both films played in theaters in North America, South America, Australia, all over Asia, really, really well in a number of markets. Both films played in theaters in North America,

South America, Australia, all over Asia, Africa, you're everywhere. The Big Boss became a surprise hit in Beirut, outperformed The Godfather in Beirut in 1972. It was the year's seventh highest grossing film in all of Japan in 1974. Excuse me, The Big Boss released in France in 1973, became one of the top 10 grossing films there of the year. Fist of Fury sold over 300,000 movie theater tickets in Seoul, South Korea alone in July of 1973. Golden Harvest made a lot of money off of Lee for those first two movies.

They paid him $15,000 total. And then they made hundreds of millions. Fist of Fury made over a hundred million at the box office alone against a budget of a hundred grand. That's silly. That's stupid profit for Golden Harvest. Having finished his initial two-year contract, Lee negotiated a new deal for more movies. Fuck yeah, he did. He negotiates a larger overall film budget, a much larger salary, gets a lot more power over the direction of his future films. I wasn't able to find out exactly how much his new deal was supposed to pay him,

but he wasn't an idiot, and I'm sure he got a nice cut of the action. Not as much probably as today's stars sometimes do, but he's not going to be drinking yellow tap water anymore. When he dies a short time later, as I think I mentioned before, he was estimated to be worth $10 million. I hope his estate continued to make a portion of profits off of his movies. I hope they still do. I'm guessing they do. I'm 99.9% sure they do. Hope his estate continue to make a portion of profits off of his movies after death. Hope they still do.

I'm guessing they do. I'm 99.9% sure they do. On April 10th, 1972, Lee's old screenwriting buddy, Sterling Siliphant arrives in Hong Kong to once again discuss Lee's passion project, The Silent Flute. And Lee doesn't have time for it at the moment. He's helping put together a new film

that would be an even bigger hit than his last two, The Way of the Dragon. On May 4th, 1972, Bruce departs for Rome for the shooting of his latest film. Filming starts the very next day. Chuck Norris flies out. Bruce casts a student at a martial arts powerhouse to fight against him. They have an epic fight scene in the Roman Coliseum in this movie, a legendary fight scene amongst action movies, over nine minutes long. Seriously, an almost 10 minute long fight scene. And Chuck Norris is, I got to say, preposterous amount of chest, shoulder, and upper back hair on full display for all of it. I just never see that in movies anymore. And I found it very distracting. And I'm a hairy dude, but this shit is ridiculous. He has so much hair. It looks like he has

fucking shoulder pads made of hair. If he wasn't wearing a shirt, I don't think I would be able to describe him as bare-chested in any situation. He could have filmed the entire thing naked and probably not have set off any sensor alarms. It's impossible for him to be naked. He has so much hair. A cool bit of MMA trivia about this fight.

During the fight scene between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris, Lee demonstrated and popularized a technique later that would be called the oblique kick. That technique now frequently used by several modern mixed martial arts fighters, most notably UFC champion, John Jones, who is cited Lee as an inspiration numerous times. Due to Bruce bringing the martial arts

into the mainstream with films like this, and due to the cross-training, mixed-discipline nature of Jeet Kune Do, UFC president Dana White has referred to Bruce as the father of mixed martial arts. That's a pretty sweet title. In the summer of 1972, Bruce returns to Hong Kong to promote his upcoming film, The Way of the Dragon, and would go on to make over $130 million at the box office against a budget of just 130 grand. Again, that is stupid profit. That is a silly return on

investment. In September, the whole Lee family moves to Hong Kong. They move into North 41 Cumberland Road, Kowloon Tong District. He's back home, baby. And now once he waves goodbye to LA, once he leaves, now of course Hollywood wants him so bad. Money talks always has now execs aren't going to not cast him for being too authentic. Now they want a piece of ever expanding Bruce Lee's money pie. That must've felt so good for Bruce. Just like, all right, you guys won't let me start on one of your shows. All right, fuck you guys. I'll just go to Hong Kong where my authenticity is going to make me a legend. Then he does go there and then he crushes it. And now all the people who are turning him down, like, whoa, hey, whoa, whoa. Hey, Bruce, buddy. Ha, that's all a big misunderstanding. Come on. Hey, whatever you

want, my friend. Drinks are on me forever. You know who doesn't want him back in Hollywood? Dagwood. He's still fake recovering from that fake curb stomping. He's fake terrified of Bruce. On October 29th, 1972, Bruce flies to LA to negotiate his contract with Warner Brothers for a bigger budget film, Enter the Dragon.

Fuck yeah. His first starring role in an American film. This movie would be a joint American and Hong Kong production. And this movie would do very well.

Against a budget of $850,000, it would gross an estimated $350 million worldwide at the box office. Adjusted for inflation, that's over $1.2 billion in today's currency. One of the most profitable films of all time. Also considered one of the most influential action movies of all time.

In 2004, selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being culturally significant. November of 1972, Bruce returns to Hong Kong, begins filming fight sequences for Game of Death. That's a badass movie title. This movie would never be finished, production being interrupted, so Lee could film Enter the Dragon. I told you there would be a lot of dragon talk in this timeline. November 20th, Black Belt Magazine grants Lee the 1972 Martial Artist of the Year Award, which is a bit ironic. I say this because Bruce Lee, arguably the most famous martial artist of all time,

never had a black belt. Never had any belt. Didn't give a shit about belts. When Lee was once asked about his rank, he replied, I don't have any belt whatsoever. He proved his talent in demonstrations, in films, and in street fights. He didn't need belts or trophies. He had curb stomps and chains. Now, December 23rd, 1972,

Way of the Dragon premieres at midnight, breaks previous Chinese box office records. He's killing it. January of 73, Bruce works some more on the interrupted Game of Death film, films several fight scenes, including one with his former student and seven foot, two inch tall hall of fame basketball player, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. This is quite the scene. It's, it's pretty ridiculous. Bruce looks like a man who's been shrunk.

The little kid size, like Bruce looks like a dude who was put in the dryer for too long. And then put up against a regular size dude. Kareem is so much bigger than he is. Like, it looks like CGI was used. It doesn't look real. And I got to say also impressed by Kareem's moves in this scene.

Big man could kick. He could take those long legs and stretch them out. Also love that Kareem wear sunglasses for almost the entire fight. Takes about 20 shots to the head before his sunglasses finally come off. It should have killed me when I watched it. February of 1973, Bruce takes out a $200,000 life insurance policy with American International Assurance. This will lead others later to think Bruce was afraid for his life,

fueling post-death conspiracy speculation that he knew Chinese gang members wanted him dead. Okay, that, or he was making a lot of money now and just thought it would be a good idea to make sure his family would be taken care of if something happened to him. Apart from Game of Death, other future film projects were planned to feature Lee at the time in 1972 after the success of The Big Boss and Fist of Fury. A third film was planned by Raymond Chow at Golden Harvest, Yellow Face Tiger. Lee decided to direct and produce his own script for Way of the Dragon instead. Also in February, Bruce appears on Hong Kong's TVB channel for a hurricane disaster relief benefit. Hong Kong's TVB channel for a hurricane disaster relief benefit.

