Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
Koffing and Weezing were nearly named NY and LA
The proposed names were a jab at smog in New York and Los Angeles.
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Voldemort's awkward hug was improvised
Ralph Fiennes spontaneously hugged Tom Felton during a scene, and Felton's startled reaction was genuine. The director liked the awkward moment and kept it in…
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How The Lion King found Hakuna Matata
The filmmakers heard the Swahili phrase from a local guide during a research trip to Africa and added it to the movie; Disney later trademarked it for…
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Elvis's last Ed Sullivan appearance kept his hips off camera
For his January 1957 appearance, the broadcast famously framed him from the waist up. The restriction turned a camera choice into a way of controlling what…
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Clooney kept Batman in his office as a warning
In a 2013 interview, George Clooney said his Batman photo reminded him of the danger of choosing a film for commercial reasons alone. Most actors might…
Discover moreSnoop Dogg's surprising reported IQ
Snoop Dogg has reportedly scored 147 on an IQ test, a figure often described as near the genius range.
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Daniel Craig's gloves had to be digitally erased
Because Bond’s gun was coded to his fingerprints, Craig’s leather gloves conflicted with the scene. Editors digitally painted his bare hands back in during…
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Twitter records broke when Beyoncé announced her pregnancy
When Beyoncé revealed her pregnancy at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, the announcement generated 8,868 tweets per second, setting a Twitter record.
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Bill Murray improvised much of Ghostbusters
Murray ad-libbed much of Dr. Peter Venkman's dialogue on the set of Ghostbusters, leaving the other actors to react in the moment.
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All those Oompa Loompas were one very busy actor
In Tim Burton's 2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Deep Roy performed the Oompa Loompas' routines and was digitally multiplied across the scenes. The…
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When radio sports needed fake crowd noise
Announcers sometimes read ticker-tape updates from quiet studios, smashing wooden blocks together to imitate bat cracks. Fake crowd recordings helped make the…
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Thomas Hardy left a character literally hanging from a cliff
In A Pair of Blue Eyes, Henry Knight clings to a cliff while rescue remains uncertain. The scene makes the familiar suspense metaphor physical. Serialized…
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Reality broadcasts completely fake conversations
Editors can splice remarks recorded on different days into a single exchange, making it look as if an argument happened that way.
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Movie ratings are an organized judgment call by parents
The American ratings board reviews films with parents' expectations in mind, considering elements such as language, sex and violence. Individual raters are…
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A CD's laser reads through the plastic you can touch
The shiny disc contains a patterned data layer protected by a transparent plastic substrate. The player focuses its laser through that material to detect…
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Longest published novel features over ten thousand pages
The record-holder is a sprawling work of French fiction that runs to more than 10,000 pages.
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Reading floating text in colorful panels
Comics tell stories through sequences of colorful panels, using speech balloons to show characters’ dialogue.
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Harry Potter was rejected before becoming a hit
Several major publishers passed on the story of the scarred boy wizard before one finally accepted it.
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Mary Shelley began Frankenstein at eighteen
During the rainy summer of 1816 near Lake Geneva, a ghost-story challenge helped set the novel in motion. Her story made the creator's responsibility as…
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Shakespeare put 'swagger' on the written record centuries ago
The word appears in his plays, long before its modern association with music and style. That makes him one of its earliest recorded users, not proof that…
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Watching strangers open cardboard boxes
Unboxing videos let viewers share the small thrill of seeing new packaging without buying the product themselves.
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Internet memes possess an exact lifespan of a few days
Some memes move from niche joke to corporate ad in under a week, by which time they may already feel obsolete.
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Medieval book margins had lives of their own
Outside the main text, manuscript artists filled the edges with fantastic creatures, comic figures, and strange little scenes. The serious business of the…
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Printing crossword puzzles to sell more papers
Crossword grids became a low-cost Sunday feature meant to draw readers and give them a diversion from the headlines.
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