This Week in Football History: Time to laugh at Cantona's kung-fu kick?

Eric and some close friends discuss French philosophy

It was 20 years ago this week that Eric Cantona shocked the footballing world with his infamous kung-fu kick on a lairy Crystal Palace fan. In today's look at football history, Adrian North reflects on the incident and ponders whether we're now allowed to laugh at the absurdity of it all...  

January 25, 1995 - Crystal Palace 1-1 Man Utd, Selhurst Park: The most shocking moment in Premier League history.  

We all remember what happened here don't we? Twenty years ago from this Sunday Eric Cantona lunged himself into the Selhurst Park family stand at a mouthy Palace fan and jaws were left on the floor around the country for the next few days.  

Sometimes in football something so ridiculous, so incredulous and so shocking happens that we simply don't remember anything else.

My articles are full of these moments. The Trevor Sinclair bicycle kick is the only thing most of us remember from the 97 FA Cup.

The 1986 World Cup, while one of the best tournaments ever, is only remembered in England for Maradona's Hand of God and dribbling genius (sorry Gary). And, outside of Italy, the dominating memory we have of 2006 is Zidane's head-butt. Hell, 20 years from most of us will only remember 2014 for the 7-1.   

So it's unfortunate for league champions Blackburn Rovers then that the nostalgic right that should belong to them for the year 1995 instead belongs to Cantona.

Blackburn will forever remain an easy pub quiz answer for being the only team outside of United, Arsenal, Chelsea and City to win the Premier League but the 94/95 season is remembered in the hearts and minds of most neutral fans this moment above all else.   

Normally I give a full description of a particular moment but in this case I feel we all know the story. Cantona elbowed Richard Shaw, got sent off and, as he walked off, Palace fan Matthew Simmons ran down to the front of the stand and unleashed a torrent of abuse (although he amusingly claimed to have just said 'Cantona, it's an early bath for you').

The Frenchman, known for having a short fuse, decided enough was enough and kung-fu kicked the fan (who, incidentally, did OK out of it all, getting a few quid from a tabloid to sell his story).

And after three hours in a prison cell, 120 hours of community service and an eight-month ban from football Cantona returned to the Premier League in October 1995, inevitably scoring in a 2-2 draw against Liverpool. The ban was entirely deserved, but the Premier League did indeed miss the enigmatic Frenchman.  

Anyway, instead of going down the same road of retelling a story that has been plastered all over the media this week already, I will offer a different type of question.  

Should we laugh at Cantona's kung-fu kick?

Well yes, of course we should! There is a certain time period that any altercation needs to become funny, provided of course that no serious injury occurred to either party.  

A few months ago, after I got in a fight with my roommate over whose turn it was to clean the dishes, it took us around two hours to laugh about it. Now it is one of the funniest stories I have.

For Cantona, 20 years is more than enough time for something like this to become rather hilarious. And while moments such as this and Zidane's head-butt were absurdly and undeniably shocking it's almost impossible now to mention either of these incidents in any conversation without someone laughing about it. 

There's a dark humour in all of us. Of course, it wasn't exactly funny at the time, not for United, not for Simmons, and least of all not for Cantona. But it's pretty hilarious today. And just like with Zidane, another incident of football violence where no one was seriously hurt, the range of emotions within the average football fan went from complete shock to slight disappointment to "hold on, this is actually a bit funny".  

So as an aspiring football historian I would like to say thank you to Eric Cantona for providing me with one of football's most jaw-dropping moments.  

And as a football fan I would like to say thank you once again to Cantona for making me genuinely laugh at your actions, you brilliant madman.  

And lets not forget about the seagulls - The funniest moment of the lot.  

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Is Adrian right? Should we laugh at moments like these? Let us know by commenting below or tweeting @Betfair