He does a demonstration where he breaks four out of five boards, one of which is hanging in the air with a line of string. And then his son, Brandon Lee, breaks a board with a sidekick as well, not even 10 years old yet. The following month on March 13th, Bruce begins filming Enter the Dragon. Legend has it, one of the extras on this film didn't think Bruce Lee was all that, didn't think he was such a great martial artist. So they got into a little tiff and Lee beat his ass on set. Dude's mouth was full of blood when the scene was over.

Lee did not like being questioned, right? Having his fighting prowess questioned. He'd smack you around if need be. The way he was portrayed in Tarantino's, Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood bullshit. No stuntman was going to toss Bruce Lee around like that. The way he was portrayed in Tarantino's, Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood bullshit. No stuntman was going to toss Bruce Lee around like that. His daughter, Shannon Lee, publicly criticized Tarantino, actually, for that portrayal. Lee suffered his own share of injuries while making Enter the Dragon as well.

One such injury came during a fight with his buddy, Bob Wall, another kick-ass martial artist. In the scene, Bob breaks two bottles to use as weapons and attempts to cut Lee. Right? No big deal, right? Hong Kong film studios didn't have prop bottles, so they had to use real bottles. Wall recalled that Bruce insisted that, you know, that Bob come at him with real broken glass. Don't hold back. He said, Lee told him, come at me as fast as you can.

They filmed the scene eight times, and in one take, Lee's right knuckles collided with the bottle, and he had to get 12 stitches. That's a wrap. We got it. That is serious dedication. That is authenticity. Random Trivia, Lee was not the only Hong Kong movie legend present in Enter the Dragon. He worked with another legend who just wasn't yet known to the world, Jackie Chan, future star of Rush Hour, the Karate Kid remake, voice of Master Monkey in Kung Fu Panda, and about a thousand other movies. Jackie, then 19 years old,

working as a stuntman, played a henchman during a climactic battle sequence in an underground lair. His character died in the movie when Lee broke his neck, and Chan also got hurt in the scene in real life. According to Chan's recollection, he was supposed to rush Lee, who would then strike him with a stick, and Chan would then pretend to be struck and fall to the ground.

Chan charged, Lee struck, and he really hit him in the head. When the director called cut, Lee rushed to the young Chan's side, and while Chan wasn't really hurt that bad, he did enjoy getting a hug from the legend. Like Lee, Chan was from Hong Kong, had also been a child actor in Hong Kong, and was obsessed with martial arts growing up. He'd been closely watching Lee's rise to superstardom the past few years. How cool for him to get to work with his idol to have that moment. On April 30th, 1973, Bruce takes out a second life insurance policy, this time from $1,350,000 from Lloyd's of London. Okay, conspiracy theorists. I admit this seems a little weird. Also around this time, he tells his sister Grace Lee that he doesn't expect to live much

longer and that she's not to worry about finances. Tells her that he'll make sure that she and the rest of his family are provided for after his death. Why does he tell her this? She doesn't say. He didn't give a specific reason. Maybe because he was exhausted from everything he was doing. Maybe premonition. Was he afraid that Chinese triads were going to try and kill him? I doubt it. I think it was because he wasn't feeling very good at the time. On May 25th, 1973, Bruce is at the Golden Harvest Studios in Hong Kong dubbing his voice for Enter the Dragon.

It's real hot, real humid. And I say he was dubbing his own voice because Bruce Lee, which is this was unusual. He would, you know, do his Hong Kong movies speaking Chinese, and then he would dub his own voice in English. So it wouldn't be some other, you know, somebody else's voice, which is normally the case. And in the studios, the air conditioners had been turned off, so the microphones wouldn't pick them up. You know, it was super hot, super humid. Bruce is sweating his ass off. He's low on sleep.

He hasn't been feeling good. He takes a break from recording lines to go to the bathroom, splash some water on his face, and then passes out on the bathroom floor. Wakes up about 20 minutes later when an assistant who was sent out to find him walks in and finds him on the floor.

He tries to play it off, says he just dropped his glasses, looking for him. But then when he and the assistant are walking back to the dubbing room, Bruce collapses again. He starts to have a seizure. He's immediately rushed to Hong Kong Baptist Hospital where doctors diagnosed him with cerebral edema,

a buildup of fluid around the brain causing an increase in pressure followed by swelling and inflammation. What causes cerebral edema? A whole bunch of things can cause it. A traumatic head injury can cause it. A stroke can cause it. Various infections can cause it. Tumors. B cause it. A stroke can cause it. Various infections can cause it. Tumors, bites from certain reptiles, drug use, carbon monoxide poisoning, high altitude sickness, all kinds of things can cause brain swelling. Doctors are able to reduce the swelling

through the administration of mannitol. Mannitol is a diuretic that helps rid your body of fluid, still used to reduce brain swelling in certain cases. They advise him to rest. He does not rest. He does a few days later, fly to California to conduct a complete physical medical exam. Doctors can't find anything wrong with him. You know, they advise him to rest. He doesn't. He returns to Hong Kong, keeps working his ass off. July 16th, Bruce calls his childhood best friend, Unicorn, fellow martial artist who's filming a movie in Manila. Bruce tells Unicorn that he's worried about the many headaches he's been experiencing. Not good, something bad clearly going on. No wonder he told his sister he was afraid he was going to die. Not making up his friend's name also, by the way. Dude really was known as Unicorn. Born Chan Ling Chung in Hong

Kong in 1940, same year as Bruce. He would go by Unicorn for reasons I wish I knew. The film he was making was called Fist of Unicorn. And Bruce Lee directed and choreographed the fight scenes, and then Bruce Lee didn't want his name attached to the project. Because it's probably terrible. It was released in Hong Kong. It wasn't a big hit. It was a flop.

