(Video courtesy of YouTube/FreeFightsForYou)
Besides Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal, everyone I know who watched GI Joe as a kid looked forward to the “Knowing is Half the Battle” segments that taught us how to escape a house fire, avoid being kidnapped and molested and how to camp safely. If you watched the show on Saturday mornings or have seen any of the scores of parodies that have popped up the past few years, you’re going to enjoy the short fan-made spot above.
“Mo” used to enjoy the popular PSAs until the day he found out they were all a lie.
When he was a kid in Tennessee, Lawal watched the episode where a boy who couldn’t swim was instructed by Torpedo how to tread water and make his way safely to shore after he fell off of a cliff into the water. The cartoon made it look easy, so Lawal jumped in the water the next time he was at his cousin’s house and promptly sunk to the bottom of the pool. Had his uncle not seen him go in, he likely would have drowned. He told me last year that Torpedo was a liar and that GI Joe nearly killed him and that soon after the incident turned to Heathcliffe for life advice and credits the mangy cat for influencing his scrappy fighting style.
And that’s your six degrees of separation lesson for the day of how GI Joe is directly related to MMA.