30 Years After ‘Karate Kid,’ the Cobra Kais Are Still Best Friends

 

Martin Kove and William Zabka star in the 1984 film, “The Karate Kid.”

Columbia Pictures

“Sweep the leg!”
Everyone has their favorite line from the movie “Karate Kid,” in which Daniel LaRusso fights back against bad boy and bully Johnny Lawrence to win the All-Valley Karate Tournament in the thrilling end to the 1984 film.read more


And of course, everyone remembers, “Put him in a body bag, Johnny! Yeah!”
In the movie, Billy Zabka played Johnny and was part of the villain gang known as the Cobra Kais — you know the group of mean high schoolers that repeatedly beat up LaRusso and even chased him wearing skeleton costumes at the Halloween dance.
 Zabka, 48, to chat about how the film affected his life and continues to do so to this very day. In fact, he said he’s still close to his “no mercy” Cobra Kais from the movie.

  This one is fo and some photoshopping fun haha great artwork deserves a RT
— William Zabka

“The guys that played all the Cobra Kais are some of my best friends,” he told USA Today, while catching up for the film’s 30th anniversary. “Marty Kove [who played sensei John Kreese] I see all the time. Rob Garrison, [famous for "put him in a body bag"] he just came and stayed at my house for a week. Bobby and Jimmy (Ron Thomas and Tony O’Dell) live around the corner from me. I reconnected with Ralph about ten years ago.”

  now here’s something u don’t see everyday
— William Zabka

Zabka admitted that just now, he’s realizing the affect the movie has had on pop culture and a certain generation.
“It took 25 years,” he said, to realize “Karate Kid” was an iconic movie. “We did the DVD, a special edition, I think it was 25, where we did the special features on the DVD. Ralph and I did a picture-in-picture commentary during the film and stuff. It snuck up on us. The movie was out in theaters for six months back in the ’80s, which films don’t do these days. They’re in and out in a weekend. It just started to graft into pop culture language in a way. I think it takes this long to realize that it’s here to stay.”