Probably partially at least because it was called Fist of Unicorn. Fist of Unicorn sounds like the worst action movie ever sounds about as action packed as Foot of Tinkerbell Kick of Pixie young Jackie Chan pops up as an extra in that movie as well July 18th 1973 a bad feng shui deflector placed on the roof of Bruce's

Cumberland home in Hong Kong is blown off by heavy rain and winds. The deflector had been placed on the house to protect Bruce and his family from bad Feng Shui. Previous owners had been plagued by financial disasters. It was believed that this was because of the incorrect positioning of the house and the deflector was put on the roof to ward off evil spirits. Not a good sign for the superstitious. Feng Shui originates from ancient China, a practice that claims to use energy forces to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environments. The term feng shui literally translates

as wind water in English. I have no idea what kind of feng shui is going around here at the Suck Dungeon. It's probably not good. I think I should continually move Reverend Dr. Joe's desk around. Just every day, we put the desk in a new spot to see how I feel, you know, based on the new position. I'm guessing I probably would feel pretty good. It would feel

good to just harass him by needlessly continually moving his desk. How annoying would that be? Your boss was obsessed with Feng Shui, just kept rearranging the office because they didn't feel harmonious. Two days after the Feng Shui deflector blows away, on July 20th, Bruce types a letter first thing in the morning to his attorney, Adrian Marshall, detailing business ventures he wants to discuss on an upcoming trip to LA. Bruce had tickets already set for his return. Going to do a little publicity tour. Going to be on the Johnny Carson Tonight Show. Golden Harvest producer Raymond Chow goes by Bruce's house. The two discuss plans for their upcoming movie, Game of Death. I do love that title. Linda kisses Bruce goodbye,

says she's going out to run some errands. We'll see him later that night. She will not. Raymond and Bruce visit Taiwanese actress Betty Ting Pei at her apartment to discuss her role in Game of Death. That evening, plans have been made for them to all meet George Lazenby, you know, over dinner and enlist him for the part.

George was an Australian actor who'd recently played James Bond, kind of recently, in 1969. It was the On Her Majesty's Secret Service James Bond movie, the one where he replaced Sean Connery. George stated during the filming of that movie, by the way, that he only wanted to play

Bond one time. He wasn't going to do any more Bond films after that because his agent told him that franchise was going nowhere. Whoops! Hope he fired that agent. Anyway, while Bruce Bond films after that because his agent told him that franchise was going nowhere. Whoops. Hope he fired that agent. Anyway, while Bruce and Raymond met with Betty, Bruce gets another headache. Betty offers him a prescription painkiller. It's Equa, oh my God, Equagesic. Fuck this word. Equa, fuck, whatever. It's E-Q-U-A, it's E-Q-U-A-G-E-S-I-C. I wrote a pronunciation guide, but I couldn't figure out how to make,

how to write the right pronunciation guide to make my brain understand it. E-Q-U-A-G-E-S-I-C. Ah, fucking medical words. Stupid fucking medical words. It contains both aspirin and the tranquilizer. Mebram. Goddamn these words. Me tranquilizer. Mebram. Goddamn these words. Mebram.

Mebram. Meprobinate. Meprobimate. You have to have like a fucking doctorate in medicine to get these words. Who comes up with these words, by the way? Okay. Bruce lies down in her bed. Or yeah, this actress' bed to rest prior to dinner.

Raymond Chow takes off, says he's going to meet them at dinner. Chow and George Lazenby meet at a restaurant, await Bruce and Betty's arrival, but the two never show up. At 9 p.m., Chow receives a call from Betty. She says that she's tried to wake Bruce up, but he won't come to. Betty summons her personal physician, who can't wake Bruce up

either, and Bruce is taken to the hospital. And then Bruce Lee dies in Hong Kong of an apparent cerebral edema, swelling of the brain. It had come back. Doctors declare the death of Bruce Lee as death by misadventure. Sadly, if Betty had taken him to the hospital right away, there is a good chance he would have lived. Not her fault. She didn't make his brain swell. It's unfortunate. Forensic psychologist, Dr. Michael Hunter, who examined Lee's medical records, theorized that Lee died of an adrenal crisis brought on by the overuse of cortisone,

which Lee had been taking since he'd injured his back in that 1970 weightlifting mishap. Dr. Hunter believed that Lee's exceptionally strong drive and ambition may have played a fundamental role in his demise. Essentially, we believe that he just pushed himself too hard, ran his engine in the red too long. Too much working out, too much work,

not enough rest and recovery. Death from ambition, perhaps. In a 2018 biography, Matthew Polly, author of the Bruce Lee biography, Bruce Lee, A Life, consulted with medical experts and theorized that Lee died from a cerebral edema caused by overexertion and heat stroke. And heat stroke was not considered at the time because it was then a poorly understood condition. Furthermore, Lee had his underarm sweat glands removed several months prior to his death because he didn't want to pit out on film. And Polly theorized that this caused Lee's body to overheat while practicing in hot temperatures on May 10th and all the way through July 20th, 1973, resulting in heat stroke that in turn exacerbated the cerebral edema that led to his death. That sounds very possible to me.

You can still have your sweat glands removed, by the way. A lot of clinics swear it's not dangerous. I think it sounds crazy. There's a reason we have them. Sweat glands help us regulate our body temperature.

That's pretty important. Now, when internal temperatures rise, our sweat glands secrete water to the skin surface where heat is then removed by evaporation. Less body heat, less swelling, less brain swelling. On July 25th, 1973, a funeral ceremony is held for friends and fans in Hong Kong, and it consists of over 25,000 people. Bruce is dressed in the outfit he wore

in Enter the Dragon. July 31st, after a smaller second ceremony is held in Seattle, Washington, or a smaller second ceremony is held in Seattle, Washington at the Butterworth Funeral Home on East Pine Street. And then Bruce Lee is buried at Lakeview Cemetery, Linda's hometown, and the location in which they first met. Steve McQueen, one of the pallbearers there. End of the Dragon premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, August 24th. On September 24th, Donald Teer, a forensic scientist recommended by Scotland Yard, who had overseen over a thousand autopsies, is assigned to look at Lee's case.

He concludes, death by misadventure as well, caused by an acute cerebral edema due to an allergic reaction to compounds present in the combination medication equagesic. This extra autopsy does not put an end to conspiracies already circulating around his death.

Shortly after Lee dies, numerous rumors appear in the media. Many conspiracy theorists believe that Lee's death was orchestrated by the Chinese mafia, the Triads, who wanted him out of the movie industry because he was doing too well. And his success was killing other studios, studios they invested in. And that doesn't make any sense to me. Lee brought a ton of attention to the Hong Kong film industry, right? To the Hong Kong film scene. And because of that, his success,

you would think would make those other studios more money over time. Another theory is that he was given the Dim Mok Death Touch by Gong Fu Master, some Gong Fu Master he offended. And that's crazy talk. If one could actually perform some mystical Kung Fu Death Touch,

somebody would have brought that shit to the UFC long ago. MMA would be over because dudes would just keep killing each other by death touching each other to win fights. If the Denmark death touch was real, we would have seen several viral YouTube videos by this point. At least that's what I think. Bruce is now dead, but our timeline

is not. Moving into some Brandon Lee now and some interesting posthumous Bruce Lee moments. After his father's death in 1973, Brandon moves to Seattle with his mom and sister. Little man just eight years old. Now everyone's talking about his legendary and now deceased father. Can't imagine what that's doing to his young mind.

