‘Cobra Kai’ Stars Ralph Macchio, Jacob Bertrand Vetoed 2 Bad Critics Choice Scripts
Cobra Kai was nominated for three Critics Choice Awards including Best Action Series, and for both Ralph Macchio and William Zabka’s performances in an action series. They didn’t win, but Macchio and Jacob Bertrand got to present an award that night. Bertrand reveals they were asked to do two different introduction bits, but both actors nixed them.
Betrand discussed his experience at the Critics Choice Awards on the March 21 episode of his Lone Lobos podcast. Here are the bits Macchio and Betrand refused to perform.
Critics Choice wrote a script for ‘Cobra Kai’ stars Ralph Macchio and Jacob Bertrand
The first script Critics Choice sent to Macchio and Bertrand involved a lame joke about awards shows.
“It was, ‘Oh hey, I’m Ralph Macchio. There’s a lot to learn talking to a bunch of people at an awards show,’” Betrand said on Lone Lobos, and continued with his lines. “‘Yeah, I know Ralph. You have to be glamorous and have a certain gravitas when speaking to the people.’ He’s like, ‘No, no, always have mints. Here, you need a mint? Those mushrooms backstage had a lot of garlic in them. Have a mint.’ I’m like, ‘Ah, thanks Ralph.’”
Betrand’s cohost and Cobra Kai costar Xolo Maridueña also agreed that was lame.
“I’m not joking,” Betrand said. “It was supposed to be funny. It was supposed to be a joke.”
Ralph Macchio and Jacob Bertrand pitched their own script
On the show, Macchio ended up directing Betrand out of his light. The joke was he ended up positioning Bertrand behind him. That was their own idea.
“I wrote something, he wrote something and they ended up doing a mish mosh of both of ours,” Bertrand said. “Ralph wrote something about your fly is down. That was the bit he wrote. The part of the bit I wrote was him being an ass being like, ‘Oh yeah, you know what kid, you’re actually standing in my light. Why don’t you back up a bit? Back back back’ and then he pushes me behind him.”
However, the Critics Choice didn’t go for that script at first. They pitched another lame Cobra Kai bit that Macchio and Bertrand nixed.
“So we send that in and then we get a new revision back that’s not at all what we sent,” Bertrand said. “It’s us just reading mean tweets.”
The ‘Cobra Kai’ mean tweet bit they refused to do
Bertrand read the script for the mean tweet bit so all the listeners could see how lame it was. Cobra Kai gets plenty of real feedback, including from celebrities. For the Critics Choice Awards, Bertrand confirmed these were not even real mean tweets. The writers just made up tweets for them to read. So Bertrand read the rest on his podcast.
This is me talking: Ralph and I are thrilled to be here at the Critics Choice Awards. What a pleasure to be amongst all you true connoisseurs of entertainment, unlike all those people on the internet who just post mean tweets. Jacob: Like this one, [reading from his phone.] Burritomonger77 tweets ‘It’s the dorky dude and dorky dad from Cobra Kai. Is this Critics Choice or Dorkfest ‘22.’
[Jacob, reading from his phone]: LoudGuy345 tweets, ‘Jacob Bertrand is what would happen if Tom Holland had a baby with an angry ferret.”
Ralph: What? I don’t think you look like Tom Holland at all. [Jacob, reading from his phone]: ‘PuppyWiggler tweets Ralph Macchio never changes.
Ralph: I like Puppy Wiggler. What is Puppy Wiggler anyway?
Jacob: You’re the dorky dad. You wouldn’t get it.
Ralph: This is why I never go on Twitter. Let’s just roll with the nominees for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
Jacob Bertrand, Lone Lobos podcast, 3/21/22
After that, Macchio and Bertrand agreed to do their own bit at the Critics Choice Awards.
