BuzzSugar's post on recasting The Karate Kid got me to thinking about one of my favorite cultural icons of the 1980's: William Zabka.

Who is William Zabka, you ask? What, were you raised by wolves?

William (a.k.a. Billy) Zabka is an actor who played some of the most memorable assholes in 80's teen cinema. He was Johnny Lawrence, the douchebag bully who gave Ralph Macchio such a hard time in The Karate Kid. He was Greg Tolan, the insufferable body-building bastard in Just One Of The Guys. He was Chas, the elitist mother f*cker in Back to School. And he was Jack, Audrey's slimy boyfriend in National Lampoon's Vacation.

For more info, check out IMDB, Wikipedia, or Zabka's MySpace page (yes, it's really his page). In real life, he's a pretty nice guy.

Nobody embodied the essence of 80's *sshole teenager like Zabka. From his too-blonde, too-bland good looks to his nasal, whiny voice to his smug and/or smolderingly angry countenance, he was very talented at making you want to b*tchslap him.

Unfortunately, YouTube let me down for the most part, but I was able to find two videos of the Zab in his prime.

The Karate Kid

Just One Of The Guys

And here are some photos:

Oh, Billy, thank you so much for being so convincing as a rich, spoiled sonovab*tch in all of your films. The 80's wouldn't have been the same without you.

I salute you, brother.