Brandon struggled growing up, moving around a lot, had a hard time coping with being the son of an international martial arts legend. As a teenager, he'd get into trouble and drop out of high school several times, which would, after his untimely death, help establish him as a grunge era icon. On October 1st, 1975, The Tao of Jeet Kune Do is published by O'Hara Publications. All that philosophy. 1978, remember the silent flute? Bruce's passion project he worked on before he broke through in Hong Kong? In 78, this concept is reimagined as the film Circle of Iron. After

Lee's death in 73, Bruce's old pal, screenwriter Sterling Siliphant and Stanley Mann finished the script for the silent flute and renamed it the Circle of Iron. Stanley Mann, Canadian screenwriter who was nominated for an Oscar for writing the screenplay for the film adaptation of John Fowles' The Collector. We have talked about that numerous times. The book that inspired serial killer Charles Lake to do what he did. The movie that inspired Bob Berdella, Kansas City butcher, to do what he did. Crazy time suck episode connection here. And guess who starred in and took Bruce's place in this movie? David fucking Carradine. The motherfucker who took his role in Kung Fu.

Unreal. Lee was given posthumous writing credit for this movie. Must have rolled over in his grave. He found out Carradine was cast. The movie tanked to the box office compared to Lee's previous films. It earned a million dollars. On June 7th, 1979, Game of Death was released. Six years after Bruce's death.

Footage had been shot with Bruce and was, of course, used, spliced in with a lot of footage of three different other actors playing Bruce. Movie didn't do as well as Bruce's previous films, you know, because Bruce isn't in it as much. Did still do over $43 million worth of box office money, over 43 times as much as David Carradine's movie. I bust David's balls. But he was just a dude auditioning for work. He never tried to intentionally screw over Bruce. Just funny series of connections that will continue. Now we skip ahead a bit. February 1st, 1986, now 21-year-old Brandon Lee's first film was released, Kung Fu the Movie. He played a deadly assassin and his powerful fight scenes made quite an impression on viewers Lee had moved to Boston

in 1983 to study theater at Emerson College also spent his teen years studying martial arts training with former students of his dad 1984 he moved

to New York City to take acting lessons at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute and then Kung Fu the movie is made in you know 1986

a made for TV movie first in a series of sequels that continue the story of Shaolin monk, Kwai Chang Kane, a monk first introduced in a TV series that ran from 1972 to 1975. Guess who this movie starred? David fucking Carradine. He just will not go away in this timeline. Brandon Lee plays David Carradine's son in this movie. It airs on February 1st, 1986

on ABC, Lee's 21st birthday. Lee said that he felt that there was some justice in his being cast for the role since the TV show's pilot was conceived for his father. That's so weird. After this role, Brandon heads to Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, just like his dad before him, he's given his first lead action film role.

On December 20th, 1986, Brandon stars in a film called Legacy of Rage. Nominated for Best New Performer by the Hong Kong Film Award officials. Can't find box office info on this movie online, so I'm guessing it wasn't a home run. 1987, Brandon guest stars on a few US TV shows

O'Hara and Summer Playhouse. November 1st, 1989, stars in an action-adventure film called Laser Mission. It bombs, critics tear it apart, and it goes straight to video.

And it does seem, it seems terrible. It looks really bad. Lee plays a mercenary named Michael Gold, who is sent to convince Dr. Braun, a laser specialist, to defect to the United States before the KGB acquires him

and uses both his talent and a stolen diamond to create a nuclear super weapon. That all sounds so, so 80s to me. I just picture a bunch of sleazy, coke-fueled Hollywood producers, you know, coming up with this late one night in the Hollywood Hills. Dudes wearing unbuttoned silk shirts, mullets, mustaches, just like the one I have right now. Some bad English blasting out of some giant 6 foot tall 80's speakers when I see you smile

I can face the world just doing lines of coke Richie, Richie, what do people love? fucking lasers what else, what else diamonds, diamonds and then Richie, you know, he's sitting next to some half naked new to town hopeful model from Kansas finishing snorting a fat line of coke, you know, he's sitting next to some half-naked, new-to-town, hopeful model from Kansas,

finishing snorting a fat line of Coke himself, you know, using a $100 bill off a mirrored coffee table, so cliche. He just pops up. Russians. Russians, John. That's right, Richie. Russians.

And fucking nukes. Yeah, fuck yeah, John. Nukes, man. And hot babes. And karate chops. Machine guns. Hell yeah. Come on. And hot babes and karate chops. Machine guns. Hell yeah. Come on.

We got a hit, Richie. We got a hit. It's not a hit. It is absolutely terrible. Let me play you the trailer for this right now. From Turner Home Entertainment. I love this music. Explosions.

You carry a gun and you're not afraid to use it. Explosions. Uh-huh. Hot lady with a gun. A lot of cleavage. Heavy on the cleavage. Oh, shirt's coming off. Machine guns. The enemy on his tail. Car chases. Expl explosions more cleavage more explosions so many more explosions Russians. More explosions.

Car chase. Lots of machine guns. More explosions. Car chase. Laser talk. More cleavage. They give it to you with both barrels and this international thriller packed full of action and intrigue. Yeah. You kill me with your... More cleavage.

Ah, so much action. I knew you could do it. You did? And another explosion. That was a... Laser mission. Laser mission. Oh, my God.

Both barrels of action and intrigue. Okay. So, you know, they're not all going to be hits. August 23rd, 1991, another action flick, Brandon stars in Showdown in Little Tokyo was released and it's worse than the last movie you just heard about. Like by quite a bit. Huge flop, $8 million budget, grosses 2.3 million to the box office. In this movie, Brandon recites one of the worst slash best lines ever said on film. He's talking to co-star Dolph Lundgren. Dolph Lundgren's

character is named Kenner. There's no reason for this line to be said in this movie. Kenner, just in case we get killed, I wanted to tell you, you have the biggest dick I've ever seen on a man. Thanks. What the fuck?

They're getting ready to go fight. Out of nowhere. There's no context for this movie. You have the biggest dick I've ever seen on a man. I just like how he says that on a man. As if he's seen a lot bigger dicks on a variety of women. This film would go on to get 33% approval on Rotten Tomatoes. And I think that's being generous.

Screenwriters Stephen Glantz and Calliope Brattle Street didn't win any awards. Surprise, surprise. And yes, Calliope Brattle Street really is the name associated with co-writing this movie and no other films. That has to be a fake name.

There is nobody named Calliope. Hey, everybody! Name's Calliope. Hey, everybody. Name's Calliope Brow Street. And you have the biggest dick I've ever seen on a man. Come watch my movie. August 21st, another Brandon Lee movie, Rapid Fire, is released. While this movie only has a 43% approval rating, it was profitable. And many did praise Brandon's performance.

