Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
Why the Ramones all took the same surname
The band members weren’t related and none was legally named Ramone; they adopted the shared surname to sound like a close-knit family.
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Why movie trailers spoil the ending
Some audiences are more willing to watch a movie when they know major plot turns in advance, even if they say they want surprises. That can lead marketing…
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Mancala involves dropping seeds instead of standard pieces
Players use seeds or stones instead of figures, dropping them into small pits and relying on counting to play.
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Disney’s ‘underground’ tunnels are above ground
Florida's swampy ground made digging basements impractical, so the utilidors were built at ground level and buried under dirt; park visitors walk on their roof.
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Why orchestras tune to A440
The 440-Hz pitch is a convention, not a note dictated by nature or mathematics. It became a practical standard so ensembles traveling between countries would…
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A British bouncer's bag search depends on consent
The UK's Security Industry Authority says a licensed door supervisor can search inside a bag when the person has agreed. The job title alone is not a police…
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Disney once had a monopoly on Technicolor animation
In 1932, Disney signed an exclusive deal for three-strip Technicolor, keeping other animation studios from using the process for three years.
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Checkers has been played by humans for five millennia
Archaeologists have found boards resembling the game in the ancient city of Ur, though the resemblance alone doesn't establish that people played by the same…
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Slasher villains walk slowly but always catch sprinters
In slasher movies, a panicked sprinter can race through the woods while the masked villain strolls—and still find the villain waiting behind the next tree.
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Super Meat Boy turns every death into a replay
At the level's end, the game replays every failed attempt at once, sending a swarm of your past selves into the hazards.
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Emergency alert tones combine two dissonant frequencies
The alert combines two dissonant sine waves—usually 853 and 960 Hz—to make the sound hard to ignore.
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Winnie-the-Pooh became a bestseller in Latin
Winnie Ille Pu ranked among America's bestselling novels of 1961. Translating a familiar children's story let readers meet Latin through characters and…
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Venue coat checks maintain extreme liability caps
A coat check may cap what it pays if an item goes missing, so a numbered ticket doesn't guarantee reimbursement for the coat's full value.
Discover moreIron Man was once a B-list hero
Marvel turned to Iron Man for its 2008 film launch after selling the movie rights to better-known heroes such as Spider-Man and the X-Men.
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Godzilla was almost a giant octopus
Special-effects director Eiji Tsuburaya pitched an irradiated giant octopus during early development of the 1954 film, but producers rejected the idea in…
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Double-tapping images provides faster user interaction
On many photo-sharing apps, double-tapping an image is a shortcut for liking it, so users don't have to aim for a small button.
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Animated food uses highly saturated color palettes
Colorists boost red and yellow so drawn pizza looks appetizing instead of like a muddy puddle.
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Epcot’s giant golf ball collects its own rainwater
An internal gutter system channels rainwater through the structure’s legs and into the park’s lagoon.
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A Civil War general wanted reporters to sign their work
Joseph Hooker required named battlefield reporting so responsibility for errors or security disclosures could be traced. That was one strand in the history of…
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Why late-night monologues became the news in disguise
They gave viewers a quick, sarcastic rundown of current events, turning serious issues into digestible punchlines.
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South Park put a counter on its own swearing
The episode It Hits the Fan repeatedly used the same previously taboo word while displaying a tally that reached 162. The joke was partly about television's…
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Why Calvin and Hobbes never got official plush toys
Watterson believed a mass-produced Hobbes plush would spoil the comic’s magic, so he refused to license official toys—and left millions in merchandise sales…
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Chopped and screwed music slows tracks to a narcotic pace
The Texas-originated style slows tracks, skips beats, and pitches vocals down, creating a sluggish, hypnotic sound.
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The crowd helps hold a concert barrier in place
Audience members stand on the barrier's footplate, adding weight that helps stabilize the structure against pressure. On the stage side, a step lets staff…
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