"You Lose, Carl Miller"

I saw a car company's commercial the other day that had some footage of Bruce Lee. I don't understand what they were trying to convey, but their cars are nothing like Bruce.  The majority of their vehicle lineup consists of slow, strange looking road cars, and a couple of back of the pack--when they finish--"prototype" race cars.  The decision to even attempt to make a link between their vehicles and Bruce was not a good one.

Reminiscing about a few of Bruce's movies lead me to remember his only fight against Carl Miller. Carl Miller's life changed the moment he fought Bruce Lee.  We knew he lost because Bruce told him as much when he said, "You lose, Carl Miller".   What no one could have known at the time, except for Bruce, was that Carl Miller had lost at life when Bruce knocked him down for the final time.

I bet he was thinking, "How bad can this be?  He's a small guy, he can't possibly be that tough.  His one inch punch is a joke.  He looks harmless. What's the worst that can happen?"  Yeah, Carl, what's the worst that can happen?  No one told him that being hit by Bruce makes your brain crazy.

This image was captured moments before Carl Miller lost everything.  I wonder if he suspected the end was nigh.

Carl inherited a 1000 yard stare after being beaten by Bruce.  Everyone who loses to Bruce acquires that wandering, drifting mental state that results from too many Bruce Lee impacts to the face and head.  Even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has it, but you can't see it because he always wears his sunglasses to hide it.  And because he is so tall, you can't see his eyes anyway.  Carl was shunned after that fight,  in part because he always seemed a bit deranged, and his hand speed had slowed to the point his punches had become slower than his speech.  He developed a nervous facial tic interspersed with episodes of uncontrollable crying.  Little did he know one decimation by Bruce Lee would change the course of his life.  If he had it to do all over again he never would have volunteered for that henchman role.

Carl tried to get gigs, but everyone only knew him as the guy who received both a drubbing and a talking to by Bruce Lee.  That level of notoriety follows you everywhere.  Even now when Carl looks in the mirror, he still sees his bruised and bloody face with Bruce Lee standing above him telling him what had just happened.

The truth behind why Carl Miller lost so hard to Bruce Lee is more than a result of the script dictating as much.  I was directed to this video by an associate a few weeks ago:  I Am Bruce Lee.  I believe it is a short (approximately three and a half minutes) compilation of excerpts from a full length documentary of the same title.  This video has not been viewed a lot, so I understand why more people don't know about the legend of Bruce.

If you watch the video, you will see Bruce Lee performing nunchuck feats that shouldn't be possible, as well as other fantastic displays of intense physical mastery that illustrate why he was a human weapon.  I guarantee if Carl Miller had watched this video before agreeing to fight Bruce, he would have become a librarian instead.

No one seems to know what happened to Carl Miller.  Those who should know won't talk about it, which leaves Internet speculation to fill in the blanks.  I want to do my part to fuel the rumors regarding Carl Miller's whereabouts, so here goes:  Carl Miller was discovered in late 2005 working as a sanitation engineer at an alpaca farm.  He was reported to be happy there, and remarked that the alpacas understood his pain.  I had forgotten all about Carl Miller until I saw that car company commercial, so the trail is cold now.  He may still be at that farm, trying to erase the memory of Bruce Lee's voice.