If you grew up in the late nineties, you probably remember the guy who threw a shoe. Honestly, it was one of the most quotable moments in a movie overflowing with them. Dr. Evil stands there, looking impatient, and barks an order to a silent, stone-faced henchman. The man reaches down, pulls off a chunky loafer, and hurls it at a statue, clean-beheading the marble figure.
"Who throws a shoe? Honestly!"
That line from Mike Myers became a playground staple. But while the character was a pitch-perfect riff on a classic James Bond trope, the story behind the man who played him is significantly darker than anything written for the screen. We’re talking about the "Austin Powers Oddjob" parody officially known as Random Task.
The DNA of a Parody: From Oddjob to Random Task
To understand why Random Task worked so well, you have to look at the source material. In the 1964 Bond classic Goldfinger, Auric Goldfinger is flanked by a formidable Korean assassin named Oddjob, played by Harold Sakata. Oddjob was famous for his razor-rimmed bowler hat. He didn't talk; he just killed people with millinery.
When Mike Myers was sketching out Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, he didn't just want to spoof James Bond. He wanted to satirize the specific, often ridiculous logic of the sixties spy genre.
Random Task was the perfect mirror image.
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- The Name: Odd-Job became Random-Task. It’s a literal, dry synonym.
- The Look: He wore the same high-collared suit and maintained the same stoic, menacing silence.
- The Weapon: Instead of a deadly hat, which is already a bit absurd, he used a shoe.
It’s a classic example of "heightening" in comedy. If a hat is dangerous, a shoe is just pathetic. When Random Task tries to use his footwear as a lethal weapon against Austin in the final showdown, it doesn't decapitate him. It just gives him a bit of a lump on the head. That’s the joke—the transition from the cinematic "super-assassin" to a guy just throwing clothes in a hallway.
Joe Son: The Man Behind the Menace
The actor cast as Random Task was Joseph Hyungmin Son. At the time, he seemed like a great find for a physical role. He was a mixed martial artist (MMA) who had competed in the early, "wild west" days of the UFC. He was short, stocky, and had a naturally intimidating presence that required zero dialogue.
Kinda crazy to think about it now, but his MMA career was actually a bit of a disaster. He is perhaps most famous in the fighting world for a bout against Keith Hackney at UFC 4, where he lost after being subjected to a series of groin strikes that are still painful to watch on YouTube today.
By 1997, he was just a guy looking for a break in Hollywood. Landing a role in a Mike Myers' film felt like the start of something big. Instead, it was the peak before a massive, horrific collapse.
When Reality Out-Villains the Movie
For years after Austin Powers, Joe Son was just a "Hey, it’s that guy!" actor. Then, in 2008, the comedy stopped. Son was arrested for a minor vandalism charge, which required him to submit a DNA sample.
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That sample didn't just link him to a broken window. It linked him to a cold case from Christmas Eve, 1990.
Basically, long before he was ever Random Task, Son and an accomplice had kidnapped a woman at gunpoint in Huntington Beach. It was a brutal, multi-hour ordeal involving gang rape and torture. The victim was eventually released, but the case went cold for nearly two decades.
The timeline of his downfall is chilling:
- 1990: The crime occurs.
- 1997: He plays the "funny" henchman in Austin Powers.
- 2008: DNA connects him to the 1990 assault.
- 2011: He is convicted of one count of torture and sentenced to life in prison.
The story gets even darker. Just weeks into his life sentence at Wasco State Prison, Son's cellmate—a 50-year-old man—was found dead. Son had beaten him to death. He was later convicted of voluntary manslaughter for that incident, adding another 27 years to his already permanent stay behind bars.
Why the Character Still Resonates (Despite the Actor)
It is a weird thing, isn't it? We usually want to separate the art from the artist, but it’s hard when the "art" is a man whose real-life crimes were so much more villainous than the guy he was parodying.
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Despite the grim reality of Joe Son, Random Task remains a masterclass in parody. He represents the peak of Mike Myers’ ability to deconstruct the Bond mythos. You can’t watch Goldfinger today without thinking about the shoe. The parody actually "broke" the original trope. It made the silent, hat-throwing assassin feel a little more ridiculous than he did in 1964.
Actionable Insights for Film Buffs and Trivia Heads
If you're revisiting the Austin Powers trilogy or diving into the Bond films that inspired them, here is how to spot the nuances of the parody:
- Watch the Footwork: In the final fight of the first film, pay attention to the set design. The industrial backdrop is a direct homage to the Fort Knox fight in Goldfinger.
- Look for the "Task" Variations: While Random Task doesn't appear in the sequels, the "henchman" trope continues with characters like Mini-Me (a parody of Nick Nack from The Man with the Golden Gun).
- The "Who Throws a Shoe" Legacy: The line was so iconic that it was famously referenced in real life when an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at President George W. Bush in 2008. The internet immediately flooded with Random Task memes.
The "Austin Powers Oddjob" connection is a reminder of how comedy can permanently alter our perception of classic cinema. It’s just unfortunate that, in this specific case, the man playing the joke turned out to be a real-world monster.
To dig deeper into the world of 60s spy spoofs, your next move should be checking out the 1967 version of Casino Royale. It’s a chaotic, non-Eon produced Bond film that served as a massive secondary inspiration for the aesthetic of Austin Powers. Seeing where the "look" of these films came from helps you appreciate just how layered Myers’ parody truly was.