20th Century Fox would end up talking to Brandon about a sequel. I watched some clips. Yeah, pretty sweet fight scenes. Fall of 1992, his career has improved a bit, and Lee signs on to play Eric Draven in The Crow. Dark action film based on the comic books of James O'Barr, going

to be a groundbreaking work of stylistic fantasy action. It would have been Brandon's big break had he survived filming it. His days of lines like, you're the biggest dick I've ever seen on a man would have been behind him forever as an actor. Brandon had high hopes for this movie. Not your typical martial arts B action movie.

He hoped this film would establish him as a star in his own right. Said he wanted more than to be just remembered as the son of Bruce Lee. The Crow, a dark tale. He almost didn't get this movie. Obar wrote The Crow comic in the wake of his girlfriend being killed by a drunk driver. Story revolves around an unfortunate young man named Eric. He and his fiancee, Shelly,

are assaulted by a gang of street thugs after their car breaks down. Eric is shot in the head, is paralyzed. And then he watches Shelly be savagely beaten, raped, and shot in the head and killed. Eric then dies on the hospital operating room. And then Eric is resurrected by a mythical crow. Seeks vengeance on the murderers, methodically stalking and killing them.

When not on the hunt, Eric stays in the house he shared with Shelly, spending most of his time there lost in her memories and memories of her. Her absence is torture for him. He has an emotional pain, even engaged in self-mutilation by cutting himself. Like I said, it's a dark story. And Obar originally did not want to cast Lee in it. He didn't want The Crow to be what he called

just another kung fu movie. Christian Slater was offered the role, but he wanted too much money. Johnny Depp offered the role. He turned it down as well. Not enough money. And then Obar met with Brandon Lee and he changed his mind. He later recalled the level of physicality and charisma he brought to

the role was amazing to witness not a lot of people realize how hard he worked he did all of his own fight choreography and nearly all of his own stunts the only thing he didn't do was falling off buildings because the studio wouldn't let him that's without even talking about his performance he brought the right mix of humor pain pain, and menace to the role. Made for only 15 billion, 15 billion. It's only made for $15 billion. No, it made for only $15 million.

Low for a blockbuster comic, you know, based film. The Crow was a tough production, plagued with issues. The film was set in Wilmington, North Carolina, early 1993. Shot, not set, sorry, shot north. And on March 13th, the infamous storm of the century swept through North Carolina

and destroyed the Crow's exterior sets. The shoots, they were long and hard. Brendan spent six days a week filming, wearing very little, acting in pouring rain. If the rain, the real rain wasn't enough, machines would be brought in to simulate and pour down more water on the shivering Lee. Now, it wasn't drinking yellow water out of his hotel faucet. It wasn't eating canned meat like his dad did on set for his breakthrough movie, but it was not a lavish dressing room either. Long days of shooting were taking their toll on Lee.

Obar later recalled he lost 20 pounds after getting the role, and he didn't have a lot to lose. I could lift him up with one arm. He was so thin. There was absolutely no fat on him whatsoever. Lee's manager, Jan McCormack, called the production company to complain about subhuman conditions on set, as she put it, before prophetically adding, you guys are killing Brandon down there. While the crew complained about the harsh working environments, Lee apparently was in high spirits. His enthusiasm carried the difficult side of the production through. By the last week of March,

Lee only had a few more days left of shooting. He was pumped. He had a great feeling about the film. He thought they were doing a great job. After the film was going to wrap, he was going to go get married to his girlfriend and casting director, Eliza Hutton.

And then on March 30th, Brandon Lee walked into the set or onto the set of The Crow in Wilmington for the last time. Here's why. Few weeks earlier in the shoot, a prop guy had purchased a bunch of props for the film and also bought some live bullets during the same shopping trip. He took all these props and his bullets back to the set of The Crow, live rounds, not supposed to be kept on a film set. And so the prop master removed them, stored them in the trunk of his car. Now, live bullets are not supposed to be ever used in films. Guns are loaded with blanks, which are bullet cases filled with primer, a form of gunpowder that creates the firing effect.

And unlike a real bullet, blanks have a cardboard tip at the end rather than a lead one so that any impact the bullet would have once fired from a gun would be minimal, if any. During a scene in which a victim looks down the barrel of a gun being loaded, producers found out they didn't have any blanks on set. So in order to save time and money, the prop guys decided, hey, let's go get those live bullets from the car and just modify them into blanks. Really bad idea. They made dummy rounds that didn't have gunpowder, but did have lead tips. These rounds were supposed to be used only for closeups that they were filming that day. But then unbeknownst to anyone on set When the dummy round was loaded into the gun for that shot The lead tip got lodged in the barrel

Fuck Two weeks later on March 30th The same gun is used for the scene where Brandon Lee is to be shot By Michael Massey's character Funboy The scene calls for Lee to walk into his apartment Then activate a squib A packet of blood that will simulate a gunshot wound. Once Massey fires the gun and then fall to the ground.

Everything seems to go as planned. The gun goes off. The squib goes off. Lee falls down. The director yells, cut. Then Lee does not get up. That's when the crew realizes Lee is not just bleeding squib blood. He is bleeding his own blood.

He's losing a ton of blood from a silver dime-sized bullet wound. bleeding his own blood. He's losing a ton of blood from a silver dime-sized bullet wound. When the gun with the blank is fired, it propelled that damn lead tip that had been lodged there two weeks earlier, hitting Lee in his stomach just above his navel. And guess who the prop master was for this movie?

The man responsible for leaving that lead tip in the barrel. David fucking Carradine. No, it wasn't. How insane would that be? Lee was rushed to New Hanover Regional Medical Center, operated on for six hours. Six hours before being pronounced dead at 1.04 a.m., March 31st, 1993. A two-month investigation follows. The shooting is ruled an accident.

No criminal charges are filed. Lee's mom, Linda Cadwell, she does file a civil suit against the studio and it is settled out of court. Poor Linda, man. Show business took her husband's life and her son's life. That is not how they're supposed to do it in Hollywood. Poor Michael Massey. Massey has said that he had nightmares about the incident for years, had to take a break from acting after this incident, was never able to watch The Crow. He told Extra in 2005 when he finally opened up about Lee's death, it absolutely wasn't supposed to happen. I wasn't even supposed to be handling the gun

until we started shooting the scene and the director changed it. And then he added, I just took a year off and went back to New York. I didn't do anything. I didn't work. What happened to Brandon was a tragic accident.

I don't think you ever get over something like that. Poor bastard, man. April 3rd, 1993, Brandon is buried next to his dad in Seattle. For months, stories swirl around about whether or not the shooting was intentional. Several conspiracy theorists, many of them the same ones who believe there was more to his dad, Bruce Lee's death than me, CI, now also pose questions about Brandon Lee's death. All right, the Chinese mafia theories brought back the triads. Another theory claims that

ninjas were on set. They were hiding in the rafters the day he died. And they were the same ninjas that killed Bruce Lee. It's fucking preposterous. Just a bunch of ninjas hiding around, mad at the Lees for giving away their powerful ninja secrets or crossing the triads or selling Chinese throwing stars on the black. It's not ever made clear.

