The 1977 hockey comedy Slap Shot starring Paul Newman is a decent enough film at the start, but once Jeff, Steve and Jack Hanson take the ice it turns into something special. While the boys offer up their own brand of punishment throughout the film there is a singular punch that stands out among the rest. Before the game had even started Steve Hanson didn’t need much more than a shifty evil-eye from #2 to set him off. The second time around #2’s face met #17’s fist and the rest is history.
After watching the short clip included here you can see the Hanson brothers’ debut right here.
I first saw Friday at a dollar theater back in 1995 and I remember it vividly as it was the rowdiest crowd I had ever seen a movie with and I remember this punch as the only moment in my movie watching history I allowed myself to truly lose it in public. A combination of a rambunctious crowd and a truly hilarious moment had me standing up and cheering along with about 30 or 40 other people in my section, not to mention everyone else in the audience.
When Deebo (Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister) punches Red (DJ Pooh) and Smokey (Chris Tucker) runs over and stands directly over the camera and yells in that high squeal, “You got knocked the fuck out!” I was cheering with the rest of them.
I have no idea if Conan’s camel punch was inspired by Mongo’s (Alex Karras) decking of a horse in Mel Brooks’ 1974 Blazing Saddles, but I am sure most anyone that saw the title of this top ten list immediately thought of this classic haymaker.
I guess you could debate on how fair it really is to have two animal sluggings in the top ten, but I had to include Conan’s camel bashing and any guy that can stroll into town on the back of a white bull, slug a horse and survive an exploding candygram and in the end find a friend and utter such poetic words as “Mongo only pawn… in game of life,” deserves a spot on this list.
