Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
The Lord of the Rings theme was made with anvils
Forget digital synthesizers when you can just embrace heavy metallurgy. To sonically represent Saruman's violent industrialization of Middle-earth, composer…
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The missing footage of Metropolis was found in Argentina
For over eighty years, cinema scholars accepted that a quarter of Fritz Lang's 1927 sci-fi masterpiece was lost to the ashes of history. It turns out, the…
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Some people married holographic anime idols
Parasocial relationships have officially bypassed the need for human biology. In the late 2010s, Japanese startup Gatebox created AI-driven holographic tubes…
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David Lynch funded Eraserhead with a newspaper route
Becoming the reigning king of weird cinema demands blue-collar dedication. When the funding for his bizarre, nightmarish student film completely dried up, a…
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James Gandolfini put rocks in his shoes to play Tony Soprano
Sometimes elite acting techniques just require self-inflicted foot trauma. To capture the perpetually irritated, heavy-breathing menace of the ultimate mob…
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Peter Gabriel filmed Sledgehammer under a sheet of glass
Winning MTV's Video of the Year apparently requires subjecting yourself to mild physical torture. To achieve the surreal, jittery aesthetic of his iconic 1986…
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Why vintage arcade boards go in the oven
When dealing with nearly fifty-year-old electronics, sometimes the solution is basically aggressive culinary science. The printed circuit boards of vintage…
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Undertale's songs secretly share one melody
Why write a hundred different songs when you can aggressively recycle one hook and trick millions of players into crying over it? The solo developer behind…
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How Dexter made breakfast look like a murder
It takes a special kind of twisted genius to make frying an egg look like a horrific crime scene. The opening credits for everyone's favorite serial killer…
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Why famous actors kept appearing in Welcome to Night Vale
When you run a surreal horror-comedy podcast from your apartment, you wouldn't expect A-list talent to come knocking. Yet, this bizarre audio drama about a…
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How soap operas bring dead characters back with new faces
Soap opera producers have absolutely zero respect for object permanence, and it is glorious. When an actor demands too much money or quits a daytime drama,…
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Why horror sounds like something from the salad aisle
The golden age of audio drama relied heavily on the produce aisle to simulate brutal violence. Because microphones don't pick up the nuanced crunch of an…
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The floor in Jamiroquai's video never moved
Before green screens ruined the magic of music videos, directors relied on pure, unadulterated manual labor. Jamiroquai's 1996 video for 'Virtual Insanity'…
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The unsolved TV hijacking by a Max Headroom mask
You don't need an elite cyber-syndicate when 1980s infrastructure is essentially held together by duct tape and goodwill. In 1987, a person wearing a Max…
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Fallout 3's radio remembers what you did
Bethesda didn't just give players a post-apocalyptic radio station; they installed a delightfully judgmental stalker in their Pip-Boy. Diegetic radio in video…
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The skull on The Silence of the Lambs poster hides seven women
Zoom in on that infamous death's head moth, and things get wildly uncomfortable. The cult promotional poster for 'The Silence of the Lambs' features a moth…
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Why Pac-Man once had human legs
Translation issues in the 1980s weren't just for text—they ruined perfectly good pizza metaphors. When Namco licensed 'Pac-Man' to Midway Games for North…
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Marvel published a book to fix its Spider-Man timeline
When you produce thirty-plus interconnected movies, eventually the math is going to aggressively betray you. During 'Spider-Man: Homecoming', a massive title…
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How audience heckling saved The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The granddaddy of all midnight movies died a brutal death at the standard box office. It wasn't until 1976, when 20th Century Fox executive Tim Deegan noticed…
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Silent films once came with live sound effects
The term 'silent film' is a massive historical lie. Early cinemas were deafeningly loud, largely thanks to the Mighty Wurlitzer theater organs. These massive,…
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Four puppeteers made one alien complain
Jim Henson's Creature Shop revolutionized sci-fi television with Pilot and Rygel, but the magic of these expressive alien puppets hid immense human suffering.…
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Evangelion's iconic opening was made at the last minute
'A Cruel Angel's Thesis' is arguably the most recognizable anime anthem in history, but its creation was a masterclass in procrastination. Director Hideaki…
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The fictional band that beat real metal legends on Billboard
It turns out the most successful death metal band of the 2000s didn't even exist in three dimensions. Brendon Small's fictional animated band Dethklok,…
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The Office waited nine years to explain its camera crew
The shaky-cam mockumentary style revolutionized modern comedy, but it created a massive logical black hole. For nine years, a mysterious crew supposedly…
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