Another theory is that the Lee family is literally cursed. Probably not. Probably just a terrible coincidence. There was an that the Lee family is literally cursed. Probably not. Probably just a terrible coincidence. There was an investigation. It determined that his death was an accident. The result was the prop gun not being properly checked between uses. People make mistakes. And sadly, sometimes those mistakes get other people killed.

Just weeks after Brandon's death on April 28th, Bruce Lee receives his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That seems like poor timing. Two months following Lee's death, in June of 1993, producers secure a further $8 million to rewrite the Crow script, finish production. They use stuntmen Chad Stolsky and Jeff Cadiente to fill in for the remaining shots of Eric Draven

with Lee's face imposed over their own faces in post-production for close-ups. Obar, like a third of the movie's original crew, does not return to set. He recalled, they asked me to come back. I told them no, that I couldn't imagine myself being there without him. The movie's finished. The Crow is released on May 11th, 1994. It's not a smash hit. It was referred to as a sleeper hit in some sources. It was a hit. Critics love Lee's performance. It's a lot better than the stuff we heard earlier. Made over 50 million at the US box office alone against a $23 million budget and goes on to become a cult classic. Grunge kids, especially across America, love it. The Crow soundtrack hits number one on the Billboard charts in 1994. Eventually sells

3.8 million copies, certified triple platinum. That's a lot for a soundtrack. Powered by a mix of alternative, alternative metal, goth, heavy industrial music, nine-inch nails heavily featured in the ads for the soundtrack, offered a Joy Division cover. June 10th, 1995, Brandon is nominated for Best Male Performance at the MTV Movie Awards. He lost to Brad Pitt from Interview with the Vampire. October 21st, 2000, Bruce Lee Day is declared in San Francisco, California. March 28th, 2005, Bruce Lee is named Star of the Century at

the Hong Kong Film Awards. November 27th, a statue of Bruce Lee is revealed in Hong Kong. On June 3rd, 2009, David Carradine dies to autoerotic asphyxiation. A police official said that Carradine was found naked at a Bangkok hotel room, hanging by a rope in the room's closet. Initially ruled as a suicide, the ruling was changed. He was restricting oxygen to his brain to have a better orgasm, and he literally died masturbating. And I did not actually make that up as a joke.

Not kidding about how that went down. After bringing him up earlier, it just felt like I had to finish his story. Moving on. April of 2013, Bruce Lee, named by Time Magazine, one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. June 15th, 2013, seven foot tall Bruce Lee statue is unveiled in LA's Chinatown, almost as tall as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the buddy he fought in Game of Death. And that will take us out of today's epic time suck timeline. Good job, soldier. You've made it back. Barely. What a tale, Bruce Lee, man. I found his life very inspiring. Might've pushed too hard. Might've pushed himself to an early grave. Might've pulled a mercury,

flew a little too close to the sun, but what an amazing life he had. He willed so much shit into happening. Yes, he had help. Yes, he was born into showbiz, but hard work, you know, made him a badass martial artist. Hard work and drive and fearlessness

led him to breaking into Hollywood tenacity, right? Led him to kicking ass over in Hong Kong. His son was just starting to follow in his footsteps and then jump out of him and leave his own trail when he died too young. Even younger, only 28 when he died in that freak accident. Brandon also worked his ass off. Didn't just stay at home in Seattle, wait for roles to be handed to him because he was Bruce Lee's son. Too short, but very interesting and I think inspiring lives. I know we didn't get to dig that far into Brandon's. Bruce, frankly, just too hard of an act to follow. Brandon did lead an incredible life. Now he's a badass martial artist as well,

about to break out, truly is his own action star. His dad was a living legend and his legend has carried on to today, almost 50 years after his death. And let's look back at all this incredibleness now in today's top five takeaways. Time shock, top five takeaways. Number one, Bruce Lee brought martial arts into the mainstream. He was the first film star to come from the world of martial arts that many consider him to be the father of MMA. And MMA

is now one of the world's most popular sports. Number two, Bruce Lee taught martial arts that many consider him to be the father of MMA. And MMA is now one of the world's most popular sports. Number two, Bruce Lee taught martial arts to everyone, white, black, Chinese, and beyond. Despite encountering racism several times in his life, he refused to participate in it himself. At least by the time he became an adult, he did. And, you know, when he was done beating up those British school kids back in Hong Kong. Number three, Bruce was the king of hustle. He was always working either on his acting craft, scripts, production ideas, or his personal philosophy in his own martial art form. He never let bad news stop him. Always, as he would put it, he would just continue to walk on. Hail the hustle. Number four, like his father before him, Brandon Lee would die before his

most successful movie would come out. For Bruce, it was Enter the Dragon. For Brandon, it was The Crow. Number five, new info. For four years after moving, or I'm sorry, four years after arriving back in America as an adult, Bruce Lee was almost drafted into fighting in Vietnam. In 1963, he failed a physical held by the U.S. Army Draft Board. That's the only reason he didn't go to Vietnam. How could he fail a physical?

Terrible eyesight. Bruce Lee did everything we talked about him doing today, despite being extremely nearsighted. He wore very thick glasses as a kid when he was kicking all that ass. It was one of the first people to try and wear contact lenses. Also, I'll throw in another little quick little thing, even though it's supposed to be just one thing here. He loved edibles. I found that very interesting. Bruce ate cannabis on a regular basis for the final 10 years of his life. So you can eat a bunch of weed and kick a lot of ass. Time shock, top five takeaways.

Bruce and Brandon Lee sucked. Mostly Bruce, a little bit of Brandon and a tiny bit of David Carradine. Pretty interesting lives. I hope you liked the story. Sorry if my mush mouth was. A little bit of Brandon. And a tiny bit of David Carradine. Pretty interesting lives. I hope you liked the story. Sorry if my mush mouth was a little more out of control. It felt good coming in. You never know when it's going to strike. Is it the mustache?

Is the mustache slowing me down? It's gone. Thank you again to the Time Suck team. Thanks to Queen of Bad Magic, Lindsay Cummins, Reverend Dr. Joe Horscock Johnson-Paisley. Bit Elixir. Got the new trivia coming out on the app. Logan and Kate Keith, the Spicy Club,

running badmagicmerch.com and the socials. Thanks to the script keeper, Zach Flannery. I know Zach in particular really loved kicking off the research on this episode. Gave me a lot of great stuff.

He's a big Bruce Lee fan. He wanted to do this episode and I'm glad he did. Thanks to all those involved in keeping the cult to the Curious Private Facebook group moderated by the Countess of the Cult, Liz Hernandez, and our all-seeing eyes, very much alive and growing.

