Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
The bullet-catching trick has killed performers
Unsurprisingly, actively firing a loaded weapon directly at a human face is incredibly risky. The bullet catch illusion has historically resulted in entirely…
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Why villains smile with all their teeth showing
Smiling is generally a sign of joy, but doing it with entirely too much gum exposure is a massive red flag. Evil masterminds are contractually obligated to…
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Elden Ring has a massive map section built to hurt you
The director of the critically acclaimed fantasy game has a notoriously sadistic fondness for forcing players to slowly trudge through toxic, health-draining…
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How The Lord of the Rings made hobbits look tiny
Before you lean on expensive computers, just remember that moving the camera is significantly cheaper. To make Elijah Wood look three feet tall next to Ian…
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Arnold Schwarzenegger made $25 million for Batman & Robin
Mr. Freeze holds the absolute record for the most lucrative terrible puns in cinematic history. For 1997's Batman & Robin, Arnold was paid a flat $25 million.…
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Social platforms hide share buttons behind layers of their own menus
Platforms absolutely want your content to spread, just not if it means leaving their walled garden. Sending a link to a friend often requires digging through…
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The finished dish on TV may be a backup plate
Watching a complicated roast finish in exactly thirty minutes is a complete lie. Kitchen staffs routinely cook identical backup meals off-screen just in case…
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The famous Pink Floyd song with no lyrics
Pink Floyd's 'The Great Gig in the Sky' is famous for its stunningly emotional vocal solo, which features absolutely zero actual lyrics. Singer Clare Torry…
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Bottle episodes aggressively trap every character together
Whenever a broadcast realizes it has entirely run out of money for the season, the characters suddenly become tragically locked in a bank vault or an…
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In Doctor Who, the TARDIS automatically translates alien languages for travelers
Wandering across the infinite cosmos and miraculously encountering aliens who speak perfect English would be terribly lazy writing. Thus, a magical box…
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Eminem slept through his Oscar win
Imagine making hip-hop history but preferring to catch up on your REM sleep instead. In 2003, 'Lose Yourself' became the first rap song to win an Academy…
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Omar Khayyam wrote four-line poems about drinking and the fleeting nature of life
Because existential dread is best delivered in a strict rhyme scheme. The Persian poet spent his life dropping four-line verses about the fleeting nature of…
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Atari really buried E.T. cartridges in the desert
For decades, this was considered a ridiculous urban legend invented by salty gamers. The 1982 'E.T.' video game was rushed out in just five weeks and was so…
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Turntable tonearms use rear counterweights so the stylus presses with only a few grams
If you just let a raw diamond needle drop onto a plastic disc, you'd effectively be operating a lathe. Turntable tonearms must be perfectly balanced by heavy…
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Toy Story hid The Shining's carpet in Sid's house
Nothing screams 'family-friendly animated romp' quite like a subtle nod to a psychological horror film about a man trying to murder his family. The iconic…
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Cyberpunk 2077 launched with melting faces
A highly anticipated journey into a gritty, immersive dystopian future that accidentally featured characters whose faces would spontaneously melt into…
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Why movie characters can argue while brushing their teeth
A mouth completely full of minty foam is absolutely no barrier to delivering a flawless, dramatic monologue. Characters will casually brush their teeth while…
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Ticket scalpers can use organized syndicates to grab thousands of seats
If you thought you were just unlucky at getting pop tour tickets, you're actually competing against organized syndicates scooping up thousands of seats in…
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The Beach Boys made music with soda cans and bike bells
Because regular percussion is just too mainstream, Brian Wilson decided that empty soda cans and standard bicycle bells were the peak of musical innovation.…
Discover moreJean-Claude Van Damme nearly played Predator
Before he was kicking people in the face on camera, Van Damme was miserable in a red rubber alien suit. He was originally cast to play the invisible stalker…
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Why holiday TV arrives with mandatory cheer
Starting exactly in mid-November, television schedules transform into an inescapable avalanche of aggressive cheerfulness. Broadcasts pivot wildly away from…
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James Lipton once managed prostitutes in Paris
The incredibly dignified, articulate host of 'Inside the Actors Studio' lived a wildly more interesting life than ninety percent of the people he interviewed.…
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Keanu Reeves learned a complex John Wick fight in one day
While most Hollywood actors require weeks of rehearsals to safely pretend to punch someone, Keanu Reeves apparently operates like his own sci-fi characters.…
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Axl Rose's unscripted rant made it onto Civil War
During the recording of 'Civil War,' singer Axl Rose got wildly irritated at the producer and launched into an aggressive, unscripted spoken rant into the…
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