We also have Discord, have our own Discord channel you can link over to from the TimeSuck app. Next week on TimeSuck, Space Lizards once again have spoken. We will continue our true crime series and travel to the Southwestern United States in search of a serial murderer nicknamed the West Mesa Bone Collector. In the years between 2003 and 2006, at least 19 girls and young women disappeared from the streets of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Most were Latina sex workers in their 20s. For a long time, no one knew what happened to them. In February 2008, a woman walking her dog in the West Mesa area of Albuquerque made a grisly discovery. Human femur found sticking out of the ground. the area of Albuquerque made a grisly discovery, human femur found sticking out of the ground. Investigators dug into the site near 118th Street Southwest, found what can only be called a mass grave.

Over the next year, they identified the bones of 11 young females who disappeared between 2003, 2005. The group burial, a telltale sign of a serial killer. The unknown murder was given the name the West Mesa Bone Collector by locals. Who is this piece of shit? One of the primary suspects,

a man known as a serial abuser of women, lived just a couple miles from the mass grave. He was shot and killed in 2006 under some strange circumstances. And the disappearances did stop, but did he do it? Find out that and much more next week as we suck into the West Mesa Bone Collector.

Time now for today's Time Sucker Updates. Updates? Get your Time Sucker Updates. First update, some comedy coming in from Super Sucker and Cummins Law Victim, James Gay. James writes, Suckmeister Supreme, I never thought it would happen to me. It's a good start. I love listening to the stories sent in every week and laughing at the misfortune of others.

Others experienced from being Cummins Lawed, but thought surely it would not happen to me. I work entirely alone in a workshop where I build and repair guitars for a living in Singapore, running the service department of a medium-sized music retail company with stores in eight Asian countries. I'm almost always left to my own devices every day, and with COVID still a concern,

customers can only come to the workshop with an appointment. So I usually know when I won't be alone. I usually listen over a very loud Bluetooth speaker since my work makes a lot of noise sometimes, as you might imagine. That loud noise also means that when someone like my extremely quiet, mousy human resources manager comes into the workshop I won't hear her coming in I was I was listening to the yahim krolsuk and just as you were elbow deep Into the details of a german engineer who volunteered to have his own dick cut off and fed to him by another cannibal I happen to turn around to grab something from my toolbox

And see my super quiet super polite very, very sheltered, and very conservative HR lady. She's trying to get me a letter from the government regarding tax info that had been put into her mailbox. My mistake. The look of shock in her eyes as she quietly handed me the letter and ran out of the workshop was both hysterical and mortifying. It all happened so fast. I didn't even have a chance to pause the episode, which continued to play at full volume as she walked out and shut the door to my shop. Maybe it's time to go back to my headphones for a while.

Loyal OG listener from episode two onward, James. Oh my God, James. First off, thanks for listening, man, for so long. This made me laugh so hard when I first read it. I hope you have seen her since, since writing this and had a chance to explain yourself. Explanation definitely needed. Don't know if it'll work, but I think needed, uh, stay safe over there in Singapore and cool job by the way. And, uh, and keep on sucking next update. Uh,

also about last week's episode in from kick-ass North Dakota sucker, Andrew, who let me know that one of my fake sponsors is very real. Andrew writes, oh, and I guess this is, I'm sorry, this is about like two weeks ago. Well, no, actually it's not. Sorry. You'll see why I'm confused here in a second. I don't want to spoil it. Hello, Dan and the rest of the Time Suck team. My name is Andrew. I've been listening to Time Suck for roughly a year after hearing an ad on Pandora. Spent months listening to the back catalog at work. And me and my fiance have been watching Scared to Death together on YouTube every Wednesday from day one. Oh, that's so nice. I recently listened to the Egyptian God Suck and your fake sponsor was Kroll's Restaurant,

as in Yahim Kroll, in reference to the previous week's Suck subject. Serial killer and cannibal Yahim Kroll. I am writing to tell you that Kroll's Diner is a real place with four locations in my home state of North Dakota, and I've eaten there more than once. Not only is it a real place, but it's also known for making German food. Their Nifla soup is delicious, but now I am wondering what I really ate. Am I a cannibal now? Anyways, thanks to you. Thank you and everyone on the team for bringing the suck to my ear holes each and every week. Hail Nimrod. Keep on sucking, Andrew M. Thank you, Andrew. Had no idea. Had no idea there was a Kroll's diner out there. I love it. I looked it up. Man, awesome. Little 50s diner with a German twist.

The menu looks delicious. Cabbage rolls look legit. So glad you liked the show. Enjoy the sauerkraut. Glad Yahim Kroll is not the same Kroll that runs those North Dakota cafes. Their kids menu looks like it has a lot of fun pancakes and no finger steaks. So that's good. I got a quick correction now coming in from two historical suckers.

Not easy to bullshit suckers. David and Joy, I like it. They write, hail suck master. I like how they get right to it. There was no goddamn corn in ancient Egypt. Corn slash maize is a plant native to the Americas. Come on, man, get it together. It's a great episode and we love it, but no corn.

Have a great week. Keep sucking, David and Joy. Well, damn it. Okay. Come on, man. Get it together. It's a great episode and we love it, but no corn. Have a great week. Keep sucking. David and Joy. Well, damn it. Okay. All right. You got me. You got me. I looked up what kind of plants grow in the Nile River Valley and listed some, not even thinking, well, yeah, that shit grows there now, but it didn't grow there over 2,000 years ago, so good catch.

Gotta call me out when I fuck up. Keep this as accurate as possible. So, truly, yeah, thank you. Sweetsack Jacob Kruger has a martial arts shout out. Feels appropriate this week. Jacob writes, dear holiest of these, Suckmaster Dan Cummins, I'd love to nominate my jujitsu teammate,

Nate Rosado and light of the least suck. He's recently been promoted to blue belt, which is the second belt in belt rankings. He won gold and silver in competition just before COVID restrictions hit. He's come a long ways with training, bust his ass at the gym. Here's to you, Nate. Hail Nimrod. Praise Bojangles. Be gone, Lucifina. It's very nice of you to do that, Jacob. And hail Nate Rosado. Nate the Great. Keep busting your ass. Fight like Bruce Lee. Hope you can get back to training soon, young man, uh, stash sucker. Juan anonymous

has a funny note for me about my new look. He drops some mustache knowledge on us all writing dear suck master. Just want to chime in on the discussion that's going on the Instagram community regarding your recent facial hair change. For those listening that don't already know the mustache is a fashion trend that rides peaks and valleys. It's been around for way longer than any of us have been alive, although it fell out of favor decades ago as the business, modeling, and other trend-setting communities started favoring a clean-shaven look.

The pedo-critique of the mustache has no correlation to reality, and it's been perpetrated only by word of mouth, with no help from what are now very dated pornographic images and film. I think it's a great adjustment, an alternative to the full beard. I sported a mustache myself until recently. It's a timeless look that goes well on a no-nonsense businessman, tradesman, cowboy, hipster, student, teacher, hunter,

vegan, many others alike. What we should be talking about instead is the current trend I'm seeing with spandex shorts and other pants that either visually display or physically embrace the human ass crack. I've only noticed it for the first time this summer. Seems to be popular with young and old alike, mostly women, but I've seen it on men as well. I'm curious if anyone else has noticed this. Is this new to the Midwest or in general? I haven't seen it for a couple years, I feel like. While I'll admit that it is more objectionable in some cases than others,

I believe in equity when it comes to this particular region. So if it isn't okay for some, then it isn't okay for anyone. And just in case this sounds like I'm coming from a, it's coming from a professional fashion consultant, I'm not. Just a concerned citizen electrician trying to warn the general public of this scourge that long ago ostracized the plumbing community. Raising a child in this world is difficult enough without being critiqued for making trivial choices with our facial hair, while others are allowed to subject us to their most intimate and repellent bodily regions with impunity. A great civilization

is not conquered from without until it is glorified its brown skids from within. Your faithful listener and suck acolyte Juan. Oh, nice Juan. Thank you, Stash brother. I like your spandex thoughts. I personally will not be adding to the spandex

look along with my mustache. I feel like the stash and the spandex together, you know, powerful. It's powerful. Too powerful. Not sure how long I'm keeping my stash, but it is growing on me, literally and figuratively. It feels like a separate entity. You know, I didn't speed officer. My stash

did. I try and keep it under control. I like to drive speed limit. My fucking stash, it loves whiskey and women. And speed, not necessarily in that order. Now let's leave on some knowledge coming in from intellectual sucker, Jonathan Sanders, bringing us another Egyptian gods update. Jonathan writes,

Hail Dan, chief bearer of the balls of Bojangles. I was listening to your talk on Egyptian gods and noticed your comparisons of hell and the Egyptian hell. While you did point out that the two were different, the way you described the Egyptian concept of hell is more similar to the early Hebrew and Christian one. These sort of destruction myths are often referred to as cold hells, along with hell worlds that weren't actually places of torment. Reconstructionists believe that ancient Jewish people

had no literal belief in an afterlife, as their descriptions of shul, often selectively translated as hell by Christians today, such as in Job and Proverbs, indicate that this grave was a place where no thought or action was possible. I don't know a whole lot about the time between then and Christianity, but apparently Greek philosophy and other influences introduced early hell-like ideas. And Jesus gives us a story in Luke, which gives a hot hell description. But even then, it's hard to tell

if the story was meant to be literal or not, as the person in hell can literally see a giant Abraham in heaven with Jesus' friend Lazarus sitting on his lap from hell. It's possible that this creep of afterworld ideas from Greeks reinterpreted original Semitic ideas of destruction into something literal. It's unlikely that Jesus taught a literal hell as he said things like, fear the one who can destroy the soul. As well as you know from the Egyptian stories, burning in Semitic culture often

describes a literal ceasing to exist. Jesus' hell is a valley of, oh yeah, I can't pronounce this word, G-E-N-H-I-N-N-O-M, a place where legend holds people used to burn their children in sacrifice. And in his time was a place where Jerusalem citizens burned their trash. Yes. This seems to better coincide with the view towards destruction it wasn't until the Christian dark age where not as much information exists because they were largely in hiding of the second and third centuries when they started to accept and reason within more Greek philosophy

partly because Greeks had a huge market for interpreting ideas through rhetorical discussion and it was an easy platform to proselytize through and following religious councils in the Christian Roman era, that Christians started holding on to some very distinct views on hell. That's not to say all Christians believe hell is a literal burning place. Even from the early medieval era, some Christian theologians have suggested that heaven and hell describe degrees of personal

relationships to God. As these ideas, this is so much dense information. My God, man, very good though. In some ways grew out of Zoroastrianism, Gnosticism, by extension Buddhism. And as far as I understand, it doesn't describe a state of alive or dead, but a condition of the soul, which is sort of four dimensional. You can be in hell, whether alive or dead. Okay. Yeah. I don't know much about all that, but it's one conflicting example from the sort of mainstream Catholic Baptist interpretation that we see in horror and literature.

Maybe the takeaway is that I think the fear you mentioned that hell might be a real place like so many other scary stories is, well, supported in proliferation for sure, but not really in the way you're thinking. Most hells aren't literal places of burning torment, and the cultures that believe in them are mostly connected through culture, trade, and proselytizer. And the cultures that believe in them are mostly connected through culture, trade, and proselytizer. This would be like being scared of the Wendigo, or this would be like being scared the Wendigo is real because several American Indian tribes believe in it.

Well, they're all Native American tribes with the possibility of cultural exchange and nobody else believes it. But also, that for this comparison to work, one tribe would have to believe the Wendigo is actually fully alive and also a bird. Or perhaps that while one tribe believes the common thing about the undead cannibal, people in the same tribe in another village think that's just a metaphor for Alzheimer's. If that's a confusing explanation, it's just that there isn't enough commonality to hell stories to suggest anybody has literally experienced a literal hell. I guess I just felt like rambling. Thanks, Jonathan. Jonathan, you're not rambling. That's a lot of information,

but yes, the core idea, I believe, of what you're saying is that if people had experienced a literal hell multiple times throughout various cultures, then their descriptions of that hell would be the same, where that is not the case. And the hell described in various mythologies and cultures is actually very different. One hell very different from another. They're more different than they are the same, which leads one to believe intellectually that it is not real. So yay to no literal hell, if that is what you're saying, which I think it is. That's what I took away from that. Sometimes I want hell to exist when I read about dirtbags like Yahim Kroll, but I don't know that I actually believe in it. So when my scared to death stuff gets in my head, I'm like, where are these weird fucking creepy things coming from? Maybe hell? I

don't know. But anyway, I don't think some creator would actually want to burn anyone alive forever. That type of hell. That seems excessive. A hundred years of burning? All right, that's a lot. That's a lot of fucking burning. Okay, maybe a thousand years? That's a lot of burning. Eternal burning. Probably too much punishment for anybody. Thanks for giving us even more to think about, Jonathan. I love the curiosity. I love the intellectualism you brought to my

musings on hell, I guess, would be the best way to put it. And thank you all for the messages. I know most of them don't get read. It's never anything personal when they don't. Please keep sending them our way for more Time Sucker updates. Next time, suckers. I needed that.

We all did. Have a great week, everybody. If you have to get in a street fight this week, I hope you don't face anybody with Bruce Lee-like skills. If they are using chains, I hope they are using regulation chains. And probably really just best to avoid the whole thing.

Just stay home where it's safe and where you can continue to keep on sucking.